And i’ve still got some sand in my shoes.
Underground on my way to a meeting, Acapella Soul wandered on to my train and, been there, done that, but they penetrated. I blagged em before they left and ponied up five bucks for their CD.
Four blokes from Brooklyn wandrin’ the subway sytem singing NY classics, the drifters, Sam Cooke – like that and Gospel.
Amazing vocal performances and I have been listening to their album at the start of the New Year.in fairly heavy rotation. Average length of song? One and a half minutes. Why? Because they have to finish, get their tips, and move to the next train.
But they aren’t not much. They are a lot. Nobody ‘cept folks like Anthony and the Cleopatras can do this anymore. This is one of those times I wish I was a better rock crit — one guy leads and three other guys harmonize, the bloke is a baritone and of the three others there’s a baritone holding the bass like, well, like a bass, and two others run circles around the other three.
Cool right?
I called the name on the CD, Daryl, who informed me the band had split in two and that his half had just played ABC’s Good Day show.
He also told me their myspace is elvis.
I asked why the songs were so short and he punctured mytheory they were short because they were moving between one car and the other (figures he’d kill my hook -right?). Daryl blamed the producer which lead to the first band breaking up.
There are more Acapella Soul albums available but I can’t find em.
In the interim, send me your email address and I’ll forward the two best songs “Only Sixteen” and “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”.
One more reason to love NYC is because even our subway performers are great!!