Acappella Memories: Alvin!

As I mentioned in my last Acappella Memories post, we had a rule: Never stop the song. Most people will never catch the mistake if you just finish the song. At best, if they catch it, they will forget it. Just finish the song. This led to some hilarious outcomes.

I remember one concert where Kevin Schaffer came barreling out of the curtain at the edge of the stage and tripped over the legs of the backstage lights. He spilled onto the floor. Kevin, as only he could do, morphed it into a hilarious pose, laying on his side with his head propped up on his arm. He looked like… well, I probably shouldn’t say what he looked like. But we all thought it was hilarious, and all this while the song continued. Kevin turned a potential disaster into a funny event. The only problem was that we were singing for a somewhat new audience who didn’t know Kevin’s personality yet. So, they didn’t get it.

Oh well. You can’t win them all.

Cincinnati: the Twilight Zone

There were certain areas in the country where our popularity just exploded. I mentioned South Bend, IN in an earlier post. Another area similar to this was the Cincinnati-Dayton area. We sang there annually in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Oftentimes we would do 2 (and sometimes 3) concerts per weekend in the same venue.

Brennan Dean was our promoter for that area and he was very good. We always sang at a church in Middletown, halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton. The place sat about 2700 people packed out, and it was almost always packed out. One particular Sunday afternoon in late 1989 was no different.

We had just released the album Growing Up in the Lord and were performing several songs from that album, most notably Water From the Well where all the kids in the building would join us on stage. But that’s another story. We kicked off the song I Can Walk when it happened.

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Acappella Memories: Kathisophobia or I’ll Stand, Thank You

Acappella: The CollectionAs I mentioned in my last Acappella post, I performed over 1,400 concerts in the space of 11 years. That does not take into account church service performances, radio stations, bookstores or mission trips. I couldn’t even begin to remember even 1/3 of those. That said, there are a few that stand out with vivid recollection. South Bend, Indiana is one of those.

The South Bend / Elkhart / Goshen area was a good place for Acappella and AVB. Both groups appeared there many times. Radio airplay was good to us as well. We consistently charted quite high in that local market. AVB’s The Victim stayed #1 for months in 1989-90. Needless to say, we were in that area annually for a concert.

Sometime in the 90’s, around 1998 I believe, we released a “best of” album called The Collection. There were far too many songs requested for the album. As it was, we included 17 and the CD was full. As a means to include more songs and pay homage to some of the older tunes, we put together a medley. It was just short of 12 minutes and covered many tunes. We then worked up a slightly edited version of the medley and added it to our concert repertoire. To make the presentation of the medley more intimate (and give us a slight break), we used tall stools for the medley.

You can probably guess what’s coming.

As I recall, it was the late Spring of 1999 and we were singing at the ELCO Theater in Elkhart (now renovated and called the Lerner). The house was full with just short of 3,000 people. The concert was going very well and we were in our 2nd set, after intermission and nearing the end. It was time for the medley and we pulled up our stools and started in.

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Acappella Memories: Grounded in Texas

Big RedI have lost count of the people who’ve told me I should write a book about my experiences on the road. I spent a total of 11 years on the road with Acappella. By my best reckoning, I performed somewhere north of 1400 concerts. That’s a lot of stories to tell.

Too bad I can’t remember most of it. And NO, that doesn’t mean I was doing things I shouldn’t have been doing that blotted out my memory. It means I’m getting old too fast. The book may never happen, but I can at least share some memories here in my blog.

Therefore, I will endeavor to share some of these memories, little by little, over the next few months. I’m sure I will get some details wrong, but that’s what the comment section is for. Those of you who know the details better, please correct me.

I-30 Blues

The first memory that comes to mind probably happened in 1990 or so. It was before I married my lovely wife, Sherri. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, we spent a good deal of time in Texas. Interstate 30 runs through DFW and on to the east through the town of Sulphur Springs.

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What Can’t A Cappella Groups Do?

Deke SharonDeke Sharon posted this article this morning. I don’t usually reblog someone’s work on the same day they post, but this one is really good. You can see the original article at this link. If you are a singer in the a cappella genre and don’t follow Deke or CASA, you’re missing out. They are great supporters of a cappella and have done much to advance the art. With full kudos to Deke, here is his article:


I just got off the phone with a friend who has a well known a cappella group (which shall remain nameless) that just got new management. Great new management.

However, like many managers, this person doesn’t really know what to do with a cappella. “What can an a cappella group do?”

What can we do?!? What CAN’T we do?

Opening For Other Acts

There is no better opening act than an a cappella group. Why? No instruments means no load in and no space needed on stage. Just float out in front of the band’s set up, do your thing, and the headliner doesn’t have to worry about your production value or sound upstaging their set, and yet they know the audience will love it. Comedians are risky (too racy? too corny?), a cappella is perfect. Doesn’t usually pay that well, but you make lots of new fans, sell albums in the lobby at intermission, and see the world. A great way to fill in off days in your home town (establish a relationship with local theaters, stadiums and promoters), and a great way to get you on a plane to new regions, where you can make…

Television or Radio Appearances

Slip on stage and slip off stage. A love song for Valentine’s Day, “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” on opening day, “When The Saints go Marching In” for Mardi Gras. There’s a song for almost every holiday, and a pre-existing arrangement if you don’t have time to pull one together yourselves. And while you’re there, giving the morning show or cable access arts program a nice five minute segment, you’re also promoting the rest of your gigs. No pay, but excellent audio and video promotion you can cut into your promo video and splash all over our social media sites. Along the same lines, there are always…

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Keith Lancaster on Singing and Worship

Keith shares his thoughts on the importance of lifting our voice to God in worship.

Beatbox Madness

Beatboxing has been around for a while. Many people think we were one of the first to introduce the concept, but it’s been around much longer than Acappella or AVB. The streets of New York and Philadelphia were rocking to the vocal beat for years before mainstream music adopted it. Today’s young artists are pushing it even further. Witness the following:

Kevin Olusola is the amazing beatbox master for the Show-Off winning group Pentatonix. Not many people realize that he was a member of the Contemporary Christian group Gungor (remember the song “Beautiful Things?). They were opening for David Crowder Band while the Sing-Off was airing. Anyway… Kevin was the beatboxing cellist. Watch this and be amazed:

But wait! There’s more! Ever heard of Annie Wu? Neither had I.

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Should You Buy Professional Arrangements?

sheet music chopinI ran across a blog entry by Mike Chin, co-founder of The A Cappella Blog, and it raised a good question. I thought I might pass it along. It seems to be a pretty hot topic in collegiate a cappella, especially in light of the hit TV show The Sing-Off. I haven’t heard as much about it in the Christian a cappella ranks, but I know it’s present. I’ve dealt with it myself over the years.

He states, “There’s an established market for the sale of professionally written a cappella arrangements. With this in mind, it is best for your group to buy arrangements rather than trying to compose your own?” He goes on to point out dissenting viewpoints.

Buy It Quickly and Move Forward

There’s a pretty good argument for buying an existing arrangement or contracting someone to knock it out for you. As more people come into the a cappella fold every year, the number of arrangers and arrangements increases making songs more available and more affordable. Pay for it and get it done quickly. You’ll save countless hours of energy trying to work out the arrangement that will pay off in a perfected performance.

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Training A Capella Worship Leaders

I had an interesting conversation over lunch today. A dear friend of mine was lamenting the fact that a good education for an a capella worship leader is generally hard to come by. For generations, learning to lead worship in an a capella church consisted of Wednesday night services when the youth had a chance to lead singing. We’d throw some Jr High boy up there, let him start a song in the wrong key, and the regular song leader (sitting on the front row) would join in (in the correct key). Then it was off to the races.

There are a few organizations who spent summer sessions teaching young men how to lead, and I believe some of those are still out there. I would hazard a guess that they are much less attended than they used to be.Things have changed a bit (understatement).

A large number of churches have not changed at all. They still proceed with worship as they always have, and more power to them. I suspect that, as the years go by, it’s getting harder and harder to find new song leaders. It’s nice to see motivators like Keith Lancaster pouring themselves into training leaders (see his Worship Leader Institute).

Many a capella churches are moving to the “team” concept. I say “moving” as if this were a new concept, which it is not. Many churches have being doing this for years, but more and more are heading that way. This may seem like a foreign concept to those of you reading this that are not from an a capella church. Believe me, it’s a big step from a solitary man leading singing to a worship leader with an 8-10 person team.

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Water from the Well

In 1989, we (Acappella) released the album Growing Up in the Lord. It was originally intended to be a children’s album, but as the production continued it became clear to us that it would be much more. Consequently, it ended up somewhat of a hybrid (in my opinion). Not to say that it was a poor album… far from it. It remains a favorite of many people, even though I believe it is out of print.

One of the lasting favorite songs from the album is the song Water from the Well. It featured a solo by Keith’s daughter, Kimberly. She did a great job on it, especially at the tender age of 5 (I think). As the tour began (actually, it never ended… but that’s another story) we started adding songs from the album to the concert set. Water from the Well seemed a natural addition.

The trouble was, how do we handle the kid’s solo part? Wayburn’s oldest son, Brent, could handle it and he toured with us, as did all the families. We decided to take it just a little bigger. If you saw our concert during this time period, you know what I’m talking about. 30 minutes into the 1st set, we just paused everything and invited all the kids ages 3 through the 3rd grade up to the stage to sing this song with us.

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