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As I sit here listening to the final song on Sara Bareilles' spectacular debut CD, I can't help but remember the first time I heard that haunting, powerful melody: when choosing tracks for BOCA 2004.
I didn't know Awaken A Cappella from UCLA, and I'd certainly never heard of her. But the first moments of "Gravity" had me hooked.
And it was an original. By a college student. Her.
When coming across an original song for BOCA, I stop the presses. All ears on deck. Because I want more than anything to put original music on BOCA.
Why?
Because it's the potential future of collegiate a cappella. And a glorious future at that.
Let's go back a few years: there have been several very successful professional musicians born from the collegiate a cappella movement. Guster's Adam Gardner sang in the Tufts Beelzebubs in the mid-90's, as did U Penn's John Stevens, now known as John Legend, who took his group the Counterparts to the ICCA finals at Carnegie Hall as well as landing a solo on the opening track of BOCA ("One Of Us").
But come the year 2000, things began to change. Julie Moffitt was the first person to land an original song on BOCA with "Drive Me Crazy," performed by her group at the time, the USC SoCal VoCals. Julie's winning awards and touring the US right now as a singer-songwriter, and it wouldn't be unusual to see her break through in the next couple years as Sara has.
Is there a sea change? Are collegiate a cappella groups warming to the idea of slipping the occasional original song by a group member into their repertoire and onto their albums? They should be.
Collegiate groups already are learning that with over 1,000 groups around the country it takes something special to get noticed off campus. Some develop their own sound or style (like U Penn's Off The Beat), some focus on a specific repertoire (like Stanford's Talisman or Penn Masala), and others like riding the cutting edge of technology while reinventing their studio sound every couple years (like the Beelzebubs).
But none of these hold a candle to the potential of an original song.
"Love Song" is Bareilles' first single, and rightly so: a catchy, bouncy tune about her refusal to write a love song for her new record label. Looks like they got what they wanted nonetheless, because the song and album have topped iTunes downloads and are now heard on radio stations across the country.
As for a second single? They chose a love song: "Gravity.".
How do I know? Well, perusing a couple web sites hawking her music make it clear that Gravity is in the pipeline, and the little promotional sticker on her CD says "featuring "Love Song" and "Gravity." Pretty clear it's gonna start getting a push in the next couple of months once Love Song peaks.
And what does this mean? Well, if Awaken A Cappella plays their cards right, the world will open its eyes not only to Sara Bareilles' version that closes her debut CD (solo piano and strings), but also to her original version. As she sang it in college. With Awaken A Cappella.
The song is already available on iTunes in both versions. Check' em out.
I hope many people do. Because they'll hear how collegiate a cappella is not only the happy, dorky avocation of Ivy League nerds (their interpretation - not mine), but also a powerful musical form, capable of coaxing a young singer songwriter to first bloom.
Now, I'm not suggesting collegiate groups stop singing cover tunes. Heavens, no. That's bread and butter. What the students want to hear. And a hell of a lot of fun.
But when you think about John Legend and Sara Bareilles, and the myriad other songwriters and potential songwriters who cut their teeth in collegiate groups, you can't help but want to hear the group sing their music!
No, not everything will be fantastic. Mediocrity abounds across all art forms. But that's as it should be. You can't win if you don't try.
And Awaken A Cappela won. Thanks to their efforts, we all benefitted.
So - who will be next?
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