The a cappella group Straight No Chaser has been known to cause a few double takes from audience members when they hear a bass line and rhythms, but see only singers onstage.
“It’s just the 10 of us, 10 mikes, that’s it,” vocalist Walter Chase said in a recent phone interview. “Even on the album, what might sound like a drum machine, that’s all vocal percussion that has been engineered.
“That stems from our main vocal percussion guys, Tyler Trepp, Seggie Isho, Dave Roberts, myself and Randy Stine,” Chase said. “Tyler specifically. ... On our holiday set he does the sound of a sleigh bell; it’s uncanny how well he can imitate things. Seggie does amazing drums, like old-school beat box. ... You almost forget that somebody’s over there drumming with his mouth. It sounds like you’ve got a rhythm section behind you.”
On the group’s current album, “With a Twist,” Straight No Chaser applies its vocal talents to a diverse set of a dozen covers.
A version of the Crowded House song "Don't Dream It's Over" captures the full range of sound, from layers of vocals to a realistic sounding bass line and percussion. The group also builds a surprisingly full sound on “Tainted Love,” which was made famous in the 1980s by synth-pop group Soft Cell.
Perhaps the big highlight comes when Straight No Chaser cleverly combines Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” playfully mixing lyrics and melodies from the two songs.
The way Straight No Chaser reached its current place as a nationally touring major label recording act is pretty amazing in its own right.
Six of the 10 members of today’s vocal group were in the inaugural edition of Straight No Chaser formed at the University of Indiana in Bloomington a decade and a half ago.
When graduation came for the original vocalists, they went their separate ways, never expecting that Straight No Chaser would be a part of their lives again.
That changed when the University of Indiana decided to have a reunion of the original Straight No Chaser in 2006. To help mark the occasion, Stine posted a video on YouTube of a 1998 concert that included the vocal group’s wacky rendition of “The 12 Days of Christmas.”
To everyone’s surprise, the video went viral. By December 2007, views of the video had reached 7 million. One of those who saw it was Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic Records, who called Stine to discuss a record deal.
“Randy thought it was a joke,” Chase said. “But it really was him. A couple of weeks later, the entire group is at Atlantic Records ... and they were telling us that they wanted us to do a five-album record deal with them.”
Because of the success of the “12 Days of Christmas” video, Atlantic had Straight No Chaser debut with a Christmas album,” Holiday Spirits,” in 2008.
In fall 2009, the group released a holiday sequel, “Christmas Cheers.”
The two holiday albums are now packaged with a new live DVD in a box set released Oct. 26, in time for the group's current holiday tour. The success of the Christmas material forced Straight No Chaser to postpone its plans to make a full album of pop material. The group did release an EP, “Six Pack,” last year, but only now has the long-planned full-length “With a Twist” arrived in stores.
A highlight of the project for the vocal group was the opportunity to work, albeit by long distance, with Barry Manilow on a version of his tune “One Voice.” Straight No Chaser first crossed paths with the singer when Manilow had them open a show at the Hollywood Bowl.
“It was probably for me one of the most amazing performances that we did,” Chase said. “We got to open for Barry and meet him. When he came out onstage, he had very nice things to say to his audience about us, how he enjoyed our sound. It was really a great experience. That alone would have been fantastic.”
Provided by Last Word Features
Concert preview
Straight No Chaser. 7:30 p.m. Dec. 19. $43.90-$39.80. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 770-916-2800 www.cobbenergycentre.com.
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