Misty River Music Makers Review

Overall 5.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

LauraBelle
South Elgin, IL

They have a song to sing!

music lover, a storyteller, A Big Giant Sap, American Idol Junkie, Entertainment Writer, a believer of fate, Classic Rock Fan, mother of 2

show all »

Pros

Great blend of voices, Familiar music, Personable emcee

MAR

2009

This weekend brought me full circle in my musical tastes. I think of music as something extremely personal and know that what we grow up with shapes our tastes as we grow older. This weekend I saw that even more clearly – how my musical tastes have been shaped through the years and how extremely personal it still is to me – when I attended an afternoon barbershop performance put on by Misty River Music Makers.

First let me say that I grew up in a family that liked to sing. We all took great enjoyment out of it, and while not all of us were good at it, we all enjoyed it. As an adult, I brought the same into my family where all of us enjoy singing, as well. Even though a few of us probably shouldn't be singing in public, sometimes the enjoyment wins out over quality. My tastes were shaped by my mom's influence. We listened to pop music in the car, and after taking up the guitar, my mom formed a folk music group with some friends. I grew up listening to performances by this group, listening to them sing when they got together as friends, and sitting on my mom's bed with her, listening to her practice the songs for the group, while I would sit and try on her rings she took off to strum the guitar.

As the women in the folk music group moved on with their lives, the music within didn't. My mom has now joined a barbershop chorus, Misty River Music Makers, a chapter of the international organization, Harmony, Inc.. While this chorus has many more members than a quartet, it sings four-part harmony just the same. Performing mostly locally, they also attend competitions, giving them a chance to go against other like-minded singers, like Barbershop Idol, if you will. Recently they were awarded the title of Most Improved Chorus at the largest competitive event of the year.

We seem to have a certain idea in our heads of what barbershop music is. I can remember watching one of my teachers from school sing in a barbershop quartet, with traditional music such as Let Me Call You Sweetheart and Sweet Adeline. That's what most of us know of barbershop. Perhaps our ideas of barbershop have grown along with us. The music heard this weekend at Misty River Music Makers' entertaining performance consisted of some older music such as Somewhere Over the Rainbow, plus a variety of music in between that era and today. We heard the Beatles' Yesterday, Mary Wells' My Guy, and even Let There Be Peace On Earth, a song that has been covered by everybody from The Smothers Brothers to Gladys Knight to Vince Gill, and now, Misty River Music Makers.

The show Misty River presented this weekend in Geneva, Illinois, was titled, "We Have a Song to Sing," and perhaps that name says it all. They do have a song to sing, one that they so obviously enjoy, and they seemed to want to be sure that we, as their audience, enjoy it, too! We all have a song to sing, and the Misty River Music Makers helped us do just that this past Saturday.

What brought my music full circle for me this weekend was seeing three of my mom's friends in the audience, sitting just in front of me, three friends who had formed the folk music group with my mother more than thirty years ago. It was so heartwarming to see them there, now supporting their old friend in her new musical endeavor. A small part of me felt like I was still sitting on Mom's bed trying on her rings.

Last edited on Mar 02, 2009