June 24, 2009

The House Jacks - Good Things

We first felt the true power and majesty of The House Jacks (our personal favorite group name in a cappella), in a packed South of Market nightclub in San Francisco in the middle 1990s, where several groups were performing in different parts of the club, but everyone was there to see the Jacks. I remember hearing the Zep standard “Kashmir,” being amazed at the vocal percussion (new to me) the full sound and sheer energy of this pioneering, influential handful of guys, blowing us all away with only microphones. “Good Things” is a “best of” anthology of 19 songs, beautifully packaged, masterfully mixed and recorded, and containing only a songlist and “Everything you hear came out of the following mouths:” followed by a list of the members of the Jacks, Roo Ahuja, Bert Bacco, Tristan Bishop, Wes Carroll, Andrew Chaikin, Kevin Fudge, Troy Horne, Garth Kravits, Rob Penn, Deke Sharon and Austin Willacy. Before each name is a little Zapf dingbat of various kinds of stars and dots that also follow each song name to let us know who is singing on which cut. There’s only four covers here, the aforementioned “Kashmir,” Lennon/McCartney’s “All You Need Is Love,” the Gershwins’ “Summertime” and the live Motown hit “Ain’t No Sunshine.” The other 15 are all written by various group members; “The Way It Makes Me Feel” by Sharon, “Completely” by Chaikin, “What’s for Real” by Kravits and Willacy, “This Man’s Pride” by Horne, “After You” by Sharon & Kravits, etc. Other favorites are the live cuts “Dive Into You,” “Bam,” “All of My Life” and the crazed, faux-everything theme song “Jack It Up.” Great stuff from first cut to last, from one of our favorite groups of all time! 2364 CD 14.95
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Posted by acapnews at June 24, 2009 12:00 AM