My kind of brass band

A friend at church sent me this link to an odd brass band concert.  Excellent stuff.

If my church wanted to do some less traditional music, I'd prefer this type.  Last week, we had something called "Camp Sunday," a kind of tribute to the various annual retreats that the Episcopalian Church tends to host.  I think they must involve campfire singing, because that's what we sang during the service.  One of the songs, and I'm not making this up, was to the tune of the theme from M*A*S*H.  Another was to the tune of the Rod Stewart song "Sailing," though without attribution, so it may have been unintentional.  That one was rather nice, actually.  Others inexplicably involved one or another member of the choir interjecting a loud "Whoop!" during the refrain, and even, once, "Yay, God!"  There was also a certain amount of tambourine action.  Perhaps white Episcopalians shouldn't try this sort of thing.  The right sort of performance involves un-self-conscious writhing in ecstasy, and we're just not good at it.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved the MASH theme until I heard the actual song...

I'm not sure what I think about re-purposing a song about suicide. On one hand, it is turning the tune from its original lie of despair, but on the other hand, I still can't shake the association.

Texan99 said...

I, too, found it hard not to be thinking "suicide is painless"! Also, there are songs that sound good as an instrumental that are pretty silly when converted to a campfire song with words--especially if they have a syncopated rhythm that won't translate easily to a sing-song group style.

Gringo said...

That there is a good band. Sounds a bit klezmerish to me.

Grim said...

I love to host a campfire and sing songs. They usually aren't fit for church...

Texan99 said...

I love campfire songs, too. These didn't qualify. There's folk music, and then there's insipid.

Anonymous said...

Ah, church camp songs. I'd never seen the Senior Preacher turn colors before until he came into the "tabernacle" (a roofed-over area where the "formal" worship was held) and heard 200 kids belting out "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road." We'd been rehearsing and memorizing praise music for 45 minutes, and this was a bit of a brain break (and it let us wiggle). Senior Preacher was. Not. Amused.

LittleRed1

Assistant Village Idiot said...

The church-camp experience is usually the only one the teenagers have which keeps them connected to the church, even tenuously, for about a decade. The statistics on that are rather dramatic in most denominations.

Therefore, we put up with a lot we don't like. I do like "Pharaoh, Pharaoh," though. Well, once a year.

E Hines said...

Senior Preacher was. Not. Amused.

Prolly didn't understand Technicolor.

Eric Hines

RonF said...

The cheerleader's pom poms made out of "POLICE - DO NOT CROSS" tape is a nice touch.