when i was in college, two of my favorite regular campus events were “coffeehouses” and “hour afters.” coffeehouses were generally the more casual of the two events, but other than that the format was the same–music + food + friends = good times. two of my very favorite “hour afters” were done by acapella quartets composed of students a few years older than me–one male quartet and one female. as soon as i heard the female quartet, i thought, “someday, i’d love to do that.” but then realized how much work it would be to put together such a group and then to get together to practice and then to learn enough songs to actually do an event and…. decided it was kind of a long-shot for me. then, about a year ago, i began singing for fun with three friends. i think we all had (at some point) wished we were part of a singing group and it was the right time and place for each of us to try to commit to this extracurricular thing. for the past year, we’ve gotten together to sing about twice a month. sometimes we sing a song in church for prelude or special music, but mostly, we just get together because we love to sing. we all have input on which songs we want to learn (some with sheet music, some just by listening to a recording, some arranged for us by a friend) and we rotate parts around (three of us usually sing soprano, so we have to take turns being the other alto) and try to have a balance about who has a “lead” part or a solo. it’s all very casual and relaxed, but i think we all feel that practicing together is a bright spot in our week.

last fall, one member of the group threw out the idea of trying to host a coffeehouse to sing some of the songs that aren’t really “churchy.” we weren’t sure if we had enough songs in our repertoire to really justify a whole event just for ourselves, so we invited some friends to sing or play music or read poetry to round out the evening. despite rampant cold/flu/sickness in our community (including one member of our quartet this past week who stayed home with a fever and sore throat for three days) and despite the rapidly approaching due date of a pregnant member of our group, we had a lovely, successful coffeehouse this evening in our home.

we created a “stage” area at one end of our living room with paper lanterns, fabric, candles and some geraniums. this photo was taken before the final addition of a piece of original artwork loaned to us by a friend that, while dark, included a bright, white, round moon and a red flower that echoed the lanterns and the geraniums perfectly.

here’s a picture of us singing. the thing on the right is a harp. one of our friends played three harp pieces — beautiful! in fact, all of the other participants had great contributions! there were two poets, one singer/songwriter/guitar player, one trio doing a james taylor song with piano, violin and voice, classical guitar and bluegrass style guitar, and it was all very mellow. i didn’t feel nervous at all (which was weird!) and while our songs weren’t perfect by any means, we enjoyed singing and there were some beautiful moments.

thanks to everyone (including the audience!) who helped to make this long-time dream become a reality.

p.s. i’ve put some short video clips of a few of the songs online.  if you would like to have the link, leave me a comment and i’ll send it to you.