Helplessly Hoping

[Thumper]

I stumbled onto a really nice cover of this CSN song on Youtube. Then I listened to about 15 different cover versions. Then I listened to the original and was still blown away by how good it sounded. Sent a couple links to the girls. The Kid got a little obsessed, and figured out the parts on a keyboard. Then she convinced us to start singing it. We've sang it in the car, around the island of in the kitchen, and even in a parking lot vestibule that had awesome acoustics. We still junk it up somewhere everytime, but it's actually not too bad for only learning to sing it a few days. And we've only sung it together about 10 times.

Many versions of this piece just bring me to tears. I'm a sucker for certain 3 part harmonies. The Kid recorded one of our versions on her phone. I was surprised how good it sounded.

[SciFiFisher]

Crosby, Stills, and Nash. What's not to like?

[Thumper]

That pretty much sums it up.

[Thumper]

This is the first version I stumbled on.
They are pretty talented musicians and obviously spend alot of time practicing their vocals. There are dozens of videos of them slaying covers of great songs.
This is one of my favorites. These guys also have some great cover versions of songs. I think the dog makes this video.
The original CSN version. The spacial separation of the harmonies in headphones is awesome. It's almost impossible for me to listen to this song and not tear up at some point.

[geonuc]

Thanks for sharing those links. I listened to all three. I like how the covers remain true to the original. The different vocal qualities are sufficient to distinguish their versions from that of CS&N.

CS&N and CSN&Y are brilliant songwriters and singers.

[Thumper]

The more I listened to the different covers, the original, and the way the three of us attack it, it's amazing to me (with no real formal music composition education) how the various groups split up the harmonies. Even if the notes of the 3 parts are identical, different groups have different members singing different parts in different sections of the song.

There, I wanted to see how many times I could use the word different in the same sentence.

Yeah, I'm lucky I've gotten to see CSN&Y live once. Awesome show.

[Thumper]

On vacation last week, one of the restaurants we eat at was having an open mic night. I knew this ahead of time and mentioned it to my fellow singers. We practiced the song a few more times in the car much to the delight of my Mother. I approached the open mic host before he got started and told him the three of us would be interested in singing just the one song, and we didn't have anyone that knew how to play the accompaniment. He didn't either and didn't have a way to plug in the recorded guitar track from The Kid's phone into the PA. So I said we'll be fine singing it a cappella. He was happy to put us on the schedule. After a slightly rough start, we fell into it and I thought did fine for never singing it into a microphone before. We got a luke warm response.The Kid wasn't terribly impressed. Mom video'd on her phone and loved it. I haven't heard or seen it yet. But it was worth it.

Another one we like to do is Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic, wonderful vocal parts. But good luck finding a bar band that can accompany you on that.