|
|||
|
By Hilary Judd
Varied acoustic talent displays could even range from Sarah McLachlan or Jack Johnson renditions to a cowboy-poetry, trucker-like melody, and then to a spicy Latin gospel song. And imagine all of it unplugged, in front of an apparently unexpected large crowd. "Would anyone be opposed to picking up your chair and just moving forward a few rows?" emcee for the evening Neal Jeppson asked the packed crowd, who eagerly complied with his request. "Then we can set up some more seats and get started." The annual event features student music performances, and anyone was invited to the auditions, held two weeks ago. Musicians were then invited to perform at the Guitars Unplugged fund-raiser, sponsored by Mortar Board. "It's a great club," said Jeppson, who recently joined service-oriented organization Mortar Board. "It's for seniors who've done well academically, and like service. They've already raised $15,000 to go toward service projects they'll put on throughout the year." Some participants selected previously recorded songs, while others presented original work. Each one had seven minutes on stage, which allowed about two songs per act, and two stages were set up to make transitions quicker and easier. Fourth in the evening's lineup was "two-thirds of the group Corban," who had to leave their keyboardist out of the equation for the evening, for obvious reasons. "We hope he's not too mad at us, we didn't even ask him," guitarists and vocalists Brigham Rupp and Sean Rees told the crowd, prior to performing two original compositions. Keyboardist and vocalist Robert Watkins watched their performance from inside the arms of a portable, event-inspired blue chair. The songs they selected, Doug and Julia and What Servants Have I Become Slave To? combined uniquely entwined harmonies with depth-filled words, washing a wondering awe over a rapt crowd. The distinctive style is typical Corban, which means "something dedicated to God, so it can't be used for other things," Rupp said after the show. "It seems like our songwriting is a lot different than anybody else's. I can't describe any one band it sounds like," said Rupp, whose background and writing abilities stem from an English major. Watkins is working on the same degree. Corban has been playing together, officially, for about two months, Rupp said. But their roots emerged about seven years ago, when Rupp and Rees, who are cousins, started playing guitar together. Watkins joined the picture in 1999, and they recorded a previous album under a different name. "We're recording right now, the first album of Corban," Rupp said. "We do about an hour every week. They're using free studio time they won in a song-writing contest, and, of course, it's going a little slower than they'd hoped. But they're looking forward to the outcome, and will market the album themselves. "We'll probably make homemade covers, and burn copies of the CD for everyone that wants one," Rupp said. Rupp doesn't see the group dissolving any time soon, as long as they're all in Cache Valley. And they like to keep things fairly simple and low-key. "We just don't want it to be too big of a deal, though touring is tempting," Rupp said. "We try and play whenever we can, to have the experience, and because it's fun." He does get nervous sometimes, though. "But I have my own way of getting rid of my nervousness," he says with a grin, followed by a smirky, mysterious silence.
|
||