Got no guitar, no fiddle, nor banjer? Got your voice? Then no problem! Come practice the art of trio harmony singing with no instrumental accompaniment with three veteran singers whose greatest joy is doing just that. Using Stamps-Baxter’s 1956 Heavenly Highways hymnal, we’ll choose six to eight songs beloved for their fabulous harmonic opportunities. Bill, Becky, and Dock will coach you in small groups to help you turn out soul-searing harmonies. In the process, you’ll learn to listen carefully for pitch, stake out relative harmonies, and stay in your harmonic lane. The only guarantee, though, is a whole lot of fun ‘Just Over in the Gloryland.’
Instructor Bio
Bare Bones is an acapella trio that has been interpreting a wide variety of songs in a wide variety of venues since the early 1980s. Some remember them as the Missing Person Soup Kitchen Gospel Quartet, aka Soup Kitchen, but they’ve been Bare Bones since 2007. Mark Davis is their usual tenor, but Dock Cutlip, an Augusta veteran, will be working with Bill and Becky Kimmons to deliver a trove of songs by the fabulous Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, and a set of old-time gospel songs such as Dock grew up with in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
Becky Kimmons grew up at her Primitive Baptist grandmother’s knee, so is well versed in the keening acapella style of Hazel Dickens, also of WV Primitive Baptist heritage. She and that same grandmother listened together to hours of radio music, thus her grounding in genres of pop, blues, jazz, and country. She loves and does them all.
Bill Kimmons grew up singing choral music and doing theatre in North Carolina. When he landed in West Virginia in 1976, he discovered old-time music, and has been lending a solid bass line to many a jam since. He and Becky have done a singing tour of Ireland twice, in 2001 with the Bing Brothers Band, and again in 2004 through the Irish-American Folk Park.
Dock Cutlip discovered Augusta more than 20 years ago as a student of Irish music, then met Bill and Becky, who discovered his amazing talents as a singer and guitarist. Dock grew up singing with his family in rural Pocahontas County, WV, where they lived a 19th-century lifestyle that had music near its center. He owes his broad song repertoire to a short-wave radio.