Lokapella

If I haven't yet made it obnoxiously clear. I belonged to a musical group in college called "lokalgrown." I remember someone once noting to me that it was "tacky" to be a fan of your own band... I still don't get that. I think some people are thinking too hard about stuff. I didn't listen to our music a great deal while I was making it, but in successive years I find the music both enjoyable and tremendously memorable and memora-full.

Lokalgrown was originally constituted of myself and three choir guys. From the start we were destined to become an acappella group (which was all the rage in Utah at the time... and probably still is) Thanks to an affinity for classic and alternative rock, as well as some instrumental capacity we went the more traditional "band" route. This, by no means, meant that we couldn't ocassionally set our instruments down and vocalize a bit. Every Christmas we sang the First Noel, every fourth of July we did the Star Spangled Banner, and occasionally we sang "Be still My Soul" at church functions (this tragically remains the only unrecorded of the three, which is so sad because it was such a powerful and amazing song to sing.)

Whenever we would sing one of these songs, inevitably a slew of co-eds and parents would bombard us with the request that we lay our weapons of rock and roll down and join the ranks of the vocally exclusive. We remained a rock and roll band that sang acapella occasionally. And there was much rejoicing.

Please enjoy this version of The First Noel (arranged by Quinn Dietlein, and sung by Jacob Callister, Nathan Davis, Quinn Dietlien and Matthew Sadowski). This recording was missing for about 7 years and showed up on an unmarked CD I almost threw away... whew...