Sounds of the Vineyard

Last weekend, Steve and I took a 3-day trip down to Martha's Vineyard as a late anniversary weekend. We had lots of good food, saw a lot of cool things, made an inventory of what we would want to do if we came again. One of the things we want to make sure we set time aside to see if we go to the Vineyard again I just had to share with you in the event you're planning to head down there at all this summer.

Friday night as we were recovering from our food hangover from Back Door Donuts (which will have its own post dedicated to it soon), we were walking back to our hotel past St. Andrew's Church in Edgartown when Steve paused and commented that he thought it was weird to have church services so late. There was music and lights coming through the stained glass windows and it sounded GOOD. We wandered over to the wide-open doors of the church because we wanted to see for ourselves what was going on - and we found something we wished we'd known about sooner.

In the front of the room were 8 or 10 college-aged young men singing A-Capella for a crowd of about 30-50 people. They were snapping their fingers, smiling, and as only would be seen on the Vineyard were dressed in untucked blue button-down shirts, solid colored ties (each guy had a different color), khaki shorts, and no shoes. That's right - a preppy A-Capella group which we found out were appropriately named The Vineyard Sound.

We happened to come at just the right time for the end of the song "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and let me tell you - the guy singing lead on that had so much energy and soul that you could not help but get energized with him as each word passed out of his lungs. Outside the church sanctuary stood a simple folding table with a cash box open for accepting cash and a few stacks of CD's letting everyone know that the beautiful voices coming out of the church were those of the Vineyard Sound.

Vineyard Sound is exactly what it looks like - a group of college-aged young men who sing A-Capella on Martha's Vineyard. They arrive on the island in early June, practice heavily all summer and perform around the island in various venues. If you are on the Vineyard at all this summer, make sure to check their performance schedule ahead of time and plan on stopping in to one of their shows. I know that we wish we had known about them sooner - trust me, you won't regret it. Steve and I both agree that these guys could easily be in the same league as Straight No Chaser.

Here are some YouTube videos of their performances... kind of a "Try Before You Buy" so you don't just have to take my word for it.

The 2011 Vineyard Sound performing "Southern Cross".

The 2008 Vineyard Sound performing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered". The 2011 VS are the guys we saw sing this - they were just as good, and better live.