For Valentine's Day we left Elizabeth home with Nonny and Poppa (that was HER present--a whole evening with her two favorite people!) while we went to hear the King's Singers perform with the symphony. If you've never heard the King's Singers--well, good, then you won't be purple with jealousy. ;) Imagine six British men in tuxedos, singing 4- and 6-part arrangements of songs dating as far back as medieval times. Okay, fine, when you put it that way it doesn't sound like anything special--but I promise, they are truly amazing to hear! (Or else I was so desperate to get out of the house that I would have gushed about the concert had it been a hobo banging on a garbage can. Actually, I think we *did* hear that as well, in the parking garage on our way back to our car.)
For this particular program they sang everything from sea shanties to English folk songs to my personal favorite, an arrangement of Harry Connick, Jr.'s "Recipe for Love". They don't get the credit for the lyrics in the title of this post; those belong to dear old James Taylor. . .but they delivered the most stirring performance of Taylor's "Lonesome Road" that I could ever hope to hear. (Sorry, James, I promise I still love you!) And who could forget their encore--an arrangment of "All You Need is Love", accompanied by the orchestra. . .and the audience chiming in on the chorus.
What a marvelous night. Jared scored some major bonus points with this one--he'd never even heard of the King's Singers when he bought thie tickets for a surpise. . .and apparently he doesn't understand the depth of my love for a cappella men's groups. Or for Paul Simon, James Taylor, and the Beatles--all artists whose songs were featured in the program (and who I first heard on records I gleaned from my parents' collections)
