Clockwork at the National Harmony Sweepstakes

So last Saturday was the big night. National Harmony Sweepstakes. This is (gulp!) my 4th time performing in the National Finals with 3 different groups. It’s really hard to believe I’ve been doing this for 13 years! I guess this means it's time to get in the way-back machine...

1993: Quintessence. (2nd place in the Finals): John Bennett, Eric Freeman, Neal Cruz, Tony Hale, Tako Oda. We had no idea what we were getting into. The audience response blew us away. The Finals was my first time singing for such a huge audience (~2k!). When they announced us the place went crazy. Talk about your Rock n Roll Fantasy! In the end we lost out the amazingly talented 17th Ave All-stars. When we walked off stage we thought we had it. They went next and showed us how it’s done. People still recognize me from that group. Years later I got to sing with our Bass, Neal, in the Pacific Mozart Ensemble. The reunion was cut short in ’04 when he died in a hang-gliding accident. Neal is still much missed.

1996: The New Originals. (Made it to the Finals, but didn’t place): John Bennett, Eric Freeman, Dan Testa, Calvin, Curt - replaced by Lamont (I think). John (from Le Q) and I tried to get something going after the demise of Le Q. It was short lived. (So short I’m having a hard time remembering the names). We didn’t even make it to next year to host the regionals. Our road to the Finals is a little part of Harmony Sweepstakes lore. This was the year SoVoSo went about 3min over time. They were so clearly the favorite, but the rules stated they could not win. All I remember was a lot of shouting and craziness. It wasn’t until later that I found out what happened. I started working at Seagate and pretty much disappeared from the scene. Dan recently resurfaced at the Denver HS singing with Ignition. Too bad they didn’t win. It would have been fun to share the stage again.

2002: Clockwork v1 (Didn’t place in the SF Regionals): Angie Doctor, Eric Freeman, Jim Hale, Sara Nebeling, John Paddock, Stephen Saxon. In ’98 I started singing with the Pacific Mozart Ensemble. After a few years of all work and no play I need to start again. Little did I know I’d found the perfect home in PME. We do an annual a cappella show and within a year I was cranking out 8-10 arrangements (more than ever before!). At the end of our ’01 show Stephen and Angie put together this group and by the end of the summer we had a few tunes under our belt. We were mostly doing PM Singer type stuff. Angie, John, Sarah and Stephen all have Phil Matson history. We did the sweeps on a bit of whim. Honestly we had no gigs to speak of. We were a little out of our element. Didn’t even place. I think it was a bit of an ego blow for all of us. Later that year the group fell apart for various reasons.

2004: Clockwork (2nd Place in the Finals): Angie Doctor, Eric Freeman, Jim Hale, John Paddock, Stephen Saxon. The hiatus lasted all of about a year. Sara was out of the picture, raising 3 toddlers in Half Moon Bay made rehearsing (not to mention gigging) tough. Stephen was under water job wise and couldn’t commit much time. But the original group showed so much promise that it was hard to let it go. The 4 of us actually started working on some tunes sans bass. I had this arrangement of Inna Godda da Vidda that I thought about trying with a combo. We made a few attempts but nothing really clicked. Then in Jan of ‘03 Stephen re-emerged ready to rock. He started crankin out charts like crazy and we got to work on the ‘Clockwork Sound.’ We did the Sweeps again 1 year later. At the time we weren’t sure if it was the right thing for us. We really didn’t feel like we fit in that scene in ’02. However, it really is the only place in the bay area to reach a decent audience for this kind of stuff. We honestly had no expectations, but ended up winning! Our experience in the Finals was almost an exact repeat of my ’93 Quintessence appearance. We felt like we took it, then watched as Chapter Six kicked our ass. In the end it was a great experience that really kick-started us. We used our prize from the regionals to make our first EP and used the momentum from the Finals to propel us through the production of Tesseract.

2006: Clockwork (3rd Place in the Finals): Angie Doctor, Eric Freeman, Jim Hale, John Paddock, Stephen Saxon. That’s right. We didn’t win. Oh well. It’s funny, I try so hard not to let the competition get into my head, but I can’t help but feel a little let down. We are so much better than we were in 2004. The group feels it, and we get that feedback from everyone we talk to. So it felt strange getting knocked down a peg. I’ll admit I expected to win. It’s a little unsavory this feeling that comes from competing. So that’s enough of that. Let’s talk about what a great show it was. ‘cause it was!

This was one of the best HS Finals I’ve ever seen. I think there are 4 groups that could easily have topped the list (and would certainly in other, leaner years). What that meant was a consistently entertaining and varying night. There were 2 great BBS groups. ‘Great’ because both of them went beyond the medium of BBS. I really enjoyed ‘Round Midnight’s adventurousness in material. There were times I forgot they were BBS (until they hit the tag, of course!). I really regret I missed High Fidelity’s Blackbird. From what heard it was a tour d’ force. Traces closed the show with some great Take-Six-esque material. Those ladies can sing! We had some doo-wop (Regency), classic rock (ElmoThumb and Curious Gage) and Tongue-Tied provided the only collegiate boy-band flavor. I missed their set, but could hear the audience roaring. I think they really benefited from being the only ones. That kind of stuff used to be my bread and butter (LeQ and TNO) but a little goes a long way. There have been years where every single group was like that. I think the audience appreciates a little variety.

One of the nicest things about the night was seeing so many friends show up. I was hanging out in front of the building before the show and seemed to run into a meeelion old friends and family here for the show. I even ran into Jared from my old College group Artists in Resonance and Tony from the aforementioned Quintessence. Clockwork gets so much support from our community that it’s a little humbling. It makes me want to be even better so we can justify the outpouring.


So that’s the report. Turned out to be more of a history lesson. Oh well. In the end it was a just a great concert and we are all grateful to have been a part of it. Here’s a series of pics from the show. (Mostly before sound-check, etc). Enjoy.

-E

06 Harmony Sweeps Photo Album