A Prepostorous Premise

Our American Journey; Chanticleer

I try to lead the clean life. I don’t smoke. I don’t chew. And I don’t go with girls who do. I don’t drink booze or coffee drinks. And I don’t hang with quacks or shrinks. Some could call me an effective cure for insomnia. So be it. But I do have one vice: Family Guy. Yup. That show that takes aim at anything and everything that Americans value and shoots potent bullets of irreverency all over the target. I will confirm here that I am offended each and every time I watch the show. But I can’t help it. The comedy aspect is too irresistible.

On the Family Guy episode called “Da Boom”, the scene opens with the family watching the TV with news anchors Tom Tucker and Dianne Simmons concluding a special show on December 31, 1999:

Dianne Simmons: And that concludes our special half hour salute to the past one thousand years.

Tom Tucker: We leave you this New Year’s Eve with a look back at some of those we’ve lost this millennium.

And then they show Joan of Arc, Leonardo Da Vinci and Norman Fell.

“Our American Journey”, an album by the all-male acapella vocal ensemble called Chanticleer, attempts to lay down three hundred years of American song on one seventy minute CD. I appreciate their efforts, but their objective is absurd. They’re trying to present an unabridged explanation of computational fluid dynamics on the back of a milk carton.

However, purpose of recording notwithstanding, Chanticleer really delivers. Wow!! They have wrapped each selection with élan, zest, vitality and finesse. Their performance is so fluid without a single ragged edge anywhere. Stylistically, they hit each number spot on and honor the regions represented by these songs with a genuine depiction of the way locals would sing them.

This group began in 1978 in San Francisco, CA, and has ranged in size from eight to twelve members. They currently have twelve members. The ensemble has commissioned numerous works in their thirty-two year history, representing the craft of over seventy composers. Chanticleer gets its name from the “clear-singing” rooster from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Don’t you love the cover?

Credits: To Leonardo Da Vinci, for Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Thank you, Renaissance Man!