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The Augmented EightThe Augmented Eight
  • Home
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Latest Recordings

Tracks and samples from The Augmented Eight

“Waving through a Window”

The Augmented 8
(from Dear Evan Hansen)
Words and Music by Benji Pasek and Justin Paul
Arrangement by Tom Bulleit

Solos by Tom Bulleit, John Symington, Paul Kraske, Rick Bond

Production by Johnny Del Toro (audio), Amber Schmiesing (video) and Raise Your Voice Labs, and Tom Bulleit

We undertook Dear Evan Hansen’s opening theme, “Waving Through a Window,” in connection with returning to engagement with people, especially our extended Spring Sing family, as we emerged from pandemic isolation in 2022.  In the Tony Award-Winning Best Musical, Evan is a young adult on the autism spectrum who knows he is special, and not in a good way.  The song tells the story of his search for engagement, desperately wishing to change his life so that he isn’t “on the outside always looking in.”  In our version, we salute the efforts of people like Evan, and try to convey that they are not alone, in part by having several different voices tell the story of the struggle.

“Deacon Blues”

The Augmented 8
Words & Music by Walter Becker & Donald Fagan
Arranged by Bill Cline
Solo by Steve Bosak
Produced by Raise Your Voice Labs & Tom Bulleit

The Augmented 8 has been entertaining Washington metro area audiences for 70 years, although thankfully, our current membership has joined more recently and has younger vocal chords.  We chose as our opener for Sing Out for Shelter 29 co-director Bill Cline’s arrangement of Steely Dan’s “Deacon Blues,” because it speaks to a man struggling with adversity, determined to overcome it and “be what I want to be.”  Our video tries to capture the ethos of the pandemic, showing our singers making the best of life at home, and the film noir hero quality of the iconoclastic narrator (performed by Steve Bosak), who is determined not to be trapped or overcome by the virus.

“Here’s That Rainy Day”

The Augmented 8
Music by Jimmy Van Heusen, Lyrics by Johnny Burke
Arranged by Oakleigh Thorne
Solo by Bill Cline

Produced by Raise Your Voice Labs and Tom Bulleit

In 2020 the Augmented 8, like all singing groups, had to stop getting together in an enclosed space to sing, as the Covid-19 pandemic shut down much of the world.  We were determined to continue our mission of keeping alive the tradition of men’s close harmony a cappella singing that the group has sustained in the D.C. area since 1950.  So we used new technology and the talents of audio and video producers assembled by Raise Your Voice Laboratories to produce our first of four virtual music videos.  We chose one of our favorites, Here’s That Rainy Day, arranged for us in 2016 by the legendary Oak Thorne, whose legacy includes more than twenty musical arrangements for that best known college a cappella group, Yale’s Whiffenpoofs.  The song is among other things a suitable lament to pandemic isolation.  Our next two virtual videos, recorded over the next two years,  tell the story of the struggle to emerge.

Track list from “Listen to the Rhythm.”

Featured Posts

  • Sing Out for Shelter 2023: A DelMarValous Success! 
  • New Members Wanted 
  • Waving through a Window 
  • Sing In the New Year with Our Holiday Video Montage 
  • A Cappella Thrives in the Time of Covid-19 and Physically Distance Sings 
  • Sing Out for Shelter 2020 

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  • Virtual Performance (2)

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Contact Information:

  • Washington Society for Close Harmony Singing, Inc.
  • The Augmented 8
  • 4674 Garfield Street, NW • Washington, DC. 20007
  • info@augmented8.org
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  • Sing Out for Shelter 2023: A DelMarValous Success! August 10, 2023
  • New Members Wanted June 22, 2022
  • Waving through a Window June 14, 2022

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  • Home
  • About
    • Our Beginnings
    • Singers
  • Our Music
    • Latest Recordings
    • Early Years
    • Music Library (Protected)
  • Sing Out for Shelter
    • Sing Out for Shelter 2023
    • Sing Out for Shelter 2022: Virtual Benefit Concert
    • Sing Out for Shelter 2021: Virtual Benefit Concert
    • Sing Out For Shelter 2020
    • Sing Out for Shelter 2019
    • Sing Out for Shelter Archives
      • Sing Out for Shelter 2018
      • Sing Out for Shelter 2017
      • Sing Out for Shelter 2016
      • Sing Out for Shelter 2015
      • Sing Out for Shelter 2014
      • Sing Out for Shelter 2013
  • Spring Sing
  • News
  • Contact Us
  • Donations