“Deacon Blues”
Your Grateful Hosts: The Augmented 8, Washington D.C.
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. We’ve also assembled a program with virtual performances by some of the elites of college a cappella, and our local community, represented by the ladies of Venus D Minor, and the next generation of a cappella singers from several of our local high schools. We hope you enjoy the show, and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible live again next year.
Robert L. Miller·Josh et al.,
Just an unexpectedly wide and fascinating range of talent… grateful especially for such a wide range of Yalies. The check is not quite in the mail but we’re doing contributions this week and this is for sure on our list. Best to all.
Bob (& Vicki & Alexis)
- Marian le Grelle·
A new favourite! Loved it! Thanks for sharing your talent and joy and for building bridges through music. Keep changing the world!
- Kate Dell·
What a wonderful performance! Please share with all those you know. I will do the same. Thank you!
Donation too. - Elaine Bosak·
What fun to see and hear my nephew Steve Bosak singing a solo with his group! And I live in Sweden since 1970, mother of Sweden´s most famous rapper, Timbuktu. He also has a fine voice, just a different genre!
- Paul Pirog·
Another shout out to Tom Bulleit for not only doing a great job organizing, but also for his thoughtful praise and encouragement to all the groups through his comments. True leadership by example. And thanks to all of the singers for a pleasant evening of music!
- Aggie Sanders·
Beautiful voices and I loved the song!
6 Comments
Leave your reply.