"When Pure/Mercury Records' Fairy Godmother Vivienne Crawford waved her magic wand over West Hollywood hot MEN OUT LOUD she transformed the L.A. based a cappella group into a major label recording act by adding 'two scoops of groove' to their already smooth four part harmonies. As a result, the quartet comprised of Santo Ragno (First Tenor), Joseph Pearce (Second Tenor), Rob McElroy (Baritone), and Steve Steinberg (Bass) serve up a tasty new CD entitled, Sweet Enuf 2 Eat.
MEN OUT LOUD were first discovered about two years ago while making their debut at California's Harmony Sweepstakes singing contest. In the audience that night was Bobby Crawford, brother of Record Executive Producer Vivienne Crawford. Bobby knew his sister was looking for a group with great voices willing to learn how to tackle any genre from jazz to R&B. And, as they say in this Hollywood "Cinderella" story...the rest is history!
Sweet Enuf 2 Eat, was produced by reggae influenced Boris "Franz" Richards, whose famous father "Ace" played with Bob Marley and the Wailers and jazz singer Warren Cooper, who has a long-standing history of producing gospel music. They have combined talents to enable MEN OUT LOUD to stamp their signature four part harmonies (while adding a dose of Philadelphia funk) to a selection of songs that span the time frame of modern rock music from the 50's and 60's right up to the 90's.
MEN OUT LOUD have opened themselves up to new vocal dimensions by exploring a variety of musical styles beyond a cappella. Their repertoire now includes everything from doo wop, dance pop, soulful ballads and jazz, to you guessed it...Broadway show tunes! In an effort to expand their musical horizons, the group may have also opened up the world of a cappella music to new converts.
'The fact is we don't want to be pigeon-holed,' Steinberg says. 'We really try to show not only our influences, but the styles that we like to cover.'
Well, this is one CD that is filled with covers of classic songs like the Beatles' "Yesterday," Van Morrison's "Moondance," and Todd Rundgren's "Hello, It's Me." Steinberg who serves as the group's manager is also responsible for the a cappella arrangements on the show stoppers "Somewhere" from West Side Story and "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" from Les Miserables.
To truly appreciate MEN OUT LOUD one must catch their act live! On stage the group delivers a well paced show that is not only polished and entertaining but filled with spontaneity, humor, and what Steinberg calls 'butch camp.' Their songs have a way of taking on a new dimension when sung by four "out" gay men. The group invokes widespread laughter from it's audiences when it performs songs like Madonna's "Express Yourself" and the Bee Gee's "More Than A Woman." When performing the last song they even manage to sneak in a little John Travolta and the Macarena.
At times you can feel the chills in the air when MEN OUT LOUD harmonize which is truly the strength of this group. However, their four distinct voices are what give the group depth and versatility.
'It's not a very typical group,' Steinberg says. 'We have a group made up of four solo singers. The lead vocal changes on every song we do.'
Ragno, a Connecticut native (who towers at 5'1"), does the lead singing duties on most of the up-tempo songs and moves around with enough electricity to light up Santa Monica Boulevard. He performs lead vocals on the only original song on the CD and the title track, "Sweet Enuf 2 Eat," penned by Richards and Cooper. He is also at the front on the groups latest single, the retro-disco flavored, "Gotta Have Lovin'." They have also released a video to this song (directed by Bobby Crawford) in what seems like an attempt to broaden their visibility to a dance club audience and develop a following despite lack of air play.
Although the ballads seem to sound like the most accessible on this CD, I don't know if mainstream radio is ready for their same-sex love songs. My bet for the song that could put them on the airwaves is their soulful rendition of the Linda Creed/Thom Bell tune "I Don't Want To Lose You." Here, sexy-suave McElroy, originally from Texas, takes the helm and steers MEN OUT LOUD to perfestion in a production that rivals powerhouse group Boyz II Men. It doesn't get any better than this.
Pearce, who hails from Salt Lake City, seems to possess the best sense of humor of the group and also soothes the audience with his silky "Neil Sedaka" like-voice on Todd Rundgren's "Hello, It's Me" and Van Morrison's "Moondance." I would love to hear him cover the song "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" (the slow version).
In an appearance at HIghways, there were some minor technical difficulties with the microphones when Pearce was leading the group in an a cappella version of the Beatles' "Yesterday." But like the troupers MEN OUT LOUD are, they remained focused and unaffected by the distrastion and finished the song to well deserved applause. At the conclusion of the song Steinberg stepped over to adjust the equiptment and apologized to the audience.
'Let's get rid of the feed back,' he said. 'Just a second...testing 1 - 2.'
'What was that all about?' McElroy jumps in.
'There's a plot,' Pearce proclaimed without missing a beat.
'They're all jealous,' he said. 'They only do it when my solo comes up.' (The audience roared with laughter as the other members cracked up.)
'It's me, begging for a ballad,' Ragno lamented.
The group delivered it's one liners with the precision of a Bette Davis slap to the face (right on the mark) and the tension was diffused. The group really feeds off each other well and it is their wit and unrehearsed banter between songs that not only make them entertaining but comedians. Who knew?
Steinberg, who is an L. A. native, possesses the deep bass voice that is often used as a percussive instrument for the group but even he too shares in the lead vocals on the Bee Gee's "More Than A Woman" and Bobby Caldwell's "What You Won't Do For Love."
In concert, he also gets a solo spot singing "60 Minute Man" which is probably the most risque of the group's repertoire. I don't think he has quite found the right venue to perform this song in yet. When he performed at Gay Pride in Orange County he kindly asked his mom who was in the audience to close her ears and eyes. When a rendition of the song was performed live on The Gay and Lesbian Newsmagazine TV show in Long Beach it took on the qualities of a standard barbershop quartet song without the bump and grind choreography. i can't help wonder what the rendition of this song would be if it were sung after hours (no holds bar) on a Saturday Night, at let's say...the Probe?
MEN OUT LOUD, who have performed at APLA's AIDS Walk, just completed traveling all across America allearing at Gay Pride celebrations from San Francisco to New York City and from Phoenix to Ottawa, Canada. Like country artists traveling to every state fair in the country, gay artists may have found a legitimate marketing tool to be seen and heard if at first they find it hard to get air play on the radio.
'We've had an absolute blast,' Ragno commented.
'My favorite had to be the milk cute boys in Wichita who asked us to sign their bottoms,' Pearce reveals. 'Honest to god. We almost got arrested.'
'In Phoenix it was about 112 degrees,' Steinberg follows. 'The speakers were literally melting.'
'In Ottawa they had rain,' McElroy concludes. 'They actually stood in the rain and watched us.'
Part of the charm of MEN OUT LOUD is that they have allowed themselves to express themselves unabashedly and honestly which brings a unique gay sensibility to their music.
'We're a singing group that's gay, not a gay group that sings,' Steinberg says. 'The fact is we're four guys who like to sing, but we're also four gay guys who love to sing and we're not going to hide that.'
Praise to Pure/Mercury Records for signing this group. Let's hope Ms. Crawford waved her wand one more time and that MEN OUT LOUD continue with their success and open the doors for groups to come. I will be looking out for future projects and although I am not a big fan of a cappella music I would love for them to tackle more contemporary songs in this genre, like let's say, Underworld's "Born Slippy?" I wonder what kind of fireworks they could produce in covering a song like this?"