Straight No Chaser plans to offer a mix of old, new tunes on tour in Wichita
It’s no secret that like virtually every other music act, the a cappella group Straight No Chaser was unable to tour because of the pandemic, a situation that wiped out several 2020 tours for the ensemble. The group, back touring now, appears Sunday at the Orpheum.
The pandemic also changed plans for making the group’s latest holiday album, the fittingly titled “Social Christmasing.”
“That was another thing where we were like all right, well we’re supposed to be in the studio in May, maybe first of June (2020),” said singer Seggie Isho in a recent phone interview. “And as more information came out with COVID, we soon realized it was not going to be possible for us to get in the studio at all.”
But the nine singers and their producer, Kevin Killen, got creative, and thanks to the wonders of file sharing and today’s recording technology, they figured out how to record “Social Christmasing” at their homes. This had its advantages and drawbacks.
“The great thing about it is you kind of sing on your own schedule,” Isho said. “For example, when we’re in the studio, we have a set schedule that we usually go by. The basses start in the morning, say around 10 a.m. Then around noon or one, the baritones come in, then after us, the tenors come in. The nice thing about recording at home is I myself am a baritone, and my voice doesn’t really warm up until probably like 4, 5 or 6 o’clock. So I could go in there when my voice was in prime condition to perform and lay down my tracks.
“Then on the flip side, when we’re recording in the studio, we’ve got the arranger sitting there, we’ve got the producer sitting there, giving immediate feedback,” Isho said. “Like ‘That line, you’re singing the right notes, but I’m not really feeling the emotion’ or ‘Try doing it this way.’ So when we’re doing it from home, you record the track, you upload it and you e-mail it to the arranger and the producer. They listen to it and then they send notes. So it’s kind of, I don’t know, a sterilized process a bit. But it was still a great experience. I think we recorded the ‘Open Bar’ EP from home (too), but taking on this whole (“Social Christmasing”) album with all of these new songs and never having sung them together or rehearsed them together was absolutely challenging. But we’re really happy with how it came together.”
In fact, Straight No Chaser has just released a deluxe edition of “Social Christmasing” with a pair of new songs.
“Mike Luginbill has written another original that all of us, upon hearing his demo, all of us were really, really excited about, a fun, uptempo holiday gem,” Isho said of the song, called “Christmas Show.” “So we’re all really excited about that.”
The other addition is one that had Isho especially excited – a new version of the Kenny Loggins hit “Celebrate Me Home” with Loggins himself joining Straight No Chaser for this version.
Holiday music has been a mainstay for Straight No Chaser throughout the group’s career. In fact, it was a viral video of “The 12 Days of Christmas” that became an unexpected big break for the group.
Recorded for a 10th anniversary reunion of the group, which formed at the University of Indiana, the video went viral in 2007 and prompted Atlantic Records to offer Straight No Chaser a record deal.
Thinking Christmas music was the perfect introduction to the group, Craig Kallman, the chairman and CEO of Atlantic Records, had Straight No Chaser debut with the 2008 Christmas album, “Holiday Spirits.” It was an immediate hit. Since then, the group has released three more holiday albums, four full-length non-holiday albums, as well as one holiday and four non-Christmas EPs.
During the pandemic, Straight No Chaser tried to make up for the lack of in-person concerts by doing some live-streaming performances. But Isho and the other singers – Luginbill, Tyler Trepp, Randy Stine, Steve Morgan, Walter Chase, Jerome Collins, Charlie Mechling and new member Jasper Smith – are more than excited to return to touring.
The group has put in considerable work and planning into creating their latest live show, beginning with the song set.
“We’ve got some new tunes we’re excited to debut,” Isho said, noting the group is working on a new non-holiday album. “When we were thinking about the set list, it was kind of figuring out a balance. Like OK, for us we always want to introduce as much new material as possible. But at the same time, people will get attached to specific songs that they’ve seen us rehearse or do on You Tube or listened to on a streaming platform. So they want to see those songs. So it’s finding a good middle ground. And I think not having been out (on tour) in so long, it’s a good time to get some of those songs that we haven’t done in a few years back in the set, mixed in with a couple of new ones, just so everyone’s getting a little bit of something that they want.”
The group played some shows this summer and is starting an extensive fall tour now. When the calendar moves into the holiday season, the show will evolve to include more Christmas songs.
“For our full tour, we’ll generally start with 97 percent non-holiday, and we’ll sprinkle in maybe two or three holiday songs at the top of the tour,” Isho said. “Then after Thanksgiving, we’ll flip to 50/50.”
Fans can expect lots of visuals to complement the musical performances. The video content is generally created by the group members.
“One thing we want to do with our show is always make sure people feel like they’re getting much more value than what’s on the ticket,” Isho said. “We don’t want people to come to a show and ever leave thinking ‘Ah, it seems like this small show.’ We want it to feel like an arena show, but packed into a performing arts center. And at the same time, it is a cappella, so having those visuals really makes it kind of fill out the experience. It’s just fun and we enjoy making our homemade videos. We try to make them as funny as we can.
“We think we’re really funny, but it will be interesting to see if everybody agrees or not,” he added. “We have a lot of fun doing production stuff and creating all of those visuals that go along with the music. It’s great seeing all of that come together and still really timing it with the show. Getting a good pace with the show is really important to us. We never want people to feel like there’s a lull, that there’s a good arc to the show so everyone leaves satisfied.”
Straight No Chaser
When: 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 31
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 200 N. Broadway
Tickets: wichitaorpheum.com