Sunday, May 16, 2010

Plumbers of Rome...Harmony Sweepstakes...FINALLY!

2003--Tim took Moosebutter to the Harmony Sweepstakes regional competition in San Francisco. They won and went to the Finals, where they took second and got a couple of other awards. And Tim was hooked.

2004--Tim took Moosebutter to Denver regional sweeps. It was the only year he participated but didn't win anything.

2005--Tim took moosebutter to the LA Harmony Sweepstakes, where they were first runner up, and Plumbers of Rome to the Denver Harmony Sweepstakes.

2006--Tim took moosebutter to the Chicago Harmony Sweepstakes, where they won first runner up and Audience Favorite, and Plumbers of Rome to the Denver Harmony Sweepstakes, where they won the Best Stage Presentation award.

2007--Tim took Placental Armaggeddon, Vocality, and Plumbers of Rome to the Denver Harmony Sweepstakes.  Vocality took second and best original song, and PA got the best vocal percussion award.

2008--Tim took Plumbers of Rome to the Denver Harmony Sweepstakes and the group he coached into existence, the 40th Parallel, took themselves. Plumbers won Audience Favorite and Best Stage Presentation.

2009--Tim got a little crazy and took Plumbers of Rome to the San Francisco Harmony Sweepstakes, where they won second place and audience favorite; Essence of Larynx to the Pacific Northwest Harmony Sweepstakes, where they won third place, King4 and Throat both to the LA Harmony Sweepstakes, where K4 took third and Tim won Best Original Song for a Throat Song; Mouth Beats and Wonder Voice to the Denver Harmony Sweepstakes, where MB won and WV won best solo; and Mouth Beats to the Finals, where they won the Best Original Song award.

2010--Money was too tight to fly groups all over the nation again, so Tim planned to just take groups to the local (Denver) Harmony Sweepstakes. VoxBom and Wonder Voice competed there, and VoxBom came in second.  Meanwhile, the other two guys in Plumbers of Rome REALLY wanted to compete in Boston and offered to buy their own tickets, so Plumbers of Rome went to Boston Harmony Sweepstakes and WON.

Quite frankly, I was floored. I knew they were good enough, but Plumbers has always been a side project for all the guys involved. It's kind of a fun diversion they play with on the side--a chance to re-interpret pop songs and experiment with what just 3 voices can really do.

So I knew they were going to the Finals, and I honestly wasn't even nervous for them because I was sure nothing would come of it. I told Tim I didn't think Plumbers was the kind of group that got rewarded in the Finals.

I was wrong.

Tonight they sang, and tonight they WON. Won overall and won best arrangement.

After 8 years of competing in the Harmony Sweepstakes (with 10 different groups doing 22 performances in 6 different regions and three National Finals and winning 28 awards), it finally happened.

Plumbers of Rome are the 2010 Harmony Sweepstakes Champions.

The kids immediately asked, "What did he win?"

Um....CD duplication and a spot on the list of winners.

But it's STILL exciting!

1 comment:

Brooke said...

Congrats to the talented Tim! This is great news!