Three new holiday songs from the Liberty Voices (arranged by the legendary Derric Johnson): "Christmas Time Is Here," "Mary's Boy Child" and "The Hallelujah Chorus," all from Christmas in Velvet: Volume V.

New tracks over the last few weeks:

- From Brazil's talented BR6, I've added three gorgeous tracks: "Waters of March/Rhapsody in Blue," "They Can't Take That Away From Me" and the layered, rich "instrumental" piece "Pato Preto." All are from their album Here To Stay: Gershwin & Jobim.

- From Brian Free & Assurance comes a traditional, stirring "Foundation Medley," off their Live in New York City.

- Long-time faves M-Pact bring us three new songs from their self-titled release: "Over the Rainbow" (featuring Elyse Materson), "Baby I Need Your Loving" and "Northwest Passage."

- Off the 2006 Harmony Sweepstakes disc, listen for the live recording of Clockwork performing Radiohead's "Creep." Talk about building to a crescendo... they really go there.

- Realtime, the 2005 International Quartet Champions of the Barbershop Harmony Society, bring us a solid Barbershop track: "Waltz for Debby." It's from their CD Ain't That a Kick. (Thanks, Brett!)

- And finally, one of my favorite groups ever, the 17th Avenue All-Stars, delivers three awesome cuts from their disc Blend. Listen for a rocking "Something About You," a spot-on "Good Vibrations" and "My Best Friend's Girl."


And over on a A Cappella Holiday, I've added Daniel Gillis' performance of "The First Noel," as arranged by Joe Johnson. And still more holiday music to come!!

Great news! I upgraded the sound quality on A Cappella Holiday today-- now both stations play at CD quality. Hurrah!

There's also some great new holiday music up: from Sean Altman and the GrooveBarbers, off their new CD Glory, listen for "Angels We Have Heard On High," "Jingle Bells," "Oh Christmas Tree" and that classic "I Have A Little Dreidel." (It's so great to be able to play some holiday music that isn't just Christmas songs!)

I also am playing three tracks from The Standards: "Let Ring Out The Bells," a peppy cover of "Little Saint Nick" and "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy." All off their disc A Night To Remember.

I've also set up a new way for groups to add music to the station: you can now upload tracks directly to me, instead of sending a CD or dealing with email. So if you're in an a cappella group, I'd love to play your stuff...

A Cappella Holiday temporarily off the air for a few hours while we do some maintenance and get it fixed up. Check in later tonight or tomorrow for your fave holiday tunes!

In the meantime, on A Cappella Always, three new tracks!

A flowing, lush cover of the Beatles' "Michelle" by The Singers Unlimited, off their album A Capella.

The Backstreet Boys recorded an a cappella version of "All I Have To Give" back in 2001-- I just found it and like it, so it went up, too!

Finally, and this one's tricky, a Russian group whose name I can't type recorded an a cappella track with a title I can't type... off their album whose name, you guessed, it, I can't type on this keyboard. :-) Check out their site at http://www.turetsky.ru/ ...I wish I knew what any of those names are in English (anyone?)! Oh well. In the meantime, while I'm trying to figure that out, I am enjoying listening to the track!

Hi all, It's been a while since I've posted updates but I'm trying to get things freshened up for the holidays-- especially looking to get some fresh holiday music in place on A Cappella Holiday this year.

But in the meantime I've made a big change which I hope you'll like.

Since the beginning of A Cappella Always, back in August 2001, I have never been incredibly satisfied with the sound quality. A cappella music often has quiet passages and tight, razor-sharp harmonies... subtleties which were often lost because of the scratchy, "lo-fi" way the station was being broadcast. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't terrific, either.

Due to limitations of the technology I have been using to broadcast A Cappella Always and A Cappella Holiday, I couldn't do much to improve the sound quality. Until now.

I've changed the station so the the quality of the broadcast is much, much better. This change also requires that you have a broadband connection (like DSL, a cable modem or just listening to the station at work or school) but I think that requirement is worth it. Back in 2001, broadband connections were expensive and uncommon... these days, even my 67-year-old Dad has a $19.95 DSL connection coming into his house. So I don't think this is a big limitation.

(And even better, if you are a "VIP" subscriber to Live365, which costs as little as US$5/mo, you can use their "mp3Pro" player to listen to the music at CD quality. But you don't need to subscribe to enjoy the higher-quality broadcast feed.)

As of today, A Cappella Always is on the new higher-quality feed, and I'll be changing over A Cappella Holiday in the next few weeks as I add fresh holiday music to the mix.

Thanks you for your continued support and listening!

Just added tracks from Quicksand, from the Penny Loafers of U Penn. Listen up for "Your Ex-Lover is Dead," "Keeping, " "Chocolate," and an anguished cover (in a good way!) of "Because of You."

By the way, in December, the Penny Loafers are traveling to Beijing, China to sing at the Greenpeace International Charity Concert. Help offset the $10k cost of airfare by purchasing their album!

Then, turn your ears to long-time favorites Fourth Avenue and their just-released CD High Energy Harmony. Listen for "What I Like About You" mashed up with "Do You Love Me," as well as "Fast Track," "Shut De Do," "Footloose" and the classic "There's a Change In My Life."

One more very fun track-- a super-country-fied version of Sugar Ray's "Fly," from Three Men and a Tenor... these guys are clearly having a lot of fun with the audience in this live recording.

A new song online from Peter "Pikey" Butler, performing in France: "Suddenly," in a classic doo-wop arrangement.

Yipes! Just found out my posts from earlier this year weren't coming through-- nuts. Oh well, the music's been playing, it's just here on the site that you didn't see the updates. You know, I love the Internet, but why does it have to be on computers?! :-)

Here's something fun and new... a random Bobs track, "Beluga." Terrif, as always.

March brings us THREE delicious new tracks from Chapter 6: "How Deep Is Your Love," "Theme and Variations on 'It Don't Mean a Thing'" (this is really fun!) and "What a Wonderful World." All from their CD Swing Shift. Enjoy!