CD

I Hear Voices! Vocal Quartet Contemporary Folk & Traditional Gospel

I Hear Voices!

GT1015-CD, $14.95 + Shipping (& Taxes in California) 

Bobby Kimmel(Center), Kathy Harris (Left),  Bobby Ronstadt (Top),  Suzy Ronstadt (Right) Visit the I Hear Voices! website &  Visit I Hear Voices! on Facebook

See LA Times write-ups

Preview the MUSIC!

I Hear Voices! is a unique vocal quartet based in Tucson, AZ. The group was formed in early 2012 by Bobby Kimmel, the founding member of The Stone Poneys with Linda Ronstadt. The members are Kimmel, Kathy Harris, Bobby Ronstadt and Suzy Ronstadt. Bobby Ronstadt is a cousin to Linda, and part of Tucson's generations-old musical family.

What sets the group apart is their choice to perform and record with only a rhythm guitar and no other instrumental presence.  According to leader Bobby Kimmel, the group is not trying to make a “minimalist” statement in their stripped-down approach. “Everything we hear, we do with our voices,” he says.

In the summer of 2013, the group released their debut self-titled CD. The recording includes 6 Bobby Kimmel originals, a classic folk spiritual, as well as songs by contemporary writers like Gilian Welch and Ruth Moody of the Wailin' Jennys.  

I Hear Voices! Notes:

The human voice is the original and the essential musical instrument. Our group is a celebration of that instrument. From the outset we agreed that we would express our musical ideas vocally; that our voices were enough. Most of these songs are recorded   just as we preform them, 4 voices, 1 guitar. That's all.

I love this group. We all do. This feels like a culminative experience for me. We all bring the expreience of lifetimes in and around music, and everything is refined down now into this essential vocal expression. 

I love how we rehearse, the love and respect we show for each other, and I love being part of this amazing creative process where the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts. I'm grateful to the other Voices for singing my songs, and for the beautiful and creative arrangements they've come up with. They brought my songs to life.

As a young man, I asked a venerable old jazz musician for advice. He said, “Son, there is a great deal of difference between playing together, and playing at the same time!” From our first rehearsal our goal was 4 Voices, 1 sound. We hope that's what you hear.

Bobby Kimmel

Tracks:

1  One Voice  - Ruth Moody  (Ruth Moody Music)  2:58

2 Wayfarin' Stranger - Traditional 2:43

3 Who Will Watch the Home Place - Kate Long (FEENY FEEMSTER MUSIC)  3:38 

4 I Will Pass This Way Again – Rich Prezioso 2:52

5 Walkin' Down in Florida – Bobby Kimmel (GemsTone Music) 3:28

6 First Quiet Hour – Bobby Kimmel (GemsTone Music) 4:33

7 The Rope – Stephanie Davis  (EMI BLACKWOOD MUSIC INC) 4:10

8 Orphan Girl – Gillian Welch (IRVING MUSIC, INC.) 2:43

9 Fiesta Tonight – Bobby Kimmel (GemsTone Music) 3:51

10 Let Me Fly – Bobby Kimmel (GemsTone Music) 2:36

11 Lynne's Song (It Never Entered My Mind) – Bobby Kimmel
       (GemsTone Music)  4:45

12 One for the Road – Bobby Kimmel (GemsTone Music) 3:06