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:: Ski Heil ::

:: Wacky Waxer ::

:: Sven ::

Had enough summer? You might be a snow skier. Personally, I like the summertime. It's my favorite time of year. I love the fact that the sun is still up when I get home from work, and that my feet don't get cold when I walk around barefoot. I've never even tried to ski, and I live in Los Angeles, so snow is not something I'm really used to. I've got nothing against snow and cold and gloom, but I don't know how I'd do if I had to live in a place where it snows every year. Let's face it though, summer is hot in places where it snows a lot during the wintertime too, and some of you might be wishing for a bit of cold and snow right about now.

The Wegeman Brothers loved the snow. They grew up in Colorado, where there's plenty of it (ever seen South Park?). Their Dad, Al, was a ski coach, and was responsible for getting a bunch of people into the Olympics. Sons Paul, Keith and Laurie (?) all became Olympic level amateur and later professional skiers, so they knew their shit. But how did these skiing overachievers become singers? Their Mom, Bess was a vocal coach, and she came up with the vocal arrangements for this album as well.

So there you have it. The album was recorded in 1959 in Los Angeles, where Laurie had moved to pursue a singing and acting career (wisely changing his name to Greg Loren), as well as working the local ski slopes. Various session musician types contributed, including Billy Strange on guitar, and the recording was engineered by Paul Beaver who later made waves as an innovative electronic musician (Beaver and Krause).

This music is anything but innovative however. Traditional Alpine styles are utilized a lot, and it's all about the fun and camaraderie of skiing. Nothing wrong with that I guess. When it comes down to it, besides music like this, there's never been much in the way of ski music in any kind of contemporary sense. If you can have the Beach Boys, why not the Snow Boys? I'll tell you why: Snow does not rock. It's cold and there are no bikini chicks. Schuss!


Mike

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 06, 2006 at 5:24 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.