Harmony
Acoustic Music featuring original material, an eclectic song list and beautiful vocal harmonies.
MO
ph: 314-780-0574
jimsteve
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Media Coverage
KSDK -- Pick any school in America and this is what is happening looks before the kids come back. There are meetings, room make-overs and well, more meetings. But, the princial of St. Cecilia's is preparing for more.
"We call ourselves Harmony," explains Jim Ford, St. Cecilia's principal.
Years ago Ford and a co-worker, Steven Galati, started singing together. As with many things, life got busy and their music took a backseat until recently.
They're once again harmonizing only these days they've enlisted the help of a few other people including the current music teacher at St. Cecilia's.
"Jim is such a great person to work with it really hasn't seemed weird at all," says Darlene Luebbert.
When he's not running the school, he's writing songs and playing the guitar and tonight the group known as Harmony is performing at the Sheldon.
"Jim and I still play the 70's country rock kind of style," explains Galati. "We were laughing the other day, our latest song that we do as a duo is from 85 or something. So we're not the most current but we love what we do."
It's been an bit of a learning experience for Darlene.
"Well, there's a lot of do you know this band or do you know this song," says Luebbert. "A lot of it I have heard of obviously."
But, these three have always used music as a learning tool, even if it wasn't a music class.
"Music is the universal language. A lot of times when I would bring a guitar to school, if the class wasn't in the best of moods and I would take it out and it would loosen the class up," recalls Galati.
"Sometimes you have to get creative," adds Ford. "We had this big chart on the board and the kids weren't getting it so I put the guitar on and I sang the chart and that kind of helped."
So today when kids come back to school at St. Cecilia's you can bet Mr. Ford will have his guitar in hand. It's the perfect fit actually when you consider that St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music.
The concert starts tonight at 7:30 at the Sheldon and tickets cost $6.
8/25/09
ON LINE REACTIONS TO THIS STORY:
lpmarshall wrote:
I had Mr. Ford as a teacher at CBC. And my band also recorded an album in his home studio almost 10 years ago. Good to see he is still playing.
pensive1 wrote:
I believe he made a record years ago called followers of the way.
pensive1 wrote:
lilbuddy, your religion teacher was quoting St. Augustine
PatsyDen wrote:
My daughter goes to St Cecilia's. He is wonderful guitar player and his band has played at the Halloween Dance the last 2 years. They are pretty good. Miss Luebbert is wonderful music teacher. My daughter loves her.
lilbuddy wrote:
Nice story, thanks! I once had a religion teacher that told us "He who sings, prays twice". Good Stuff! Keep it up Mr Ford ;-)
housle1 wrote:
Music can make you sad, happy, ready to dance....Much better then any medicine... Even children with ADD are positively affected. Congratulation to this man, who is showing the best part of human civilization.
ST. LOUIS JOURNALS
Monday, August 17, 2009
By Jim Merkel
jmerkel@yourjournal.com
Jim Ford and Steve Galati know all about reunion bands.
Ford, 57, and Galati, 56, played acoustic guitar and sang as the duo Harmony for eight years from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s.
Then they separated, pursued careers in education and played in various places individually.
Now, more than 20 years later, Harmony is back with Ford, Galati and vocalist, violinist and keyboard player, Darlene Luebber, 25.
The group has been playing since last fall and plans to officially release a self-published CD called "Shelter From the Storm" at a concert at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 25 at the Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Blvd.
Made up of present and retired educators, Harmony plays a mix of pop songs from the 1950s to 1970s by the likes of the Beatles, Crosby Stills and Nash and Neil Diamond and members' original songs.
"Music is a medicine to humans. It relaxes us. Life has many storms," said Ford, of Webster Groves, explaining the purpose behind the original songs in "Shelter From the Storm."
Ford, the principal of St. Cecilia Catholic School, in Carondelet, said, "We look at music as a metaphor for helping us to have a more healthy life."
Songs in the CD have topics ranging from lighthouses and the light in our lives to ravioli, baseball, beer and St. Louis to reflections on 9/11.
People can obtain more information or order the CD by calling 780-0574 or going to www.stlharmony.com.
Ford and Galati began playing together after they met while they were teaching at All Souls School in Overland. Galati, of Florissant, retired last year as a teacher at Kratz Elementary School in the Ritenour School District.
For Luebber, who is the music teacher at St. Cecilia, this is the first time she's sung in a band like Harmony. The University City resident has sung in church choirs and in an a cappella singing group at the University of Notre Dame.
Since the group first played at a Halloween party last year at St. Cecilia Elementary School, it has played about three times a month.
Two of those are on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month at the Wine Press, 4436 Olive St.
"When I sang as a single, I missed singing harmonies.," Galati said, explaining why he wanted to come back to the group. "I just enjoy playing music and singing out."
Review of SHELTER FROM THE STORM
from Playback stl
St. Louis folk duo Harmony held their CD release concert at the acoustically pristine Sheldon on August 25. The group consists of multi-instrumentalists Jim Ford and Steve Galati, each with years of local band experience on their resumes. Their sound bears the influence of acoustic rockers such as CSNY, Heartsfield, America and others, as well as a strong spiritual component.
The band's debut release, Shelter From the Storm, is an earnest collection of amiable, contemplative tunes that reveal Ford, who wrote all 14 songs, to be a songwriter with humanitarian concerns as well as an eye for detail. Highlights include the evocative "Maine Light" ("about a real lighthouse in Maine, and the light in our lives," according to the brief notes on the CD back cover), the good-natured "I Got a Lot on My Mind" and the melodically strong "Hawk," a song Ford has had kicking around since the brief sojourn of one of his previous incarnations, Just Folk.
Fans of St. Louis-themed material should enjoy "River of Beer," which crams a number of local cultural touchstones into its brisk running time, and "Roll on River," another of Ford's older tunes-a tribute to the "mighty Mississip." And "First Pew" manages to not take religion seriously while at the same time making a wryly amusing case for the churchgoing experience.
Guest musicians on Harmony's CD includes Darlene Luebbert, the director of St. Cecilia School's music program and guitarist/vocalist/recording engineer Tom Knecht. by Kevin Renick, writer for playback stl.
MO
ph: 314-780-0574
jimsteve
