We continue my Les Misérables celebration with an offering from one of my new favorite groups, 7th Ave. I've written about them before and undoubtedly will continue to do so as I have really enjoyed everything I've seen from them so far. When I was coming up with the Les Mis related videos that I wanted to highlight, this was a pretty obvious choice and when you watch it you'll see why. It's an a cappella rendition of "Bring Him Home" and that's all I'm going to say about it for now. This cover features Kelley Jakle (the blonde one) who made the decision to leave the group earlier this year to pursue other projects. I don't think I've written about them since it was announced that she was leaving. She has a beautiful voice and I'm happy that 7th Ave introduced me to her. I wish her the best moving forward, along with the remaining members of 7th Ave. They've done some covers with some guest artists that have been great. I'm excited to see what they do next.
Back to the matter at hand. Here's 7th Ave. with their version of "Bring Him Home".
So...can you tell why I wanted to feature this? This is such a gorgeous rendition of a beautiful song that tugs at my heartstrings every time I listen to it or watch someone sing it. That said, I'm realizing that I can be a bit of a Les Mis snob. My gold standard for this song is Colm Wilkinson, though Gary Morris does a beautiful version of it as well. Fun fact: Gary Morris is a country singer who ended up being the first American singer to play Jean Valjean. If you ever get a chance to see that man sing live, go because his voice is incredible.
I digress.
In any event, whenever I listen to someone sing "Bring Him Home" I always think that they better bring it. I feel like this song is not one that just anyone can sing. And if the emotion isn't there, that's going to be a problem. Suffice it to say, the weight of this cover fell squarely on Adam Bastien's shoulders as he was on lead. No pressure. It's only one of the most iconic songs from one of my all time favorite musicals. But you know what? Adam did a wonderful job. His voice has some soul to it that really comes through in the lower parts of the song. I thought it added some nice texture to the rest of it. Especially in contrast to his high notes which were so pure sounding. This song showed off his range nicely. There's some big notes in this and he nails those. Of course, this song builds up to those three high notes at the end. That last "bring him home" where right before I was thinking that okay, Adam, you've done good so far, now bring it home. And he did and it was lovely.
This Les Mis fan approves. Not that he needs my approval, mind you. But he has it anyway. Doing justice to Les Mis? I'd say that grants him access into my heart eye emoji club. In fact, you know what? I'll throw the whole group in there. Why not?
I was so intrigued when I first found out that they'd done this. It was such an interesting choice and one that I felt confident that they could pull off. Like I said in my introduction, 7th Ave has become one of my favorite groups. Their harmonies are so gorgeous in this and the arrangement was so beautifully done. This is without question one of their prettiest covers and I enjoyed the simplicity of the video. The black and white was a great touch.
Lovely cover.
Lovely cover.
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