There are those musicians among us, who never really seem like they are working, no matter the number of hours they are slated to play. These performers are completely in the moment, not just embodying the love for the art, but truly connecting with each person listening by actually engaging their minds, arguably what all artists attempt to do.
That quality of experience isn’t only reserved for lofty performances of great ballads and love songs, but humorous pieces as well.
I first saw Sound on Sound perform at the Santa Maria Has Talent show organized by Santa Maria Rotary South, where the two performed a Ray Stevens song, “Mississippi Squirrel Revival.” The goofy country song was performed so perfectly by the duo, Barbara Wilson and Sandra Woo, who were truly committed to telling how “that squirrel went berserk,” that they actually won the audience favorite award that year. They returned in following years to perform the song, always getting the crowd clapping and joining in for the final chorus.
The duo’s next show is at Temple Beth El, a venue well suited to their intimate performance style, which has seasoned over the decades since they began playing together.
Wilson and Woo met at a piano bar where Wilson was playing nearly 30 years ago. As Wilson played, Woo began singing over her chording, Wilson explained.
“Our voices blended immediately, so that’s how we got started,” she said.
They began collaborating and performing almost immediately, Wilson said. The two were schoolteachers at the time, and both took their retirement together after being offered a job aboard a Celebrity Cruises ship.
Though the accommodations weren’t penthouse suites, Wilson explained, they got to perform every day on the voyages, which were often transatlantic. They got to enjoy all the other perks of the cruise, including the food, and Wilson even kept her trumpet chops up jamming with the ship’s other bands and musicians.
Their repertoire expanded as well, to accommodate dances of various styles, tastes, and events.
“We play a lot of requests, because we know that’s what makes the audience happy, that kind of spontaneity. And it works for us,” she said. “If somebody wanted a night of ’50s—and I’m talking like a four-hour gig—we could do it, or we could do it for music from the ’60s.”
Wilson went on to list country music, bluegrass, jazz, disco, ’80s rock, and even hip-hop. And they don’t mind performing selections from each and every genre in a night. Wilson said it’s all about what the audience wants. That’s how the show at Temple Beth El is engineered, where attendees will receive a list of songs—which numbers more than 1,000—to be included in the performance.
Sound on Sound’s versatility comes from their passion for the music, no matter the style. Both are comfortable singing, of course, but they also pull out various instruments to accompany and sometimes take lead. Wilson is a soulful horn player, which isn’t too much of a surprise considering she majored in trumpet performance.
She has more than a couple tricks up her sleeve, from virtuosic horn solos to age-old techniques.
“I use the wah-wah mute,” Wilson said, imitating the sound the mute creates. “So, I kind of specialize in songs with wah-wah mute in them.”
From the annals of American folk and country music to the top of the charts of any decade, there’s no telling what a concert will include or exclude, Wilson said, which guarantees no two Sound on Sound performances are alike.
“We go with the flow,” Wilson said. “It’s also just part of the fun of entertaining; it’s meeting people, having that rapport, because they are definitely part of the experience for us, it’s not just the music.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne can be reached at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 19-26, 2015.
