Take it to the limit....

I love harmony. I impose it on every song I sing, regardless if my addition makes the song more harmonious or more hideous. Singing is my church. I do it every week in my not-church choir and, next to Yoga, it is one of the true things that heals my soul. If I could, I would sing when I teach, but, unlike our gifted teacher Katy, who can sing solo and melt a room, I need other voices. I’m much more audibly palatable with a group.

My sisters Katherine and Amy and I, achieved relative kitchen fame in high school singing Ebony and Ivory by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. Later, in college, we hit the big time with Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls.

After college, my twin sister Katherine and I left our little sister Amy behind in Chicago and fled to Seattle to make it big, doing something, anything. One of the instigators for choosing Seattle was that my best friend from college, Allegra, had moved there. Allegra was a real singer. She grew up in New York, daughter of a jazz musician who played saxophone with Tito Puentes. Allegra went to the School for Performing Arts as a music major and she had a truly beautiful voice. She also actually knew how to make harmony.

During college, Allegra and I spent countless hours in the quad practicing harmonious renditions of songs Allegra deemed appropriate for our voice combo. After college, once we were both in Seattle, we started harmonizing the Eagles. Boom! As soon as Allegra launched into Take it to the Limit,  I knew that’s why Kat and I had come to Seattle. We were going to work with Allegra and master that song. We would win a Grammy with our twin-sis duo of Take it to the Limit. We studied that song. We practiced that song. We even choreographed moves to that song. There were opportunities to make harmony everywhere and we loved it.

“All alone, at the end of the evening….” On “alone”, Kat would go low and I would go high. Oooohhhhh. Yeahhhh. Incredible….. Amazing. Then, we’d hit that  A cappella madness again on “evening.” The song continued on like that until the end, with the sisters splitting those notes like two hands opening a closing from a prayer. We would move people, bring them to tears. “Where have these two been?” fans would say.  

We didn’t hit it big. Take it to the Limit never made it out of our apartment. I mostly sing Eagles alone now, or with the radio, but I can still hear Katherine’s voice every time I sing. Her low to my high. Even when I’m singing alone, there will always be that harmony. And, though it will be a very rare day that I ever sing alone in the yoga room, I know Katy takes requests. If I hear her singing Take it to The Limit I won't be able to help myself.  The harmony will grab me and I'll jump right in!