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The Local Girls work in Harmony
When Athens native Brenda Catania returned to town in the late 1980s, she felt a little lost. She'd made a name as a singer in Boston and San Francisco, and she wanted to dig into the lively Athens music scene.
"I was fishing around for something to do," recalls Catania, who got the bite she hoped for when she met local musicians Mimi Hart, BA '71, MA '91, and PHD '99, and Gay Gehres Dalzell, BMUS '77. Hart, a member of Hotcakes and the Bopcats, was "between bands." Dalzell, of Aces and Eights and Close Enough for Jazz, was performing folk and jazz with husband Bruce Dalzell.
Despite their varied musical tastes and backgrounds, the three struck up a friendship and soon discovered their common love of tight, three-part harmony - the kind practiced by girl groups of the '30s and '40s. Dalzell was so hungry for harmony she was "singing with the bathroom fan."
"Thank goodness Brenda cracked the whip," Dalzell notes. "If it were up to Mimi and me, we'd still be saying, 'When's a good time to get together?'"
The musicians quickly gained an enthusiastic following that loved their precision harmonies, jazzy arrangements and lively performances. Among those who came to be fans: Hillary Clinton, who invited them to perform for her 50th birthday in 1997 and the White House Christmas tour the following year. They've also been featured on National Public Radio's "A Prairie Home Companion."
After 13 years together, the women clearly are best friends, laughing easily and nodding to reinforce one another's thoughts. Perhaps it was that pull of sisterhood that drew Hart's eye to a photo of three women in the winter 2001 Ohio Today. As she read the article about the 1939 OU Revue, she was intrigued by a mention of "Four-Year Heaven," a song - composed by Vern Smolik with lyrics by Rex Koons - about attending Ohio University. Richard Buntz, AB '53, had read the article, too, and sent Hart sheet music for the song, which was still popular when he played in campus bands.
The brush with nostalgia gave Hart an idea: What if The Local Girls did a CD of all OU tunes? There'd be an interest, she thought, based on the number of alumni who seek out the Girls to chat after concerts.
"They get so sentimental about their Athens days," Hart says. "People just long to hear about what's happening."
Hart has a professional interest in the project as well. The Athens campus English professor studied the music of Jane Austen's novels for her dissertation, spending time at Austen's Chawton, England, home sifting through 200-year-old compositions. She knows how easily songs can be lost.
"We ought to record these songs before they're forgotten," Hart says. "We're the perfect people to bring these songs to life again, and we need the suggestions of folks across campus and in the community."
A tip from Mary Elizabeth Lasher Myers, BSJ '42, helped Hart turn up "The Campus is Lonely Tonight," written by Helen Townsend Corns in 1941 about the departure of OU men after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The song had never been scored, but Hart tracked down the composer, Ernest Mariani, BFA '43, and convinced him to write down the music.
A 1938 campus songbook and treasures from University archives hold further promise for the CD, which the Girls hope to produce by the University's bicentennial in 2004.
"Music triggers, creates and supports memory," Hart says. "People remember their personal history musically."
The Local Girls are hoping their new endeavor helps cement an institutional memory, too.
Corinne Colbert, BSJ '87 and MA '93, is a freelance writer living in Amesville, Ohio.
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