COLUMN: Columbia’s Wilshire has potential
Micah and Lori Wilshire have their work cut out for them if they want to be included in the list of history’s married musical teams like Abba, Ike and Tina Turner or Sonny and Cher.
The duo just signed with Columbia records and released their first album called “New Universe” on Oct. 7, using their last name as their band’s name. The couple met at a recording session and felt chemistry immediately. Even though it took Micah three months to ask Lori out on a date, they have been together for seven years and worked very hard to get to where they are.
The team took a huge leap of faith and after selling many belongings, moved from Nashville to Los Angeles so that they could get their hands dirty in the pop/rock music scene. The couple has scrapped by on almost nothing, sometimes having to decide between buying food and going to a gig.
They played out of the back of their Honda Civic, and at coffee houses, college shows, open-mic shows and countless other penny gigs to make it into Columbia’s recording family. They have really come out of nowhere in a short time.
Their first album, “New Universe,” has an eclectic combination of influences you can’t put your finger on. If Amy Grant sang a mix of country and rock, and had an occasional punkish flare here and there, this would be her album.
Wilshire does have an interesting sound and Lori has strong vocal presence and an amazing, rare voice. There is a lot of soul behind this woman’s voice. Micah has an amazing voice as well, but his is often lost in back-up vocals. They just need to play on their natural vocal strength more often.
Their single “Special” that the couple produced themselves isn’t really too bad and holds the promise of being a one-hit wonder if it is granted significant play time on the radio. It has a catchy tune and has an oddly haunting punk/rock/country kick that stays with the listener.
Wilshire, unfortunately tends to lose beautiful vocals and nicely constructed melodies in a muddle of technology. “Turn it around” simply is too busy during the chorus and gets very messy in adding too many instruments to a fundamentally beautiful song. It has an unnecessary bombardment of strings, keyboard and drums in the middle and end of the song that really interrupts and pull the flow of the song to a nasty halt. This kind of interruption happens frequently in the album.
Wilshire tries to add more glitter and make-up to an already stunning musical face. When a band like Wilshire has a good base they should stick to it and not try to add more just for the sake of having more. I think they would be much more successful in the long run if they returned to the bare-bones music on which they were discovered. They would do much better with just two guitars and two voices. In this case, less really is more.
Kassie Robison is a sophomore majoring in print journalism. Comments may be sent to kassrobison@cc.usu.edu.