SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
By John Shand
March 10, 2006

A cappella gets creepy at the Blue Mountains Music Festival. I admit it. I have a near-psychopathic hatred of a capella, tormented by smug, smiling singers who, too mean to pay for real musicians to accompany them, commit diabolical acts on unsuspecting songs.

There are exceptions: usually people who are not all teeth, hair, cocktail dresses and Burt Bacharach songs. The Spooky Men's Chorale are nothing like that. There is no chintz, no bling and no kitsch in their routine. Instead this rugby team-size choir of boofy blokes settles for a healthy blend of eccentricity, scariness and laughs.

As with many good ideas, the name came first. Founder Steven Taberner had been listening to men's choirs from Georgia - the one in the former Soviet Union, not the one in the gun belt - and found the bass-heavy swell of masculine voices rather spooky. Armed with the name, he just needed the singers and the music.

Taberner, who has proved himself a high-quality singer and songwriter on his solo CD Burning Slow, initially assembled some blokes just as a novelty act for a gig at Paddington's Eastside Church in 2001.

The response was so overwhelming the project immediately had a life of its own and the Spooky Men started to haunt the wider world.Beneath the zaniness of both lyrics and presentation there is a level of deadly seriousness: only good singers are capable of fulfilling Taberner's nightmare, and they also have to look a bit spooky and be blessed with the right sense of humour.

"Spookiness is really important and some people are lucky," he says. "They just look spooky."

There was one guy who Taberner held up as an example to all the others at a rehearsal as striking just the right look of beaten-down desperation while singing their idiosyncratic version of Not Pretty Enough.

"I said, 'Do it like Richard does,' " he says. "Subsequently I realised that he actually sang every song like that. That was his natural demeanour."

Not that these blokes work too hard on looking odd - it seems natural for most of them. Add songs including the classic Spooky Theme, Don't Stand Between Man and his Tool and Vote the Bastards Out and demand has soared. They are regulars at the Woodford and National folk festivals, have played Melbourne three times, and in August all 15 of them fly to Britain to do dates including London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Not bad for a bunch of amateur singers from the Blue Mountains. There is a sound engineer and a few casual singer-songwriters among them, but ostensibly this is just a regular gaggle of dads and teachers, carpenters and architects. Except they just happen to be a bit spooky.

SPECUSPHERE MAGAZINE
from 'Boyz Zone' by Stephen Thompson
March 2005

"Over the next week I saw male performers, participants and audiences alike, exhibit a vastly different personality to that which is embedded in the Birmingham–Reilly books. The essence of this counter-culture self-image was beautifully encapsulated by the Spooky Men’s Chorale, who redefined the sound of male choirs and the masculine voice, and did it with wit, harmony, dramatic irony and parody — a complex mixture alien to Reilly’s writing at the best of times. Their performances and workshops were fresh, vital, non-threatening, subtle and presented male sexuality in a strange new light."

GREEN MAN REVIEW
March 29 2005

A new dark force is arising in the world. Forget the "Axis of Evil" that is yesterdays sinister alliance. In breaking news US President George The Lesser has named the Spooky Men as part of the Axis of Spooky.

Dressed in black and representing the embodiment of secret men's business the Spooky Men meet to conduct their spooky business in dark misty corners of the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney from whence they stealthily emerge from time to time spread their spooky message and to promote the Axis of Spooky. So it was that the NFF came under the spell of the Spooky Men.

Naturally The Green Man, who has always thought of himself as being a bit on the spooky side, felt an instant affinity with the Spooky Men and promptly bought a copy of their CD and a "Bush Names Spooky Men as part of the Axis of Spooky" t-shirt. This was to reap unexpected and bountiful rewards later in the festival.

Sunday afternoon the Spooky Men were performing in the "Singing Room". This, as The Green Man was later to discover, was a venue where everyone joins in. The Spooky Men were teaching a crowd of about 200 a Georgian chant. Given that this was a male choir teaching a male song it was somewhat perplexing that there were quite so many women amongst the participants but they were allowed to stay as long as they pretended to have beards and spoke in low voices. (cast your mind back to the stoning in Life of Brian) Definitely no soprano singing was allowed.

At this stage it may be appropriate for The Green Man to include a sample of his own singing so that you can judge the appropriateness of his attendance at this venue. This has not been done however to avoid the risk of permanently tainting your appreciation of music with the memory of his voice. So it was that The Green Man found himself in the midst of 200 other people who could actually sing. It was at this stage that the experience took a truely bizarre turn.

There is a pause in the singing and a man near by asked The Green Man a question. "Should you be able to sing that whole phrase in one breath?"

Having no idea GM replied "I suppose so, if your breathing is OK".

Then someone came by and gave GM a glass of water. Strange when there were all those other people who didn't get one.

The light on top of The Green Mans head can take a while to flash on a times but eventually a strange realisation swept over him. Spooky man t-shirt, beard, unusual hat (like they wore) - the audience thought GM was one of the Spooky Men!

It was a bit wierd at first but GM was soon in the swing of it, offering advise all over the place."You are doing fine, but you need to focus on your breathing" was particularly well received. People love that sort of assistance and GM was embracing his new found role as a pseudo Spooky Man with enthusiasm. At the end people were coming up congratulating and saying how much they loved our, oops, their, performance. GM was most gratious on their behalf. This is about as much fun as you can have standing up and without any talent or practice.

Their CD is a must buy in The Green Man's humble opinion.

COURIER MAIL
30 December, 2004
By Kathleen Noonan

THUG, WIMP AND ROMP

IT is spooky. You are standing at the tent door listening to what sounds like archangels singing ethereal harmonies. But it's a bunch of 40 boofy men from the Blue Mountains with a wise guy out the front wearing a furry deerstalker hat.

They are the Spooky Men's Chorale. Just when listeners pigeonhole them as a world-class and powerful Georgian choir, they swing into a vaudevillean romp like Don't Stand Between a Man and His Tool all about big power drills that has the packed tent laughing. It is a great big blinding wall of sound that only 12 powerful men's voices can deliver, led by Stephen Taberner, singer, double-bass player and formidable choir leader.

Taberner comes to Woodford for a jump to left field after his work as choir director of the highly successful Melbourne Millennium Chorus in October.

Taberner, NZ-born and who studied at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, believes much choir material is too safe. He writes or arranges all Spooky Men's Chorale songs.

If you have preconceived ideas about choirs leave them at the tent flap. This sound is sexy, powerful, at times impossibly gentle and sad, unmistakably male.

Taberner believes men's choirs are wonderful ways of exploring the place between thug and wimp. ``Men's choirs are different to women's choirs'', he says. ``They are purposeful. We come together to do work, not socialise or bond. When I think someone is singing flat, I say `Hey Ben you are flat.' There is no pussyfooting around, no niceties. It's about the music. It is not personal. I've found you cannot deal with women's choirs like that. They are great, just different.''

Spooky Men's Chorale performs today at 5pm at the Singing Shed and tomorrow at 4pm at the Singing Shed and 8.45pm at the Troubadour. Taberner also promises a loin cloth appearance at some stage. ``We may oil up. Although I suspect I've left the gym work a little late.''

School choir was never like this.