Marblehead a cappella group looking to make name for itself

MARBLEHEAD – Marblehead High’s newest a cappella group rocked a full house in Salem Saturday night.The 14 young men who call themselves The Grizzly Freakin’ Man Singers opened for the professional a cappella group Overboard at the Salem Theatre Company. Overboard acts as mentors for the Grizzlies, who are also referred to as GFMS.Asked where they came up with the name Marblehead High junior Dylan Welch, the group’s music director and emcee, said, “We had dozens and dozens and dozens of names to choose from. We narrowed them down through a voting process until we came up with two finalists: The Do Re Migos and The Grizzly Freakin’ Man Singers.””Most of us liked Grizzly Freakin’ Man Singers. Dan Raynes, one of our two business managers, came up with the name, I think originally as a joke.”On the serious side GFMS shows how many male singers there may be in a high school.Marblehead High Music Teacher Amanda Roeder, who also established the school’s two award-winning a cappella groups, the Jewel Tones and the Luminescence, admitted, “I started the Grizzlies last year in a very haphazard way. I knew that a male a cappella group was long overdue at Marblehead High. (So) I announced that we were starting a boys’ group and then I had to do it.””There were no auditions – I wanted to prove that anyone can sing. I started with a core group of guys from the Jewel Tones and charged them with recruiting others. We very soon had more than 20 interested guys.”Welch was a Jewel Tones singer, but Grizzlies Publicity Director and co-Business Manager Joey Nuccio was not. While he handled lighting for a cappella shows and loved the performances, he explained, “I am a two-sport varsity athlete and had little time to be part of one of the more time-consuming groups.”GFMS has made progress and is now student-directed. “Last year, we practiced once a month with Ms. Roeder and ? by the end of that year we knew two songs,” Welch said. “At the moment we know four songs as a group and meet once a week on Tuesdays.””The guys were hungry for more music and rehearsals,” Roeder said, “but I couldn’t give them the time and energy that they deserved. In June we sat down as a group. They defined the responsibilities of their managers and elected their new leaders.”Since then GFMS has performed more frequently, for the faculty and staff of the Marblehead public schools on opening day, for the Bell and Village schools – and last Saturday was their first performance outside of the schools.”We’ve basically just started,” Welch said. “We need to expand our repertoire considerably? My personal goal is to fit in two more songs this year and possibly record one or two of them.””On the business side we need to schedule as many gigs as we can to instill a sense of seriousness and professional aspiration in the Grizzlies, all the while maintaining our signature good-natured rambunctiousness. Overall, speaking from my personal ambition and from the feelings and opinions of fellow Grizzlies, we aim to achieve the same level of quality and respect that the other a cappella groups in our school have gained.””I am a graduating senior,” Nuccio said, “so I can’t really have that much to do with the group. But our sound is constantly getting better, more kids are interested and more groups are interested with working with us.”