Lyrical Beerical: raising our glasses and voices together in musical cheers!

Are you a soprano who likes stouts? An alto in love with ales? A top-fermenting tenor? Or a bass who basks in bitters? Join the chorus! We are combining suds and song, grist and gusto, as we offer the most fun choir experience you’ve ever been involved in. Be a part of the revelry as we lead you in traditional drinking songs, in perfect-ish harmony. Bring your friends, or meet a bunch of strangers who will become your friends over lyrics and beerics. Zero talent required. Liquid courage available.

That’s right—we’re starting a beer choir, and whether you fancy yourself a crooner or a croaker, we’d like you to join in the revelry. We specialize in connecting people and creating experiences here at Copper State, and when you combine your sweet vocals with our beer, the result can only be harmony.

To be honest, we are not inventing a wheel here. Almost every culture has been pairing beer with song since days of yore. One of the earliest examples is the Carmina Burana, a Middle Ages collection of poems and drinking songs, which contains over 90 tunes of morals and mockery. Heaven knows they needed a little escape from the misery of the Bubonic Plague and things like fiefdom. In Germany, the drinking songs are known as Trinklieder, and several were written by the likes of Franz Schubert—makes our “99 Bottles of Beer” song seem a bit juvenile. Of course, “Ein Prosit!” (literally meaning “A Toast!”) might be the most famous beer song to come out of the area, and it’s one I am partial to since I grew up singing it with my High Brau German family. The Irish, with all their savage craic (see our March blog post on “craic” here) certainly have their share of drinking songs that no one can understand, due partially to the thick accent and partially to the amount of alcohol involved in the singing of them. In Slovenia, even the national anthem was originally a drinking song, and lest we think we Americans are above such puerility (why yes, I did take Latin in high school, how did you know?), our own Francis Scott Key also borrowed the tune of a drinking song to create the beloved “Star-Spangled Banner.” My favorite, though, might be the famous Polish drinking song—the lyrics go like this: “Who won’t drink ‘cause he’s abashed, with two sticks he should be thrashed. Whack-slam thump-thud, whack-slam thump-thud, yes he should be thrashed”—so that’s fun. We’ll make sure to have our thrashing sticks ready—if you sing a wrong note it will be one thrashing; if you sit at the bar like a stick in the mud and fail to sing at all, it might be two thrashings, because that is a far worse offense in my book.

So swing over and sing over at Copper State—we want to raise our voices and glasses with you in sweet harmony. Check our facebook page for upcoming dates and times. It’s BYOVC, which of course stands for “Bring Your Own Vocal Chords.” We’ll supply the sheet music, the accompaniment, and the beer (aka “Liquid Courage”). I can’t wait to sing with you, Green Bay.