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I was introduced to the music of The Pool Boys last year. A radio friend recommended that I listen to sound clips from the group's web site. While some music requires repetition before we realize its hold on us, melodies from The Pool Boys simply reach out and grab us out of the box, without warning. Like a beautiful sunset that tickles our soul, music created and delivered by these boys from Lawrence, Kansas (recently relocated to Nashville) is immediately stunning and captivating. Indeed, it’s an understatement to say that The Pool Boys tunes are contagious. 

As a Pool Boys' primer, last year I purchased the band's third release Dying To Know Myself. I was knocked out by the group's amazing ability to construct a compellingly infectious sound with such an unpretentious approach. With My Time Alive, The Pool Boys new album released last month, the boys embellish their sound with a couple of musical diversions, which I’ll expand on later. Still, they retain the joyful and mellifluous texture of previous albums.

On paper, The Pool Boys musical recipe might appear modest. After all, like a culinary creation, listing ingredients is the easy part. To carry the analogy one step further, our taste buds are tantalized not by a routine listing of component parts, but by the execution and care of a skilled chef. And like Emeril Lagasse, the famous TV cooking connoisseur, these young men stratify their songs, incrementally "kicking it up another notch" with each successive level.

As this sonic process unfolds, I find myself succumbing to an involuntary ritual that only seems to occur when my senses are radically overcome by rare musical pleasure. I suspect we all have these enigmatic tics which materialize differently in each of us. Some head bang, others tap their feet, while others mimic the drummer. For me, as successive layers are woven into the musical tapestry of a Pool Boys song, I begin shaking my head in something close to a slow-motion shudder while mumbling gibberish, something along the lines of, "Ooooh". Don’t laugh. I said it’s involuntary. It would be rude to make fun of me. 

The common denominator of each song on My Time Alive is a persistent and driving rhythm acoustic guitar. It’s the same unadorned instrumentation we might hear at summer church camp, in dark of night, while the campfire burns. The precise acoustic voice of the guitars functions as an undiluted canvass from which to build each song. Percussion, bass guitar and vocals are strategically added to the mix at the proper time. Still, discussing individual components of this band’s music doesn’t properly explain its mysterious appeal.

As we listen to the building of a Pool Boys song, with each rootsy instrumental or vocal augmentation, we begin to realize that these young men posses something more than just instrumental competence and vocal proficiency. Call it instinct or knack, but collectively, they have it. This intuitive sensibility manifests itself in the bands joyful performances and well-crafted songs. You just sense that these guys are having a big fat fun time. With a sound like they have, why wouldn’t they?

The Pool Boys began their journey at the University of Kansas in 1997. Chris DeTray (vocals, background vocals, keyboards and guitar) and Tyler Clements (drums, percussion, vocals, background vocals and guitar) were high school buddies who reunited in Jayhawkland with a joint vision for music ministry. They were joined later by Rob Hockney (vocals, background v! ocals, guitar and mandolin) as preparations were made for recording a demo. Like many modern CCM groups, word of The Pool Boys spread quickly through their involvement in a regular worship assembly, which began in a small chapel on campus. As word of mouth spread, participation increased. Although the band maintains an extensive touring schedule, they still manage to appear on campus once each month, leading worship at what came to be called "Open Swim" (which not so coincidentally, is the name of their live worship album). The band recently became a quartet with the addition of Texan Nathan Copeland (bass), formerly of Nickel and Dime.

My Time Alive isn’t self-conscious. As songwriters, I’m left with the impression that these fellows don’t sweat and labor for hours, searching for just the right turn of a phrase or poetic metering ("I can’t express all the joy of this blessed little boy"). And that’s fine. The landscape is littered with minstrels offering poetic diction that few understand or appreciate. Those artists might as well be speaking in foreign tongues, because few understand them. In contrast, The Pool Boys lyrics are simple, yet not simple-minded. Take these words that may have been drawn from the dilemma Paul writes about in Romans 7 in The Pool Boys medium tempo song "Who I Am":

I’m running in the wrong direction doing many things I hate,
So I pray for understanding giving up all that I take.
Fill me up, take hold of me, make me who I am.
Come into my heart and dwell inside of me.

As The Pool Boys inevitably mature as lyric writers, I’ll consider it a bittersweet evolution. For me, much of the band's appeal is its easy and unaffected style. The band's collective instinct for discovering catchy melodies which empower and punctuate their lyrics is one secret to their sound. Further, the nearly magical blending of voices creates a pleasant complement and garnishment to the instruments. It’s surprising how a seemingly random meshing of singing voices results in such an agreeable auditory color. In the case of The Pool Boys, it’s not necessarily technical capability. While the members of the group have decent voices, it wouldn’t be hard to find individual singers with more proficiency. Despite that, when fused the collective rendering is prodigious.

My Time Alive is characteristic Pool Boys in that its flavor is consistent with the folk/pop category of prior efforts. Despite that, you will still hear an occasional electric guitar intermittently lending the tunes a kick not usually found in folk or pop. Moreover, as I suggested earlier, there are a couple! of songs on My Time Alive which shadow elements of other musical styles. "Glory Comes to Call" provides us with a blues lick or two, which carries the song through both verses. Then, the hook assumes control with the distinctive signature Pool Boys sound, leaving the blues in the dust. "Speak Your Peace" provides another slight departure, this time into country/folk. It’s a likeable, kick-back ditty reminiscent of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Pure Prairie League, or the Eagles, had the Eagles used mandolins and banjos more extensively as The Pool Boys did in this tune. Actually, the liner notes do not mention use of a banjo, so maybe it’s a mandolin disguised as a banjo. Either way, I like it.

I don’t have a problem with one of my favorite bands dabbling in diverse musical inclinations. A peccadillo like that is to be expected in a world where creativity is in the essence of the art. I just hope The Pool Boys don’t get too adventuresome. If they stay the course, forging ahead with the sweet, ineffable sound they have fashioned, radio and record companies will catch on soon enough. According to Clements, My Time Alive has started to garner radio airplay from a few stations in the Midwest and East Coast, an impressive accomplishment for a band that still has not been signed to a label.

How about you? The Pool Boys are calling. Come on in. The water's fine.
 

Curt McLey 7/8/2002