STUBBLE BUMS

Conspiracy of Beards’ Cohen fetish
NEW YORK PRESS, March 19, 2008
By Billy Jam

When the all-male, a capella vocal group Conspiracy of Beards—who do covers of Leonard Cohen songs exclusively—formed five years ago, they had no intention of doing more than a single gig before going their separate ways. But this San Francisco collective—which began as an octet to honor a dying friend’s wish—currently numbers 30 members (25 of whom will be performing two dates this weekend in New York).

"Peter Kadyk was a shining inspiration for a lot of us. He died at age 30 of HIV," says Daryl Henline, the Beards’ musical director.

"And it had been a vision of Peter’s that a bunch of men with long beards singing the songs of Leonard Cohen would form," adds original member Andrew Kushin. "Personally, I think in Peter’s mind it was all mixed up with some scenes from [Russian film director] Tarkovsky’s cutting-room floor; something from a dark, frozen, 19th-century Russian winter. Somber, gray and hairy. The grave visual, Eastern companion to Cohen’s poems."

The fact that not all of the band’s members had beards—or, for that matter, singing experience—didn’t stop them from forming. With practice, under the guidance of the musically trained Henline, they honed their sound and broadened their styles of interpreting songs of Leonard Cohen’s—including "Chelsea Hotel" and "Tower of Song"—in deliveries that range from barbershop to classical music styles, jazz and experimental.

"Singing Leonard Cohen’s music has changed us as people," said Henline, a carpenter by trade. "Even though he might be ironic in some of his words and things. But what we’re doing is not ironic at all. If we were just singing the songs of Foreigner or Van Halen or whoever it wouldn’t be the same. But Leonard Cohen’s music has a very special connection to men. At least to guys like us; guys from many walks of life: tradesmen, computer programmers, people who work in shops and stores, whatever."

The singers meet every Sunday evening for practice, taking the summers off; and every second weekend in September they meet up and head out to the woods of California for a weekend of "feasting and drinking and just hanging out and learning new music around a bonfire" and welcoming new members to their open enrollment program. "It’s kinda like a men’s organization for guys who don’t normally join men’s organizations," says Henline, with a laugh. "It’s an exercise in community. Music has brought us together; but when we got together we found more than we were looking for. We found a sense of community."