The Unique Voices Club #8: The Seekers

Every Friday, I write a post about unique singing voices not commonly heard in mainstream music in an effort to educate emerging artists and music lovers and inspire them to embrace their own quirks. This week I'm writing on The Seekers.

The Seekers were an Australian folk-influenced pop group from Melbourne who originally in 1962. The original iteration included Ken Ray becoming the lead singer to a lineup originally called "The Escorts" until he left whereupon Judith Durham took his place. It's Judith's traditional jazz training but more operatic-sounding voice that makes this band a great addition to the Unique Voices Club.

"The Carnival is Over" was the one that blew up in Britain, becoming the seventh biggest-selling single for 1965. It was featured in a book I read some years ago called 1001 Songs You Need to Hear Before You Die. Even listening to it now while writing this entry, it reminds me of the Beatles' more folky songs like "Yellow Submarine" and "Eleanor Rigby." My synesthesia brain has me picturing riding in a horse-drawn carriage towards a festival that takes place in some hilly desolate landscape somewhere. As does their cover of Malvina Reynolds' lullaby "Morningtown Ride" which sounds like I'm riding one of those old-fashioned coal trains. Despite a string of hits, the group would disband in 1968 (and have an entirely new lineup called The New Seekers) and reunite a bunch of times to perform together until Judith Durham died in 2022.

Judith embarked on a solo career during that timeframe. Her voice reminds me of a voice that has been trained to within an inch of its life in classical music but while using that same technique but a natural speaking diction. Kind of like mine throughout college since that was the only voice training I got😅. And kind of like folk singers of the time like Joan Baez and Judy Collins. With a hint of classical jazz standards and ragtime. Her voice cuts through these songs with complex instrumentation made up of 12-string guitars, bowed strings and jazz trumpets. Her voice in her solo works sounds more richer than her folk stuff that she did with The Seekers, possibly because she's more in her element with the jazz and gospel tunes here.

I added The Seekers to the Unique Voices Club because at the time, Judith Durham's voice was unlike anything I had heard before. Besides Joni Mitchell, who doesn't even sound like a standard opera voice, I had never heard a classical/traditional voice singing acousticky folk music. Although with The Seekers, their folk music sounds like it would be played in the Balkans somewhere and there's a bunch of folk dancers. Judith has been dead for about three years now and there's an educated few still listen to and love her music from way back. So go look her up and listen to her for me, firebirds. Let her legacy live on.

That's all for this week's Unique Voices Club post! If you want to support me continuing to educate the brains of creatives, you can sign up for my Patreon here to be able to share unconventional artists you discover! Or if you're strapped for cash, you can send a one-off donation here.

Stay educated,

Alexia