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Stars Align Wed Jun 03 2015
Finding Indie's Soul with Gina Bloom and Paul Gulyas at Stars Align
Paul Gulyas, Gina Bloom & Chuck Sansone perform at Stars Align
This month's Stars Align brought together Gina Bloom (The Congregation) and Paul Gulyas (The Shams Band) for a stripped-down night of collaboration.
This collaboration almost didn't happen. The Shams Band's Donnie Biggins was originally slated to perform, but a family emergency forced him to cancel. Facing minimal time to prepare, Gulyas and Bloom had to improvise.
"Chaos is what breeds creativity," Gulyas said, speaking before the show.
A great collaboration was born from that chaos. For most of the show, the two took turns covering each other's bands, sprinkling in their own songs. The Congregation's Chuck Sansone accompanied Bloom on the keyboard.
Bloom is usually backed by a full band in The Congregation, but her powerful vocals stood strong atop Sansone's keys. Her performance carried The Shams Band to new heights while bringing out the blues and emotion at its core.
Gulyas is no slouch on the mic either. His twangy singing and acoustic guitar took The Congregation down a country road while still teasing out the nuanced emotions of their songs.
This performance by Bloom and Gulyas reveals the common threads between rock and roll's many offspring. And those threads become more apparent when the Stars Align.
Be sure to check out the recording of their collaboration at the top of this post. And thanks to our sponsor Begyle Brewing for making it all possible.