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Hobo Band: Singing so bad, you’ll pay them to stop
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · December 11, 2014
A crowd of West Branch High School show choir members — singers and musicians — walked Saturday night along Sixth Street, College and Fifth Street singing Christmas carols.
Badly.
So badly, you will have to pay them to go away.
And that’s the idea.
The award-winning Christopher Jive and the Uptown 45 transformed into the Traveling Hobo Band.
“For a generous donation of $10, the band will end the performance and continue the tour!” reads a flyer sent out prior to the three-date tour.
Breaking into three groups, the tour began Dec. 6, wandering around during Christmas Past on the east side of town, Pedersen Valley and Greenview. They went out again Monday, Dec. 8, and will finish the tour Friday night, Dec. 12.
Director Chris Reed said he got the idea for the band online, and saw this as an opportunity to have fun while raising money to help pay for CJU45’s costume changes for the upcoming season, which starts in January. The students hope to raise between $500 and $1,000 over the three nights.
Families can “buy insurance” by paying $20 to keep the group off their lawn completely, and, for $25, can sic them on a neighbor or friend, Reed said.
On their opening night, two of the three groups received a good reception, though the group in the West Orange/Hilltop area did not do so well.
“Usually we only sing one or two songs before they pay us,” Reed said.
He said the students are having fun, except for when a homeowner does not get the joke and instead chews them out, Reed said, smiling.
“We appreciate the good humor of the homes we’ve gone to,” he said.
So, did you practice beforehand?
“Of course not,” Reed said. “We’re supposed to be bad.”
The show choir hosts three main fundraisers each year: helping staff the Parade of Homes in Iowa City, selling raffle tickets and the recent addition of hosting a show choir competition.
The show choir competition began last school year and Reed believes that it will produce a profit from here on out after a lot of up-front costs in the first year. That may mean the Traveling Hobo Band only happens once.
“In the future, the three main fundraisers should do it all,” he said.
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