You can't accuse Har Mar Superstar and his Gayngs pals of being bandwagon jumpers when it comes to honoring George Michael's genius in the aftermath of the British pop superstar's death Sunday.
In tribute to Michael, the Twin Cities' big-voiced little man (aka Sean Tillmann) has posted a free MP3 on his website that finds him singing his tightie-whities off in a cover version of Michael's epic ballad "One More Try," from 1987's "Faith" album. The recording was actually made back in 2010 during the various sessions for the all-star Gayngs album "Relayted," helmed by Polica producer Ryan Olson with members of Bon Iver, Megafaun, Doomtree, Solid Gold, etc. Har Mar regularly sang the song at Gayngs shows on tour that year, video clips of which are all over YouTube.
"It's very special to me," Tillmann wrote as he posted the studio re-recording on Facebook. He commented in another Facebook post the day after spending Christmas in his native Owatonna, "I'm letting my car warm up thoroughly so my tears don't freeze to my face while I blast [Michael's 1990 album] 'Listen Without Prejudice' on my way home."
Of note in the Gayngs recording, besides the obvious display of Tillmann's singing talent: The track features layered saxophone parts, which became an integral part of Gayngs collaborator Justin Vernon's latest Bon Iver album, "22, A Million." It also serves as a reminder that Gayngs is an ongoing project/beast, with rumors of a new album coming soon ("soon" being a very relative term in the case of this gang).
Click here for the free MP3 download, or here's a Soundcloud stream of the cover song.
