Straight No Chaser demonstrates the power of voices

When Seggie Isho moved to Las Vegas five years ago, he had to put his musical studies on hold to help with his brother's local wireless business.

It looked as though his life passion, a career in music, would slip out of reach.

But Isho will take the stage at Paris Las Vegas Sunday as a member of what is arguably the hottest all-male a cappella group in the country, if not the world.

Straight No Chaser, the a cappella group that started at Indiana University in 1996 and captured the world's attention with a viral YouTube video in 2006, is scheduled to perform its first show on the Las Vegas Strip.

The 10-man group has garnered more than 20 million views on YouTube and attracted a solid fan base around the world. It has released three albums with Atlantic Records; the most recent, "With A Twist," debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 29. A box set with two Christmas CDs and a DVD of the group was released in October.

"We like to take a song you're used to hearing a ton of times and give it a Straight No Chaser twist, so it's almost not recognizable," Isho says of the members' musical style.

The group performs everything from popular '50s music to Lady Gaga. Fans love the music because "it's organic. It's the bare bones of music," Isho explains. "There's no barrier between our voice and the audience."

Isho joined the group in April 2009 after an original member decided to retire from touring. As an Indiana University student, from 2001 to 2005, Isho performed with the group, which consists only of alumni. After Straight No Chaser found success, it continued a university presence with current students. "We call them our farm team," Isho says.

It wasn't until Isho had been away from the university for a year that the group hit it big after someone uploaded a video of a performance. Isho says he never imagined he would perform with them again but when the opportunity came, he couldn't refuse it and his brother could handle the business alone.

"The call came out of the blue," Isho recalls. "It kind of broadsided me."

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.