Aaron Klein wants to make you cry.
Klein, a founder of the band Orpheum Bell, said when he and bassist Serge van der Voo started discussing
forming the band their intent was clear: "We wanted to play original, live music … We wanted to
make people cry and have a good cry ourselves."
They provoke the tear ducts with original songs that evoke antique ballads about the lovelorn, the dead
and those who wish they were dead. Those sob songs are orchestrated with a mix of old-time country music
and parlor ballads laced through with the evocative strain of Eastern European music; it’s been dubbed
country and eastern.
The band’s music sound at once old fashioned and yet in its self-awareness, the odd-angled surrealism of
the lyrics – "the tree’s full of perfume and it won’t let me be," from "Goodbye is the
Sweetest Word" – and finely-honed craftsmanship thoroughly contemporary.
"We’re doing something modern and visceral," Klein said.
Katie Lee sings in a high, light plaintive voice. Her presence inspired one young male fan to propose to
her during the band’s appearance at the 2010 Black Swamp Arts Festival. Klein provides a gruff, basso
undertone. These vocals are set over a band that employs a pawn shop’s worth of vintage instruments – a
suitcase pump organ, autoharp, saw, tenor guitar, a violin with a megaphone attached. The very sound of
those blended with violin, accordion, cornet and foot percussion have "emotionally aroused"
the band, Klein said. Even the musty smell of the old materials evokes a long ago experience.
The only reason to use any of these instruments, Klein said, is because it makes "the right
noise." Still they also add "a theatrical element" to its peculiar musical arsenal.
The band had fun at the festival where it played sets on the main and acoustic stages, Klein said, and
was happy to return to town. "We’ll play anywhere people listen."
Orpheum Bell returns to town to play a free concert Jan. 22 at 8 p.m. in Grounds for Thought.
Still the band’s popularity is growing enough that it can be "somewhat selective." It’s also
venturing into new territory.
"We’re building concentric circles around our little shed in Anne Arbor, Michigan," Klein said.

Orpheum Bell has played some odd venues a cowshed and a concrete bunker, so playing in the coffeeshop’s
children’s book corner is hardly daunting.
No matter where the band plays they want "to move people," Klein said. "Presumably they
know they’re not getting a dance party. They want something to happen … They want their shoelaces to
come untied."
Performing live is what keeps the band moving forward, Klein said. That and bringing to life the new
songs that are constantly "percolating in the back of the head."
"Serge and I are the ones primarily setting the musical direction," he said, but each Orpheum
Bell member plays several instruments, each including Michael Billmire and new violinist Henrik
Karapetyan, brings distinctive colors to the sound.
Billmire, who grew up in a house that had a church organ built into it, marshals a band’s worth of
instruments, ranging from trumpet to pump organ, and including xylophone, accordion, shepherd harp and
mandolin.
Karapetyan boasts a wealth of orchestral experience, – he had to miss his first date with the band at The
Ark because he had a previously scheduled engagement at Carnegie Hall.
"He’s on fire" yet he’s "very sensitive." Klein said, "He levitates when he
plays."
All the better to keep up with his high-flying bandmates.
(Sentinel-Tribune writer Cole Christensen contributed to this story.)