FIRST Reaction to 16 Tons by Geoff Castellucci | Veterinarian Reacts! 

To explain the "owe my soul to the company store" line: For the first half of the 20th century, mining companies often supplied lodging ("company housing") to their employees. They also built stores to supply food, clothing and other essentials. They paid the miners in "scrip" instead of cash, and the scrip was redeemable only at the company stores. The miners often went into debt at those stores, hence the expression "owe my soul to the company store."

Grandfather died a coal miner. Lived in a tin shack on company property near Alum WV. Paid in scrip, useful only in the company store. They'd extend credit when he couldn't feed his family. Every week, a bit further in debt. Geoff has _lots_ of great songs to listen to. Awesome talent.

For the record: the song was written by Merle Travis, but the video you referenced here is a performance by Tennessee Ernie Ford, who first popularized it. Back in the bad old days, coal miners were paid in 'scrip'--proprietary currency that was only good at the 'company store.' The miners had to purchase pretty much everything they needed to live there. They were paid very poorly and had to purchase on credit, which left them perpetually in debt to the company. Geoff has used as many as four (and on one occasion about seven or eight) 'clones' of himself, and over time he's differentiated them with their own personality quirks and given them each a name, mostly based on misspellings or mispronunciations of his own name: Goff, Jeoph, Jeff, and notorious outlaw Daryl (who last we heard, had signed on as the cook at Folsom Prison.) You can see all five Castellucci Brothers on screen together in all their frightening ghostly glory in his cover of Ghost Riders In the Sky.

You will never be disappointed by any of Mr. Castellucci's presentations , he is terrific in every way and awesomely amazing !

In his cover of Elvis' song "Way Down" he goes next level and names his clones. Their personalities are becoming very set.

Seldom is he an acapella voice for his own work. He saves that for VoicePlay. He started his own channel when Covid stopped touring from almost all the musical groups. He was bored and started his own "group". My 8th grade history teacher informed all of us of the plight of the miners. Mine owners controlled the shops, doctors, grocers, rental homes, etc. They paid the miners in scrip which was not dollars. It only worked in the establishments that the mine owners owned. If the miners didn't get enough money, they had to sign IOUs, hence "I owe my soul to the company store." Check out "Way Down" for another good one by Geoff, or "Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold" followed by "I See Fire", both of these by Tolkien's Hobbit movies.

My goodness. I had never heard of this singer but wow! That was incredible!

So glad you did this one, think this was the first 'solo' Geoff one I heard, love it! There is another 'mining-related' one in the outro - Big Bad John, I also love 'The Headless Horseman', he doesn't always have multiple 'Geoffs' in his covers - but my favourites are those where he is in 'costume', such as 'Ghost Riders In The Sky' and the two Hobbit-related covers, Over The Misty Mountains Cold', and 'I See Fire', as mentioned below, where the same 'characters' reappear - we are all hoping he does another from the 3rd Hobbit film! 😊Hope you had a good holiday, wish you a Happy New Year!

He has a range in his voice that allows him to nail a horseshoe to the devil and kiss the wings of an angel at the same time. Also a force with which he could lift the Taitanic....😇

I enjoyed this so much! I believe there's an interesting story about the filming of this video -- someone please correct me if I'm wrong. All the other sets were booked at the studio, so this was done in something like a cleared-out storage area with a lot of Geoff's father's tools as props. And it turned out amazing. He has a very similar vibe going in "Big Bad John", but I have a personal weakness for the fun boppiness of Bare Necessities and Saddle Up. I enjoy your vet content as well!

One thing about reacting to Geoff or VoicePlay videos is to make sure you have the closed captions (aka subtitles) turned on. In this one, Geoff puts a little Easter Egg in the comments towards the end of the song. I'll let you watch for yourself and not spoil the surprise! To get a good idea of what Geoff's range is, check out Blackbird (Beatles cover) or I See Fire (Ed Sheeran cover). I especially like I See Fire, not only for the costumes and makeup, but because Geoff actually split the ranges he uses between the 4 dwarves on the screen, so it's easy to tell who is singing what part. He uses the same 4 dwarves in Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold (most popular video on his channel), but in that one most of the dwarves are singing in unison/harmony, and it's a lot more difficult (at least for me) to pick out who's singing what part. To hear the extremes of Geoff's range, check out the VoicePlay videos of Halo theme (first B0, but very short and hard (for me) to hear), Valhalla Calling (3 B0s, including an early one sustained for about 15 seconds), and I think Enemy featuring AleXa has a very short A0 (about like the B0 in Halo theme). His new high note is a rock-tenor screaming A#5 in the VP short Peaches (from the Mario Bros movie). In case you aren't aware - A0 and B0 are the first 2 white keys on a piano keyboard. A#5 is the black key just above the A5, which is 5 octaves above the A0. A piano has a little over 7 octaves on it - so it's a pretty impressive distance to span on a piano!

I love how you show us all your research (for the lazy ones hehe) I hope you get to more videos of Voiceplay and for crazy goofy there are some Home Free you would LOVE

if you love the vibe big bad john is next if you love country music ''take me home country roads'' is your song from geoff. you can pick any of the songs he did its all great

To answer an unasked questio, Geoff isn't bashful about using tech in his solo work, at the end of Bare Necessities, he credits a 'plug-in for the sweet guitar work in the background. Here, I think he's using that same plug-in for the bass fiddle in the background. Voice Play is acapella but Geoff uses what's needed to make it all 'work'.

Welcome to Geoff’s solo work! Gotta love the sweet sweet bass. I’m super excited that you’re branching out, because if you love how a single low note in VP rocks your world, you gotta see how he hits those notes solo. 1:43 so it’s actually Geoff, and up to four of his Clones. The clones actually have names: Goff, Jeff, Jeoph, and Daryl. (Watch out for Daryl, he’s a bit of a wild card 😅) 3:08 Geoff does not really do a Capella, even though he can beatbox. He will often have the piano or some subtle instrumentation in the background. In this case, you can hear a subtle bass riff in the background. 4:40 it IS fantastic, and if you want to see even more theatrics from Geoff, go for one of these: way on down, headless horseman, or monster mash. Geoff’s wife Kathy makes a cameo in that one. 5:46 the voice may be threatening as a dragon, but he’s really just an absolute golden retriever out of character. A lot of this comes through if you watch his videos about going through IVF with his wife, or the one about his wife’s hearing loss. 5:59 and THAT is what we in the Castellucci fandom call a Geoffquake. 😂 6:34 everyone else in this comment section has talked to you about scrip, but if you’re interested about lore mining history and mining town culture, look up ghost town living. This rich guy who’s an absolute history buff purchased and has dedicated his life to restoring the abandoned mining town of Cerro Gordo, in California. He’s been living up there without running water and minimal electricity for I think 3 years now. 7:10 Geoffquake #2! He goes incredibly low from a mix of a lifetime of practice, natural range, and a pair of singing techniques called Growl and SubHarmonics. Growl notes add a lot of extra grit, and happens naturally when you try to sink below your natural range, but doing it purposefully and with a lot of practice, you can generate that round hollow reverberation that sends the tingles up your spine. The three dips here stayed in chest and barely dropped into growl. Thst subterranean note he drops at the end of the Oogie boogie song is a subharmonic, and in the VP cover of drunken sailor, he actually sings in SubHarmonics, changing pitch while maintaining the technique, which I had never heard before. SubHarmonics is a technique of ultra-relaxing your throat so that while you’re singing X note, your vocal cords actually vibrate an octave lower. He discusses it in his video a tutorial on how to sing really low, and also in an interview with The Charismatic Voice, who is an opera-trained singer and music producer. (The charismatic voice loves to deep-dive into a lot of nitty-gritty vocal technique, and so she goes into detail of the technique, and Geoff just goes ‘uh… yeah sure, that’s what I did, I guess😅’ she also does very long reaction and analysis videos, but she also has a few songs she’s done herself. 7:58 misty mountains cold is my favorite of his, and he recently released a ‘sequel’, I see fire. I’m so happy you’re discovering what I’ve found to be a bottomless well of joy!

I'm old enough to remember listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford sing this on the old Zenith radio we had in the kitchen. These days the song is what I remember about the lead in to the film Joe vs the Volcano.

So glad you liked your first taste of Geoff’s solo stuff! Also, that lip color is lovely on you ☺️

Thank you to @huldradraco for letting me know about the issue with the first file ☺️

Yes you pronounced it correctly.

The mine would sell goods to the workers for credits. Usually the cost was such that they were constantly in debt to keep them working the mines. It was almost slavery... for another one of Geoff's solos, try Take Me Home Country Road.

Another good one from his solo catalog (and it also demonstrates his inhuman range) is "The Bare (Bear?) Necessities" from Disney's "The Jungle Book". I've heard some people say that they could listen to Geoff reading the phone book. On his solo channel he also has some "dramatic" readings. Including some Edgar Allen Poe, and "The Cremation of Sam McGee".

For 5 Geoffs check out his cover of the Beatle's song Blackbird.

He likes to use musical instruments on his channel sometimes. My favorite to show his voice range is Blackbird by The Beatles.

In the old days, miners often worked in rural, remote places. They lived on company land and had to pay rent for company housing. The only place to shop nearby was the company store, which charged inflated prices for everything. Miners would often buy things on credit against their future paychecks.

As a solo artist, Geoff usually has some instrumental accompaniment. Here was guitar in the background. The Clones are named, Geoff (of course), Goff, Gee-off, Golph, and the occasional Daryl.

Geoff covers Ghost Riders i the Sky and that song will Rock your socks !!!!!!

Tennessee Ernie Ford made this popular back in the mid-fifties...I was five at the time...

Coal mines were in the middle of nowhere could be a full days ride to get to a store. Those coal companies had company stores, you go there to buy your food,smokes, anything you need. By the time you get your pay and they deduct your room and bill from the store you were in debt. Indentured servants

Geoff does have some solo work that has musical accompaniment ("Black Bird", a cover of the Beatle's song, comes to mind). I'm certainly not a historian, so all you historians, please correct my mistakes. This was written about an era before labor unions and workers were pretty much forced to buy daily necessities of life from the "company store", where they charged exorbitant prices (after being paid almost nothing). When the people couldn't afford something, they were forced to "charge" the goods and pay usurious interest rates. There is a Kristin Hannah book from this era ("The Four Winds") and it wasn't a great time in American history!! Looking for a good author? I recommend Kristin Hannah, although her books can be heart wrenching. My favorite of hers is "The Nightingale" which will tear your heart to pieces but is just so good you can't put it down. "The Winter Palace" is another one like that--tears you to pieces but it's so good you just have to keep reading it. I also find her books very educational. While they are works of fiction, she does a great deal of research on the time period in which the book is set and I learned so much from them.

I suspect Geoff has an earpiece in, hidden by his hair. This would allow him to get the timing right by listening to what has already been recorded and mixed.

If you want to see him pulling off various characters as a solo, check out his solo covers of Ghost Riders in the Sky or Folsom Prison. As to vet question - got any thing on allergic dermatitis in cats?

Hey, you should definitely check out Geoff Castelucci The Sound of Silence cover awesome request 😊

Geoff's solo songs are not acapella. And similar to VoicePlay, all songs are covers. Geoff arranged his own covers and round about half of those from VoicePlay. Some suggestions to hear/see from Geoff Castellucci Ghostriders in the Sky (funny) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-y5qZrrovpuw.html Monster Mash (funny) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-12Sg9efb0hc.html Mele Kalikimaka feat. The American Sirens ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zT894S_zoD0.html Headless Horseman (funny) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8rrg0ksSQdw.html Far over the Misty Mountains cold | LotR Hobbit ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Erkv1-_xR7U.html I see fire | LotR Hobbit ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--b0HSW3CN9E.html Big Bad John ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fdBBM_d3jlc.html Sound of Silence (Even the piano is pounding in the head.) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lyekSI_4Qlc.html Jack's Lament | The Nightmare before Christmas ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TLvtw4nXou0.html Pattycake Productions, the studio owned by Layne Stein (VoicePlay) and Tony Wakim (former VoicePlay), where most of VoicePlay's and a lot of Geoff's videos are filmed, creates original content. For example: Bump in the Night - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-g5aDEwq-DJA.html (worth watching until the end)

No not always A capella

If you want to know a bit more about the coal mining situation, Stuff You Should Know recently did a great episode on it titled The Matewan Massacre.

It was easy for filming, but isn't easy to be Geoff. ;)

Please do geoff castelluchi deep bass cover of Elvis song ,way down he dances too

The workers were pain in Company Tokes, could only spend it at the Company store.

Do your self a favor and listen to Avi Kaplans Change on the rise. You won't be disappointed.

veterinarian...shouldn't we have like a dog and a guinea pig or something listening while hooked up for an ekg and eeg so we can see the effects?

Most of Geoff's solo work has instrumentation, not acapella.

listen to Tim Foust of the group "Home Free".......