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The

January 27 - February 9, 2017

Wee Heavies

Popular vocal quartet named after a variety

of Scottish beer they dont recommend trying

by Ginger ODonnell
This
past
December
at
the
International Tap House on Euclid,
a crowd of holiday revelers gradually
ceased their chatter as four men in jeans
and collared shirts gathered on a corner
stage and belted out Scottish drinking
songs, Celtic ballads and a few classics
just for good measure.
Named the Wee Heavies after a
Scottish beer, the group of fathers,
friends and music lovers managed
by their wives, the Wee Hotties, just
released their second album. Titled
Times Long Gone, it was produced
by renowned Scottish musician Brian
McNeill, a founding member of
Battlefield Band.
The Wee Heavies most loyal fan base
may be the 50- or 60-strong choir of St.
Margaret of Scotland Church, a Catholic
parish in St. Louis Shaw neighborhood
where all four Heavies sing. It was a June
2014 choir trip to Scotland that brought
the voices together, and eventually the
families of Steve Neale, Peter Merideth,
Jay Harkey and Aaron Schiltz.
With the choir hosting coffeehouse
nights in the church basement to raise
money for the trip, pastoral associate
and music director Peter Hesed had a
hunch that Neale, Merideth, Harkey and
Schiltz would work really well together.
There
are
similarities
and
complementary differences in their
voices, so I asked them to do several
songs, Hesed said, recalling a scene in
The Music Man where four neighbors
greet one another in wildly different
pitch registers and Harold Hill, the
great musical con man, introduces to

The Wee
Heavies
on stage
at a recent
concert at
St. Margaret
of Scotland.
Group
members are,
from left: Jay
Harkey, Peter
Merideth,
Steve Neale
and Aaron
Schiltz.
The quartet
sings mainly
their own
arrangements
influenced
by the Celtic
tradition.
photo by
Diana
Linsley

them the concept of the quartet and the

four are inseparable after that.
Indeed, the ties that bind the church
quartet that became the Wee Heavies
(not Pieces of Cod, as someone jokingly
suggested) run deeper than the blending
of voices. The Heavies, with the help of
their Hotties, have struck a harmonious
chord as four families that are juggling
children, careers, a spiritual life and a
deep, shared love of music.
Hesed, the parishs own music man,
was a key player in recruiting the talents

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Schools Week
January 29-February 4, 2017
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Since 1974, National Catholic

Schools Week is the annual
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Schools typically observe the annual
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families, parishioners and community
members. Through these events,
schools focus on the value Catholic
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communities and the nation.

of the four families.

Neale, who is a Saint Louis native in
his 10th year as the music director at
Villa Duchesne High School, took piano
lessons from Hesed in middle school.
The Harkeys also found their way to
St. Margaret of Scotland Church through
Hesed, who heard Jen Harkey sing at the
Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, where
she and her husband were section leaders.
Hesed hired the couple for a gig and then
invited them to sing permanently at the
parish when he learned they were looking

for a more family-friendly environment to

raise their two daughters. Jay Harkey is
the music director at Ursuline Academy
high school, and his wife runs a private
voice and piano studio called The Green
Room.
Schiltz, who studied opera in college
and was known around St. Louis as a
highly qualified tenor, was asked by
Hesed to sing Christmas Eve service
with his wife Emily Schiltz in the fall of
2007. The couple and their two children
soon made St. Margaret of Scotland

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