 
ORANGE SQUEEZIN'S
 Orange Barbershop QUARTET Chapter, Orange, California April, 2005
AT THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 1130 E. WALNUT ST., ORANGE, CALIF.
Things have been very good within the chapter this month. We had about fifteen members go to the South Bay Irish Contest. And, lo and behold, Orange Town Four won the contest; O’Balderdash came in third. It was a terrifically close contest but obviously the best prepared quartet won. I know for a fact that they had been practicing diligently for weeks to prepare for this event and it showed. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they were the champs. There was also a Pickup Quartet Contest. I don't know the name of the quartet that won, but Phil Roth and Lee Anderson were in it. Boy, the Orange Quartet Chapter was at the South Bay St. Patrick's Day Contest in Spades.
I wish all of you fellows would have been there. It is a great thrill to sing with the talents of the likes of Pete Neushul. He runs the show down there, and he is always available to sing with anyone who wants to sing. This year we had a couple of added attractions. The first and probably the foremost was Jimmy Kline. Jimmy is the bass of the International Quartet Champs, Gotcha. For you old timers, he was the bass for MANY years of 139th Street Quartet. And for you really old timers, he was the bass of Crown City Good Time Music Company. The big thrill was that I got to sing in a quartet with both of these guys. I sure wish all of the members of the chapter could have gone and sung with these men. Now for the second added attraction, “Ready, Willing and Mabel” was there, and they put on a singing performance in the bar at the afterglow that was absolutely outstanding. The singing gymnastics were out of this world. The fellows that were there on Wed. were treated to a great time. And South Bay hosted a wonderful program and made us all feel very welcome.
Now for next month. Get ready. Gene Clements is coming back. The board OK’d the request, I called Gene, and he is anxious to work with us again. He will be coming on 18 April. Not only will he be here for our regular meeting, but he will be here at 6 to work with the serious quartets that are putting out the effort to get their act together. So you quartets like Indigo, & Orange Town Four, get a song ready that you know and be prepared to be coached to another level. I know Balderdash will be ready. For the rest of you, Gene will not just be working with the quartets. He has a lot planned for the general membership. Everyone that comes will benefit and will leave singing much better. The improvement that happened the last time he came was absolutely outstanding. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that each and every one of us were singing much better. So get your voices warmed up, and make sure you’re at the meeting on 18 April.
Come on down Monday evening. We start woodshedding at 6, the meeting starts at 7:30, and the afterglow at Denny’s doesn’t end until near midnight or later. We sing songs that everyone knows, songs that only a few know, and lots of tags in the wee hours at Denny’s. If you love to sing, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to sing. Bring a friend to the meeting. Give him a gift--a gift of barbershop harmony. A gift that no one can take from him. He will benefit, you will benefit and the chapter will benefit. Remember, if you’re too busy to sing, you’re too busy.
Don Richardson, RIP
Having sung with Don Richardson as a quartet man for some years, I knew many of his strengths and foibles. Let's get rid of his main foible right now. He was not a real speedy guy in his actions. He walked slow, talked slow (but well), and just arrived late constantly and unruffled. I asked his wife mate, Dee, about that. Said she, "Don just figures the whole world will wait for him."
Don was a good thinker. Once, while we were having a board meeting and discussing a new slate of officers, Don dryly stated that our chapter had a very thin veneer of people with administrative ability. That was particularly true at that time in our chapter. Once I repeated that statement and some genius asked, "What's a veneer." He has never been asked to serve.
The one thing I enjoyed most about Don was his exquisite sense of humor. He was our emcee about every other year at the novice contests. Some of you have never been to a quartet (or chorus) contest, so let me set the stage. Between contestants, the emcee usually pops one liners at the audience until the green signal light goes on under his nose on the podium. That means the next group is ready NOW, so shut up and read the introduction. Oft times he's in mid point of a short or protracted story, but picks up instantly when they go offstage. That lends itself to some comic situations. Don always had one long story to stretch over many interruptions. His favorite was about an old seaman interviewing for a new job. In brief, how did you lose your left leg--cannon shell in a battle. How about your right arm--same answer, except now I have this hook. You are wearing a patch over your right eye--oh, a gull flew over and unloaded in my eye and I forgot about the new hook on my right arm. You can bet there were a lot of moans, groans and yucks at that juncture. He loved it. We used it in short form in many quartet gigs.
Those of you at Don's funeral heard some other stuff. Many thought it totally out of line, but Dee asked for a very light-hearted barbershop presentation, and she got it. Most did not observe her beckon me to her in the front row while the gang was singing. The tears were flowing mightily, but she said "Tell them about the outhouse." A little background first. One Sunday our quartet sang at the opening of a small park in Garden Grove. We had been overdoing our singouts, and Dee jumped on Don, saying "You guys would sing at the grand opening of Rent-A-Can." Don said, "Yes, if it was a GRAND opening." Two weeks later, while in the Las Vegas area with Beverley, we were passing a large tract of housing under construction and guess what? There sat a portable toilet with "Rent-A-Can" painted on the sides. WHOA!! I leaned on the John, Bev took a Polaroid picture, and I mailed it to Dee without comment. Don got a good belly laugh at her expense.
Maybe I've strayed from the point here, but many of us loved and respected Don. All of us are glad he came our way!!!
Kelley the Curmudgeon
Golden Wedding Anniversary
Paul Lewis and his wife Grace celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary at an afterglow at Denny's on Saturday 12 March from 3 to 5 PM. Paul has been a cornerstone of this chapter. He leaves the chapter meeting early to take down our orders to Denny's each week. He was the Secretary, and recently he has been proof-reading the Squeezin's for Dorothy. And she says he is damn good. Grace just loves Barbershop harmony, so this was a fitting celebration for the two of them.
Gene Harshaw Joins Celestial Chorus
Gene Harshaw, a former Orange Quartet Chapter member and frequent Lunch Bunch attender, died Monday morning, March 21, at 11:10 am. Memorial services were held March 28, 5 p.m. at Eastside Christian Church.
Uncalled-For Advice to New Barbershoppers
This week I compared quartet songlists with a friend who is in a new quartet. The experience is a lot like comparing summer gardens. Everyone plants tomatoes and squash, but why is this guy growing cardoon? Maybe he’s Irish. Or maybe he’s never tasted cardoon. Or maybe I just never knew how to prepare it.
I’ve been in about seven quartets so far, and it has always been hard to decide which songs we want to learn together. Each of us has his favorites, and most of us have tried out some songs already. Some of those songs sound great when sung by a medalist quartet, but our own foursome gets only a polite “courtesy clap” for them. That’s been my own experience with “Stars Fell on Alabama,” so I taped our performance once and found out why. All of my quartets have had better gigs when we sang uptunes, so now we cherry-pick from our favorite songs, lining up the songs that past audiences have clapped the hardest for. Most of them were uptunes. Maybe I’m just a “Sunny Side of the Street” guy. I can live with that. Who needs to play Pagliacci, anyway?
It’s good to have a couple of funny songs in your list. “Bay Blues” is a rib-tickler if you’re willing to ham it up. “Maggie” can become a signature song which earns a quartet repeat business, too. As long as a funny song is easy to understand and doesn’t last so long that it gets tedious, it’s worth a try. But I wouldn’t touch “I’m My Own Grandpa” or “Please Mister Columbus.” All right; I have touched them. But still, maybe you can make them fly. Be my guest.
Common courtesy between quartets dictates that you let another group enjoy a new song for a while before you ask them to share it. Some songs are just too closely connected with one group. Give it a year and then ask. A few quartets actively teach songs to new guys who are willing to buy their own music. They don’t mind even when you ask to sing along with them, unless they’re rehearsing. Ask first. Even I have been guilty of curmudgeonly responses on occasion when someone fifth-wheeled me.
You may wonder where all of those wonderful arrangements came from. Away back in prehistoric times, like about 1940, most of those great chords were found by quartets that “woodshedded” them. Then somebody wrote them down, and later on, professional arrangers added their own “improvements.” If you want to try out the woodshedding process, just Google “Jack Baird” and listen to about 700 old songs that are in the public domain nowadays. [http://jackbaird.spebsqsa.org/] But most of the good ones have been arranged by someone else by now. It’s tempting to go with the ready-made chords, to save time. But if you’re strong enough to pass up Haagen Dazs ice cream in favor of home-cranked, you should try some woodshedding. It is a slow process, but you might recreate that “Lost Chord” while you’re still young enough to remember it. I’ll applaud.
No matter what you may think now, your quartet will do gigs. So let your Barbershop chapter meeting be your first gig, and polish your act on them. Remember, we’re a visual culture, and we all judge strangers by their appearance before they open their mouths. Are they appropriately dressed? Are they smiling at us? Do they act like they have something good to share with us? Do they look happy? All right, I’ll listen. Hey, that sounds good. I’ll give you guys twenty minutes to stop that.
LiveWire from the Barbershop Harmony Society Special Edition
If you are not on the list to receive "LiveWire," you may want to check out their special edition of March 11. If you would like to receive this or other of the Society's newsletters in the future, you can opt-in by visiting the Members Only section of our web site at www.spebsqsa.org/members and clicking the link for “Opt-In Mailing List Subscribe / Unsubscribe.“
The March 11 "LiveWire" presents and discusses the new Society logo, and then gives the line-up for wild card playoffs round in Salt Lake City Thursday, July 7, followed by the Chorus contest finals
Saturday, July 9.
New Logo
The Barbershop Harmony Society has a new logo. In this issue you can see two versions. The four horizontal lines are a reminder of a music staff, with the four faces in profile representing four men singing. In the full-color version, the faces are done in four different colors, indicating that people who love quartet harmony come from all walks of life.
We'll be using the circular version of the logo for our future "Squeezin's," along with an updated Orange Chapter logo that includes the word "Quartet."
The Barbershop Quartet Association
I recently returned from Boulder City NV after attending the first
Annual Convention of the newly formed Barbershop Quartet Association, BQA. The
primary reason for formation of this group is to get back to singing
the kinds of music that was popular in the heydays of Barbershop,
1890-1930, in lieu of singing the blues/jazzy/bebop, more modern music that is now
popular in the BHS. The BQA supports the concept of providing a safe haven
from the cares of the day... a chapter meeting instead of a 3 hour chorus
rehearsal! Also the BQA aspires to lessen the importance of winning as
opposed to singing well and having a good time while enjoying
competition.
I had a great time singing with friends from around the country. I
participated in an impromptu quartet contest on Friday night, where
we drew names to determine who we would be singing with, and had an hour
to pick a song for competition. I had been in the winning quartet in the
Chicago meeting in 2004 (got a medal to prove it). didn't do
so well in 2005. Oh well! It is all in fun.
On Saturday night we had a great show at a local auditorium which
featured several local quartets from the Las Vegas chapter and southern
California area. Also featuring a very fine SA quartet, & a very entertaining
comedy group from the Minneapolis area. A very polished collegiate quartet
also regaled us with some good music. Buzz Haeger did his usual great job as
the master of ceremonies. There were about 150 Barbershoppers and friends
in the audience, who also came to participate in this first convention.
The daylight, as well as evening hours, was one big after-glow. Quartets
all over the place singing songs, or portions thereof, concentrating on
chord ringing. There was a constant flux of people going from one quartet to
another. There was always the fifth man waiting for someone to drop out
and migrate to another foursome. Plush hotel rooms were $39 bucks, and you
could eat three meals in the hotel for less than $20 a day. You could also
gamble in the casino if that was your bag. A good time was had by all and it
will be an annual affair.
The Barbershop Quartet Association is an extension of what is known as
the "Pioneers," which was founded in 1982. The formation of the BQA is
essentially to provide an alternative organization for those who wish
to re-instate the good times that were had back in earlier years.
The organization will concentrate on fostering quartets and quartet
competition. The general concept of operation and competition will
follow closely along the lines of what Dave Stevens outlined in his famous
Harmony College keynote speech back in the 80's, "What Are We Trying To
Preserve?"
Many of the BHS championship quartet members were in attendance. Bob
Lindley (Vikings), Jerry Fairchild (Sidewinders), Jeff Baker (Night Life), Tom
Neal (Village Idiots), Warren 'Buzz' Haeger (Renegades), Marty Mendro (Mid
States 4), Pete Tyree (Orphans), and others. Guys, and a few gals, came from
all over the North American Continent. New York City, Central Florida,
Ontario Canada, Minnesota, San Diego, Frisco, Oregon, Montana, Louisiana,
Texas, and all points in-between.  The Barbershop Quartet Association is a work in progress at the present with the administrative structure being drafted. As previously stated the BQA intends to provide an alternative for those barbershoppers, past, present and future to enjoy our Barbershop Heritage and to preserve and encourage quartet participation in our musical art form, "That Old Barbershop Style."
In Harmony
Editor's Comments
A belated thank you to the guys of the Orange Chapter for the Singing Valentine I so enjoyed this year! And an even more belated thank you for the Singing Valentine I enjoyed LAST year. I thought you would get a grin from this anecdote: a few of my neighbors saw the quartet trooping in, looking so dapper in their red vests and straw hats. I later learned there was quite a discussion about whether the neighbors should sort of "drop by" so they could listen, too. Good advertising for next year.
Another set of thank you's to Dave Gryvnak and Stan Tinkle, who keep me supplied with articles, and to Paul Lewis, who proofreads every issue so well.
We entered the FWD bulletin contest for 2004, and I received the results by Priority Mail. We came in sixth, which didn't surprise me. We are basically set up to be an on-line publication, and we don't "show" as well in printed B/W format. What DID surprise me is the amount of work each judge put into reviewing each of our three submitted issues. I'll discuss this more next issue. This issue I have incorporated two of the judges' suggestions: I added the name of our state to the masthead, and I added an section for "Editor's Comments."
Thoughts to Ponder
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
The shortest distance between two people is laughter.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
Win as if you were used to it; lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.
When you are in it up to your ears, keep your mouth shut.
Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, age don't matter.
Cats are smarter than dogs. You cannot get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.
It takes a long time to become young.
Keep quiet and people will think you a philosopher.
Next Issue
Target publication date for the next Squeezins' bulletin is May 1 or whenever we get enough articles. Send your articles to Editor at dcacton@earthlink.net.
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