On To Reno
With O. C. Times!
by Stanley Tinkle

A pleasure deferred is doubly enjoyed. After one cancelled booking (on that really rainy Monday night), the Orange Chapter was visited by the FWD’s hottest young quartet. The OC Times is tuning up for the Reno contest this month, where they hope to score well enough to go on to the International in July. You’ll remember these guys from a previous visit: Tenor Shawn York, Lead Sean Devine, Bari Patrick Claypool, and Bass Drew Harrah are so young, healthy, gifted and enthusiastic that they bounce. How could four guys, who sound so good, possibly lose? Well, OC Times doesn’t even think about that. They have been spending their time getting even better. Nowadays that means you hire the very best coaches, and they expect you to follow their advice. Here they are:

Mark Hale, the lead of Michigan Jake and director of the Masters. Mark helped them to bring their voices forward. The result: they have lots of "ping," which you heard for yourself if you were there Monday. I can’t define it, but it’s irresistible. I thought I detected Mark Hale’s influence on the delightful "woop woop!" sound effects they created in "I’ve Been Workin’ On The Railroad." Or maybe that was Sean Devine’s idea, taken from his doo wop experiences. Whatever the source, it’s musically valid and a real crowd pleaser.

Dawn Texeira (yes, she’s Gary Texeira’s wife. Surprised?). Dawn made their visual effects flow easily. Our eyes are drawn now to the entire quartet, not monopolized by any one singer. That magnifies the impact of the quartet and builds the suspense. It looks almost casual (as contrasted to the intricate hatwork of another fine quartet, The Perfect Gentlemen). I like it, because it lets the song sell itself.

Cindy Robinson, the tenor of the SA International Champion quartet Brava. Cindy is that other Canadian super coach (Erin Howden is also great at this). OC Times paid her air fare from the sub-Arctic zone just to have her polish their product. I wonder if Cindy paid them for the vacation opportunity. Anyway, they really pop and fizz now, and the end of each phrase seems to expand and stretch for a special elastic effect.

Oh yes, the songs they sang: "I’ve Been Workin’ On The Railroad"--just think Woop! Woop!, and you’ll get in the mood for it. "Shine!"--plenty of rhythms, and Cherry Coke too. "You’re The Girl I Love"--when four young guys sing directly to the women in the audience, watch out. The one word "love" is so expressive and full of vocal effects that you’ll never forget it--unless you weren’t at the Monday meeting to hear it.

The final song was "Your M--A--double M--Y," a rollicking collection of visual and vocal jokes. Again, the tag twists and bends the words "Mammy miiiine" in a show of singing virtuosity that sits and shimmers now in our memory. I want to hear it again. I say, I want to hear it again! Whenever this fine quartet wants to use us again for an audience, we’ll give them an evening. Won’t we, Grand-Dad Rich Lewis?

Top O’ The Evenin’ To Ye, South Bay!
Another Fine Saint Paddy’s Day Gathering
by Stanley Tinkle

It must be a harbinger of spring--every year in mid-March we all have green on the mind. My fig tree starts to leaf out, the beer turns green at pizza joints, and soon we get the word from Joe Nagle: South Bay Chapter will be holding another Irish Quartet Night on Saint Patrick’s Day. Urged on by Rich Lewis, who must have been a drum major in a previous life, Orange Chapter learned some new songs and went en masse."

I always enjoy the South Bay Chapter’s Saint Paddy’s Day bashes. First comes the wild ride across an entire county at rush hour (Is there ever an hour that isn’t rush hour?). Then we spend a nervous ten minutes locating the Eagles Lodge, which always hides somewhere in downtown Redondo Beach. The Lodge itself is homey and historic, like an English pub. Every quartet that enters the contest is likely to win an award of some type: "Most Sincere," "Most Time Taken Agreeing on The Tuneup," "Best Non-Irish Song," or "Most Unintentional Key Changes" are among the awards bestowed on us when we try to get away with something. Once I was in a quartet that sang "Yona From Arizona" and "Goodbye My Coney Ireland Baby." We had fun, but we did not win a free beer.

This time my quartet Indigo met at the home of our lead/bari, Phil Roth, and we continued to our goal in bass Lee Anderson’s "Fun Bus," an imposing Excursion SUV. Traffic parted around us like the red seas, while we thumbed our noses at the peasants in their puny Ferraris. Three of our wives came along to cheer us on, and we arrived in plenty of time to help set up the chairs and warm up our songs, "Peg O’ My Heart" and "Danny Boy." Indigo never does things the easy way, of course--except for bass Lee Anderson, we traded parts for the two songs. And as luck would have it, we were the first contestants to perform. We did fairly well and received Second Runner-Up medallions, which were shaped like tiny track shoes. Get it?

Orange Chapter had brought a whole flotilla of quarteters, including Balderdash, Fermata The Blue and Indigo. We formed pickup quartets for the Irish tag contest and sang "Ireland, My Ireland." I think Michael Werner’s quartet won it, but I’ll let him fill in the specifics on that.

So who won the Irish Quartet Contest this time? Some quartet that arrived too late to practice, and then had to wait until after intermission to perform. They took a moment during intermission to run through their songs: "Sweet Rosie O’Grady" and the Noel V. Maginnity version of "Galway Bay." Yes, Jubilee Quartet ran away with the gold nuggets again. They’re my old gig quartet, and it didn’t hurt that we’d sung those two songs so many times that we still perform them in our sleep.

After the event, everyone retired to the Eagles Bar, where we all sang to an appreciative group of Sweet Adelines until we ran out of audience. Ah yes, the South Bay Irish Quartet Contest is the only way to usher in the Spring season. Now, what’ll I do with this bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream? You all know I don’t drink any more. Don’t drink any less, either, but it’s really an excessive quantity. Ah, well. Here’s to Spring!

Barbershop Music Library
spotted in the Fullerton Chapter "Clippin's"

Dick Cote, editor, has an item in the March 2004 Clippin's about the Jack Baird old barbershop era music library. The item gives a credit to Reed Sampson's Livewire in the 8-25-03 issue. Check out this on-line library at http://www3.spebsqsa.org/JackBaird/. What a terrific walk through time, 1894-1972! The files are in MP3 format, so a fast Internet connection will serve you well.

When You're Smiling With Satchmo.
Researched by Dorothy Acton
Words & Music by Mark Fisher, Joe Goodwin & Larry Shay, 1928

The singer most associated with this song is Louis Armstrong, who recorded it with his Orchestra on September 10, 1929, and again in 1932, and finally with his All Stars in 1956.

You can actually hear Louis Armstrong singing this on a humorous e-card. (If you're listening to music on this page, you may need to "close" it before you go to hear the greeting card.)
http://www.superlaugh.net/1/groovycow.htm.
http://www.funnybunch.com/1/groovycow.htm
These pages require Flash on your computer, and dial-up may be a bit slow.

A webpage covering the life and career of Louis Armstrong is well worth a visit.
http://www.fact-index.com/l/lo/louis_armstrong.html. I was touched by the words of Bing Crosby and Duke Ellington spoken in a tribute to "Satchmo." And I was amused by some of his quotations, including "All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song." -- Louis Armstrong.

Thank You To Secret Helpers

In the rush of everyday life, we sometimes forget to thank a few people who are doing their part in a very quiet way. Member Paul Lewis helps publish this bulletin by proof-reading every issue before it goes public. Thank you, Paul. Without you we would have splelling errors all over the place!

Dorothy, Editor

Mail & Email

Dorothy:

You may have heard of this but I will tell you anyway. There is a website that plays barbershop 24 hours a day. It is great. I get it on when I sit down at the computer and then minimize it and listen to it for as long as I am on the computer. It beats anything that I can put together. The website is:

www.singers.org.nz/encore

Those New Zealanders know something!

Regards,
Jack Jungroth
Lead
Music Central
Oklahoma City

Ellie's knee replacement was a success--she is recuperatng-- thanks for the prayers.

John Majzler

Dear Orange Quartet Chapter,

Dave Gryvnak emailed me recently that the Chapter has given the Dick Acton Memorial Fund (along with some donations of your own) to the Westminister Chorus, (and I'm quoting Dave here) "the one that has all those young kids under 24 years of age, the chorus that is the present FWD Chorus Champions, the chorus that is going to represent the FWD at the International Chorus Contest."

I am so very pleased to hear this. Richard would have liked that.

Dorothy Acton

You might be a Barbershopper if...

Reprinted from Whittier Choralaires "Showcase" with permission of Dave Gunther.

Selected by Tina Gunther (with permission) from Harmonet messages from Matt Swann, Ann McAlexander, Paul Agnew, Dave Jacobs, Rob Baltensberger, Kate Firthuk and Tina Gunther

You hear a car horn and immediately reach for your pitchpipe.
You wonder why the seats on a plane aren't 4 across.
The person sitting next to you at the symphony kindly suggests you stop humming the seventh of every chord played.
You watched the first round of American Idol and made a list of potential recruits in your city, for your chapter.
Your most prominent bumper sticker is "I Can't, I Have Rehearsal."
You have 1-800-876-SING on your speed dial.
You have http://www.spebsqsa.org as your home page in your web browser.
The circle of fifths is tantamount to the circle of life.
You've accidentally tried to blow a pitch on an Oreo.
You let your wife think you're having an affair so you can slip in one more rehearsal before contest.
When the pastor starts reciting the Lord's Prayer, you can't help but hear the chords.
When listening to an oldies station, you think they're singing the song wrong because it's not how the Boston Common sang it.
You've tried to tune your wind chimes to a barbershop seventh.
Your wife no longer cares how you got makeup on your shirt.
You mistake the hum of an air conditioner for the sound of a quartet somewhere in the hotel.
You look like a bottled water deliveryman, carrying around a 5 gallon jug of water.
You memorize 20 arrangements for a show and forget your anniversary.
You won't go to the market and get your wife some pantyhose, yet you'll wear lipstick and rouge in front of 400 Shriners.
Your doctor schedules your heart surgery on a rehearsal day and you gotta think twice about it.
Upon meeting someone for the first time, you ask them what part they sing before their name.
Your parents suspect you have joined a religious cult because of your obsessive behaviour.
When you leave the house, you always check to make sure you have a pitch pipe with you before you check to see if you have your keys.