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Songs We Sing - Down By The Old Mill Stream - Fred Hinesley
Down by the Old Mill Stream is a fine arrangement of a truly good old song. Tell Taylor, who composed the melody and wrote the lyrics, was an Ohioan. He later moved to Chicago, where he died while he was still a young man. Among many other songs, he composed "Hello My Baby."
Not only is "Down By The Old Mill Stream" a good song, but it has its place in barbershop history. After the 1939 international quartet contest, the Society contracted with RCA Victor of Chicago to make a record album, and "Down By The Old Mill Stream" was among the songs in this recording. (For those of you too young to remember, a record album is a collection of songs on vinyl, packaged in a folder.)
It is interesting that, although the Bartlesville Barflies had won the international championship at that first contest, they were not asked to do the recording. Instead, O.C. Cash asked the Capitol City Four, the second place finishers to do the honors. Shortly before the recording was made, the quartet's bass singer, Fred Raney, died suddenly. Baritone Glenn Howard switched to bass, and the son of tenor singer Dwight Dragoo, Gene Dragoo, sang baritone. The recording was a success.
As was characteristic of this period in our Society, every arrangement was woodshedded. After hearing the recording, Tell Taylor wrote to Glenn Howard and told him the Capitol City Four had recorded "Down By The Old Mill Stream" the way it should be sung.
None of the songs on this first Society recording is probably better known or more frequently sung than "Down By The Old Mill Stream." Indeed, as noted in the Heritage of Harmony Songbook, "No close harmony songfest is complete without it."
Source: Dr. David's Wright class on the
history of barbershop harmony and the Heritage of Harmony Songbook
- from the Macon, GA Sharptalk, Fred Hinesley, editor
To non-members: The Greater Pittsburgh Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society meets every Tuesday evening at 7:30 PM at the Trinity Christian School in the Forest Hills area of Pittsburgh. Guests, and hopefully new members, are enthusiastically encouraged to come visit us and join us in song and fellowship. For more info on the Greater Pittsburgh Chapter or a map of directions, visit our web site, www.harmonize.com/Greaterpittsburgh, or call Ralph Rock at 724-327-3626. Come join us!
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