by Paul Kelley
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
by Dave Gryvnak
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
Submitted by Stan Tinkle and Dave Gryvnak
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
From an Old Cherry-Picker
By Stanley Tinkle
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
Submitted by Dave Gryvnak
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.
ORANGE SQUEEZIN'S
