Went to Nashville last week

[Horse]

We took a whole 38 guys to contest last week...as compared to the 150 some-odd each in the top 2 groups. Had the usual crowd of 10,000.
Worldwide, there's about 800 competing groups. After assorted contests throughout the year, the top 30 groups are invited to whatever city
it happens to be held in.

We landed 18th to which we were quite pleased as we sang 2 ballads instead of 1 ballad and 1 "uptune" with choreo.

We had one...a medley...AND had learned the choreo but, 6 weeks ago, one of the 3 holders of the song "Let a smile be your umbrella" (written a gazillion years ago) said, "Send me $3000". Nope...our group's name is NOT an indication of our wealth. We usually stay flat broke as an organization.

Here's a youtube link

The sound is absolutely atrocious, but on youtube, it is what it is.

As a side note, I've gotta say, I've never seen anyone DRINK like the Swede's. They've got 3 million drinking songs and I think they tried to teach us just a million of them. :laugh:

If you click on the author's name and view all his uploads, the whole chorus contest is there...the top 2 were: Masters of Harmony and Ambassadors of Harmony.

This reminds me, I need to burn a dvd for a certain Denverite.

 

[DesertRat]

Excellent!!

What part do you sing?

I'm a low bass myself and sing primarily gospel. I've never sung barbershop but would like to give it a shot sometime though.

Danny

 

[CoventryCat86]

Great job Mark, congratulations on your nice finish! :thumbs:

It also sounds like ya met some nice new friends, teaching ya those drinkin' songs an' all. :laugh:

 

[Horse]

...What part do you sing?

I'm a low bass myself and sing primarily gospel. I've never sung barbershop but would like to give it a shot sometime though.

Danny

One of the best (winner of this year's contest) Masters of Harmony, is based in Santa Fe Springs.
When a chorus wins the international, it sits out of competition for 2 years and comes back in the 3rd. There's plenty of shows to put on and most likely, cd's to make.
My guess is, the bass section leader is Brett Littlefield, one of the best in our "hobby". His last quartet, Nightlife, won in 1995 I think..you'll need real player for this

Funny you should mention gospel and low-bass. We gave the Oakridge Boys a lifetime honorary membership. Got to meet the bass Richard Sterban. I had forgotten how FREAKY low he could go.

Oh yeah, almost forgot.. lead and tenor. The bbs tenor goes waaay up in the rafters. When the tenor section needs added support for a melody line, I switch parts and head on up in the rafters.

 

[stogieman]

Very cool Mark, sounds like you all had a blast........ :thumbs:

While in Nashville, did you get the chance to stop at CAO headquarters?

 

[khari]

Very nice job, Horse!

Incidentally, I clicked on Masters of Harmony, listened about 15 seconds, and then moved my attention back to the boards here without stopping the video. After about a minute or so of it playing in the background, it became obvious to my ear why they did so well, so I clicked back. They put on quite a show!

 

[bfreebern]

Nice job Mark! The show Masters of Harmony put on was very nice.

 

[gregor22]

Congratulations, Mark!

 

[NullSmurf]

I'm still kicking myself for missing last year. Music, especially harmony and rhythm, really reaches my daughter. I'm still patient on the disk.

 

[Putz Mulligan]

Good stuff! Gets me thinking of looking around for a group in my area......

 

[IBQTEE1]

Congrats Mark. Way cool.

 

[DesertRat]

One of the best (winner of this year's contest) Masters of Harmony, is based in Santa Fe Springs.
When a chorus wins the international, it sits out of competition for 2 years and comes back in the 3rd. There's plenty of shows to put on and most likely, cd's to make.
My guess is, the bass section leader is Brett Littlefield, one of the best in our "hobby". His last quartet, Nightlife, won in 1995 I think..you'll need real player for this

Funny you should mention gospel and low-bass. We gave the Oakridge Boys a lifetime honorary membership. Got to meet the bass Richard Sterban. I had forgotten how FREAKY low he could go.

Oh yeah, almost forgot.. lead and tenor. The bbs tenor goes waaay up in the rafters. When the tenor section needs added support for a melody line, I switch parts and head on up in the rafters.

Cool, I sometimes wish I could get higher in my voice. I can reach some of the mid-tenor range but alas the high tenor is not my forte and it seems a lot of the music out there, past or present, is written for tenor leads. I am thankful for people like Randy Travis though who has put out some excellent gospel songs with the lead in my range.

My vocal range is similar to that of Glenn Dustin's in this song by LEGACY FIVE although I don't even pretend to be on par with his overall talent. The men's quintet I sing in will be singing that song in the near future and I am so looking forward to it.

Danny


P.S. I watched the "Masters of Harmony" performance at Nashville last night. Simply awesome!

 

[LilBastage]

Sounds like a lot of fun! Those Swedes can drink. There are a lot of Swedes up here in Northern MN. They're some of the nicest people up here.

 

[Horse]

Cool, I sometimes wish I could get higher in my voice.

In bbs chorus, the usual stack runs about
40-bass
30-lead (tenor2 in church)
20-bari
10-tenor

Yes, the leads are supposed to lead the way but the bass section is the engine.
The bari's part, should you hear it by itself, is sick. It makes no sense to anyone but bari's. It basically, fills the chord with the missing note.
The tenors, well, they're swinging in the rafters.

 

[Horse]

Good stuff! Gets me thinking of looking around for a group in my area......

Search here

The list unfortunately doesn't mention the "goes by" name. Like, Fort Worth = Texas Millionaires (we really need to change this cause we can't drum up any money with that name)
or Dallas Metro = Vocal Majority - the world's best...11x winners...10 in a row the last 30 years.

So eh, try the closest and if it's horrendous, try the next one.
Then again, you can pm me with the location of one you're interested in and I can research it and find out if they should be decent.

Some chapters are happy with singing the same songs over beer each week, and some, like ours, are on the risers for 3 hours.
One of my favorite quips is "Hard work is fun when improvement is evident". But we by no means turn our noses up at the folks who don't want to work that hard at it. I think that's what makes the hobby so fun...there's a spot for everyone.

 

[DesertRat]

What happened to the videos?

I was in the mood to listen to some barbershop and the videos are gone