66 THE SATURDAY EVENING POST Sept./Oct. 2008

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Though more than a century old, Jour-part harmony stays in tune with today' s world.

07?aylor Wilson is just like every through youth-outreach programs jJ other 16-year-old kid-he's wild in high schools and colleges. But it's about music. He plays trumpet in the clearly not your grandfather's bar­ high-school band and loads up his bershop anymore. Take, for example. iPod with his favorite tunes. But that's groupies. where the Nashville, Tennessee. teen's "When OC Times walk on stage. similartty to his peers ends. Taylor's they're treated like rock stars," says iPod isn't stacked with the heavy Taylor's 48-year-old dad, Todd Wil­ metal of Whitesnake or the Brit-pop of son, the Barbershop Harmony Soci­ Cold play, but with a cappella music, ety's director of marketing who sings specifically barbershop. Hi s group of with both and the venerable choice: The Four Freshmen. whose In 2008, the young and energetic Sun tones. "Girls scream and swoon roots hearken to 1948 and the influ­ quartet OC Times became the new Icings over OC Times. Really, it's like Elvis ence of the Hal's of barbershop with their electrijying in his heyday." Harmonizers. sound, reminiscent oj such unforgetta­ If many of the old-school barber­ "It's just the sound-heartng a re­ ble artists as Sinatra, the Beach Boys, shoppers bristle at the idea of Beach a lly good lock and ring brings an and Elvis. Boys tunes usurping such polecats instant smile to my face," he says, as "My Wild Irish Rose," "Down By referring to the classic barbershop would appear to be an anomaly. Af­ the Old Mill Stream," and "Wait 'Til chord structure. "But I really like ter all. reached its the Sun Shines, Nellie," it helps the performing, putting a grin on a little zenith in popularity in the '60s and younger generation relate to the older kid's face. or jerking that tear out of a 70s, after the phenomenal success of form. Rick Spencer, BHS's director of grown man's eye-anything that can the musical and 1962 film The Music music and education, paints out that get that emotion across." Man. But membership in the Barber­ even 45-year-old Beach Boys songs At first glance, Taylor's attraction shop Harmony Society. the primary can hardly be called "contemporary." to a genre normally associated with men's organization (the women's is There's room for it all, he says, as middle-aged men in straw boaters the Tulsa-based Sweet Adelines Inter­ long as folks stick to the formula­ national), has dropped [rom 38.000 preCise four-part, unaccompanied to 28,000 since the 1980s. And most close-harmony singing, with the lead of the folks who come into Barber­ or melody appearing in the second shop's 800 chapters in the United voice and rising over a romantic, in­ States and Canada are roughly 52 to timate, and conversational lyriC, the 55 years of age. mushier the better. "Let Me Call You But the surprise is that the music's Sweetl1eari," indeed. peak performers-the male quartets "Any song that tells a good story OC Times and -are and has an interesting melody line in their twenties and thirties. The could be adapted to the barbershop former (the OC stands for Orange style in some form or another." offers County, ) draws its inspira­ Spencer. who proposed to his wife tion from jazz and swing artists such with a singing valentine on stage. "It's as Michael Buble anel Frank Sinatra, really about the sound more than the with the music of Elvis Presley and actual song itself." the Beach Boys balancing the Rat Which is the conclusion that the BeJore or Blue Eyes became a Pack verve and the traditional barber­ audience came to in January 2008 at household name. a very young Frank shop canon. Likewise. Vocal Spectrum BHS's first International Barbershop Sinatra (far Tight) harmonized with the mixes things up with a smattering of Youth Chorus Festival. There. the Hoboken Four. taking home first prize Disney songs and show tunes. student-led Marcsmen Barbershop on the amateur hour of ill/ajor Bowes The light-hearted American tradi­ Chorus at Texas State University­ (center) in 1935. tion still thrives, then, particularly San Marcos beat out five other young www.saLurdayeveningposL.com 68 THE SATURDAY EVENING POST Sept.jOct. 2008

Rockwell's uriforgettable 1936 Post cover graces the Barbershop Harmony Society's new headquarters in Nash­ vUle, Tennessee. With 30,000 sing- ers in more than 800 chapters in the United States and Canada, the society is the world's largest all-male singing organization.

choruses to capture the trophy for Everybody is also in harmonized The building is also a standout for top honors. The rules dictated that glee about the n ew BHS headquar­ the 30-by-26-foot reproduction of Nor­ competing choruses sing three songs, t.ers in NashVille. Tennessee. The man Rockwell's famous Barbershop avo of which had lo be traditional move to Music Cily from Wisconsin Quartet illustration. which graces its barbershop. According to Ed Wa tson, last August gives the BHS a chance side. The image first appeared on the BHS's executive director, it was the to build more visibility and clout in cover of The Saturday Evening Post most thrilling vocal square-off since the indusuy-there's currently no in September 1936. two years before the competed for tbe Grammy awarded for ba rbershop. for Tulsa tax attorney O.C. Cash founded scene-stealing thunder of Professor example-and eventually. the build­ . the SOCiety for the Preservation and Harold Hill. ing will add a n interactive museum Propagation of Barber Shop Quartel 'They loved it. we loved it, and our and Hall of Fame to its existing Old Singing in the United States , or SPEB­ barbershop audience-the 70-year­ Songs Library. With 750.000 sheets of SQSA. now the BHS. old gray and blue hairs-were just 125.000 titles. it's the largest privately "We just loved putting that on ecstatic that we had young kids who held collection of sheet music from there." says Watson. "Rockwell had a appreciated barbers hop." the Tin Pan Alley era. phenomenal ability to capture little bits of Americana and make them instantly recognizable, and everybody should know whal this building is." If Rockwell captured the whole­ someness of the music for all time, other famous na mes have embraced it at some point in their lives and ca- reers. The late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings sang barbershop as a boy in Canada. and jumped at the chance to reprise it at parties as an adult. Lance Bass, the former bass Singer for 'NSync. also started in barbershop, as did folksinger

Television. Broadway, andfilm star actor Dick VWl Dyke loves barbershop quartets-a passion that in 2000 inspired him (ojoin an a cappella quartet called the Vantaslix. which recently released a new children's album-Put on a Happy Face. THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 69

Gordon Lightfoot and actor Dick crops weren't in," Staats remem­ Van Dyke, who still sings with his bers. "She told the chorus about it own group, the VantasLix. Politi­ one night, and people just handed cians such as President Harry S. over $2.400. Then when the crops Truman and Attorney General started coming in, everybody John Ashcroft barbershopped a bit went out and picked radishes and in their youth, a nd of course, the bundled them togethel-, because Osmond Brothers used barbershop she couldn't do it. I've never been as a steppingstone to all manner in a church that's done thaL much of farnily-orlented entertainment for people, and I've belonged to fame. churches all across the coun try." "It was the very foundation of Such acts of familial love are our music and the reason we were Before yow1ger siblings Donny and Marie commonplace in barbershop, as discovered," Merrill Osmond re­ caLapulted to stardom, Alan. Wayne. Merrill and in the case of the Sun tones' Gene membered in an emall interview. Jay Osmondjirsl gained Jame as The Osmond Cokeroft. 73. The legendary tenor "At that time our mother dressed Brothers, a barbershop quartet that sClng at Dis­ presents youth workshops in high LIS all alike, and we were in Dis­ neyland and on The Andy Williams Show. schools in Florida. and nine years neyland and [the barbershop ago, he began mentoring I5-year­ quartet[ the Dapper Dans spotted us and sang a few songs with us and old Paul Saea in Miami. Despite com­ took us in to see Walt Disney himself. ing from a loving family, Saca was Wa lt put us to work on a show called direction less, a self-described cocky 'Disneyland After Dark.' and it was young man with no aspiration beyond there that Andy WilLiams' faU1er heard becoming a superstar. or maybe at­ us, and told Andy to put us on his tending community college. Instead, show. Barbershop taught us to listen he found a sorely needed father-son for the notes and harmony in a song. relationship with his musical hero. and brought us to the blending of our "Any young person struggles with voices. It was the basis for all the mu­ confidence and self-esteem issues." sic that followed. " Sac a says. "but through music I If it's the music that initially hooks was able to develop a strong sense all barbershoppers, it's the fellowship of self." "Vith Cokeroft's encourage­ and camaraderie that keeps [hem. In a ment. he went on to the University of barbershop quartet. a ditchdigger can Miami and majored in vocal jazz, and stand between a doctor and a lawyer at 19, he won international gold sing­ or a bail bondsman. and all the differ­ ing lead for Heat. the 2003 collegiate ences in their lives melt away in the champions. swell of the crescendo. "To me, the Today, 24-year-old Saca teaches guy next to me is a good baritone­ music at the elementary-school level he's not a CEO of some big company," when he isn't doing studio work. writ­ says Wilson. ing pop songs, and singing with the The music is also a leveler of age. quartet On Demand. 'The quality of "It doesn't matter if one is 12 and the young Singers is so much higher than other is 50 or 60." explains Spencer, it llsed to be." he says. "The future who started out singing as a young­ looks good for us, I think. These kids ster in Connecticut. "I always say that are so much smarter." I grew up with 30,000 uncles. I. knew Even if some of t.hem are frustrated, that I could go anywhere and be safe including Taylor Wilson. that tmm­ wiU1 them, because they were all look­ peter in the awal-d-winning McGavock ing out for each other." High School band. That strength of character holds "Barbershop really makes me a true for the lady barbershoppers, too. musical snob," he moans, his lament "It's such a support system." says the wrapped up in pride. "It's gLven me loUisville, Kentucky-based Charlene sllch a bigger w1derstanding of music. Move over men, the Four Bettys (top) Staats. a member of the Sweet Ade­ I'll tell my dad not to even come to hiL a high note in 2008, garne ring the lines for more than two decades. Years band concerts. If someone's just a lit­ trophy as the International Champion ago, a woman in Staats' chorus need­ tle bit ou t of [une. uh, it just kills me." QuarteLfrom Sweet Adelines Interna­ ed an operation. but the family had Relax. Taylor. Long after school, tional. a worldwide organization oj just switched their medical insurance, marriage and raising kids, barbershop women singers advancing barbershop and the hospital demanded 83,000 will be there for you. And chances are, harmony. In 1948, the Johnson sisters before admittance. "Goodbye. My Coney Island Baby" will became national champions al the sec­ 'They were truck farmers, and they still hang tough to edge out the latest ond Sweet Adelines' competition. didn't have any money because the rendition of "Little Deuce Coupe." :a: