Monday Night Practice, December 6, 2010

We had a short practice last night due to one of the guys not feeling well. However, we did have time to practice for our upcoming sing out at Adena Mansion on December 11th and 12th. We will be part of their Holidays at Adena celebration. We're looking forward to it.

Monday Night Practice, July 5, 2010

Only the diehards tonight. Bob, Paul and Dan. We worked on Beautifull Ohio, Do Lord, and the verse to You Tell Me Your Dream. I guess you really don't need a Bari! LOL

Monday Night Practice, June 7, 2010

We had a good practice Monday night. Seven guys showed up. Mark (bass), Ed (bari), Gene (bari), Paul (lead), Chester (lead), Bob (bass) and our always "lone tenor", Dan. We ran thru all the Pole Cats. We had to get the blue books out once in a while to check on some forgotten notes. I believe we all had a fun time. I even tried to sing a little tenor. We finished up with several tags. We hadn't done that in quite a while. We need practice on them.

Monday Night Practice, May 24, 2010

We had a good practice on Monday. Lots of basses. We even had a visitor from the Xenia Hospitality Chorus, Ron Gunderman (Bass). Ron hand delivered the flyer for The Hospitality Chorus's up-coming show. He also extended a personal invitation for us to attend. I think 3 of us will be attending. We sang a lot of songs, including most of the Barber Pole Cats.

We plan to have a sing out at the Feast of The Flowering Moon, this Friday, May 28, 2010. We're going to meet at 2:30 p.m. in Chillicothe, in front of Lloyd's Sweet Shop. We'll then walk around Water Street and Yoctangee Park and sing. We did this last year at the Feast and we had a good time. Below is a picture of the bridge in Yoctangee. We'll try to keep out of the water!

Monday Night Practice, March 1, 2010

As you can see, we had a good turn out for practice last night. There were 8 of us, counting me (behind the camera). We even had a new guy show up a second time; Cody Egner (third from left), who sings lead. Cody is a senior at Unioto High School. He's very involved in music. He's also the choir director for St. Peter Catholic Church in Chillicothe. We welcome Cody to the group and look forward to singing with him.

Anyone Seen This Man Recently?

When you see Jeff next, tell him the First Capital Barbershop Chorus is really missing him. Implore him to return.

Monday Night Practice, January 18, 2010

We had a good practice on Monday night, with seven guys singing. Ed Weisenberger is now regularly singing with us, adding another baritone to our group. If we could just find another tenor, we'd have two guy on each part. That would be soooooooo nice. If you're reading this and thinking you'd like to join us, please do.

Practice Continues on Monday Evenings at Tabernacle Baptist

I neglected to get our Monday Night practices entered in the Chillicothe Gazette's Datebook section before the end of last year. I entered the notice on line, last night. So we should start seeing them for the practice on Monday, January 18. And we will have a practice tonight, January 11 at the regular time of 7:30 p.m. Please join us if you like to sing. We'll probably be working on Bill Grogan's Goat, and Lida Rose. We will, of course, do a few Pole Cats to warm up.

Long Lost Member Reappears!

Yes, that was Mark Hatfield who joined us for practice on Monday evening, December 14. We were glad to have Mark return, even if it was for only one evening. We needed a tenor, and he filled the spot nicely. And his other brother, Mark, was there too. That would be Mark Poyet. So we had two leads, two basses and a tenor and baritone. It was a nice blend.

A couple of us had read about a Circleville Barbershop Chorus that was going to present a Christmas Concert on Saturday, Dec 12 in Chillicothe. I've called a couple of the guys whose names were listed in the Gazette and found that they only get together sporadically. They next plan to meet in March of next year. I've sent an e-mail to Ron Anderson, a member of their chorus, and I'm looking forward to his response. Maybe we can get a few of them to join us or we could join them for some singing.

Monday Night Practice, October 26, 2009

Six guys showed up. We had a good practice. We sang Yuletide Favorites and several others. Also some polecats. Everybody plans to sing at the November 21 gig at Schlegel's. It should be a lot of fun!

Monday Night Practice, October 19, 2009

Three of us showed up, but we knew the other guys were out of town. We practiced some of the Yuletide Favorites and called it a night. We're looking forward to next Monday night with a few more folks in attendance.

Monday Night Practice, September 28, 2009

We had our first regularly scheduled Monday night practice at Tabernacle Baptist Church on the 28th of September. It's a very nice facility and we appreciate being able to use it. There were six of us there, and with a visit from Dusty Rhoades, that made seven. Dusty provided us some needed feedback on our singing. It's hard to critique yourself when you're part of the singing. Having a knowledgeable listener provide a critique is very helpful.

We have begun practicing Yuletide Favorites, anticipating the arrival of Christmas and the holiday season. We're looking for venues at which we can perform.

I noticed that our practice schedule is now correctly listed in the Chillicothe Gazette's Datebook. Maybe we'll get some new singers with our new practice night.

Monday Night Practice at Tabernacle Baptist

We'll the Gazette didn't remove the Thursday night announcement for Sep 24, so it appeared in the Gazette Datebook. We hope no one showed up hoping to sing. I contacted the Gazette, again, and asked that they remove the Thursday night announcement. I finally got a return e-mail saying they would remove it ASAP and the the Monday night announce would appear correctly. We'll see. Hope to see some new faces this coming Monday, September 28th. We meet in the choir room in the back of the church building. Give me a call at 740-703-5651 for specific directions for getting in the building.

Monday Night, May 18, Practice

We had 7 guys at practice last night and I think we sounded pretty good. We spent some time on business and the rest preparing for upcoming performances. We're going to perform on Friday, May 22, around 2:30 to 3:30 at the Feast of the Flowering Moon, in Chillicothe.

We've managed to form a quartet (as yet un-named) from the chorus members. (Maybe that should be our name...."Un-Named"). Members are, from left to right, Dan Lusher (Tenor), Paul Hixon (Lead), Bob (just can't sing without the music) Cook (Bass), and Gene Hoyet (Baritone). The quartet plans to sing Shenandoah and Kentucky Babe at the Feast. It will be our first public performance as a quartet.

Monday Night, April 6, Practice

I think practice went well last night, with nine members attending. We started sharing a few of the rehearsal tasks. I led the physical warm up (stretching), Paul led the vocal warm up, and then Mark H. took over for direction of song practice. I think Mark P. did something, but other than waving his hands a bit, I can't remember what it was.


Ed Weisenberger (the gent on the left in the photo) was able to join us along with his wife. Ed is a BHS member, but has a very full work schedule. We were glad to have Ed and his wife join us for the evening.

We warmed up with some Pole Cat songs, then we practiced the songs we'll need for Mother's Day and, hopefully, for a performance at a Paint's game. MOTHER (A Word that Means the World to Me),Take Me Out to The Ball Game and The Star Spangled Banner (Val Hicks' arrangement). We also practiced Shenandoah. I think we just need a bit more work on the key change and we'll have it. We did a little quarteting and sang the new Tags Mark H. gave us last week. (If Happy Little Bluebirds Fly, Hello, and Angel Devine, Mother of Mine). We finished with Keep the Whole World Singing, as usual. The die-hards then sang more Tags for a bit. Then Mark and Paul tried to out do each other using their falsetto's. It was a screaming match. We had to fight off the stray cats at the windows. All in all, a great time!

Monday Night, March 30, Practice

We had a good turn out for practice, with 11 men. Mark Hatfield started with stretching exercises and then moved into vocal warm ups. Next week I'll be leading the physical exercise and Paul Hixon will lead the vocal warm ups. We worked on Shine on Me (with the verse), Take Me Out to the Ball Game, M-O-T-H-E-R, and Oh, How I Miss Her. We then broke for an organizational meeting while the rest of the men sang Tags. Finally, we did some, quartetting. I'm on the hook to get us 20 copies of The Star Spangled Banner. I've ordered them, and we should have them for next Monday's practice. Mark H. handed out CDs with some new Tags on them. I listened to them and I think "Hello, Hi", is going to be great.

Mark H., Paul, Mark P. and Gene blend in a quartet. Lot's of fun!

Lyle's Learning Lounge

Here's a site I stumbled upon. Lyle's Learning Lounge, It will be especially valuable to you new folks. It's got all the Pole Cat songs, along with a lot of other valuable info. Enjoy! I've also added it as a link.

Monday Night, March 23, Practice

Well, another practice under our collective belts. It was pretty well attended, but we were short a lead, baritone, tenor and bass, assuming Dick Bradford will be coming back. Guys, we miss you!

We had another visitor tonight. Mike Henry, a bass. (I think maybe I should switch to baritone). We rehearsed, Oh How I Miss Her, The Star Spangled Banner, Aura Lee, Take Me Out To The Ball Game and....... We all should be working on those songs for next week.

Chorus Members, left to right. Dave Tenor, Chester Collins, Paul Hixon, Bob Cook, Mark Poyet, Mike Henry (guest/new guy), Gene Hoyet, and Jamie Rout. Mark Hatfield took the picture.

And just so he won't feel left out...........here's Mark Hatfield on the left.

Monday Night, March 16, Practice

Well, quite a few of the guys were unable to attend last night's practice. But we made some progress on the verse to Shine on Me and Oh How I Miss Her. We had a visitor, Dick Bradford, a Bass, we determined. Dick has not sung in a group before. By the end of the night he was sounding pretty good. We hope Dick will become a regular member of the chorus.

Dusty Rhoades once again joined us and offered his usual, expert, advice. We all really appreciate it Dusty.

Members in photo above (left to right): Jamie Rout, Chester Collins, Dusty Rhoades, Gene Hoyet, Paul Hixon, and our visitor, Dick Bradford. Looks like Dick will be a real performer. Bob Cook was taking the picture.