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.

Miami Valley Men of Music Practice

I attended practice with these guys last night. The clip above is from their April 2010 competition performance. While they were not dressed quite so formally last night, they made me feel very welcome. The chorus is starting to practice Christmas music. I got to practice a bit and then sing some Pole Cats with them. Then we all got a preview of one of the quartets from the chorus (The Treblemakers). The Treblemakers plan to compete at District this month for the Novice category. We finished the evening with a trip to a local pub for a bite to eat and drink. All in all, a very nice evening. I plan to return next Monday for their formal Guest Night.

JAD Fall Convention and Contest

Here's the latest from the JAD web site.

JAD 2010 Fall Convention & Contest

Date : October 15 - 17, 2010

Place: Lima, Ohio

Headquarters Hotel:

Howard Johnson Lima (formerly Holiday Inn)
1920 Roschman Ave.
Lima, Ohio 45804
Hotel Front Desk: 419-222-0004

Room rate: $89.00 + tax. (Identify yourself as a member of JAD when making reservations)

Cutoff date: September 17th is the cut off date! Make reservations prior to September 17.

Contest Venue:

Veterans Memorial Civic & Convention Center
7 Town Sq.
Lima, Ohio

For the competitors:

Chorus members should arrive at the Civic Center dressed for stage, and will be directed to their warm -up and ready rooms by host personnel.

A limited number of rehearsal rooms for chorus will be available at the Civic Center at a small fee. Interested chapters should request information for reserving one of these rooms from Terry Reichenbach.

Email Terry Reichenbach at terryr@q1.net. To request a rehearsal room.

Competitor registration Fee:

$35.00 per man, chorus and/or quartet (Fee per man covers both quartet and chorus competitor fees).

Non-Competitor registration:

All-Events ------------------------------------ $35.00
Single Event ---------------------------------$20.00
Student 17 & Below ------------------------$5.00
Saturday night show only ---------------$10.00
College Student (age 18 -24) ----------$15.00
Schedule of Events:

Friday October 15
Noon to 4:30pm --------Registration open @ HQ Hotel
6:00pm --------------------Registration open @ Contest Site
7:00pm --------------------Quartet Semifinals

Saturday October 16
9:00am ---------------------Registration open @ Contest Site
10:00am -------------------Chorus Contest
3:00pm --------------------Quartet Finals
8:00pm ------------------- JADAQC Show

Headquarters Hotel Following Contest Events all weekend:

Woodshedding
Fellowship
Hospitality Rooms (Saturday night)
Notes:

Contest times are subject to change to accommodate volume of registered competitors. Check the JAD web site for any changes.
Questions concerning contest registration need to be directed to Bill Ray, VP C&J.
Questions concerning convention or convention facilities need to be directed to Skipp Kropp, Events VP, or Steve Sommer, Convention Manager.
No advance non-competitor registrations. All non-competitor registrations will be sold at the event.
E-Mail Contacts:

Skipp Kropp, Events VP ------------------ skropp@jacksonkelly.com
Steve Sommer, Convention Manager- steve@caldwellleasing.com
Bill Ray, VP C&J ---------------------------- bray2@neo.rr.com

NOTE: CHANGES OR ADDITION MAY BE MADE TO THIS INFORMATION, AS CONVENTION PLANS ARE FINALLIZED. CHECK THE JAD WEB SITE FREQUENTLY FOR UPDATES.

Miami Valley Music Men Annual Show

Here is "Home Edition", a great quartet from Mansfield, Ohio. They were the guest quartet for the recent (Oct 3, 2010) Annual Show of the Miami Valley Music Men. I really enjoyed their perfomance, especially their version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Their final number, a parody of Roy Orbison's Blue Bayou (Blew By You), was not too shabby either.

Here's a fact about the chorus I found amazing. Out of 36 active members, they have 4 quartets. And to me, singing in a quartet is really what Barbershop is all about. Singing in a chorus is fun, but singing in a quartet is even more fun.

The Miami Valley Music Men have a special guest night coming up on Monday, October 18, and I hope to attend.

Several Barbershop Shows Coming Up

Yep, you could spend each of the next two Saturdays watching and listening to Barbershop. The Dayton Metro Chapter is presenting their Annual Fall Show on Saturday, October 2, 2010. The Delta Kings (Cincinnati) are presenting their 2nd Annual Cabaret show on Saturday, October 9, 2010. Just click the underlined words for links to their respective show flyers.

Prestige - 2010 International Collegiate Silver Medalists

These guys are from JAD. They are fantastic.

Xenia Hospitality Chorus Singout

This is the Xenia Hospitality Chorus recent Singout, under the able direction of Don McAdams. I just love the way Don uses his feet in directing of the chorus.

Mid Atlantic Youth Outreach

Paul, I thought we might be able to show this to the lady who is going to visit us next Monday. I checked the JAD Youth in Harmony, and many of their links weren't working. I think this (the Mid Atlantic region) is an excellent video.

JAD on Facebook

I just discovered JAD on Facebook. Yet another way to keep up to date with the latest happenings.

Heads Up for Lakeside Barbershop Quartet Festival, Sep 4. 2010

Here's a picture of Hoover Auditorium at Lakeside, OH. It's a pretty big place, but last year it was filled for this annual event. Lots of folks like Barbershop!

Here's a link to the Lakeside Show. (Lakeside is located on the Marblehead Peninsula, halfway between Toledo and Cleveland on Lake Erie's south shore.) The 61st Annual Barbershop Quartet Festival will feature three quartets in the historic Hoover Auditorium. The evening is titled, "The Show of Champions." The featured chorus is The Men of Independence (2010 Johnny Appleseed District Chorus Champions), 4 Way Stop Quartet (2009 Johnny Appleseed District Quartet Champions), and Lightly Seasoned Quartet (2009 Johnny Appleseed District Seniors Champions). Directions to Lakeside.

Singing With The Xenia Hospitality Chorus

Having nothing special to do tonight, I drove up to Xenia to sing a bit with the Xenia Hospitality Chorus. Fifty-six miles, took about an hour and fifteen minutes. Not too bad a drive! I received a warm welcome from all chorus members. Don McAdams, their director was great. We started with The Old Songs and then spent some time on a Pole Cat, Sweet, Sweet Roses of Morn.
The chorus then practiced a few songs they knew and are going to sing this Saturday at a wedding reception. Next there was some quartet singing and I was reunited with Bobby Knisley. He and I reprised our Apple Corps roles as Bass and Baritone along with a volunteer Lead and Tenor singing Goodbye, My Coney Island Baby.

Don't forget The Xenia Corn Roast: Aug. 7, 2010. Cost is only $10 and there will be plenty of food and singing. This is a picture from last year. Don McAdams, in yellow shirt, is directing his chorus. Everybody had a lot of fun. There are a lot more Corn Roast specifics in the Summer issue of the Cider Press, on page 7. Go to the Jad web site then District then Cider Press on line.

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

OC Times at The Clay Center, Charleston, WV

What a quartet. What a sound. The crowd really enjoyed OC Times as they performed Friday evening at The Clay Center, Charleston WV. Their performance was part of an evening of barbershop, as they were preceded by the Scioto Valley Chorus (Sweet Adelines) and the Kanawha Kordsmen Chorus. The event was part of Charleston's Festivall, a week-long celebration of the arts.

Of course there was some pick up quartet singing before the show. I managed to get involved.

I'm the guy in the Hawaiian shirt. The guy to my left is "Jeep", a bass, the guy to his left, in the blue shirt is a chorus director, the guy to his left sang a nice tenor, the guy to his left, the left most guy in the picture, is from Germany, at one point he sang with a chorus in Colorado, the guy to his left is a lead, the next two guys are former Dapper Dans. The guy to my immediate right is Paul Hesson, who in addition to being a former Dapper Dan now leads, I believe, The Singing Kernels of Ashland, KY.

National Anthem at the Paints Game, June 24, 2010,

Here's the gaggle at the Paints Game, before we sang the National Anthem. Left to right: Mark Hatfield(Tenor), Paul Hixon (Lead), Bob Cook (Bass), Mark Poyet (Bass), Gene Hoyet (Bari), and Ed Weisenberger (Bari).

Here's Mark Poyet trying to go incognito. He thought he wouldn't be recognized with the sun glasses. Maybe he's really a Bari!!

Chorus to Sing National Anthem at Paints Game

We're going to sing the National Anthem at the Paints game on Thursday, June 24. We'll also be singing a few other songs before the game begins. We're looking forward to it.

Prestige at Apple Corps

These young guys are terriffic. Enough said!

More Than a Hobby and Shining Eyes

If you're a Barbershopper and haven't seen these two presentations, you're missing something amazing. Dr. Jim Henry's presentation to Harmony University in 2007 is phenomenal. If you don't get shining eyes at several points in the presentation, you're not listening. Dave Stevens' presentation, given in about 1983, is hilarious. What a sense of humor!

I was fortunate enough to see both of these presentations at the recent Apple Corps get together at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. You can purchase the DVD from The Harmony Marketplace. And you can actually watch Dr. Henry's presentation here.

More Apple Corps

Here's a picture of Paul Hixon (on left) and Bobby Knisley (Xenia Hospitality Chorus). Note the medal around Bobby's neck. He was 1/4 of the winning Pick Up Quartet.

Here's a picture of 3 of the 4 members of the winning quartet. We never did find the fourth member for a photo, although I believe an Apple Corps photographer may have snapped our picture. I'll be looking for it.

Left to right, Bobby Knisley (Bari), unknown (but he sang Tenor with us late at night) Bob Cook (Bass), and Nathan ("Guru") Gura (Lead). It was Guru's insistence on not singing a pole cat that probably added to whatever it was that led to our being selected Champion Pick Up Quartet. (That or the big bribe we gave the judges.)

APPLE CORPS WINNER

Congratulations to Bob Cook for being the Bass in the winning pick-up quartet at the 2010 Apple Corps. I wonder if the quartet name, "We Bribe the Judge" has any relevancy???

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.