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Thursday, October 4, 2001
Barbershop goes pop
Local barbershoppers are reworking popular songs to appeal to a younger market
By Brendan Walsh
Brendan Walsh
Caller-Times

David Pellerin/Caller-Times

Nicole Southard from Flour Bluff, sings with the women's group at First Christian Church. Southard has been singing with the Sweet Adelines for about a month. She says the modern songs were one of the reasons she enjoys singing with the group.

Gary Hannah talks about the importance of barbershop music the way Ken Burns makes films about jazz, or Roger Angell writes about baseball. He sees it as a threatened institution, as a uniquely American art that's in danger of dying out, of becoming an anachronism instead of a vibrant means of creative expression.
   The president of the Corpus Christi chapter of the Commodores, a group of male barbershop singers, or barbershoppers, Hannah is doing his best to cultivate new talent.
   "If we don't do something to preserve barbershop, it's going to die away," Hannah said. "Of course the logical approach to preserving it is to get the young people singing."
   Getting a date
   To that end Hannah, as well as the Sparkling City Chorus of Sweet Adelines (the female counterpart to the Commodores), has started a series of Youth in Harmony workshops, designed to attract high school students to their flocks. They've modernized their repertoire, tried to get local teachers involved and even suggested that belting out a verse of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" may be just the thing for getting a date for homecoming.
   Strictly defined, barbershop singing is a cappella and utilizes four-part harmonies. The four voices work in unison to create a sound that's more than the sum of its parts. While songs like "Heart of My Heart" and "Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie" are most traditionally associated with the style, almost any song can be rewritten for barbershoppers.
   Contemporary quartet
   That's one of the aspects that Anne E. Smith, a member of the Sweet Adelines, hopes will attract younger people to barbershop singing. Her group is working on barbershop versions of songs by George Strait, The Beatles and other contemporary artists.
   Smith points out that "those young men - the 'N Syncs, I believe - are singing four-part harmonies."

David Pellerin/Caller-Times

Director Jo Forbus (upper right) leads the Sweet Adelines group at the First Christian Church.

   Nicole Southard, a senior at Flour Bluff High School, has been singing with the Sweet Adelines for about a month. She says the modern songs were one of the reasons she enjoys singing with the group. On her own time she "listen(s) to everything: country, DMX, Puff Daddy, Nirvana and Disturbed."

What: Youth in Harmony barbershop singing workshop
When: Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to noon
Where: First Christian Church, 3401 Santa Fe St.
Cost: Free and open to the public
More Info: (361) 985-6842 or (361) 853-2821

   As of yet there are no plans for the Sweet Adelines to do "Smells Like Teen Spirit" barbershop-style.
   Southard was turned on to the group by two of her teachers, who also happen to be members. She said they heard her constant singing in the halls and in class, and one day suggested that she might like to join the group.
   Barbershop benefits
   Hannah says that the glamorous life of a barbershop singer as portrayed in the episode of "The Simpsons" in which Homer, Apu, Barney and Principal Skinner form the B-Flats is a bit misleading, but there are benefits.
   "The girls like it. So, if the guys will sing a little bit for them," it could lead to a little romance, he said.

Crabbe
Sophia Crabbe hopes to 'Pursue a career in music and hopefully get famous one day.'

   "We go out and sing on Valentine's Day and make the ladies cry. And it's not because we sound bad, but because of the sentiment those old songs embody," Hannah added.
   Sophia Crabbe, a Flour Bluff High School junior, recently began practicing with the Sweet Adelines. She didn't mention romance as a motivation for joining, but does see the group as a stepping stone on the long road to her life's dream, to "pursue a career in music and hopefully get famous one day."
   If Homer Simpson could do it, we certainly wouldn't put it past Crabbe.


Contact Brendan Walsh at 886-3763 or walshb@caller.com

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