-- Source: Barbershop Harmony Society and The Music Men
The Music Men upcoming holiday shows:
ESCONDIDO -- Forget the four warblers sporting striped vests and handlebar mustaches. The new stars of barbershop quartets are young, hip MySpacers, reinventing an antiquated art with modern songs and chafing some who say they're compromising a tradition.
A
new generation of "barbershoppers" has emerged in the last several
years to preserve the genre and reverse a declining popularity, said
Todd Wilson, a spokesman for the Nashville-based nonprofit Barbershop
Harmony Society. Many enthusiasts believe that attracting young
performers is key to the genre's survival.
"We're a dying organization. Our members are dying off faster than we can recruit them," Wilson said, adding that half of the Harmony Society's 30,000 members are older than 70.
But while
most barbershoppers agree that something has to be done to prevent the
art form's extinction, some of the tactics being used to draw younger
singers have been met with resistance by traditionalists, or "kibbers,"
which stands for "keep it barbershop."
The debate within the
Barbershop Harmony Society and Escondido's a cappella chorus, The Music
Men -- one of the more than 820 chapters of the 69-year-old, all-male
organization -- surrounds the question of what should be preserved: the
barbershop style or the songs?
The
Music Men chorus, which includes four quartets, practices weekly and
has been getting gigs at North County hospitals and retirement
communities for the last 53 years, said its vice president, Chuck
Youde, 73. They stay busy delivering singing valentines in February and
put on two annual shows in the spring and in December. But with most of
them beyond their 65th birthday, recruiting has become a top priority,
despite differences over what qualifies as a barbershop piece.
Some
members of the 40-man ensemble have been working monthly with a chorus
group at El Camino High School in Oceanside in hopes of having them
perform two songs in their spring show next year.
"We're not
looking to make them members now, but we want them to remember us as a
place to come and sing after college and later in life," said John
Hulbert, the 67-year-old director of the chorus.
Nationally, the Harmony Society is working to provide music education
to students through a similar Youth Harmony Program.
Hulbert
said he feels encouraged about the future of barbershop, especially in
the North County, because of the progress that has been made in the
last several years. The Music Men are building a new Web site and are
set to begin rehearsing next month at California Center for the Arts,
Escondido.
He said that "2008 is going to be a banner year. "Rehearsing at the
Center will really legitimize our music."
Meanwhile, young enthusiasts have found modern ways of connecting with
fans.
The
Westminster Chorus, for example, has a MySpace page with more than
1,600 friends, and more than 2,100 barbershop tracks are available on
iTunes, a digital music jukebox many of the senior barbershoppers said
they had never heard of.
Wilson said
that the Harmony Society has succeeded at recruiting younger singers --
and drawn criticism from kibbers -- by loosening the rules and allowing
more modern songs in annual competitions.
"I've got to attract
younger singers who want to perform contemporary songs," he said. "But
I can't alienate or offend the old-timers. It's a tough assignment."
Yet the modernization effort is working so well that newcomers are
dominating competitions.
The
Westminster Chorus, a group of 63 men -- almost all under the age of 30
-- became the youngest ensemble ever to win the Society's barbershop
chorus championship last July in Denver. The Orange County-based group
considers their style "barbershop for the 21st century."
"We're going to push the envelope, absolutely," said Jason James, a
25-year-old San Diego member of the chorus.
The
chorus won the competition with a "mixed bag" of traditional pieces,
such as the 1936 "South Rampart Street Parade" by Bing Crosby And His
Orchestra, and rock 'n' roll classics, such as "Surfer Girl," released
by the Beach Boys in 1963.
But those types of song selections don't sit well with everyone.
An
active barbershopper for nearly 50 years, The Music Men's Hulbert is a
fan of the style of the young chorus, but not their songs.
"I'm
not willing to forsake the history and the songs. Barbershop songs
celebrate mother and love and the girl next door, and 'Surfer Girl'
doesn't cut it, even though those young guys can sing the devil out of
it," he said.
James said he's heard plenty of grumbles, but that
young barbershoppers are doing their part to bring the music to a new
audience.
"The guys that came before us are our role models, and
we respect their opinions," he said. "We're just making the style our
own."
And for the most part, the old-timers said they aren't worried about
newer songs eroding the style.
"That
won't happen," said Youde, who joined The Music Men 20 years ago.
"We're not throwing out any of our old songs. We're just getting some
new ones."
Still, for Norma
Stern, a barbershop "groupie" for 50 years, the camaraderie she's
witnessed between The Music Men is the most important part. Her
husband, 78-year-old Dick Stern, a member of the Escondido chorus for
50 years, suffered a stroke five years ago, and while he has limited
speech, he still shows up to sing every Tuesday.
"This group,
even before the stroke, was a very important, integral aspect of Dick's
life," Stern said. "There is a lifelong brotherhood here."
The
wives, once known as "The Belles," used to have their own close-knit
group, but the associations dissolved as the women grew in age, Stern
said.
Not so for the men.
"That's why they (The Music
Men) want to pass on their love of the arts," said Stern, who declined
to give her age. "It's something young people can learn and enjoy with
others for their entire life."
-- Contact staff writer Darryn Bennett at (760) 740-5420 or dmbennett@nctimes.com.