I already talked about the quartet weekend at SMBI, but I wasn’t finished.
I met my buddy Dave that weekend for the first time! He’s been an occasional ITF commenter probably since the early days. We have periodically emailed each other but never met until now. Good guy, and very unique and distinctive voice! Clear, clean, and bright, great singer. He also was given a solo with the male chorus that weekend, which he knocked out of the park.
My buddy Benj and I had been talking for awhile about throwing a quartet together during the weekend, so we did. He sang bass, Dave took 1st tenor, and Jeff and I shared/traded 2nd tenor and baritone.
Guess who Jeff is. I didn’t know him before, he’s just a kid (16), Benj brought him. But he’s Truthseeker’s nephew! If I remember correctly. And he’s a good singer too, very nice, light voice. He fit great on 2nd, I probably should have had him sing it on all 3 songs we did.
Anyway, we did 3 Wayne Hooper classics: “Steal Away,” “When We All Get Together With the Lord,” (link to pdf) and “In a Little While We’re Going Home.” It went pretty well overall, though we did have an issue or two in performance. In particular, I blew it on my breathing on the first tune, “When We All.” I was running out of air kinda bad.
Here’s a little lesson. You can always breathe better in rehearsal. I knew I was pushing it with the phrasing and whatnot on that song, but I didn’t bother to take the time and figure out where I could take an extra break or two to give me the extra “breathing room” that I might need. And sure enough, come showtime I did need it. That was a fun song though.
For a quick slap together quartet, we really had a nice blend. We worked together pretty well. It ended way too soon!
After the program Sunday afternoon we were standing around in the hall of the guy’s dorm just shooting the breeze, and guess who walked in.
My buddy By.
I never get to see him anymore, so that was great. He had met some people there a few days previous to travel to a wedding in FL, and they were just returning. I found out once I arrived (we played a little phone tag) that he might briefly be there, but I didn’t have any idea beforehand that we’d meet up. I’ve really been missing that guy.
Great weekend. Now let’s look at what it cost!
Gas:
$115.07 (about 470 miles one way)
Toll:
$39.80
Junk food:
$11.25
Total:
$166.12
Oh my. It’s a good thing I love to sing. If you’d like to make a contribution, please paypal my email address in the sidebar. Thanks!
3 Responses
October 1st, 2005 at 8:54 pm
Tom, I just figured out approximately how much it would cost for me to drive my family to Ohio for my wife’s cousin’s wedding this month. about $250 for gas alone! We may be staying home. BTW, why don’t you come set us straight at MennoDiscuss?
October 2nd, 2005 at 6:49 pm
Tom, yes I am Jeff’s uncle, great uncle to be exact,because Jeff’s father is a son of my wife’s brother; and I am cousin to Benji, first and a half, since his father is my wife’s first cousin. Glad you got to sing with them, I enjoy singing with them too in our chruch chorus.
Seems those Good’s sing right well, eh? Hope you can come visit us again at Ebenezer Menn., SoBoVa, someday. If I am right, I understand you have been here before, because your iced tea drinking ability at Nathan Good’s home set a record that has not been broken since!
October 3rd, 2005 at 9:11 am
The weekend also provided a thorough introduction to Wayne Hooper, I might add…
*shaking head in wonderment*