Iced Tea Forever

In a comment about my recent commentary on Krispy Kreme, Dorcas mentioned a donut episode that happened in years past.

Indeed, it’s a particularly favorite AHQ memory. We were on tour with Paul (Life in the Shoe’s husband, but this was years before Life in the Shoe) somewhere up north, Minnesota or somewhere, and it was in the dead of winter. Piles of snow everywhere, and bone-chilling temps that make even Hoosierville seem mild.

We had managed to find a Krispy Kreme (this was also long before there were any in the Northwest), so we stocked up on donuts. Not long before this, our good buddies the Denton Brothers had showed us a video they made centered around the last Krispy Kreme donut in the box. It was pretty good, so we thought we’d do our own version.

There was one donut left, but it was a day old and had been frozen in the van overnight. Now you know that hot off the conveyor there’s hardly anything more melt-in-your-mouth than a Krispy Kreme. But old and cold, they’re anything but. I was more than up to the task though, and I put it away in fine style.

So here for your viewing pleasure interest is “The Last Donut.”

This particular feat would have been no big deal if it was a hot one, but let me tell you, that was a mouth full.

I was going through some stuff on my computer the other day and came across this audio file. It’s an outtake from AHQ’s Purpose recording when we were trying to lay down “Jonah.”

Jonah Outtake (1 MB, 0:50)

It consists of me forgetting the words (my patented move) and random comments and noise-making.

We were a goofy quartet in the studio. Put some mics in front of us and we would go nuts. Yelling, shouting, screeching, rumbling, miscellaneous racket, dumb comments, you name it. One time I asked Gordon Kuryluk (who recorded our first four projects) if he ever had anybody else in the studio do the things we did. Nope, he said, he sure didn’t.

So last week we drove out to PA to get By and Amy married off! I have a bunch of pictures for you from the weekend.

All the boys went out for breakfast Thursday morning.

The choir rehearsed a lot Thursday and Friday. They sounded fantastic.

AHQ had to rehearse too! Notice how intently we’re working. . .

AHQ did a few songs at the wedding and reception. Byran had written Amy a song and so we needed to learn it to sing at the reception.

. . .while By is goofing off!

My fellow groomsmen and I, that’s Barn, Randy, and me. What an unbeatable group!

Here’s our table! What a great time that was.

We drafted my brother-in-law to babysit during the ceremony. Later Dorcas took care of the baby during the reception. So far in our short parenting career, finding a babysitter hasn’t been a very big problem!

Mandy and her Daddy

I was going through some old AHQ recordings I have and thought I’d throw this piece up on ITF just for the anyhow.

This was from a program we did maybe in ‘03 sometime, I’m not sure. It was at East Fairview Mennonite Church, in Milford, NE. The mix isn’t great, but it’s not bad for a live mix.

AHQ Live - My Soul’s Been Anchored (2.1 MB)

This doesn’t really have anything to do with AHQ, but I’ve been thinking recently about unofficial live recordings and how they can reveal the humanity of professional singers. It can be pretty interesting.

As I recall, even the illustrious Guy Penrod isn’t immune. A recording of George Younce’s funeral was made available online, and the Gaither Vocal Band had sang in the service. Guy chunked the ending of “I Believe in a Hill Called Mount Calvary” pretty bad. It made me wonder of the big boys are subject to morning voice too.

More recently, Roger Bennett’s funeral service is also available online. I just listened to a couple of spots, but Frank Seamans of Legacy Five was having a rather difficult time hitting his notes on the tag of “Jesus Saves.”

Anyway, nothing profound or earthshaking here, just very interesting to me.

When I was visiting Utopia Christmas of ‘05, AHQ briefly went into the studio to record some tracks for a project on which we’re making a contribution. We were under-rehearsed and short on time, but after the main session was over we cut loose and recorded a song from our past just for fun. We’d never recorded it and I had always wished we had the opportunity to lay it down.

A few years ago we needed to learn a few Christmas songs for something, maybe it was this tour. Anyway, we came up with a version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and we learned the Cathedral’s version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

A side note of trivia, I’ve heard the Cat’s in concert a number of times. This was a tune they’d sing occasionally, a cappella of course. One time (this would have been with Ernie and Scott) they launched into it and blew the words! They had to stop and start over.

So anyhow, This song is just a kick in the pants to sing. It ends with a high barn-burner tag, on a minor chord no less! Very cool. Now we’ve finally got it recorded, and I suppose there’s nothing else to do with it but post it on the internet.

And if you like to hear By reach for the stratosphere, here’s your ticket.

Download God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (1.2MB, 1:31)

I finally updated the home page of AHQ’s website. I hope Keith is happy. That’s who I refer to in the opening paragraph.

I was listening to Solid Gospel online a little bit yesterday and heard Les Butler and was reminded of this story.

Years ago AHQ was featured in the Singing News magazine. Right after it came out I received but missed a call from Les Butler.

“Les Butler!” I thought. “He’s such a huge big shot in the SG world and he’s calling me!”

I think it was the next day when I returned his call. I told him who I was and that I was returning his call, and he was stumped. He didn’t know who I was or why he had called!

Then he said, “Oh, were you maybe just featured in the Singing News or something?”

Yes, that was it. I don’t remember what he wanted then, probably a CD. Nothing ever came of it, at any rate.

I’ve been humble ever since.

Roger Payne died last Tuesday. He was a barbershop arranger, competition judge, and tenor in the quartet Reveille.

Reveille was a comedy quartet, and they had some pretty wild schticks (check out the picture from their pirate set via the previous link). This summer on the webcast we saw them do a psycho dentist act where they forced their baritone back in a chair and the lead went to work on him with a cordless drill and I don’t remember what all, it was pretty crazy. My 5 year old nephew Cody wanted to watch it again and again.

AHQ’s connection with Roger is that he arranged Go Tell it on the Mountain (mp3 on that page). I had been looking for a barbershop chart for us to do, and I found it off of his arrangement list. I’m a little fuzzy on the details anymore, but I think I sent off for a preview and we really liked it and ended up buying it.

Great chart, a kick in the pants to sing. We got a lot of mileage out of it too.

We didn’t like the intro though, so I wrote my own. I sent Roger an email about it to ask him what he thought, if he was ok with that. He graciously responded that he fully supported a group’s creativity and right to make a chart their own. He was a good guy.

As you know, AHQ is no longer active. We do like to sing a little though when we happen to be together again.

Last Christmas was one of those times, as we were all together at home in Oregon. We had been invited to contribute some vocals on an upcoming project of some friends of ours, so we needed to visit a studio.

I run a recording studio here in the ITF office, but I couldn’t haul my equipment out to OR for a brief session. So I got my buddy Nathan to setup his studio for us.

We take a relaxed approach to recording.

Konrad the Handyman fixed up an elaborate headphone cable support system. He fabricated it from a quilt stand and quilt stick.

We were only together for a few days, and we didn’t have a lot of time to rehearse. So in that circumstance, you end up doing some rehearsing in the studio!

Look for an upcoming post where I’ll give you a song we recorded that day.