Ed Camrud, Ted Sayer and I said good-bye to Bruce Pendelbury at a funeral home in Moose Jaw a couple of weeks ago. Bruce was 78.

Bruce started his life's work as a photographer. At the start of the war he joined the RCAF as an aerial photographer. Before long, his entertainment capabilities caught the attention of the "Brass" and he joined an RCAF entertainment group called The Joe Boys. He was the comedian of the group. At 75, Bruce said, "I'm still able to do a little show business when needed… When I was in the show I was a comedian. Now I'm a humourist. Same material, just a little slower."

Bruce ended his working career at the University of Regina, instructing in the audio-visual department. At this time he joined the Regina Chapter. He was a good lead, produced some of our shows and did some stage presence work. His forté was as a stand-up comic and his stage act added a great new dimension to our sing-outs and shows. He made a standard show really great. With his passing goes another great member whom we seem to have difficulty replacing.

Only a few weeks to put the final touches on these -- so make sure you know all your words and music so we can spend the remaining Monday's polishing.

Whatever Happened To The Old Songs

If I Could Write A Song

Irish Blessing

When The Saints Go Marching In

Five Foot Two

Who's Sorry Now

Somewhere Out There

Yesterday

Goodnight Sweetheart

Go ahead, spend as much time as you want looking at your music on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday -- and then on Monday, you can watch the director!

Don't wait until the night of the show to track down all your parts. If you don't have a uniform or are missing parts, see Bill Quick quickly. You will need your red jacket, white tux shirt, black bow tie, black cummerbund, black pants, dark socks and shoes. Stay tuned at chapter meetings for further announcements of outfits and/or props required for the show.

Be sure to see Dave to get your Afterglow tickets. We need to let Empringham's know how many people are coming, so don't leave it to the last minute, or you'll miss out on a fun after-the-show party - lots of food, fun, and singing - for only $8.00. Get yours before they're all gone… If you haven't got one of these, you'll miss out!

1995 Buckeye Invitational Comedy Quartet Champions

During the past twelve years this foursome has performed in ten different states: Alaska, Washington, California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and WEIRD.

The last is a more or less permanent state since they are recognized as the only five-man quartet in the Society. This is due of course to the fact that their tenor has a split personality! For contest purposes however, they manage to restrict themselves to only four singing parts, although they never know which part Gary may be singing. That seems logical as he doesn't know which part he's going to be singing either.

In any event settle back, relax, and take comfort in the knowledge that at least three people on stage share your sense of suspense and nervous anticipation...

In February of 1981, four members of the Cascade Chorus in Eugene, Oregon, joined together to form the McKenzie Touring Company. They have been busy singing and traveling ever since. The quartet has performed on Society and Sweet Adeline shows in ten different states. After 15 years of competition, the McKTC has had both 4th and 5th place finishes in the Evergreen District Fall Contest. In the spring of 1989 and 1990 they became the Division 4 (Oregon) Champions. Additionally, in the summer of 1995 the quartet traveled to Columbus, Ohio to compete in the annual "Buckeye Invitational Comedy Quartet Contest". With their nuclear package they wowed 'em and won the contest.

Dale Fish - An original member of the quartet, rejoined the group in December of 1990. Dale has sung with three other quartets; Special Delivery, Home Cookin', and Three Good Lookin' Guys. Dale and his wife Nancy have two young sons that keep them busy at home. Dale works in the Physical Plant Cabinet Shop at the University of Oregon. He's been a member of the Eugene Chapter since his graduation from high school, and has been active in the chapter's administration. Currently, Dale is the Baritone section leader. Recreationally, he's also an avid camper and fisherman.

Tim Knight - Tim has been involved in barbershopping since 1973. He has served as the Eugene Chapter President on five occasions and was Evergreen District President in 1990 and 1991. Tim is currently the Convention Advisory Manager for the district. He works for the Lane Council of Governments in the telecommunications consortium, and has his own telecommunications business on the side. Tim is married to Rhonna, has two grown daughters, and is a grandpa too!

Marty Bauer - Marty joined the quartet in December of 1990. He joined the Eugene Chapter in 1980 and has been an active quartetter and administrator ever since. Marty too has sung in other quartets. His first quartet was Members Only. A few years later he joined with Dale as a member of Three Good Lookin' Guys. Marty is in the retirement planning sales business, and loves a variety of sports including hunting and fishing. He and his wife Deb, have a young daughter, and a baby boy, born in mid January 1996.

Gary Razer - What can you say about Gary? Serious musical student? He can't read a note! and his two heroes are Tommy Smothers and Spike Jones! Gary has always enjoyed singing for his own pleasure, but didn't join the Cascade Chorus until 1978. A middle school teacher for the past twenty years, his real claim to fame is the television commercials he does for the Les Schwab Tire Company. In his spare time he enjoys running, playing basketball, coaching kids sports and driving his quartet crazy. Gary and his wife Leanne have two children attending college.

All four men agree that performing barbershop music is a rewarding experience and they love it!

Text composed by Dale Fish

www.evg.org/~cascade/mckenzie/mck-bio.htm

I wish to thank the following people who took part in the sing-out on March 17^th at the S.T.S. meeting: Lynne, Gord, Peter, Wayne, Darrell, Dave, Doug and John.

We had a hell of a good time and a good meal (especially Lynn). We got twenty-five percent of a standing ovation, and many spontaneous congratulatory comments. I especially would like to thank Gord for his spur of the moment contributions which added so much to the program. (it is these asides which make it appear that we are actually enjoying what we are doing) and for his acting as an unofficial director. Dave and Lynne also merit special mention for their added "bits". All in all you all did very well and brought credit to our organization. I'm sure that there is much more of this type of opportunity out there available to us.

Last week, an octet from the Chorus entertained at a noon luncheon of a Retired Teachers Group. We did a half-hour show which seemed to go over fairly well - a sprinkling of quartet-type schtick - singing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" to a lady -- stuff like that.

The thought occurred to me afterwards that this would be a good package for the whole chorus. We had 30 minutes of fairly decent singing, some audience participation, a little light humour -- all the ingredients needed for success.

Thank Stu Reiley for this one -- he did the arrangements. Now what we need are several more of these. We've got the show, we need the contacts. How about it, Chorus members? You live and work in Regina. Spread the word, we are available.

Welcome back for another year of song, laughter and friendships that last a lifetime. Congratulations to

And a special welcome to new member, Darrell Herauf, and to his sponsor Lynn Lowes for his 4^th Man of Note.

Group: this is the much-abbreviated version for the show. What's listed here is from Ron's notes and may change between now and then -- but please look at it and practice it (and make any revisions as may be required). We owe Ron a debt of gratitude for taking this on and standing out in front of us and trying to get us to look a little bit alive (and happy).

Bar 104 "once" - Spread hand to ear, raise up and away

Bar 15 "harmony" - Split chorus move -- offer hand inward (to shake hands)

Bar 37 "gee" - Gradually raise hands to sides until touching neighbours

Bar 18 - Open hand, palm up and slowly extend forward

Bar 45-50 - March on the spot (front row swing arms)

Bar 7 - Both hands, shoulder height, palms forward shaking

Bar 17 - Questioning hands to other side of chorus (1/4 turn)

Bar 19 - Questioning hands to director (palms up, waist high)

Bar 68 - point first finger up chest high

Bar 69 - Lean forward and point finger down toward floor (45°)

Bar 55 "goodnight" - Salute / wave, then blow a kiss

We have learning tapes for most of our repertoire. Purchase tape 1 and 2 for $1.50 each. If you have an 'old' tape, turn it into Ron and get a new one with the following music on it:

Tape 1 has the following music:

Side A: Just Plain Barbershop, Young Men in Harmony (6 songs)]

Side B: Strictly Barbershop

Tape 2 has the following music

Side A:

1. Dream
2. Georgia On My Mind
3. I’ll Fly Away
4. I’m Alone
5. I’m Sittin on Top (different version)
6. If I Could Write A Song
7. My Daddy’s Still Singing
8. O’ Canada
9. Shenandoah
10. So Long Mother
11. (I’ll be a) Song and Dance Man
12. They Wrote ‘em in the Good Ol’ Days
13. Under the Boardwalk
14. What a Wonderful World
15. Who’s Sorry Now
16. Home on the Range

Side B:

1. Irish Blessing
2. Five Foot Two
3. Goodnight Sweetheart
4. Yesterday

We left Regina for Swan River Saturday morning via Brandon (We had to pick up our lead Stew Wilkinson at Brandon University where one of his jazz groups had been performing that morning and the evening prior). [My wife and daughter were part of the Campbell Collegiate entourage to the Brandon Jazz Festival with Stewart and everyone thought that it was a big joke that they had left Stewart behind in Brandon - ed.]

The roads were in excellent shape and after alternating drivers a time or two we arrived at Swan River after almost 800 k's of driving.

The dinner show was sold out. This was really quite incredible since there were two other "competing functions" on at the same time - a fishing derby just north of town and a big birthday party for the town's fire chief. People had come from many miles away, including a group from Brandon.

We had prior warning that the sound system was almost non-existent at the Legion Hall, so we brought our own sound equipment along. The show essentially boiled down to two performers -- the Swan River Chorus and the Q.C. Slickers. We were "on stage" three times and darn near exhausted our repertoire! Ken Holzer had a "hacking" cold but he hung in there much better that we expected. Doug Richards added a generous sprinkling of jokes and "one liners" in order to give us a few singing breaks. The crowd seemed to enjoy it all and I would say that the "show" was an unqualified success.

After hearing the Swan River Chorus - (and this is no slight to them) it made me realize what a good sound the Golden Harvest Chorus really has. Coupled with the fact that we have a good variety of songs and even some choreography, we have just cause to feel good about ourselves. Work hard on knowing your parts guys (and I'm including myself in this)

A friendly welcome awaits you at Sportsmans Park. Quartet Clinic, Chorus Presentation, Saturday Night Show, Sight Reading a Song, Vocal Production, How to Choreograph a Song, General Sessions, Tips on being an MC, Chorus Coaching, Special Class! Registration includes classes and general sessions, Saturday night show and Afterglow, Breakfast, Lunch and Supper on Saturday and Breakfast on Sunday, a staff of all-stars and lots of singing! All of this is a bargain at $65.00! But wait, the chapter is picking up the registration fee for attendees, so the only cost is travel and accommodation. So, make sure you get in on this great barbershop weekend. See you there…

As you know, in the last issue of Sharp Notes, we challenged the Saskatoon Chapter to the Campbell’s Soup Labels contest to see who could generate the most labels for Heart Spring in a year. GREAT IDEA! BAD OPPONENT! It seems that last year alone Saskatoon brought in 55,000 labels in comparison to our 4,500.

Thankfully, the Saskatoon Chapter is also a very gracious one as they (thankfully) declined. It seems that we are already discussing a joint venture for next years show (what a break). Thanks to Saskatoon for being such great sports.

Hopefully their efforts will encourage our chapter to increase our efforts for this very worthy cause. I am going to challenge each of you to get after those labels. The sooner we start the better our chances of making a sizeable improvement on last years numbers. Let’s get started.

I received the following wonderful note from John Leboldus.

John: I hope you don't think me too familiar for reprinting your letter here (bulletin editors are always looking for material to print) but I'm sure all your Golden Harvest friends love to hear from you too. I've reprinted your article here in the Sharp Notes for yet another by-line to your credit. And, yes, that first invitation letter from Rupert Hall and O.C. Cash was on April 6^th, 1938 and that first Barbershop meeting was on April 11^th, 1938 -- 60 years ago this month.

Articles in this bulletin do not necessarily reflect the views of the chapter. Unless carrying a byline, they are those of the editor. Items received may be referred to the executive before publication. All chapter officers and members are encouraged to submit articles to the Sharp Notes. Submissions will be credited to the author. Please address any comments, suggestions or submissions to the editor -- Bruce Fish.

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