This weekend.

Dude,
This weekend was just about the best thing ever. My girlfriend, Ashley, and I went to Nashville to go to the lamest most amazing thing I've ever been a part of. Last week was the 2008 Barbershop Harmony Society international convention and competition. Basically the best thing I've ever been to. Barbershop is more or less the best thing in the world if you ask me, and the two contests and one concert we were able to go to were just about the highlights of my year if not my life. So yeah first I went Saturday morning to the Collegiate quartet contest which was won by a group of guys from Sweden called Ringmasters. All of the quartets were extremely talented for their age and the skill level of the whole group of competitors was way higher than I had expected. I think that Ringmasters had two things over the rest of the competition. First, they were completely committed to what they were singing. Many of the other groups seemed coached and just the right amount of happy. They were almost robotic at times. Ringmasters, particularly their Baritone, just had a sort of reality about their performance that set them apart. The second thing that set them apart was the presence of a true bass in the bass position for the group. In many choral situations members of the bass section are merely low singing baritones, but this kid had a really nice European bass sound, and I think that this put Ringmaster's over the top. Congratulations to Ringmasters.
Later that day Ashley and I got to see some of the premiere ensembles in the society and one of the greatest acapella groups in the world at the Harmony Foundation presents show. The first group out of the gate was the Marksmen, the first ever youth chorus contest champions in the society. They did well and produced a good sound for their size. After that was the 2007 international Quartet champions Max Q. They were amazing. Ashley even enjoyed them and she can only take so much barbershop. They only sang a couple songs because they were so busy but man the put on a great show. Their bass Jeff Oxley is one of those true basses that singing and barbershop need more of. After that was the voices of Lee from Lee University in Cleveland TN. Man, what a sound. Style-wise I wasn't exactly feeling them. But man they produce such a great sound and a really nice quality at that. They also performed one of my favorite pieces, "All Rise", in a tribute to the last time they performed in front of a society audience with the 2002 international quartet champions 4 Voices in their 2003 Swan Set in Montreal. That is a great song. After that was a real treat for me. The Ambassadors of Harmony from St. Charles Missouri. This is a chorus that has produced at least two international champions that I know of. Those two being my favorite quartets Vocal Spectrum and The Gas House Gang. AOH are just amazing. The have won silver medals the last two years in a row in the chorus contest, and four year ago they won the international gold medal for choruses. They sang just four or five songs but were true champions through out all of them. We were especially excited to hear them perform Short People bye Randy Newman which featured an on stage battle between the lilliputian director Jim Henry and about six or seven of the taller members of AOH, all at least 6 feet 5 inches tall. Another Highlight of their performance was their rendition of the Irish folk song "Loch Lomand" featuring Vocal Spectrum's Eric Dalby (lead) on the solo. What a voice.
This was, needless to say an amazing first half of an even more amazing concert. More on the rest of the show (featuring the world famous Real Group) and the Quartet Finals later.