Tuesday Tunes

The back of the van always had a mattress in it. The very first blog on this website mentioned my family’s annual trips. We had an old Mistubishi L300 Van, bright yellow, and the mattress was wedged between all of the bags that six people need, a chilly bin full of snacks, and usually one or more of my brothers and I. I’m sure it was highly illegal. To pass the time we would play typical travel games like ‘I Spy’, at some point we had a bunch of magnetic travel games like checkers and chess. But we would also sing. Usually whatever was on the radio, but sometimes things from my parent’s record collection, like the Barron Knights. We never evolved into a full barbershop quartet, but these guys did …

The Song
Song: Little Patch of Heaven
Artist: Crossroads
Album: Crossroads - 2009 - Self Published (As far as I can tell)
Method of discovery: Grooveshark

Personal thoughts: I really enjoy the interplay of voice. When Grooveshark was thing I kept clicking the ‘related artist’ button again and again. I went through several rabbit holes, and one of these lead me to a barbershop phase. I’ve never had the opportunity to sing in a Quartet, but something about them and their presentation lulls me into a false sense of security, and allows them to surprise me with harmonies that I don’t expect. There’s also something beautiful about those long sustained notes at the end of many songs, and also at the end of this, held for just long enough for the rest of the singers to catch up to the final chord.

Theory: Barbershop quartets are classically split between a Bass, a Baritone, a Lead and a Tenor (also known as the Barney). They each serve different functions. The Bass typically sets the root note of any chord the band wants to play with, i.e. the C note in a C Chord. The Lead takes the main melody of whatever the song so they usually are the main voice you’ll focus on automatically. The Tenor usually sings in Falsetto, very high, over the top of the lead. They harmonise with the Lead, and occasionally take part in chordal support. The Baritone, in my opinion, is the funkiest of the roles. It provides lower harmonies for the Lead, higher harmonies for the Bass, and little notes that sit by themselves and either cause or relieve musical tension depending on what is needed. It’s the Jack-of-all-trades, to me at least. But it’s really important to note - pun fully intended - that without any one of these voices the others would lack support, particularly that there are no other instruments.

Research: The song was originally sung by K.D. Lang, written by Glenn Slater and composed by Alan Menken for the 2004 Disney movie ‘Home on the Range’, which I have never seen. Perhaps it’s taht mental tendancy to defend the first opinion you hear, but I prefer Crossroads’ version. Crossroads begun singing together in 2007, and only took two years to win the International Champions by the Barbershop Harmony Society. But considering the members were from previous champion quartets.

Give it a go: If you’ve never listened to Barbershop before.

Give it a miss: If you’ve listened to far too much Barbershop already.

[links]
Spotify: Crossroads, Little Patch of Heaven, Tuesday Tunes
Websites: Crossroads, DisneyWiki
Wiki: Barbershop, Crossroads, Homer’s Barbershop