Wow, Mike, what a story! This is your "mad Russian" who enjoyed the ride and
a short tour of Indianapolis. We did much better at night than we did at noon
for rehearsal!
What a thrill!
I heard about the Brigade first in 2003 when one of the quartets formed during a
Brigade rally - Brigadeers - was singing in the lobby of Radisson Plaza Hotel in
Kalamazoo. I recognized 2
guys - Joe Queen and Mark Ream from Pioneer, and the other 2 were from North Carolina, I believe. I
did not get exactly where they learnt their song they kept singing on and on,
and I tried unsuccessfully finding that "barbershop camp" that turned out to be
a Harmony Brigade.
One of the reasons I had difficulty finding was that Brigades started in the
50s' was a tight held secret until only recently. You have to be sponsored by
someone before they invite you to a rally. The rest is a thrill of singing that
goes on and on the whole weekend. Mike described it much detail so I omit that
part, other then adding that it was so great to sing with Joe and Eddie Queen
and Keith Yoder, the tenor of our quartet The Bumps who moved to Indiana.
Oddly, one of the high points of the past weekend was at a rest stop somewhere
in Indiana on our way back to Michigan (I had the privilege of sharing a van
with all the Queens - father Ruben, his 4 out of 5 sons who were in
Indianapolis, and Rob). While we were waiting for one of our party Joe suggested
we sing Heart Of My Heart really - I mean REALLY - softly. After we done we
heard a standing ovation from couple of African American girls about 8-10 years
old who heard us singing and asked if we could sing once again! We chose this
time Sweet and Lovely - SOFT again! You should have seen their eyes! Their
father joined the applause and appreciation. They said they had never heard
about barbershop harmony and would now look for more. We ended up by giving them
information about us and Sweet Adelines. This was such a great ending of a
weekend singing!
We got some great ideas about the Brigade for Michigan and other activities that
could involve adjoining chapters in some great fun, so stay tuned. And think
about this - if an existing quartet decides to go to a Brigade, not only will
they get great fun singing and being coached by other guys and Gold Medalist but
they will come back with 10 great songs. Cool!
If you want to read more about Brigade go to our website and follow links
Alexander Boltenko
aboltenko@barbersho
Michigan Harmony Brigade webmaster
http://mihb.