110 and Counting

Type of post:	Quartet news
Sub-type:	No sub-type
Posted By:	Dick Bushell
Status:	Current
Date Posted:	Sun, 23 Oct 2016

This is a story about Renee, Mike, Phil and Dave. 15 months ago, I moved to Perth and joined Vocal Evolution. I've been singing barbershop since 1973, and have always enjoyed the camaraderie and fellowship that singing brings to our lives. A couple months later, I was asked to sing with a few old farts to put a senior quartet together for the upcoming Regionals. It comprised of two basses and two baritones (I know, sounds painful doesn't it?). The worst part is the wanted me to sing Lead. I've been a die-hard Baritone for 42 years...how did I possibly do that?

Well, we put a couple songs together and qualified for Melbourne in 2015. Okay, it was fun and the excitement of being on stage in front of your peers is second to none. I think we all thought that "110 and Counting" had competed for the last time.

Regionals came around again in 2016 and we qualified for Newcastle (not hard to do really!). Then our tenor left for three months and I was in the US during August, so we had about three weeks to get it all together. What happened in Newcastle is what drove me to writing this boring article for the Newsletter. For our dear past President, Michael Donnelly - he really put in a huge effort trying to match our American vowels and singing style, because he wanted this more than anything. He wanted to perform two songs that made people think about what it's like to have four guys, whose combined years of singing barbershop is 110 years, and to hopefully bring them to tears as we sang a song about a little boy...the boy we used to be.

I know that I had a tear in my eye at the end of it and many people came up to us afterwards and stated the same thing. And then of course, our Tenor Renee received a message from his grand-daughter telling him how proud she was, because he was now an Olympic Medalist!

So, I wanted to publicly thank the guys for coming on this journey and for making this bronze medal that much more special, not just for the medal but for the experience and enjoyment of singing together. Because that's what it's all about, right?

Dave Dannemiller

Pictured : Renee, Tenor; Dave, Lead; Mike, Bass; Phil, Bari