Well, hello there! Pull up a riser. I'm Ed Defazio, I sing baritone, and I edit the chapter bulletin, The Towpath Tag, which is how I got talked into making this page. (Rule one of barbershop: never be the only man in the room who owns a computer.)

We are the Millport Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America. Yes, that's the real name, and no, we don't abbreviate it out loud. We've been ringing chords in this town since 1957, and our chorus has been called the Canal Towne Chord Company since 1971, when somebody's wife said the old name sounded like a feed store.

♪ Harmony Harvest '99 ♪
Our 42nd annual show! Saturday, November 6, 7:30 p.m., at the high school auditorium. The Chord Company, both chapter quartets, and our featured guest quartet, Four on the Floor, all the way from Indiana, who placed in the top ten at their district contest last fall and are an absolute scream. This year's theme is "Songs from the Movies." We'll open with a set of old standards and close the first half with our salute to The Music Man, including "Lida Rose" and "Sincere," sung by four of our biggest hams in borrowed school board costumes.

Tickets $10, $8 for seniors and students, from any member or at Hartzell's Pharmacy downtown. Afterglow at the VFW following the show, where the singing goes on until they turn off the lights.

Contest Season
In October we take the risers at the district fall convention for the chorus contest. Each chorus sings two songs and is scored by judges in three categories: Music (the song and the arrangement and how well we serve them), Presentation (whether we move the audience), and Singing (in tune, in sync, and ringing). Our director says our goal is simple: sing better than we did last year. Our lead section leader says our goal is to beat the chorus from across the river. Both goals are acceptable.

Extra Saturday rehearsals on October 2 and 9, 9:00 a.m. to noon. Wear your black riser shoes, not the golf shoes, Frank.

Our Director
Maureen Kowalski has directed the Chord Company since 1994. She's a longtime Sweet Adeline (the women's barbershop organization) and sings bass in a women's quartet, which means she can sing every one of our parts and does, loudly, when we get them wrong. We would follow her anywhere, and on contest weekend we do.

What Is Barbershop, Anyway?
Four parts, no instruments. The lead sings the melody. The tenor harmonizes above him, lightly. The bass sings the bottom, and the baritone fills in whatever note is left to finish the chord, sometimes above the lead and sometimes below, which is why baritones always look confused. When all four are in tune, the chords ring, and that ring is what we're all chasing.

The Society was founded in 1938 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by two men named O. C. Cash and Rupert Hall, who wanted to keep the old close harmony from dying out. It has chapters all over North America now, with its headquarters, Harmony Hall, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. And if you've seen The Music Man, you've heard a real barbershop quartet: the Buffalo Bills, who won the Society's international quartet championship in 1950, played the school board on Broadway and in the movie.

Singing Valentines: Every February 14 our quartets deliver a love song, a rose and a card to your sweetheart at work, at home, or once, memorably, at the dentist's office. We'll take orders starting in January. It's our biggest fundraiser of the year, and the most fun.