Live from Nashville – Part “last”
October 25, 2009
Beautiful scenic drive in Tennessee
Once again this blog finds us driving through Tennessee and Virginia and surfing the internet at the same time with the cool USB internet thingy. Excellent! :-) We thought we’d wrap up our series with some final thoughts from the week.
I was really impressed by the high quality of Barbershop singing we heard all week long, especially in the quartet contest. I think it was great how well all of the quartets represented their home regions. Every one from 1st to 52nd place had every reason to be proud of their performances. With any luck, you’ll see Lustre up there sometime (hopefully soon!).
I LOVED the town of Nashville. Having never been there before, I found it to be welcoming, easy to have fun in, and with lots of character (and characters!). Loved the downtown “honky tonk” area, where we found ourselves pretty much every evening this week! Unlike some cities, I really felt that the town welcomed tourists, and I never felt out of place in any of the restaurants or clubs we visited. I really enjoyed the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, maybe more than I thought I would. I found stuff in there that reminded me of the music I grew up with: my dad’s love of singers like Willie, Waylon, and Roger Miller, and my mom’s love of the singers like Reba and the Judds. Lots of history there, and it was a treat to visit it.
Of course we had a ton of fun with our Sweet Adelines sisters, all 8,000 of them that took over the town. We shopped, we ate, we shopped some more, and we ate some more. We sang a little, we laughed a lot, and came home full of harmony.
Oh! can’t forget – we scoped out some really good music for potential new songs for Lustre. We have about 25 new songs coming to us via mail when we get home, and we are sure that some of these will find a home in our repertoire. Listen for new tunes soon!
Beautiful scenic drive in Virginia
As we finish the long but beautiful drive home, we have some random observations and statistics:
- Virginia is STILL one humongo state!
- We love that the truck drivers honked at us every time we asked them today.
- There were only 3 state troopers spotted today, luckily none of them flashing their lights behind us!
- We will have driven about 1,400 miles on this trip, and we never got bored of being in the car! That USB thingy combined with a well-filled iPod really made a great difference!
OK, so, back to the real world tomorrow. Thanks for following our adventures this week. Look for more Lustre news and info coming soon!
Lori and Jenny on a stretch break in the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia
<<— See Part 7
Live from Nashville – Part 7
October 25, 2009
It’s our last full day in Nashville for the SAI International Convention and Competition. We had one goal for the day: Get a photo of Lustre with our friends from Capri and a.k.a., our HCMC sisters from the International Quartet Contest. We got up and set off on our mission. First: sustenance (yum – “tater egg bake” and cheddar biscuits!!) Next: shopping at the convention sales boutique for quite a while – lots of good music to be purchased in both sheet music and CD forms. Can’t wait to sing/listen/sing while listening in the car ride home.
We had a nice opportunity to hang out with Michael, our favorite director and arranger, over a good cup of coffee/mocha/hot chocolate/tea, on our way to take group photos with HCMC . Scott Disney, Capri husband and our HCMC official photographer-of-the-day, risked life and limb and stopped traffic to get just the perfect shot(s).
We were so happy to finally!!!! get a photo of Lustre with our dear friend Sue Taylor of a.k.a.
We waited quite a while for all eight of us to be in the same place at once, but finally also got a great shot of Lustre with Capri.
Capri and Lustre - together with the magic of Photoshop
OK, maybe not. ;-)
Up next: the SAI Chorus Finals Competition. What can we say? It was great! We enjoyed all of the performances and especially were happy to see our friends on stage with Lions Gate (Hi Melissa and Heather!!!) and with Coastline (Hi Maxx Factor!!!). Great performances all around. Congrats to the Audience faves, Lions Gate, and to the big winners… Rich-Tones!
Stats for today:
- Crown sightings: 97
- New earrings purchased for the quartet: 10 (how many ears in your quartet????)
- Friends awarded their SAI 50-year Membership Pin: 2 – Shirley Kaufmann and Norma Moore – Congrats to these and all of the 21 others!
- Pounds of bison consumed: 1.5
OK, time for bed, after all it has been quite a week and we have an early wake up call for our travels home tomorrow. We hope you have enjoyed our travel blog this week. We will be back in regular quartet business starting next week.
Thanks to all our Nashville friends! See you in Seattle!
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<<— See Part 6 —>> See Part “Last”
Live from Nashville – Part 6
October 24, 2009
Once again, wow!
The quartet final competition was held in Nashville today. It’s really hard to describe how talented all the women are who performed in today’s contest. It’s even more amazing to realize that all of these fantastic singers are “only” hobbyists – they all have other lives to which they will return on Monday, other jobs or roles in life that take their attention. So it’s simply amazing that they can perform at such professional standards. It’s a real testament to their natural talents and gifts. All of the singers today deserve the heartiest congratulations for a job well done!
View of stage from our section
How did our “local favorites” do in the contest? Capri finished in 6th place, and Maxx Factor finished in third. The big winners was Zing! quartet. For full results you can visit the SAI Website. Congratulations to all!
After today’s contest we met up with some other HCMC sisters and ate a really great dinner at a local Irish pub/restaurant on 2nd Avenue here in downtown Nashville. Yum! Then we moved down the street to a local honky tonk for a little while, then on to a dueling piano bar on Broadway. It was a lot of fun! and I’ll admit that right now my ears are ringing a bit from the loud music, but we enjoyed a really fun evening with friends.
The Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar
Up tomorrow: we’ll watch the chorus finals contest and enjoy our last full day in Nashville. It’s been quite a week full of barbershop and lots of other kinds of music here in Music City.
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<<— See Part 5 —>> See Part 7
Live from Nashville – Part 5
October 23, 2009
Thursday was another fantastic day in Nashville – we have so many reasons to be happy!
First, we had no alarm clock! :-) The chorus was competing so late in the day that our schedule was very relaxed and we got lots of sleep. The whole day was very low-key in preparation for our performance on stage at 6:52pm Central time.
Another great thing: Laura came to join us in Nashville. We are officially a quartet again! Yay!
We're all here!
The performance itself for HCMC was really great – we walked off stage feeling really good about how we had done. The crowd was full in the arena, and there’s just nothing like singing before an audience of 10,000 people! We got lots of great comments from audience members after our performance, on our singing and also on our new costumes. HCMC once again showed how unique and original we are, and it really felt great!
At the end, HCMC was announced as the winners of the Harmony Achievement Award, given to the highest-scoring small chorus in the contest. Woo-hoo!!!!! As a small chorus, it can sometimes feel like it’s difficult to achieve success in this competition, which has definitely turned into a “mega-chorus” event, and the top 10 Finals is dominated by large choruses with 90+ members. So winning the Harmony Achievement Award really is special for us, as it shows that in our peer group, we are tops!
Some stats for today:
- Members of our quartet in Nashville now: Four (Yay!)
- Hours of sleep before our contest performance: plenty!
- Rhinestones that sparkled on stage on our new costumes: about 70,000
- Magical minutes on stage: Six
Celebration cake!
What a great day it was!
Next up: Friday’s Quartet Finals. We’ll be listening closely to our friends in a.k.a., who are mic testers, and Capri and Maxx Factor, who both are in the Finals competition. We wish you all the luck in the world!
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<<— See Part 4 —>> See Part 6
Live from Nashville – Part 4
October 22, 2009
Day one of contest – it’s what we’re here for, and it did not disappoint! We had 52 competing quartets in the quartet contest today. And wow, they all did a great job. Admittedly, we didn’t hear all of them sing – after all, a girl’s gotta eat! (and shop for sequins). But we made sure to hear our Region 19 friends, and they all did a great job!
Here is the order of appearance for the Quartet Finals on Friday afternoon:
1 Spritzer
2 Razzcals
3 Mojo
4 Maxx Factor
5 Capri
6 Journey
7 Remix
8 Martini
9 Jackpot
10 Zing
We are so thrilled for a.k.a., who came in at 11th place and so will be the mic testers for Friday’s Finals, meaning that they get the opportunity to perform their finals set for the audience. What a thrill! And of course, congrats go out to Maxx Factor and Capri, for making the top 10. They’re going to knock the socks off of the judges on Friday!
Some more daily stats:
- Number of quartets competed today: 52
- Most frequently sung up-tune: ”It’s a Sin To Tell A Lie”
- Most frequently sung ballad: “I Never Meant to Fall in Love”
- Key lyric of the day: ”Heart”
- Number of songs we’d never heard at contest before: three (out of 104!)
Up next tomorrow: Chorus Contest, baby! Harbor City will be competing at 6:52pm Central time – check us out on the SAI webcast!
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<<— See Part 3 —>> See Part 5
Live from Nashville – Part 3
October 21, 2009
Woohoo – today we celebrated the arrival of Lori D, our baritone. Now we have three of us here in Nashville, and can’t wait until Laura arrives later this week to make it an official quartet outing!
Today was filled with a little sight-seeing, a little shopping, a little lounging, and then we kicked it into high-gear with the first HCMC rehearsal of the week. It was really great to gather the HCMC folks together in one place, catch up on our sightseeing adventures, and begin to get into our contest groove. The chorus rehearsed for about two hours tonight, and will gather for more rehearsals tomorrow.
Also tomorrow is the Quartet SemiFinals round. We hope that our friends in Capri, a.k.a., Maxx Factor, Surround Sound, and The Fource will do well and get into the top 10 for the Finals round on Friday. For those of you who aren’t in Nashville for the event, you can watch the contest live via webcast at the SAI website. The event begins at 10:45am Central time.
Well, I think we’re gonna end this blog entry here, since it’s late, and we have an early call for rehearsal tomorrow morning. Check back with us for more live updates from Nashville throughout the week!
Our 3rd arrives...only one more
Ryman Auditorium
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<<— See Part 2 —>> See Part 4
Live from Nashville – Part 2
October 20, 2009
What a great day in Nashville! Lori C. and I have been enjoying the sights and sounds of Music City all day. We did the touristy thing this morning, walking around downtown taking pictures of all kinds of sights. We took the trolley tour around the city to get our bearings, and we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Definitely worth a visit if you’ve never been there.
While out and about we ran into some of our friends from back home – here’s a shout-out to Donna C and Kathy R from HCMC, and Melissa B and Heather M from Sugartown Quartet. Great seeing you today! We also stopped by to visit our friends in Capri Quartet, and had the great fortune to listen in on their rehearsal. Even without their lead here yet, they still sound fantastic! And we sang a couple songs with them, just enough to say that we had sung something today. Later we ran into our friends from Surround Sound Quartet, and they sang a song for us. Sounds great, girls!
This evening after dinner, Lori and I walked up and down Broadway in the honky tonk district, looking for just the right club to visit. We chose Legends Corner, a great little bar right across from the Convention Center. At one point, a short guy in a black western suit and black cowboy hat walked in, followed by a huge guy in a similar black suit and hat. I joked to Lori “Hey, look, Kenny Chesney just walked in with his body guard!” Well, nope, not Kenny Chesney, but it was John Rich and Big Kenny, of the country group “Big and Rich”. Wow! John Rich got up and sang a couple songs with the house band, and then sang his new single “Shuttin’ Detroit Down”. The crowd really got rowdy when he sang the Big and Rich hit, “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.”
Some daily stats for you:
- Miles walked: about 5
- Rhinestones on costumes in CM HoF: about 14,000,002 (and the SAI contest hasn’t even begun!)
- Tourist gift shops visited: about 5
- Tourist gift shops passed by: about 27
- Elvis memorabilia items on display: too many to count
- Street guitarists: about 10
- Famous singer sightings: 6 (2 country stars and 4 Queens of Harmony)
What a great day in Music City!
Lori swoons for Elvis
Jenny tries on a tiara - Nashville-style
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<<— See Part 1 —>> See Part 3
Live from Nashville – Part 1
October 18, 2009
… well sort of. We’re on our way, anyway. Welcome to the first installment of our daily updates from the SAI International Competition in Nashville, TN.
Lori and Jenny enjoying the ride
Lori and I are driving through the beautiful hills of Virginia on our way to Nashville for a week of barbershop bliss! We left Maryland this morning in a cold, foggy mess, and have been in Virginia FOREVER!!! (this is one humongo state!) We’ve seen about 423 state troopers … oops, there’s the 424th one. Thank goodness for cruise control!
On our trip today we’ve taken advantage of Lori’s cool Verizon Wireless USB Internet thingy so we can surf the web while we drive. Lori spent some time looking up statistics for the competing quartets later this week – who has scored what at regional, who is in the running for the top 10, and who will take the crown. It looks great for our Region 19 friends.
Speaking of statistics, here are some of ours:
- Miles logged: 354.3 (so far)
- Average speed: 56.8 MPH
- Gas refills: 1
- State troopers: 427 (so far)
- Blue skies seen: 22 sq. ft.
- Truckers who honk at our command: 66% of those asked
- Sing along songs on our favorite playlists: all
We hope to be in Nashville by dinner time, and hope to meet up with some of our SAI friends. If you’re in town, let us know!
Tomorrow: who knows. Maybe the Ryman Auditorium, maybe the Country Music Hall of Fame. Any suggestions? Let us know!
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>> See Part 2
Quartets We’re Watching in Nashville
October 11, 2009
As you know, we are headed to Nashville later this month for the 2009 SAI Convention and Competition, where Lori, Lori and I will compete as members of HCMC in the Chorus competition. But in addition to that event, we can’t wait to watch the quartet competition, to cheer on our sister quartets from HCMC and around Region 19. Each of these quartets have been preparing all year long for this event, and each hopes to win the title of “Queens of Harmony.”
- Capri, whose members all hail from HCMC, is the current SAI International 5th Place quartet, and have spent five years in a row in the SAI Top Ten. Last year Capri also picked up the Audience Favorite award for the second year in a row. We can’t wait to hear them again!
- a.k.a. quartet, whose tenor Sue Taylor sings with HCMC, will be returning to the International competition for a second year. The members of a.k.a. live all across the East Coast of the US, and they are the current SAI Region 15 First Place quartet. They have a new Lead singer this year, and we are excited to hear them compete on the international stage with their new sound.
- MAXX Factor is another fantastic quartet from Region 19. After winning the Region 19 First Place medal in the spring of 2008, they competed last year in the International competition for the first time, and finished in 4th place – a spectacular result for their first time out! In May 2009 they also won the National Harmony Sweepstakes competition, an event geared toward all types of a cappella music. MAXX Factor is sure to do well in Nashville this year.
- The Fource, whose lead Diane Kelley is a former member of HCMC, returns to the International competition for their second year. The Fource is the current Region 19 First Place medalist quartet. They have a new Bass singer since last year’s International performance, and we’re really looking forward to hearing them on stage in Nashville.
- Surround Sound quartet is the Region 14 First Place winner, but half of their members hail from Region 19 choruses. Baritone Sandy Knapp is formerly from HCMC and now sings in Region 19′s Pride of Baltimore chorus with Bass Judy Hassan. Surround Sound wowed them down in Region 14 this past spring, winning First Place on their first time on the competition stage together!
We wish all of these quartets with Region 19 ties the best of luck in their performances! We’ll be cheering for you!
The SAI Quartet Competitions on Wednesday Oct 21 and Friday Oct 23 will be broadcast via free webcast on the SAI Website. Click here to tune in!
Another busy performance week
October 10, 2009
It’s been another busy performance week for Lustre, as we’ve had the great pleasure of entertaining a variety of audiences three times in the past 8 days.
Last Saturday, Oct 3rd, we were so pleased to be the guest quartet on the Heart of Maryland chapter show. What a wonderful group of women this chorus is! 
We were so thrilled to be invited to our first ever “feature” performance on a barbershop chapter show. We even took a self-portrait picture from the stage to commemorate the event! The ladies of HoM were incredibly gracious, they put on a fun show, and we were so pleased to be a part of it. Thanks, Hearts, or inviting us!
On Monday, Oct 5, we gave a private performance for the Scimeter Club of the local Shriners organization. The Shriners do so much good charitable work in local communities all over the country. It was our pleasure to perform for them at their “ladies night” dinner. We have been invited back to perform for them at Christmas time, and we are looking forward to it!
On Wednesday Oct 7, three-fourths of Lustre joined forces with the Tenor of a.k.a quartet to entertain at the Harbor City Music Company Friends and Family send-off. The F&F event is a tradition for chorus to perform in a “dress rehearsal” mode prior to heading off to competition. As you know HCMC is competing at the SAI International Competition later this month in Nashville, as are the champion quartets from our region. (Read more about that here.) So “a.k.Lustre”, as we call ourselves in this configuration, sang three short sets during costume changes for the other performers. What a fun thing it is to sing with others in the hobby, and to support our sister quartets in their run for the gold.
As the month winds down, we’re focusing more on the HCMC Nashville event, and taking a bit of a break from the quartet setting. So it was nice to have such a rich set of quartet opportunities to start off the month. When we come back from Nashville, we’ll be gearing up for the Holidays… Fa la la la la, la la la la!