Barbershoppers Will Blend Harmony With Business at Gathering

Nostalgia is not the reason Chuck Crawford sings in a barbershop quartet. His group does not even wear straw hats when they perform.

“We do it for the music,” the 66-year-old award-winning lead singer from Long Beach said. “The way you feel when everyone’s on the right note, the right chord, the right vowel sound. It’s a physical sensation. It’s unlike any other sort of singing.”

Beginning Jan. 27, Crawford will join more than 1,200 barbershop performers and their guests in Long Beach to attend the annual weeklong midwinter gathering of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America. The Hyatt Regency will be the headquarters hotel. The convention culminates with public performances Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.

Barbershop singing started in small-town America before vaudeville with a few men waiting for haircuts. Nearly a century later, it has evolved into a worldwide organization of 36,000 men with chapters in 12 countries.

Crawford and his quartet, Music Works, will compete Feb. 1 with 24 other quartets of seniors--their cumulative ages must exceed 240 years and no member can be younger than 55--for the title of 1992 Senior Quartet Champion.

“As a kid, I sang around the campfire with Boy Scouts. And I used to sing in my date’s ear on the dance floor. But that was it,” Crawford said. His principal date--whom he later married --”told me I had a good voice but I assumed there was a lack of objectivity there.”

When he joined a barbershop group in 1953, Crawford was surprised to have others tell him the same thing. He has been singing ever since. Crawford, now semi-retired from the aerospace industry, finds in barbershop singing the sense of accomplishment he used get from his job.

“Most men get a sense of accomplishment from work,” he said. “As a retired person, you don’t have those responsibilities anymore. With barbershop singing, you stay challenged. You regain that feeling of accomplishment.

“Once you’ve received applause, you’ve obtained something you can’t get anywhere else. That’s why a lot of the older guys don’t want to give up singing. There’s nothing like it.”

George W. Andrews agrees. Andrews sings in the International City Chorus sponsored by the Long Beach chapter, which was chartered in 1939 and is the oldest chapter of barbershop singers in the West. “You get a real sense of satisfaction from the close harmonies,” said the two-time winner of Barbershopper of the Year awards.

The first part of the week will be devoted to business meetings, said Andrews, who is chairman of this convention. The international board of directors will meet to manage the affairs of the society, which has an annual budget of more than $4 million.

Andrews, 76, lives in North Long Beach and is retired after 40 years of operating a milk testing laboratory serving the dairy industry in the Artesia area and beyond.

“When the chords are ringing right, you’ll hear a fifth voice,” said Andrews, who sings baritone. “It buzzes right through you and the audience. That’s real satisfying.”

Like Andrews, Crawford says he probably will never give up singing. “Not till I either run out of voice,” Crawford said, “or run out of living.”

The convention performances will include renditions of standard barbershop tunes such as “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi,” “My Wild Irish Rose,” “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” and “Sleepy Time Gal.”

On Jan. 31 at 8 p.m., the show will feature Long Beach’s International City Chorus, San Diego’s Sun Harbor Chorus, the 1991 seniors quartet champion Old Kids on the Block, the award-winning 139th Street Quartet and The Naturals.

On Feb. 1 at 1 p.m., 25 barbershop quartets made up of seniors will compete for the senior championship. The event is open to the public. At 8 p.m., the winners of the senior championship will perform with the 1990 international champion chorus Masters of Harmony, a group of more than 100 men from the Los Angeles area who make their headquarters in Santa Fe Springs, along with the 1991 international champions The Ritz and award-winning groups Gas House Gang and Keepsake.

The performances take place at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center, Terrace Theater, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Tickets for the 1 p.m. competition Feb. 1 cost $7.50. Tickets for the 8 p.m. shows cost $15 for orchestra and loge or $12 for balcony, and are available by calling (800) 876-7464 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or (310) 430-5258.