Up Above My Head, partial version

Here are the Blufftones performing at the Onalaska United Methodist Church for the visiting Koreans. Just a snippet of our first song...

That's Ron Adams, bass, Ken Steiger, Lead, Mark Bertrang, baritone, your's truly, Tenor, and Doug Huggett, bass.

Pastor Kim joined us for a couple of songs as well on lead.

We sure enjoy singing, both gospel and barbershop!

Little known fact: Barbershop singing began in the 1880's in the American South. The rage at the time was for 3 part, close harmony men's singing from Europe. (Think an early version of "The Three Tenors").

African Americans liked the sound of this close harmony singing, and began experimenting with it in... Barbershops! (Barbershops were the men's "hang outs" of the time! And most barbers in the South back then were African American men. So, in between haircuts, (and probably during, as well!), the resident men would harmonize to the popular songs of the day. They would experiment with different chords and voicings. Eventually, they settled on 4 parts, with the 4th voice providing the 7th chord, which is a "blue" sounding note.

This is why the chords of barbershop (and it's close relative and predecessor, gospel) sound so rich and full.