We had a fantastic rehearsal last night! We have two main warm up drills that we use, and it usually takes us 5-10 minutes (sometimes longer) to get going and get our voices blending. But last night, holy cow. We hit the ground running. We did one warm-up, then went right into “That’s An Irish Lullabye”. This is a song that we had in our repertoire a number of years ago, and we just dusted it off last month.

And if I have to say so myself, it sounded great (the goosebumps were plentiful). I love singing with Brian, Chris and Kelly. We get along quite well (we don’t tell Chris that we actually don’t like him), and when we click, we click. We were listening to each other very well last night, and every chord was ringing.

We’re preparing for the Fox Valleyaires annual show, where we’ll do “Frog Kissin’”. This is a very fun song that we just added a bit of interp to, and I think we’ll have a blast singing it.

By the time rehearsal was over, it was obvious that we were singing best when we just relaxed, didn’t think too hard, and just enjoyed it.  Of course our rehearsal had to end with us watching the NCAA basketball championship on TV (Kansas beat Memphis).

We have a lot of fun when we’re together, and we hope that you’ll join us at the show in Appleton on Saturday.

Looking forward to singing again with the guys tonight. We were off last week as I was in Columbus Ohio on business at Grange Insurance, and Scott was rebuilding houses and stuff in New Orleans with members of his church, Our Lady of Lourdes in DePere WI. As for Brian and Kelly…they were probably practicing their music day and night in preparation for tonight’s rehearsal. (yeah right) Anyways, I’m excited to get back to learning some new songs for our repertoire, and ringing some sweet barbershop chords. Check out our quartet schedule page for a couple of shows we have coming up later this spring.
Later days, Chris

We spent this evening at open mic night at the Cup O’ Joy. What fun. We had done this a few months ago, so tonight was our second time there.

The Cup is a Christian coffee house in downtown Green Bay. It’s a great place to take the family and experience God’s love. No admission charge. No alcohol. No smoking. No sad faces. They have performers there from around the country every weekend.

The Cup is supported entirely by free will donations. And it’s truly free will. If you can’t give, you are still encouraged to give by your presence. What a great place to experience the power of faith in our lives. I’m Catholic, and I consider myself a pretty religious person. I pray a lot. I attend Mass every week. But there’s still something about the Cup, that makes me connect with Jesus. So tonight was special.

You never know who you’re going to see at open mic night. I hate to mention just one, for fear that the others may feel excluded. But tonight, I really enjoyed the music of Coty Sloan. It’s different. Coty plays the violin, so his CD, Melodies of the Spirit, is instrumental. And it’s very good stuff. Very peaceful and moving. You should check it out.

We had our first major snow storm of the year today, and I love it!

Today, we sang the national anthem at the UWGB women’s basketball game. This was one of those gigs where we had to drive through the winter weather to get there. No canceling out. No staying home due to snow. Ya gotta go. We all made it, and it was a great opportunity to sing in the new Kress Events Center. What a nice facility.

One of the coolest things about being a member of GQ4 is the fact that we start preparing for the Christmas season in September. At our last rehearsal, we sang about a half-dozen Christmas songs. Though it’s been a while, our memories were quite good and we nailed some really nice chords. It seems a shame that without the quartet, I’d only be “singing” these songs for a couple of weeks in December.

We’re adding “Let It Snow” to our repertoire this year. I love the snow, and I like it when the weather outside is frightful. Some folks here in Wisconsin don’t agree with me though. It seems that the TV weather people are always referring to cold temperatures and snow as “bad weather”. What’s up with that?

I was born and raised here in northeast Wisconsin. As a young adult, I lived in southern California for 12 years. That weather is boring. Sure, the sun is nice, don’t get me wrong. But a change of seasons keeps life interesting.

The fall colors are upon us now. The third week in October (when the colors are the most vibrant) is just around the corner.

Bring it on! Let it snow!

It was a great night at Joannes Baseball Stadium tonight! The Green Bay Bullfrogs defeated the Battle Creek Bombers 6-5 (11 innings) in the Bullfrogs’ inaugural home opener. The players were introduced amid fireworks. Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt threw out the first pitch. And GQ4 was honored once again to perform the Star Spangled Banner in front of 1,311 fans. The night concluded with a spectacular fireworks show, and the Green Bay fans went home having had a great night at the park.

Jeff Royle, Bullfrogs’ majority owner & president, has assembled a great staff, and all aspects of the game seemed to go quite smoothly. The stadium looks great, they’ve really done a great job fixing the place up.

But the best part of the whole experience is the ticket prices. It’s so tough to bring a family to any entertainment venue now-a-days, and the Bullfrogs games are a welcome relief. General admission is only $5. The most expensive seat is $7. The concessions are very reasonably prices. Baseball caps are only $15. The Bullfrogs are going to be around for many years to come, and we’re glad to have been part of of this special evening.

We just booked a date to sing the national anthem for an exciting sporting event. The Green Bay Bullfrogs, a brand new baseball franchise in the Northwoods League, are starting play in Green Bay on Monday, June 4, 2007 against the Battle Creek Bombers. And we’ll be there, sharing our pride and patriotism with the crowd, by singing the Star Spangled Banner.

There is so much excitement in the community about the Bullfrogs starting play. This is a summer collegiate league, with players coming from colleges from all over the country. We hope you’ll join us for this exciting inaugural game at historic Joannes Stadium.

Grip It & Ribbit!

A LOT of things had to come together for GQ4 on April 9 and 10 to make this rare opportunity a reality. We created a bit of our own good fortune. Made our own luck.- Just last week I mentioned that we should go to other major league teams, since we haven’t gotten through to the Packers yet, to perform anthems. HAH! Another team came to Wisconsin! How unlikely is THAT!?!

- Not only unlikely, but it’s also the FAVORITE MLB team of the Crevier’s! Scott proclaims his wife is the “biggest Angels fan in Wisconsin”.

- I caught the “breaking news” from a Milwaukee radio station (that I’ve only listened to 2 or 3 times in the last 3 or 4 years) while I was driving to McD’s and back to work which was about 8 minutes of radio time.

- While in the drive thru, I text messaged Scott from my cell phone regarding the game, and maybe they needed an anthem singer since it was such short notice. I didn’t really think much of it, at least not seriously, that we could get in on the anthem for this game.

- He got my message and was taking the day off from work! If he would have had to work Monday, I don’t know that this would have been able to happen as it has, if at all. It was tremendously fortunate that he was off.

- The Brewers were away, playing in Florida.

- If the Milwaukee Brewers ticket/promotion manager had not picked up the phone when Scott called, this easily could have stalled or not happened at all. Scott has called her before only to get voicemail.

- A minor ticket count issue, to be resolved on Game Day. Thanks Scott!

- Six of our nine children, and two of our spouses will be accompanying us to the game. Cool!

- I’m still surprised we all got off with such short notice.

- We’re really looking forward to this fun, momentous occasion.

For a group of guys who sings our national anthem at many sporting events, the ultimate privilege is to do it at a major league sporting event. NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL. The big time.

That opportunity just fell into our lap for tonight. The Anaheim Angels (yes, that’s the correct name) and the Cleveland Indians were scheduled to start a 3-game series tonight in Cleveland. But due to all the snow falling in Cleveland, they moved the series to Miller Park in Milwaukee (121 miles from my driveway), a stadium with a dome. Miller Park is home to the Brewers, who are in Florida this week.

My wife, being from Southern California, is the biggest Angel fan in Wisconsin. So, we decided to pack up the family (the kids are still on Easter break) and head south. Then Brian wondered if maybe they need a national anthem singer. A couple of phone calls later, we’re booked.

So the four of us are heading down to the cream city with 9 family members, and we’ll perform the Star Spangled Banner for the crowd at Miller Park tonight. According to an article I read, they’re selling tickets to the game for $10. Sounds like a great deal. Can’t wait to see the Angels.

Many folks don’t realize that the four of us are always working to perfect our craft. Our specialty of course is 4 part a cappella harmony. We learn music on our own and we rehearse together every Monday night. But in addition to the typical regular rehearsing that you would expect of any musician, we also schedule several sessions every year with various coaches who help us identify ways to make our performance better.

Today was such a day. Our first coaching sessions of 2007 were in Stevens Point today. Three well-respected musicians in the barbershop world made themselves available to four of us quartets from various parts of Wisconsin.

Our coaching concept is quite simple. We take in all kinds of feedback from any coaches we can. We take notes and make audio recordings of the sessions. When we get back to our next regular rehearsal, we pick through all of the feedback and decide what suggestions we’ll use to improve our performance. The instruction from today’s coaches made the 186 mile round trip well worth it.

Gary Thiel worked with us on “I’ll Fly Away” and “Turn Your Radio On”. Gary is the director of the Northern Gateway Chorus in Stevens Point, and was the tenor in Command Performance, the 1980 LOL District Champion Quartet. Dan Heike worked with us on “Circus Clown” and “Frog Kissin’”. Dan is a singing judge candidate and was the lead of Midnite Watchmen, the 2002 LOL District Champions. Bob Haase worked with us on “My Wild Irish Rose”. Bob is the baritone of Perfect Timing, the 2006 LOL District Senior Quartet Champions, and was also the bass in Badg-aires, the 1962 LOL District Champions. We can’t thank these three guys enough for giving us their time and sharing their talents and expertise with us. We also appreciate the efforts of Jack Edgerton who organized the day and arranged for these coaches to be there.

Our performance will soon reflect the great work of these fine gentlemen.