Customer Reviews

1992 Top 20 Barbershop Quartets

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The tight ensemble, blend, and control these groups demonstrate ranges from excellent to astounding! You'd have to seek out the best classical chamber groups to hear anything comparable. But be advised, all 25 cuts on this disc really are authentic traditional barbershop. I suppose that the hardcore afficionados - and their numbers seem to be growing - will be thrilled. As a more casual fan, however, I found that the absence of the inventive harmonies, complex rhythms, and (cheap) humor of the more contemporary urban, collegiate, or jazz oriented acapella groups made this disc grow rather boring when played straight through.

First, a little background: Each July, Barbershop quartets from all over the USA (and a few from Canada) meet in some city for their annual convention. The most important part of the convention is the competition for the Gold Medal Quartet of the year.

Each year, SPEBSQSA puts out a recording of performances of the quartets who finish in the top 20. All the singing is live, and all part of the competition, so there is no studio touching-up here. (The cuts are arranged on the recording in order of where each quartet placed in the top 20.) This year, Keepsake won the Gold, but that doesn't necessarily mean that these performances are head-and-shoulders above the rest. The standard of excellence at this level of competition is very high, with some individual cuts ("Sweet Georgia Brown", "If You Were the Only Girl", and "Last Night Was the End of the World") being every bit as terrific as the performances by the winners.

I will readily admit that genuine barbershop music, as is found on all of these "Top 20 Quartets" CDs, is a bit of an acquired taste. You never hear this stuff on the radio. But if you get hooked, look out -- you'll be looking for every Barbershop CD you can get your hands on.