Anne Arundel Barbershop Quartet Brings Home Championship Title

In the region’s largest barbershop singing competition, Annapolis-based barbershop quartet Last Men Standing came out on top--but not without some stiff competition.

The contestants at the Barbershop Harmony Society’s annual Mid-Atlantic District Convention on Oct. 24 and 25 was some of the best talent from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, D.C., Virginia, Delaware, and West Virginia.

Formed last September, Last Men Standing debuted in July at the society’s International Championship in Las Vegas, placing 29th against quartets all the way from New Zealand, Great Britain and Sweden.

Qualifying with tunes like “ Sailin’ Away on the Henry Clay,” Last Men Standing was one of eight from the Mid-Atlantic region to receive an invitation to the international championship, which accepts only 50 quartets worldwide.

The members of Last Men Standing are especially excited to have earned the district title considering their division’s immense and internationally recognized talent, the quartet’s tenor singer TJ Barranger told Patch in an interview. The foursome’s remaining members include lead singer Drew Feyrer, baritone Edward Bell, II, and bass singer Mike Kelly, who earned district titles with two other quartets.

The group came out strong in the district semifinals, performing a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “All the Way” and a medley from My Fair Lady. “ ‘All the Way’ is that one song that we can go out no matter how tired we are, no matter how distracted we are, we can go out there and sing the living heck out of it,” Barranger said. “We decided to put that one first and really set the bar as high as possible.”

Scoring even higher with their final performance, Last Men Standing sang Hank Williams’s “Hey Good Lookin’” and “Queen of the Senior Prom” by the Mills Brothers.

According to championship regulations, Last Men Standing can no longer compete at the Mid-Atlantic District level having already won the title, but their run is far from over; the group has their sights set on breaking into the top 20 rankings at the 2015 International Quartet Competition.

“That’s the big goal for next year,” Barranger said. “But it’s a crowded field and it gets harder every year.”

Talented competitors are only a part of the challenge, since a quartet’s true opponent is their critical evaluation.

“[Barbershop] judges and [their] judging system is the most unified, most objective and most accurately measured judging system in the world for any kind of amateur music style,” Barranger explained.

Adjudicators undergo three years of training to sit on the judges’ panel, where there can be anywhere from six to 15 experts critiquing a quartet’s performance. Judges assign scores from zero to 100, rankings that are measured against category standards for music, presentation and singing.

With a larger panel, it’s rare to earn a perfect score. At their top spot in both the semifinals and finals, Last Men Standing earned composite scores of 78.6 and 79.3, respectively, and out-scored competitors by just tenths of a point.

Last Men Standing’s first-place success is not the only win for Anne Arundel County to celebrate, however. Barranger is also the musical director of barbershop chorus Sons of the Severn, who placed sixth in the Barbershop Harmony Society’s Mid-Atlantic District Chorus Championship the same weekend. The group will next perform at their annual holiday concert on Saturday, Dec. 20, at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Annapolis.

The group hopes their win will encourage residents to attend a barbershop performance in their area.

“There’s something about listening to barbershop music live that’s unlike listening to any other kind of live music,” Barranger said. “It tends to inspire a real visceral reaction in people. They either absolutely love it, or they don’t quite get it. But it all has to do with how well it’s sung”

To that end, Barranger has found that some of the best barbershop music stems from the right frame of mind, reminding others to “sing with freedom, sing with passion, and sing from the heart.”

Find more music and performance updates from the guys of Last Men Standing on their YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Photo courtesy of Last Men Standing

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