Chord

I have written about my love for barbershop music on this blog many times over the years.  As one could imagine, this is largely an 'underground' genre...while it has a large and devoted following, you don't hear of the relevant quartets in the mainstream media, ever.  So 99% of the releases out there are private press, they were paid for (studio time, pressing, etc) by the members of the quartet.  But there is one exception.

Chord was a record label out of San Antonio Texas in the early 60s.  The man behind the curtain was Mike McCord, who was a lifetime barbershopper himself, active in many quartets and choruses.  He selected some of the biggest and his most favorite quartets and released full length LPs for a number of years.  There are a total of 18 releases across two 'series', I discovered and researched these through countless eBay deep dives.  After a long period, I was finally able to acquire all 18 myself via that method.  It was rewarding to finally get them all, this huge piece of barbershop history.

I was contacted by none other than by his son (also named Mike) through discogs when he saw I was the person who added most of these releases to the database.  We had a likely conversation through a number of messages and he mentioned that he had access to some old releases that were part of his father's estate!

I didn't hear from him for a number of weeks and thought it was a dead end until one night (I was in a hotel in Louisana) when I got a discogs message with his phone number asking me to call him.  I didn't hesitate and we talked for quite a spell.  He apologized for the delay and said the box would soon be on it's way.  He told me mostly what I should expect, then he insisted on sending me the load for free and even refused to let me pay for shipping! A short time later, an expertly wrapped parcel arrived! 

As expected, I got a motherlode!

• I got a number of Sweet Adelines competition albums I was missing: 1956, 1957, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1973, 1984.  I already had a couple but this was huge.  1963 I had never even seen before so that had to be added to the DB
• Got a sealed copy of the Golden Staters album I had seen so many times before (but did not own)
• Got a reissue/comp I had seen before but did not own, quite a rarity (I already own the original issues, on Chord, of course)
• Got a spare copy of a Gaynotes album I already had, but never hurts to have two for something this rare! (Ironically I already owned two copies of the other album for the same reason!)
• Speaking of the Gaynotes (Mike said he thought of Mo Rector as his uncle when he was growing up - wow!), I also got the original private press issue of their first album, this is a holy grail and probably the biggest score of the box.
• Got a few more SPEBSQSA competition albums I didnt have ('56, '58, '59)
• From the same era, got the Play Tonics album 
• A previously unknown Saints LP!
• Got duplicate copies for 14 of the 18 Chord releases (again, I already had the entire discography).  Why would I want duplicates? BECAUSE THESE WERE PERSONAL COPIES OF THE PERSON WHO OWNED THE LABEL!!!

But probably the greatest score of all was a previously unknown Chord release! It is unique in a few ways: it is a 10" (everything else was an LP) and it is actually a regional Sweet Adelines album! How many of these were ever pressed I do not know, but I'd bet pretty few.  What an unbelievable score!

Just goes to show you: networking is key! Discogs has netted me some cool stuff before but nothing like this.  However I almost treasure even more the chance to have a long telephone conversation with the son of the founder of a historic record label - I am very fortunate.  Thank you Mike!

more barbershop

Well it sure has been a slow May.  I got down to Texas but missed opportunities to check out a record store in downtown Dallas and more.  I did stop into a thrift store in Plano Texas but they had no vinyl.  I made it back to Buffalo NY as well as the Detroit area but I've covered those areas before.  However I do have some interesting 'mailbag' topics that relate once again to my extensive documentation of barbershop vinyl.

As a kid I had a couple Shel Silverstein books and more recently I've watched my girlfriend's daughter discover his work.  This message was a real thrill to get.  I knew the album referenced right away and knew I did not have it but excitedly wrote back regarding the Four Renegades album where the arrangement was born, as well as the Vagabonds album where I first noticed this song.  Alas, I was told that they already had those albums in the archive.  Especially painful since I have not one but two spares copies of the Four Renegades record.  So I am keeping a keen eye on ebay hoping to find this one so that I might donate it.

I got this message quite a while ago as you can see here but never mentioned it.  The only thing better perhaps than an autographed copy is knowing you made this kind of contribution and got to chat (albeit electronically) with someone who knew the quartet closely.

The ghosts of barbershop's past.....

I am fairly confident I have the biggest and/or best collection of barbershop vinyl on the planet.  It started so long ago as it often does, in Michigan.  That state is home to some of the best quartets the world has ever known.  After waiting years and begging, discogs added barbershop as a style which led to some serious retrofitting of existing releases in the database. So at this point I have added 372 barbershop releases to the database.  But it also allows me to search my own collection, which looks like it is at 122 at the moment.  Not bad!  I have a mostly complete list at barbershopwiki.com that shows where I grabbed the individual platters.

This afternoon I recieved an interesting PM on discogs.  It was from a person who was aching to hear a specific (and relatively obscure) barbershop LP,. because a loved on performed on it so long ago and alas, they are no longer with us.  This has happend once before.  In both instances, the original request was to see if I would sell the LP.  I'd probably say no regardless but in both instances they were super rare LPs that I fought long and hard to attain.  But because I truly feel full of joy to share the music, I offered to rip the vinyl and put it in Google Drive so it could be downloaded.

Today's requester comes from eastern Ohio and has an interest in a Chord records quartet.  I have the entire Chord discography (including the 'handsome leather embossed album folder' which was available with series I) and this LP was one of the toughest to find.  I doubt I've ever even put it on but I did today.  Then I did a quick rip of the live songs performed on the annual competition albums.  Luckily, I do own all three that they performed on, I recorded these as a quick continuous mix.

I had to ask this person for some info on why they were so interested in this record and got an interesting response:

As I said above, this came up once before, at the beginning of the year.  I gladly ripped the album, the live competition songs and shared them at once to much delight of the person asking.  I recently found out that this quartet has another LP and even more recently I got a copy.  I sent the person a PM asking if they were interested but got no response.  No doubt, with their mission fulfilled, they have abandoned their discogs account.

I have over 700 LPs, no doubt people have many more than that, but even someone with half of what I own will be hard pressed to listen to them all.  So it is an easy wish to grant, to help someone who earnestly seems to miss someone and this old album, carefully bagged and organized on my shelf is the only link.  In the case of the album discussed today, it is over 50 years old! How many others are still in circulation? Very few, surely.  Glad I could immortalize it for someone special.