Then the last song came and one of the gentleman
(Lyle Hanson) stepped forward and said, "If there are any men out there
that would like to learn to sing this style of music just stop up and
talk to one of us, we won't bite." Remembering the music I heard Russ
singing, I couldn't get up there fast enough. And quite honestly, I
wouldn't have cared if they did bite. I was going to learn to sing
barbershop!!!
That day, I met my other barbershop mentor, Kelly Brummett. Kelly
asked if I could sing, and really I had no clue as it had always been a
real struggle for me to sing if someone was singing different notes
than I was singing. Kelly was not dissuaded by my misgivings
and grabbed 2 of the other guys from 'Smorgaschord' (Dave Conrad and
Steve Heald) and he taught me the "Sleepy Time" tag. I did my best to
glom onto my two solitary notes in the tag. When we made it through
the series of chords Kelly told me how good it was and although I'm not
sure on the point, I am sure that I was hooked! I wanted to sing
barbershop and I wanted to sing in a quartet! Little did I know that
in the not too distant future that I would be singing lead in
Chordiology with Kelly Brummet singing tenor, Rob Pettigrew singing
baritone and that “Long Drink of Water", Dave Spizarny, singing bass
--- and all this thanks to Russ' prompting.
Year after year Chordiology would go to Convention and it was always
exciting for me to see Russ there. And even though Russ
was revered by
many and also was one of the Big Men on Campus, he
always had time for
me and always remembered our conversation that day in the Ren
Cen. He
would ask how I was, would want to hear a song and would always be so
complimentary. And I could tell that he took joy in seeing me
having
the time of my life. And I'm also quite sure in the
beginning that he
recognized that I had no clue what I was doing. I always wanted
to
sing my best for Russ as he was the man that I looked up to the most in
barbershop. He was my barbershop dad. It was great to sing
for him
as he would always listen intently, and much like a father would he'd
compliment me and give me well-placed suggestions of things
that I could work on to improve so I could get just that much
better.
I always looked forward to his suggestions and really took them to
heart. Because of who he was to me, there was no greater
authority in
barbershop than Russ.
As much as I looked forward to singing
for Russ and receiving his nuggets of wisdom in return, I looked
forward even more to seeing him sing lead in a quartet. You couldn't
take your eyes off of the guy. Heck, he wouldn't let you! He was the
consummate showman. People would always say, "When you sing lead, you
have to command that stage". Now I'm still not completely certain what
it is that you have to have to command the stage, but whatever it
is Russ had it in spades!
Time went on, as time has want to
do, and Chordiology continued to have a great time singing together and
in between laughs and jokes we worked at this tough thing called
singing. Cliff Dake had joined the quartet and we were actually a 5
man quartet for a while and we really thought we were getting somewhere
when we lost Kelly to a short, but hard fought battle with cancer. It
was tough but we picked ourselves up and began plugging away at it
again. We saw Russ at convention and he was so supportive and gave me
a hug like I was family and expressed how sorry he was to hear about
Kelly and expressed how pleased he was to see us still singing.
After this
we took a couple of years off from competition, but when we came back,
Russ was right there in the lobby as if he had been waiting there for
us. We hadn't done much more than walked through the door when he hit
us with a barrage of about four or five heartfelt insults as to where
we’d been and why we hadn't been around lately. For those of you that
knew Russ, know that he never picked on anyone he didn't like and the
more cutting they were, the more he cared about you, so I was always
proud when I received a good healthy dose of Russ’ ribbing. After he
had roasted us so we were good and toasty, he referenced that night’s
contest and said "Now, give 'em heck boys!" But, of course it wasn't
"heck" that he said.
A Real Champion
(click image for album)
by Paul Ellinger
It would take reams of paper to allow
just the people within the barbershop community to explain what Russ
Seely meant to them. To the brethren of singers he was many
formal things, President, Director, Champion and Leader, but to
them he was also a father, brother, and friend.
To me he was "Papa Russ" and our relationship started
by pure happenstance back in 1988. I was fresh out of
college and working in downtown Detroit setting rates for Blue
Cross' Chrysler account. Each day I would pack
my lunch and walk across the street to eat it somewhere in
the Renaissance Center. There was nothing really
remarkable about my mid-day jaunts over to the 300
Tower of the "Ren Cen", until the day I met Russ.
Like other days, I sat down and began unpacking my
lunch when I heard this beautiful music
being sung. It was bouncing off the unusual lines of
the tower's cement walls so it was difficult to tell where it was
coming from. I left my lunch on the balustrade and
followed my ears. I turned the last corner and saw just four guys
making all of this music. I was enthralled. I was
indeed the proverbial “portly kid in a candy store”.
I couldn't get enough of it. I listened to song after song.
I got to talk to the guys at the end of the first song. Russ
answered eager question after eager question of mine. Yes, I went
to college and high school, but neither had any music programs to speak
of. I grew up in a farming community and my high school gym
teacher was also the music teacher. In college I went to a
technical college in Sault Sainte Marie (Lake Superior State) where the
focus was on engineering, mathematics, science and hockey which was
also the closest thing we had to "the arts" at the time. So,
getting to hear music like this being performed right in front of me
was something like I had never seen nor heard and I was absolutely
thrilled.
I alternated between not being able to wait to hear the next song and
not being able to wait to ask my next question. And Russ obliged
me at every turn. As I said, I met each of the men in the quartet
including Russ' son Matt, but Russ stuck out from the others not only
because he was singing lead, but because he was supremely
confident (and if you weren't sure on this point you could have just
asked him - he'd have told you), direct, engaging, and
most of all sincere. It was clear to me right then and
there that he had a real passion for his hobby and he told me
about all of these different places that people met to learn to sing
this “barbershop” music. He said they called them
"Chapter meetings" and that there was a chapter that met right in
Ypsilanti (adjacent to Ann Arbor) where I was living at the
time and said that I should check them out. Wow!
Right in my home town. I couldn’t believe my
luck! They sang a few more songs and then Russ invited
me to join them in getting something to eat.
"EAT!! What time is it?", I said. They gave me the time and
not only was I late, but I also hadn't eaten a bite of my
lunch as it was still sitting somewhere several corridors
away. I was so enthralled with Russ and his music that
I lost all track of time. I look back on that day and think
again about how kind he was to this young kid that was wide-eyed and so
green behind the gills when it came to singing and music. I am so
thankful for that day and as you can imagine, I will never
forget it.
I got back home and could not find the Huron Valley Harmonizers as
they weren't listed in the phone book and this new-fangled thing called
the Internet was only just starting up so no real information was
to be found on them. But, as luck would have it not too many
months later, I happened to catch the Huron Valley Harmonizers
performing a Christmas set in the center of a mall in Ann
Arbor. I remembered what Russ had told me about these
"Chapter Meetings" and I
couldn't wait for the last song so I could talk to someone and find out
where they meet.
