Last nights regular Thursday night rehearsal was postponed due to a special request by the organizers of Freedom Fest, a 4 day conference held at the Renasant Center here in downtown Memphis. One of the featured guest speakers was none other than Mike Rowe, the executive producer of such TV series as “Dirty Jobs,” Somebody’s Gotta Do It,” “How America Works,” and “The Story Behind the Story,”. As many know, he had a brief time singing barbershop and was recently given a lifetime membership into the BHS. 

As a surprise to Mike, the organizers reached out to us, RSVP,  the Germantown Chaoter of BHS, to provide a quartet during the Q & A portion at the end of his remarks. Robert Strong (Lead) started to ask the question about “sin in sincere” and was joined by Craig Brown (Tenor), Shawn King (Bari), and Willie Mays (Bass), all members of The Times quartet. Once done, they were invited up on stage to sing with Mike, “Sweet and Lovely” which is the short clip attached. 

This is the reason we postponed our meeting until Monday.  Robert, Craig, Shawn, and Willie ought to be commended for so eloquently representing both Barbershop and our Chapter before such a large audience. Thank you for pulling off this surprise for Mike in such a way and we all look forward to hearing more details at Monday's rehearsal. 

Already seeing various posts of this on several social media platforms by many who were there in attendance. This could easily translate into curiosity about the Times Quartet and our RSVP Chapter. What that means is we could see an uptick in ticket sales for our Show on August 26 and, quite possibly, a full house. With that in mind, always be ready and prepared to pull off the best performance one can at a moments notice and to the level our audiences have come to expect. 

Thank you for all your efforts and am encouraged to hear us so well represented. Let's continue the momentum as we move forward together in our barbershop band of brothers.