In the basement of Innisfail's Church of the Nazarene, there is a group invested in the tradition of making beautiful music. The members of the ladies barbershop group Sweet 'n' Sour have found a new home there over the last couple of years, thanks to the church generously donating them rehearsal space.
On the evening of Sept. 24, the group showed its gratitude by performing for several senior members of the church's congregation. The show, short but sweet, consisted of a blend of the group's standard numbers as well as a few hymns. Afterwards, the singers congregated in the basement for one of their twice-monthly rehearsals.
The ladies enjoyed the rare opportunity to perform their talent. Janet Brown the director of Sweet 'n' Sour, and one of the four original members, said that it is often challenging to get everyone together, even for rehearsals. "Several of our members are retired, and we are all of an age where we like to travel," she said. Consequently, the group doesn't perform very often. "We never were a performance group," said Brown. "That wasn't why we got started. We just all really loved music and we wanted to learn something new."
The group began in 1994 when several ladies from the United Church choir decided to take on a fundraising project in an effort to purchase a new grand piano for the church. When their efforts to hire a barbershop group to come and perform during their Old Fashioned Chilli Lunch proved to be unsuccessful, some of the choir members asked "why can't we just sing barbershop?" While Brown herself had never sung barbershop, she happened to have a neighbour, Joyce Shupenia, who did. "I asked Joyce if she would be willing to teach the group two barbershop numbers that we could perform for the event," said Brown. "The songs turned out pretty well and we all loved doing it, so we just decided to keep going with it. Joyce led us for several years after that."
At that time, the singers would go to choir practice at the church and then return to Shupenia's house afterwards to sing some more. They decided on their name by watching Shupinia's face during rehearsals. "Sometime, when the music was good, she would have the sweetest, most serene look on her face. And then there were the other times that you could tell by the sour look that rehearsal wasn't going as well," Brown laughed.
The group moved to the Church of the Nazarene when Shupenia decided it was time to turn in her baton. This was after Sweet 'n' Sour reached its 15-year milestone, which was celebrated in 2010.
Brown took over directing, somewhat reluctantly. "I'm a pianist," she said. "I got into this because as a pianist I never really got to sing and I really wanted to. When Joyce left, we needed someone to take her place and I agreed to fill in until we found someone to do that. I've been filling in for three years now," she laughed.
The group sings primarily barbershop, which is four-part a cappella, or unaccompanied music with the lead singers doing the melody line. Tenors sing the higher parts, basses sing the lower parts and the baritones fill in all the rest. "Baritones can be singing below the leads or above the leads -- anywhere they are needed to sing. It is a challenging part," said Brown.
Recently, thanks to another piano-playing member joining the team, Sweet 'n' Sour has begun to take on some accompanied pieces as well. "It is nice to have those during rehearsals when our membership is a little thin," said Brown. "If you are missing all of your tenors, for example, it is difficult to rehearse an a cappella piece, but you can still rehearse an accompanied one."
Membership has been up to 20 strong, but currently sits at 16. "As people retire from the group, we do accept other members," said Brown, "but we require they be able to read music from both the treble clef and bass clef. We aren't an easy group to join because we have been doing some songs so long, we don't really rehearse them a lot. Most of us already know them," she said.
Those that make the cut, however, keep the group fresh, and ensure that the shared love of beautiful harmonies will keep going for years to come, and for the Innisfail residents who get to enjoy the rare opportunity to hear them, it is a truly sweet treat indeed.
