The Barbershop Harmony Society posted a video from the mic test set of the Rural Route 4 in Minneapolis in 1984 during the International contests and convention. I had never seen this before and it’s really neat to watch. The tag rings like heck and the beginning of the song provides some of the great comedy that they were known for.
A fun fact about this song…. We had a Heart of America Chorus retreat in the early 1990s and the Rural Route 4 was there. There was a guy in the chorus who claimed he had never heard an overtone before. During one of our breaks, Calvin Yoder grabbed him and the rest of the Rural Route 4 and had him stand in the middle of the quartet as they sang this song. During the “false tag” where Calvin holds the note while the other three cut off and come back in, he stops singing and sneaks a breath. The other three are creating the overtone, (Calvin’s note), which allowed him to sneak that breath. If you REALLY listen to the tag in this video you can tell the exact moment Calvin drops out to breathe and then come back in right on the note. When they did this at the retreat, during the tag of this song Calvin stopped singing, turned to the guy, and said “you hear my note is still there? That’s an overtone!” Funny thing is, the guy claimed he still couldn’t hear it!
This one brought back some memories for me. RIP, Calvin.