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24 - The Oakville Beaver, Tuesday December 23, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Artscene · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2008 Sign up now for guitar, bass, drums, and piano OAKVILLE'S MUSIC STORE w w w. g e a r m u s i c . n e t 324 Kerr St. 905-339-3515 NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER FORTY YEARS YOUNG: For 40 years, the Oakville Entertainers Barbershop Harmony Chorus has been keeping harmony either as a chorus or in one of its three barbershop quartet groups. They are pictured here performing a recent concert at the Churchill Place retirement residence. The Entertainers: Keeping harmony for 40 years By Melanie Cummings SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER For a singer who didn't think he was "good enough" to join a barbershop quartet, Grant Goodfellow certainly has proved his worry was a lack of confidence more than ability. For the past 40 years, the 79-year-old accountant has been harmonizing with the Oakville Entertainers Barbershop Harmony Chorus. Eleven of those years have been with the Graytones Quartet, which includes Sam McComish, Earl Kettle and Rod Shepherd. The Graytones is one of three offshoots of the talented core of 35 singers in the Entertainers. The other two quartets are the Lamanjano and Chordials. Friend Doug Thompson originally introduced Goodfellow to the male chorus. From that first intimidating introduction a lifelong hobby was born. "The appeal was immediate because it was so unique. It grabbed me by my gut string," he said. It's not that singing for glory, or an audience, was foreign to Goodfellow. In the preIdol era of peer competition, he picked up top honours in Grade 1 and 2 and had sung in church choirs where his mom played organ and his dad the violin. It's understandable why Goodfellow initially felt such trepidation. Barbershop singing requires an ear for tuning, scales, timing and artfully knowing how to maneuver one's voice amid three other ranges, "It's easy to do not well." Plus, he knew that the talent in the Oakville Entertainers was high caliber, as some hailed from the Toronto Rhythmaires "The appeal was immediate because it was so unique. It grabbed me by my gut string." Grant Goodfellow, charter member of the Oakville Entertainers NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER STILL IN TUNE: Grant Goodfellow is a charter member of the Oakville Entertainers, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. -- a group, which had earned its international stripes in competition, placing among the top five many times in its award-winning history. The Graytones have also earned accolades too, winning the Ontario District Seniors Championship in 1998 in a Barbershop Harmony Society competition. Barbershop quartets sing a cappella unaccompanied by instrumentation in four-part harmony, with lead, tenor, bass and baritone vocals. Influenced by African immigrants, the genre's roots stem from the1870s in the U.S. Barbershops and street corners were the venues from where improvisational harmonies hymns, psalms and folk songs were sung. Quartet and chorus performances shine a light on the ensemble, not a single vocalist and for this co-operative tuneful reason, Goodfellow said: "the fellowship is the appeal." The quartet gets together once a week to work on and memorize new vocal arrangements. Audiences will never be distracted with song sheets perching from members' hands. This allowing the vocalist's to make eye contact and engage with their audiences. Goodfellow often sees listeners sing along and their eyes light up reflecting on a memory. "It's not unknown for me too, to come off See Entertainers page 25