By Shelly Koren, Shalom Life
When picturing a Barbershop Quartet the first thing that comes to mind (at least for myself) is a black and white 50’s movie or Homer, Apu, Seymour and Barney a.k.a. The Be Sharps. While the genre itself seems to be nothing more than a fond memory, a couple of performances by the Yonge Guns, a Toronto-based a cappella group, showed me exactly how exciting and prevalent it actually is.
It was a stormy evening at a wings bar near Yonge and Finch in the soggy summertime, drinking the season away with a pint or three, complaining about the inordinately loud pop music blaring into our ears. Then to my amusement, I noticed a friend of mine and called him over, only to find out that he was with his barbershop quartet group, Yonge Guns, and that they wanted to sing for us.
We go outside into the thunderstorm, and the group decides to appropriately sing “Blue Skies”- it was practically a scene from a movie. Our semi private performance (shared with other boozed folk that don’t mind the rain and scampering bus takers) was exciting and hilarious, coupled with incredible harmonies and heartwarming music.