Well-dressed men will be on the road in the Sarnia area again this Valentine’s Day delivering roses, cards with personalized messages and songs in acappella four-part barbershop harmony.
Well-dressed men will be on the road in the Sarnia area again this Valentine’s Day delivering roses, cards with personalized messages and songs in acappella four-part barbershop harmony.
The Bluewater Chordsmen, the local chapter of the International Barbershop Harmony Society, is once again booking a quartet to deliver singing Valentines around the city, Bright’s Grove and Corunna.
Singing Valentines have been a tradition for the Bluewater Chordsmen for at least two decades but were interrupted by the pandemic
“This is the first time in three years that we’ve done it,” said chapter president David Crosbie, “so we’re just getting back into it.”
Singing Valentines can be booked for $45 by calling 226-402-3060. The quartet will visit recipients at home, work or other locations.
“We’ve done a couple in a park,” Crosbie said. “They’ll sing at least two love songs and, if it’s well received, they’ll sing a third.”
After the first song, the recipient is presented with a rose, and then a Valentine’s Day card with a personal message after the second song.
“We have a group that does the calligraphy – the fancy writing,” Crosbie said.
Songs performed include Heart of My Heart, Let Me Call You Sweetheart and Nevertheless.
Money raised by the singers is given to a charity still to be selected, Crosbie said.
He said they’ve performed anywhere from 15 to 25 singing Valentines in recent years but, two decades ago, the chapter would have three quartets on the road.
“We would be 60, 70, 80 calls in a day,” he said.
The presentations are generally a surprise for the recipients.
One delivery in the early years saw a fellow set up a singing Valentine for his wife at home, but she was in bed asleep when the group arrived.
Crosbie said the husband took the singers upstairs to the bedroom, where their first number started her from her slumber.
“She sprung up out of bed and ran into the bathroom” and shut the door, Crosbie said, “so they sang their three songs through the door and left the card and the rose on the bed for her.”
A delivery Crosbie was involved in was to an address near Mandaumin, where four couples were having a beach-theme euchre party.
“They were all in beach attire – swimsuits and sunglasses and straw hats, and all that stuff.”
There happened to be an old style barber chair at the location, where the recipient sat with the quartet standing and singing around her.
“She put the rose in her teeth,” Crosbie said, “She played right along with it.”
One of the most successful recent deliveries was to a restaurant in Sarnia, he said.
The singing Valentine had been booked by a man out with his girlfriend for dinner.
“After the first song, we presented the rose and he actually proposed to her right there at the table,” Crosbie said.
“She accepted and then they sang their second song,” presented the card and sang a third.
Crosbie said the man who booked the singing Valentine sends a social media message each year around this time saying, “Best investment I ever made.”
Coming up June 4 at the Sarnia Library Theater will be the chapter’s annual show. Some of the funds from ticket sales at that event is used to help cover the costs of the chapter’s operations, Crosbie said.
The chapter began the pandemic with 33 members on its books and currently has 22.
Rehearsals are held Tuesday evenings at All Saints Anglican Church in Sarnia.
“We’re always looking for new members,” Crosbie said.
Anyone interested in being part of the chapter can reach out through the same telephone number for booking a singing Valentine.
Information is also posted on the chapter’s website, www.bluewaterchordsmen.com.
“If there’s anybody out there interested, we’d love to have them,” Crosbie said.
The society the local chapter belongs to has been promoting an “Everyone in Harmony” approach to allow women into what were traditionally all-male choruses, he said.
“There are actually a lot of mixed choruses starting,” Crosbie said. “We’ve had some possible thoughts of having one in Sarnia but we haven’t acted on it yet.”