Sound of the Heartland

This has been a pretty laid back week with not much going on. We’re in Halstead, KS, a small town among many others, surrounded by acres and acres of farmland. But nestled here I discovered a real gem on Thurs. night only 15 min. away…Sound of the Heartland Chorus (http://www.soundoftheheartland.com/). And at the end of the evening all I could say was WOW!!

(For my non-Sweet Adelines friends, some of this may sound like Greek or you may find it boring, so please feel free to scroll further down and/or just look at the pictures. But for those of you who might find it interesting, please read on!)

They will be representing Region 7 at the Intl. competition in Hawaii next month and have an interesting story on how this came to be. I arrived at the rehearsal early and found the director trying to finish a quick dinner while doing some chorus work on her computer. She told me that this chorus generally has about 22 members, and back in 2006 she had talked with the director of the Oklahoma Jubilee Chorus out of Tulsa (Region 25) about doing a show together. Things went so well with the strengths of both choruses combining to create something special, unique, and wonderful. The two directors talked some more, came up with a plan, and presented their choruses with the idea of competing together under the dual membership provision with the directors sharing co-director status. This meant that the Sound of the Heartland members would have to become members of Oklahoma Jubilee, too, and vice versa. Each chorus has rehearsal on Thurs. evenings in their respective towns, and it was proposed that one Sat. a month the combined chorus would meet to rehearse (as Intl. approaches they are meeting a little more often). Everyone loved the idea, and at the regional contest in April 2007, the “new” Sound of the Heartland Chorus won! This win earned them the opportunity to represent the region at Intl. in 2008.

Now as we talked I began to realize that I wasn’t going to see the “combined” chorus that will be competing in Hawaii but rather her small chorus, and I will confess that initially I was a little disappointed. After all, I was beginning to feel like I was getting a preview of Intl. this being the third contestant I would have seen. But what I experienced was phenomenal. About 1/3 of the combined chorus was in attendance for a total of 17 women (actually 16 women plus an 11 year old girl who is a singing member; a member’s granddaughter who has been singing with them for a couple years). I participated in physical and vocal warm-ups, and then they began working on their ballad, You Can’t Go On Forever. It’s a beautiful song, and I was so pleasantly surprised when I realized I knew the arranger, Anita Barzilla! As I stood there trying to follow the music and sing along, I was amazed at what I was hearing behind me. The sound was so incredible that during the last run through I had to sit out because I wanted to listen to it from the audience perspective. I could hardly believe the sound that was coming out of just 17 people, and I kept thinking that I can't even imagine what they sound like when they have 60+ onstage! (Reminded me of another little chorus I competed with a few years ago. :-) And the showmanship was there with everyone engaged and involved in every song they did especially when they performed Hooked On A Feeling, an obvious favorite. You would imagine that your eyes would naturally go to the little girl because everyone always watches the cute little girl among a group of adult women, but I barely noticed that there was a little girl in their midst...she did not steal the spotlight from anyone! (And that’s a good thing!!)

LaDonna Cheatham has been their director since 1994 and earned the title of Master Director with their win in 2007. She is fun, energetic, and her enthusiasm is infectious. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to chat with her before the rehearsal…I felt like we were old friends. She seems to have that kind of rapport with people. With new costumes and high hopes, these ladies get the opportunity to experience performing on the Intl. stage, an event I will always cherish, and I wish them all the best in Hawaii!

Other than that we did some minor repair work around the RV (Russ is quite the handyman!), rescued Scott when his pickup got stuck in the mud and AAA wouldn’t come until the road dried the next day, and just hung out. It’s been pretty windy here in Kansas, and this is the first campground where we have seen an actual brick storm shelter. As we’ve mentioned in the past, most buildings at campgrounds are wood structures that would not hold up to much, but they obviously take storms and tornadoes very seriously here in Kansas! When we rode into town the other day, we saw several homes that had the outside steel door that leads to the basement storm shelter. And Russ thought he saw the wicked witch fly by yesterday!!

Mon. we leave for 4 nights in Thackerville, OK, before heading to Austin, TX, for the Missouri game against #1 Texas on Sat. night….GO TIGERS!!!