CHORUS: Derbytown Chorus
Old School was thrilled to have the chance to share the stage with the Happiness Emporium, 1975 International Champions. We hold this quartet in very high regard. Proving their championship quality by maintaining musical excellence for over 3 decades and being absolute champions OFF stage as well which is a credit to each of them.
(Old School and Happiness Emporium)
The shows were Friday and Saturday night. For the second week in a row Joe's luggage did not join him at his destination. This time however, it did NOT make it to him until 2am so for the Friday night show, we sang in our street clothes. That actually almost prompted a riot as Akron is very close to Cleveland so there are a lot of Indians fans there. The Indians and the Yankees are a HUGE rivalry. So, as we stepped on stage, Jack made sure to point out his Yankees sweatshirt and poked a little fun at the Indians. It was all in good fun!
(Friday night show...no luggage)
After the Saturday show we were fortunate to meet Gary Ward son of Scotty Ward from the Buffalo Bills!
(OS and Gary Ward son of Scotty Ward from the Buffalo Bills)
Since Akron was within a 5 hour drive, Kipp brought his wife Kim and their kids Kila and Keegan. It was a fun afternoon at the pool and hot tub before the Saturday night show. The kids each sang a tag. Keegan did his favorite, Run To The City Of Refuge and sang it WITH the Happiness Emporium who were the ones to make it famous. IN fact, it was arranged by Bob Dowma who is the SUPER tenor in the HE.
On Sunday OS went to "Big D" Darryl Flinn's house for a 3-4 hour session. D was the master as usual bringing out the best in us vocally AND from a presentation stand point. It was great to get "contest ready" with D as we will be competing May 2 in the prelims to try and qualify for the international in July in Anaheim. Thanks to D and his lovely wife Meredith for their hospitality!!!
(OS and Big D Flinn)
