By Madeline Higdon, staff writer 

Since I was six years old, my life has been a euphonious wave of chord blending, vowel matching, head voice vs chest voice, and singing in comically named spaces such as “Disney Princess”, “Pizza Burn”, and “Ah Ha”. Which ultimatley reminds me to sing with my soft palate lifted.

My earliest memories of music is listening to my mother’s barbershop quartet singin in the living room of my childhood home. I’ve long since left upstate New York, but the memory of hearing Heart of my Life still rings true in my brain. I joined my first Barbershop Chours at age twelve and I was elated.

The barbershop style consists of four parts — bass, lead, tenor, and the part that makes barbershop so special: the baritone. It is sung entirely a capella, meaning without instrumental accompaniment. In 1945, Sweet Adeline’s International was founded in Tulsa, OK, providing a community for female barbershoppers everywhere; I’m just one of 23,000 members globally.  

 With members as young as six, to as old as 97, the repertoire available is a variety akin to ice cream flavors in existence. From The Beatles, to Broadway, to Disney, to Queen, if a song has moving chords, an arranger can buy in. Commonly, the majority of music selected is from the 1950’s and the 1960’s — AKA: the heart and soul of the doo-wop period.  

 I was a huge fan of The Del-Viking’s Come and Go With Me — referred to in my Jacksonville-based chorus as “The Dum Song” (as the words to the main melody of the song are “Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-bee-doobie-dum.”)  

 I decided to search this song up on Spotify. Only hearing it sung by women, I was clueless of the true artist. I accidentally selected a cover of the song and greatly enjoyed the rendition. Curiously, I decided to dabble with more of the cover artist’s discography.  

 The beauty of this new century is that music is available at the touch of a button, so this curiosity was able to lead me down a huge doo-wop rabbit hole. Before I knew it, I was obsessed with Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, The Clovers, Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, and my favorite: Dion and the Belmonts.  

 As someone as obsessed with this style as myself, you couldn’t imagine my tummy-butterfly-induced glee upon seeing that a doo-woo group would be performing in my college town! And thus, I sat my happy heinie in the second row of the Valdosta High School Performing Arts Center, on Feb. 26, not anticipating my life to be permanently changed.  

 Michael Fasano, Charl Brown, Russell Fischer, Dominic Nolfi, and Dwayne Cooper delivered what was quite possibly the most memorable performance of my life. As all five of them come from Broadway, it was like listening to the crème-de-la-crème perform just for me.  

 Their show opened with a vivacious start. The singers took the stage in something more energized than I had ever seen before. Whispering Bells, by the group’s favorite, The Del-Vikings, was the first song they sang, and man… do these fellas know how to make a fantastic first impression. The show continued with a mixture of songs: a few I had heard before, along with a majority of new songs I fell in love with. There were also some more modern songs in the mix, which had been “doo-wop-ified” (A term coined by Dwayne.)  

 Their musical blend was just impeccable; I never heard a sour note or a voice crack from anyone. Vowels matched to a T, allowing for gorgeous overtones and undertones to ring through my ears. My skin was tingling, and my chest was buzzing with excitement.  

Each singer performed multiple solos, but I have my list of favorites which I must shout-out. For Michael, I am at a crossroads! I can’t decide If I love his solo in Whispering Bells (The Del-Vikings) or So Much in Love(The Tymes) more! Both songs featured his rich, crystal-clear tenor voice. His notes were strong and supported; casual and tender in one song, and absolutely jubilant in another. It really is a tricky pick…  

 Charl’s rendition of Shop Around by The Miracles was my favorite number of the whole performance. It is one of the few examples of a cover that I actually prefer to the original vocalist. This man performed with absolute conviction, attitude, and movements across the stage to accompany. The sheer power and energy in his voice could make anyone want to get up and dance along. The recording on Spotify has been a daily on-repeat for the past two weeks now.  

 Russell — likely as a countertenor, I’m assuming — was a frequent flyer for the upper-range vocal runs in almost all of the numbers. It was impressive to say the least, but where he really shone was in a duet with Michael: Sherry by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Okay, okay, maybe I’m a bit biased from my personal love of this song, but I truly adored the energy he was giving here. It was a duet sung like a solo, which is something that takes a lot of practice and control for a vocalist to do!  

 Dominic had a gorgeous solo of Sincerely (The Moonglows), in which he was able to lay back and let emotional singing woo his audience. The other vocalists stood behind him, providing tender backup. However, my favorite solo of his was in the doo-wop-ified version of Valerie by Amy Winehouse. Something about the way he sang his solo lines was just entrancing. The energy and passion he performs with does not leave the stage until the heel of his shoe enters the wings.  

 And last, but most certainly not least, Dwayne brought the house down with his solo in Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks — another song that was doo-wop-ified. It was here in which the men shed their coats, turned on their charm, and worked the crowd. Dwayne took immediate ownership of the stage, moving about with conviction — not just for the sake of moving. It was his world, and we were all living in it.  

 On the topic of Dwayne, he is the performer to whom I MUST give extensive kudos. In performance, sounding good is only half the battle, for it is in looking good that a performer will truly excel and rope in their audience. Dwayne Cooper did exactly that, delivering playful facial expressions, fluid movements, and a smile of total enjoyment, portraying him as totally footloose and fancy-free! My eyes were glued to him in every number, and oftentimes I’d find myself grinning alongside him.  

 As with all reviews, I must acknowledge the grievances I held. Truthfully, the only “gripe” was with the balance in the sound system, as vocalist to musician imbalance sometimes rendered the singers almost silent. There were also times in which certain singers’ microphones were too hot, while others were not; an unfortunate predicament for a soloist. This was not an issue on the performers’ part, but rather in the sound booth in the back of the house.  

 I am still in shock that I was lucky enough to be able to watch this incredible production. I laughed without fear of being too loud; I cried at the risk of being caught; I never dropped my smile, even when my cheek muscles were begging me for a break. I had not been in an environment where I felt like this in quite some time. As a senior English major, it was a delightful treat to kick back and remember my roots: chord blending, vowel matching, and a smile so bright it could blind.  

 I bestow kudos to The Doo-Wop Project. Thank you for reminding me that though music is ever-evolving, our treasured genres will remain forever timeless.