Realtime Quartet News

First Joseph Shows

2011-04-08T22:23:00.000-07:00

Realtime did two shows these past two weeks with our newest member, tenor Joseph Livesey. First we gave away the Northwest Harmony Sweepstakes trophy in Olympia, WA, which was funny because Joseph's old group Soundstage also won their region. So yes, Joseph gave away two regional trophys! (Soundstage by the way is nothing short of awesome - you must check them out!) Then we sang on the Toronto Northern Lights show in beautiful Toronto, Ontario. TNL is such an amazing chorus, and ranked first going into the BHS finals this Summer. Really a privilege to sing on their show, and a treat to know them.

Stay tuned! We're going to Italy in June, and will bring back pizza for everyone.

Brubeck likes it!

2010-09-10T21:50:00.001-07:00

This is really cool - we sent a copy of "Take 5" to Dave Brubeck himself, and he sent back the following autographed letter:

Dear Tim, Doug, Tom and Mark,

Thank you for sending me an autographed copy of your "Take Five" CD. I have not had time to listen to the entire album but naturally tuned in to "Take Five" first and found it to be amazing. The track that really got to me emotionally was "Over the Rainbow." Your group has a touch of the barbershop, which I've always loved, taken a few steps further with better harmony and sung in tune.

Wishing you great success,
Dave Brubeck

Is that not the coolest thing??

Front Page News

2010-04-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

OK check it out - we are on the front page at Primarily A Cappella! That's just cool. Also I like what they wrote about Take 5, and about us being an "Early favorite" to win the national Sweeps.

Forest Grove was Awesome

2010-03-29T12:58:00.001-07:00

Realtime sang three shows as headliners at the "Ballad Town USA" barbershop quartet contest this past weekend in Forest Grove, Oregon. We've been there many times together and in other quartets, and it's always a great time.

It was our first show where we had Take 5 available, and we sold out! I guess we should have tried to pack more into the Cessna. Also a big moment - Doug signed *his own picture* on a Realtime CD for the first time!

Thanks to the West Side Singers for putting on such a fantastic event.

Take 5 DONE!

2010-03-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

Yup, it's done, and we've got them in our hands, ready to ship! Take 5, our third CD, is no longer an abstract notion. It is tiny pits on plastic circles.

Nice reviews from sweeps

2010-03-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Looks like the audience liked us!
http://www.harmony-sweepstakes.com/reviews/2010pacnw.html

Northwest Sweeps Results

2010-03-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

And the final standings for NW Sweeps, in reverse order:

3. V-Chords
2. Baudboys
1. Realtime

Yup, we won! I was really impressed with the performances of both the V-Chords, who sang really well, and the Baud Boys who sang better than ever and won audience favorite. Both truly awesome music groups, and great guys to hang around with. And that goes for all the groups really - the Sweeps is a terrific place to hang out with other musicians and just have a great time.

Looking forward to the national finals in May! Predictions anyone?

New CD now for sale!

2010-03-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

Our new CD, "Take 5" is recorded, mixed and mastered. We're just ironing out some final issues before we hit the big red go button and print up several thousand. We should have them in our hands mid-March!

But you don't have to wait - you can sign up now to get one of the first copies delivered to you. Check here.

Sweeeeps!

2010-02-23T08:59:00.001-08:00

Just a couple of weeks until the Harmony Sweepstakes! We'll be competing at the Northwest division contest in Olympia, WA. It's our first time back in four years since we won in 2006. One of our last gigs with Tim Broersma on tenor, while we sort through his replacement candidates (sniff).

Check it out: http://www.harmony-sweepstakes.com/pacificnw.html

Seeking awesome high tenor

2010-01-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

Sad but true, Tim Broersma will step down as our tenor singer after the Philadelphia convention in July. His new business is taking him out of town too often, so he had to make a difficult choice.

But this might be good news for you if you are an awesome tenor singer, willing to travel the world, who might also be looking for a gold medal in the future (since Realtime could compete again under a new name, with two non-original members). If that's you, drop us a line and we'll set up an audition.

Tim (for now), Doug, Mark and Tom
Realtime

December Realtime Gigs

2009-11-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

Realtime is doing a few gigs in December within a short drive of Vancouver. The Gentlemen of Fortune Christmas show will be Dec 5 at Michael J. Fox Theatre in Burnaby, and we'll be performing on the Bellingham Sings show the following day. Check the Calendar!

Take 6 show - gonna be awesome!

2009-09-08T21:22:00.001-07:00

Really excited about this show! So cool to see our picture on the same bill as Take 6! Maybe we'll sing "Take 5" just to confuse people...

Click on the poster to order your tickets!

October with Take 6 and the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra!

2009-08-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

That's two awesome shows in October - first we do our orchestra tunes twice with the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, and then we open for Take 6, our idols, at the Claire De Lune music festival in Lynden, WA.

First, come on, Take 6! This group has been my favourite for more than a decade, since their first amazing a cappella album. There is no bigger name in the whole a cappella world. To share the stage with them is an immense honour.

Then, the same month, we get to sing our Joe Johnson orchestra numbers with the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, not once but TWICE! And with any luck we'll get some great live tracks for our upcoming CD.

Life is good!

Now if only people knew that we were available for shows in most of 2010...

The Real Show in Ottawa, ON

2009-06-01T23:21:00.000-07:00

Just came back from a fantastic time in Ottawa, performing on The Real Show, which was the brainchild of Denis Laflamme and his quartet Common Interest. This is the first time we've ever been hosted by a quartet, because not a lot of quartets can sell 800 tickets to a show! Common Interest, with the help of their partners in crime the Capital Chordettes, filled the Dominion Chalmers church and put on a great show.

Anyway as you'll see in the gallery, we had an awesome trip.

There are still a few places we haven't been, so if you're having a show give us a call - maybe we'll cut you a deal. :)

Realtime in Colby, KS

2009-05-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Just had a fantastic show in the thriving metropolis of Colby, KS. Flew into Denver, CO and drove three and a half hours to get there - phew!

Anyway they were fantastic hosts and put on two great shows. Pictures in the gallery!

A little Western Hospitality

2008-11-23T20:48:00.000-08:00

Just got back from a fantastic show in Calgary, Alberta, for the Western Hospitality chorus. They really live up to their name - they treated us like kings the whole way. These guys are awesome! There's a bigger-than-usual gallery of photos on the galleries page - enjoy!

This is our last public show in 2008, since we usually take December to spend time with family. This year of course we'll also be focusing on time in the studio, laying down tracks for our third album which we plan to have completed by Summer.

Evergreen District Belts in Boise!

2008-10-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Fantastic weekend in Boise, Idaho for the Evergreen District convention. Realtime was a "surprise guest" on the Saturday show. Originally we were booked to be there, but canceled because of the due date for Mark's first child, but little Sullivan came three weeks early, so a surprise appearance was arranged. The event (including our show set) was also webcast and watched by hundreds of people all over the world, and if you missed it you can download it for a small fee from the Evergreen District web site.

Huge congrats to Chris Wethered and the Boise Valley Chordsmen for putting on an amazing convention. Boise is such a great town, and the Grove Hotel and the Morrison Center provided a first-rate location. We had a great time catching up with all our Evergreen friends, and meeting new people like the lovely Miss Idaho - pictured here. Rrrrowr!!

It was a great contest, showing once again that Evergreen is deep with singing talent. The Salem Senate Aires surprised no one by winning the chorus contest yet again with their trademark high energy, but Northwest Sound from Bellevue was a close second with a very clean and well executed set. Our own Doug Broersma directed the Bellingham Mount Baker Toppers in a very entertaining pirate-themed set (Arrrrr!)

Every group in the finals was worthy of the second night, but our buddies "3 Outa 4" ultimately took the title of District Champs. Way to go Christiansens and Loel! Following close behind with great performances of their own were Fast Track, Sincerely Yours, and West Coast Fusion. These are Evergreen's future champs - watch them!

Tom was busy coaching at the event, putting the latest concepts from his blog into practice in the real world.

Barbershop In The Very Rainy Park

2008-08-25T00:17:00.001-07:00

OK that was an interesting gig! (see pictures) Today we flew in Doug's Cessna down to La Center, Oregon to sing at the third annual "Barbershop In The Park" event, organized by our good friend Linda. This was the first time we've used the Cessna since Doug joined the group in January, and it opens up a whole new era of cheap and easy travel to anywhere within 500 miles of Vancouver - what a way to fly, with no security lines, no set schedules... but I digress.

Of course normally in late August, the weather would be warm and dry, but today it started off as a sprinkle and turned into a deluge. And it's an outdoor event! Here's a picture of the audience, getting very, very wet.

There were five quartets, including "My Three Sons" who flew in from Florida, and our buddies the Christiansens (plus Loel) from "Three Out Of Four." Anyway by the time it got to be our turn to sing, the rain was really coming down in buckets, and Linda made the call to move the whole audience into the gazebo with us. This made the event a lot drier for them, and a whole lot more intimate as well - we sang twelve songs with no mics, just a few feet from the whole audience! We're used to the typical darkened auditoriums, so this was a real treat for us, and I think the audience was so happy to be safely out of the rain, they were predisposed to have a good time.

Hoping to come back and sing Barbershop In The Park again next year, but with better weather!

Festival Vancouver - post show

2008-08-08T22:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came to the big outdoor stage at the Vancouver Art Gallery Thursday to see us perform in Festival Vancouver - it was pretty much a packed house, especially right under that huge inflatable... uh... thing... that dominates the Art Gallery facade currently. The weird white thing can be seen in the gallery. We saw many old friends and many new faces, not least probably 50 or 60 people from MAKE Technologies or St. Paul's Hospital, where the Metzger brothers pass their days.

(click pic to enlarge)

We sang 13 songs making up nearly an hour of music, some from our previous recordings and some new, accompanied at times by the jackhammers across the street at the Georgia Hotel construction zone. The experts from the CBC captured and mixed all that music, and played it on the CBC Radio 1 program "Almanac" across the province. Somehow they managed to edit out all the jackhammer noise. Nice job boys!

Thanks FWD!

2008-07-21T09:28:00.001-07:00

Realtime just got back from coaching quartets at the Far Western District Harmony College, in Redlands, CA. Thanks FWD for having us there - we had a great time! I hope we were able to give back to your quartets just a little bit of what we have received from the BHS over the years.

Nice little writeup in the local paper.

Rich Hasty's celebration of life was unforgettable, but that's another story entirely!

Rest In Peace Rich Hasty

2008-07-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of our good friend Rich Hasty, who died suddenly and unexpectedly in his sleep on Monday, July 14th.

Rich was a big part of our lives. He directed the Greater Vancouver Gentlemen of Fortune chorus for three years, and in the process he taught me a great deal about music and about life. He was in a sense larger than life. During that period, Rich was on everyone's mind in the barbershop community here, perhaps more than anyone else. He was always getting things done and always making waves, and he made our lives more interesting and more worth discussing while he was around.

I remember being Rich's Assistant Director in the GOF, and working closely with him for several years. I remember singing tags with him nearly every week after rehearsal.

Rich was a good friend to Realtime, arranging several charts for us. One was Anthem, which we recorded in 2004 on the Four Brothers album. When we sang it for him in person for the first time at the Louisville convention in 2004, we asked him how he liked it. He said it was "champion stuff", and that praise meant more to me than I let on.

Rich Hasty's time here was too short. He had a lot left to contribute to his wife Kristen, his kids Matthew and Abigail, to the Barbershop community, and the world. He was 41.

Comments on Westminster Intro

2008-07-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

The men of Westminster were kind enough to record a video for our introduction on the AIC show, and since we had a bit of spare time, we decided to send it back with a few comments (click for video). Love you guys!

Nashville Convention Stuff

2008-07-08T12:11:00.000-07:00

Realtime is back from the annual must-not-be-missed BHS convention, which was held this year in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee. For most people, this was their first taste of the new configuration with Doug Broersma on lead, and we got a ton of great comments about how well he fits in, and how his general studliness has added something new and wonderful to the group. Thanks everyone for the kind words!

Congratulations to our buddies in OC Times who came away with the quartet gold this year, and joined us in the ranks of the Association of International Champions. Congrats also to the Masters of Harmony for the chorus win, and the really amazing Swedish group "Ringmasters" who came out of nowhere to win the College championship. Can't wait to visit Stockholm again and see more of these guys!

Realtime had lots of great performances while in Nashville, but the highlight of the week was probably singing Rocky Top on the Grand Ol' Opry stage, and being broadcasted to 40 states on the AM dial. The live audience went crazy!! Cars were overturned. Some great pictures of this event will be in the gallery, which we're putting together right now. Stay tuned.

Another big hit was the AIC show, where we sang with the other active past champs and the mighty AIC chorus. We sang "Drinkin' Gourd" on that show and we've received no end of comments from people asking where the tune came from, and saying how much they enjoyed it. That will be on our third album for sure, which is in the works now, and planned for release next year at the convention in Anaheim.

Coolest thing we saw all week was probably our friends from The Real Group, who headlined the Harmony Foundation show. They just keep getting more amazing.

Thanks all you barbershoppers for a wonderful week! Keep singin'.

Realtime

Festival Vancouver - rare local performance

2008-06-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

If you live in or around Vancouver and you have been hoping to see Realtime live instead of on YouTube, you know that we don't sing locally very often - too busy flying around the world! So here's your chance - we are performing a one-hour show on August 7th at 1pm, on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery downtown. This is part of Festival Vancouver, which brings in great music from all over the world.

So if you work downtown or you can make it there by 1pm, August 7th, we'll see you there!

Voices In Harmony show

2008-06-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Had a great time in San Jose, California this past weekend, at the Voices In Harmony show. Their director is of course the incomparable Dr. Greg Lyne. They are ranked a solid third going in to the Nashville competition, and they are singing really well. Good luck boys!

A few pictures in the new gallery. Enjoy!