Photo by Mary Ellen Stephenson
Hawkins
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The “burly Grizzly Adams” look-alike seemed perturbed when Dave Hawkins and three friends, dressed in matching gold-trimmed bowties and vests, entered his lumberyard. But, when the quartet presented him a singing valentine from “Mrs. Grizzly,” the big man teared up.
Hawkins has worked for more than 15 years at IU Kokomo, primarily in the shipping and receiving department. He said none of his university deliveries are nearly as much fun as the singing valentines that he and other members of the Kokomo Men of Note barbershop chorus deliver each February. Quartets from the 30-voice chorus serenade someone at the rate of once every 20 minutes during the pre-Valentine’s Day weekend. Proceeds from the service fund sheet music, costumes and props for performances.
“Singing to another guy is kind of fun,” Hawkins said, recalling the chagrined look of a bartender serenaded in a packed American Legion hall. To lighten the mood of he-man recipients, the chorus offers a parody of the old standard Let Me Call Your Sweetheart. It goes,
“She says you’re a sweetheart
She’s in love with you.
She paid us good money
Just to sing to you…”
Hawkins’ started singing in public at church revivals where his father preached. He performed with high school choirs and began barbershop singing in 1996. “I enjoy the tight harmony in barbershop. When you hit a chord right, it can ring,” he said. His favorite tunes range from How Great Thou Art and Love Me Tender to the traditional “pole cat” songs, like My Wild Irish Rose and Melancholy Baby.
“They’re called ‘pole cat’ for the barber pole,” Hawkins said. “They’re easy to join in on.”
Hawkins handles the “lead” voice in the quartet Sycamore Road, whose members also sing with Men of Note. The lead is not the high voice in a quartet, Hawkins explained, but the middle tone around which tenor, baritone and bass harmonize. Sycamore Road has competed against quartets from Indiana and Kentucky in regional meets of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing of America. The group placed 10th among 17 quartets in a meet last fall, and is headed to another sing-off in April.
Hawkins will lead the singing of the national anthem at IU Kokomo’s commencement ceremony on May 10.
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