Michigan Jake
Michigan Jake is the Barbershop Harmony Society's 2001 International Quartet Champion.
Quartet Members
Winning Members:
- Tenor: Drew Kirkman
- Lead: Mark Hale
- Bari: Joel Wilson
- Bass: Greg Hollander
Former Members:
- Tenor: Chris Hale
- Bari: Gary Davis
Contest Placement
International
| 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10th | 8th | 2nd | 3rd | 2nd | 1st |
District (CAR)
- 1995 - 1st
Recordings
| For the Record (2000) | How Rhythm Was Born (2004) |
|---|---|
| Sweet Lorraine | Something's Coming |
| Give Me A Night In June | Too Marvelous For Words |
| Always | Twilight Time |
| Why Do I Love You? | The Old Piano Roll Blues |
| Louise | Tangerine |
| Imagination | Hey, Good Lookin' |
| I'm Beginning To See The Light | Time Was |
| You Make Me Feel So Young | Look Me Up When You're In Dixie |
| My Ideal | Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams |
| Tea For Two | Somebody Knows |
| All The Pretty Little Horses | Once In A Lifetime |
| Dinah | That's How Rhythm Was Born |
| Gershwin Medley | Bill Bailey Montage |
Extended History
Michigan Jake
In 1983 Mark Hale and Greg Hollander joined the Barbershop Harmony Society. They quickly became friends and started singing in a quartet together. This quartet, the Sound System, started with Hale on tenor and Hollander on baritone, but soon Hollander moved to bass and Hale moved to baritone. Along with Phil Kinser, lead, and Mike Wheeley, tenor, they sang together for about five years, winning a district championship and competing at the International Competition in 1988. They retired in 1990.
By 1992 Hale had moved to Louisville and, with David Harrington, formed the Louisville Times Chorus. Harrington's quartet, the Second Edition, had just recently retired and there was a lot of excitement over starting something new. As the chorus began to build steam a new quartet was in the works with Harrington on lead, Hale on baritone, Hollander on bass, and Mark Bowman from Cincinnati on tenor.
The quartet became known as A Few Good Men and won the right to compete at the International Competition in Pittsburgh in 1994. As luck would have it, Harrington and the other Harrington Brothers were immediately offered a job performing on a professional show in Myrtle Beach, so the quartet was forced to disband after being together only about six weeks.
The desire to start another quartet hit again around the summer of 1995. The Louisville Times had just competed at their first International Competition and were in full swing. The section leaders often would step forward and demonstrate various techniques for the chorus and it was discovered that they had quite a blend.
They were Hale on lead, Hollander on bass, Gary Davis on baritone, and Hale's brother Christopher Hale on tenor. Christopher had recently moved to Louisville to attend the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, pursuing a Masters in Church Music.
Shortly after the Miami convention the foursome started to rehearse with the Cardinal District Quartet Contest being their first short term goal. They chose the name Michigan Jake, a takeoff of the Warner Brothers singing frog, because it represented where they had first started to hear the old songs--on Bugs Bunny cartoons.
They went on to win the contest by a much larger score than they had imagined. The quartet placed tenth in their first International Competition in 1996 and then eighth the next year. By March of 1998 they found themselves in need of a new baritone and called upon their friend Joel Wilson.
Wilson had started singing in the Louisville Times in 1993 when he was sixteen, and had grown accustomed to the singing techniques of Michigan Jake. This, and the fact that he's so darned good, made it easy for him to slip effortlessly into the Michigan Jake sound.
With just inside of four months together, the quartet jumped to the second place silver medalist position in Atlanta that summer.
By a strange twist of fate, Christopher had stopped on his way to the Atlanta convention to interview with a church in South Carolina in need of a new Music Minister. He discovered in a message on his answering machine when he returned home that he had gotten the job. The other men of Michigan Jake didn't want to stand in the way of Christopher's career, but they were in a difficult situation. After considering a few options, they decided to call on Drew Kirkman of Terre Haute, Indiana, with Christopher making the initial contact. Kirkman had sung with several quartets through the years, both on lead and tenor, but most recently with Flash Point, comprised of Kirkman and three members of the Times. They knew he had the ability if he had the time and desire to step in. With a single audition they could tell that they had made the right choice.
At the 1999 convention in Anaheim Michigan Jake took the third place bronze medal behind crowd favorite FRED, and in 2000 they earned another silver medal with PLATINUM winning the gold. Finally in July of 2001 in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, Michigan Jake won the coveted gold medals besting a field of fifty competitors by a margin of 256 points.
Mark Hale moved to California and went on to direct the powerhouse Masters of Harmony chorus, leading them to three (2008, 2005, 2002) of their six chorus championships (and counting). Kirkman got married and moved to Florida. He is busy singing with the Dapper Dans of Disney World.
Michigan Jake retired in 2004. They have on occasion reunited for an appearance, most recently for the Cardinal District Convention in 2012 and for a show in Colorado in April 2016. Their influence is still felt to this day.
External Links
- Official website
- AIC page
- Wikipedia entry
- Barbershop Music Database: Contest scoring history