>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

FEARSOME FOURSOME: The Mellow Fellows, a local quartet, are set to perform Saturday. From left, are Ivan Hibbert, Ariel Bean, John Shannon and Ed Hoofnagel. ().

By Jeff Petersen

Observer Staff Writer

Dr. Wesley Allen delivered a couple thousands babies when he was in practice in La Grande.

Now he's delivering in another way — as scriptwriter for the Blue Mountain Barbershoppers shows Saturday.

Dr. Allen, 69, retired in 1999 as a family doctor, but he still knows what's good for your health. This weekend he's recommending "A Bite of the Big Apple" at McKenzie Theatre on the Eastern Oregon University campus. Shows start at 2:30 and 7 p.m.

"When we're selecting our music, we try to pick something that's along a theme," Dr. Allen said. "There's so many songs that come out of New York, Broadway, a lot of Irving Berlin stuff, things about the Statue of Liberty, all those sorts of things."

Dr. Allen said he presumes New York City is called The Big Apple because it's tempting, seductive.

In the show, the narrators are Adam and Eve coming to The Big Apple.

"We try to capture some of the atmosphere of the sidewalks, the welcoming sort of nuances that you get from New York," he said.

The music is the main emphasis. The show requires quite a bit of timing from the singers, so they can get ready to go from one set to another.

Saturday's show will be divided into two parts. The chorus does the bulk of its part within the theme and accompanied by narrators. In the second part, the guest quartets are featured along with one local quartet.

This year's special guests are the award-winning Overtime, based in Eugene.

"We usually go way too long," Dr. Allen admitted, "so we're trying to keep it a bit shorter."

Dr. Allen has been to all the Blue Mountain Barbershopper annual shows except one, when he was gone to a medical meeting. That's 21 out of 22, since the society was started in La Grande in the early 1980s.

He can't miss much. He's a rare tenor with the group, sometimes the only tenor.

The good part is, tenor being the highest part you really don't need as many voices in that higher range, Dr. Allen said.

"Actually, if the tenor didn't even sing, the others actually produce that overtone that is also produced an octave higher. I've heard of some tenors singing in quartets really tight on the harmony actually drop out for a bit and let that overtone be the note."

Dr. Allen started with harmonic singing way back in college years at the University of Idaho in the mid-1950s. He sang with a group called the Singing Sigs (from the Sigma Chi fraternity) for several years.

"We did a lot of more modern harmony, and started doing barbershopping and went to the barbershop contest in Forest Grove," he recalled. "We came out third so we were really hooked on it after that.

Now Dr. Allen sings because, well, it's great for health.

"They say barbershoppers live longer by several years," he said. "I don't know how well documented that is, but ..."