What has 4 voices, one ‘instrument’ and sings to you on Valentine’s Day? These guys

He talked about crying — how it’s often hard not to when he sings.

He wore khaki pants and a tan jacket, and covering his silver hair was a camouflage baseball cap with a patch shaped like an F-4 Phantom fighter jet and embroidered with the word “Vietnam.”

George McMurtry, a veteran of that war who flew the jets over Southeast Asia, joined his first quartet when he was 15. The high school dances were “pretty dull,” he said — the singing spruced them up.

“I knew I could sing,” he said Friday when asked why he joined that group. He spoke in a deep voice that blended a Massachusetts accent with John Wayne’s bass. “It went over well.”

He sat in a chair in a rehearsal room inside St. John’s Lutheran Church on Lady’s Island. Gathered around him were Hal McCann and Jim Rowe — two other members of the barbershop quartet “Tidal Fource” — and Mike Masters, who sometimes sings with the group when regular tenor John Devlin is out of town. The group is singing at a local Lion’s Club pancake breakfast Saturday and, of course, gearing up for Valentine’s Day.

On that day they’ll dress up their black pants and white shirts with red suspenders and matching bow ties and, if last year was any indication, work a 12-hour day through dozens of performances.

Theirs is serious work. They have to maintain the element of surprise, arriving at just the right time so their flashy attire doesn’t give them away. They tell stories about arriving to gigs early, when they knock and are invited in — but the intended recipient is still in the shower.

And they tell stories about tears.

“One of the toughest things we go through is trying not to cry when they’re crying,” McMurtry said. “Seriously.”

“Yeah, we see a lot of tears,” McCann, the quartet’s baritone, said.

“Yeah, Hal has yet to make it all the way through (a song),” Rowe joked.

The men laughed.

“The baritone is supposed to give the missing note,” McCann said, explaining how he ranges between high and low parts, filling the gaps between McMurtry’s bass notes, Masters’ tenor lines and Rowe’s lead part. “Well, there’s a missing note,” he joked.

“Hal calls it a ‘pause,’ ” Rowe said. “We call it a missing note.”

More laughter.

“When I see a tear,” McCann said, “I have a hard time with it.”

He smiled.

He recalled a long ago morning performance in a diner. He and his group sang. The waitress sobbed. Everyone in the packed joint cheered.

“And you know, it’s not only a love thing,” Masters said, softly. “We sing to folks that are undergoing cancer treatment or staying in the hospital. And to schools, which to me is one of the most delightful things, singing to the little kids.”

Tidal Fource is just one quartet within the Beaufort Harbormasters, a chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, according to McCann. Founded in 1938, the society’s membership totals 23,000 in North America, according to its website. The organization spends nearly $1 million annually supporting community and school music programs.

One of the men who sings with the Harbormasters is battling Alzheimer’s, McCann said. The man cannot be alone — his wife is with him at all times. She and the other singers have to make sure he’s in the right spot.

“But when we start singing, he can sing,” McCann said. “And to me it’s just beautiful to see what happens to this guy, who really is lost, but music brings him back.”

“Music is catharsis,” McMurtry said.

Moments later, the quartet stood and prepared to sing “My Wild Irish Rose.”

Masters blew a note on the pitch pipe.

Rowe sang first.

“My wild Irish rose,” he crooned. “The sweetest flower that grows.”

He stopped.

McMurtry repeated the line.

Then Masters.

Then McCann.

Then they joined together, following Rowe’s lead for volume, with McMurtry and Masters anchoring the tune at the low and high ends while McCann filled in the gaps.

Four voices.

One instrument.

“And that all comes together in a song,” McCann said. “And then at the end, it always ends on a final note — that we hope people remember — that usually has superb, excellent harmony.”

“A ringing chord,” McMurtry said.

This story was originally published February 10, 2017 at 4:56 PM with the headline "What has 4 voices, one ‘instrument’ and sings to you on Valentine’s Day? These guys."