An-O-Chords
Article appears as part of our Music of Anacortes exhibit.
The Anacortes male singing group, the An-O-Chords was started in 1955 and was active until 2022 when the group disbanded. The original group included singers from Oak Harbor and Anacortes, hence the name, An-O-Chords.
The local chapter was part of the national group, the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, or SPEBSQSA. That entity now goes by the name, Barbershop Harmony Society.
The society’s code of ethics calls for a membership of ‘‘congenial men of good character who love harmony in music and desire to harmonize.” —Barbershop.org
The group had a weekly newsletter, Scales and Tales.
They met weekly at local schools to practice and for many years had an annual show and salmon BBQ in July, to perform and raise money, seen here in the Anacortes American and one of their flyers.
The group also sold Singing Valentines.
The An-O-Chords performed for local events in Anacortes including the Anacortes Arts Festival, the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony and many other events. Funds earned were used for the group’s youth outreach mission.
“The group’s purpose was to promote and keep singing the “old songs” to the public. As a non-profit, we began a relationship with the local elementary schools in both towns (Anacortes and Oak Harbor) and gave the music teachers a book called “Keep America Singing" which contained a number of these old songs. We asked the music teachers to have the kids learn a couple of these songs and promised to come back in the Spring and put on a concert for them to perform these songs along with us. Initially, this took place at Anacortes Brodniak Hall. As time went on, the local schools expanded to include Mount Vernon, Burlington, Bow-Edison and the annual performances were added to include Skagit Valley College, McIntyre Hall and Oak Harbor High School. Over the years we sponsored over 28,000 students which was very gratifying, to keep this singing style and the oldie songs alive.”
—Blake Thomson
When the group disbanded in 2022, they donated their accumulated treasury funds to the Anacortes, Oak Harbor and Mount Vernon High School music programs.