The Confederates were a barbershop quartet

Barbershop music

Barbershop vocal harmony, as codified during the barbershop revival era , is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture...

 that performed in the 1950s and 1960s.

The group formed in September 1953 at a SPEBSQSA chapter meeting in Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

. They consisted of:

• George Evans — Tenor
  Tenor
  The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
  
  
• Dave LaBonte — Lead
  Melody
  A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
  
  
• Bill "Bus" Busby — Baritone
  Baritone
  Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
  
  
• Wally Singleton — Bass

The Confederates took first place in the 1956 SPEBSQSA International Quartet Championship after finishing second the year before. They were notable not only for their championship-caliber harmonies, but also for performing in Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 officer uniforms.

The group stopped performing in 1969.

Notable songs

• Save Your Confederate Money Boys, The South Shall Rise Again
• Creole Cutie
  Creole Cutie
  Creole Cutie is a song written for barbershop quartet, originally performed in 1950. It was co-written by Glenn Sudduth and Bill 'Bus' Busby...
  
  
• Down Where the South Begins
• Chloe
• Red Head
• A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square

External links

• Biography