Southwest Pride taking its Pirate Show on the road

Southwest Pride Barbershop Chorus has been sharing its comedic and vocal talents with local fans for decades.

Now, they want to take those skills on the road and maybe get a shot at regional, then national, recognition.

Chorus members will compete this weekend at the Southwestern District Convention, set Oct. 4-5 at the DFW Airport Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dallas, Texas. Sponsored by the Southwestern District Barbershop Harmony Society, the convention is a chance for a cappella choruses and quartets from five-state area to compete for top honors, with chance to qualify for nationals in Denver in July 2025.

“We hope to take home an ‘audience favorite’ and score enough points to go to nationals,” said chorus member Neil West, about the group’s plans in a contest featuring seven other choruses.

As usual, Southwest Pride is putting its own spin on a special occasion.

West said choruses participating in contest typically perform ballads and upbeat tunes. Southwest Pride, whose members pride themselves on their comedic talents, wrote a condensed version of their popular “Pirate Show,” last performed 20 years ago. Members selected songs that are parodies of three classic barbershop songs, and have been practicing “and having a great time with it,” West said of preparations for contest.

Their first full dress rehearsal last week came with pirate costumes and lingo.

“We’re basically telling a few pirate jokes along the way, as we tell our little story,” he said, with a laugh.

The weekend competition is special because it is the first time Southwest Pride has gone to contest since 2007. The group used to attend, but stopped as judges in past years focused more on criticism and less on motivational suggestions to make groups better.

“We’ve always been a really strong chorus, really strong, but we’d get torn apart,” West said, adding the chorus’ strength is its comedy and storytelling. “And, of course, our singing.”

Changes in the regional contest mindset — now focused on motivation and constructive criticism — coupled with the skills of new chorus director Lacy West, changed some minds. West said his wife teamed up with former Southwest Pride Director Bill Penn and pitched the idea of doing “something that is outside our comfort zone.”

“We do comedy and we do parodies like no other chorus,” West said. “And we sing because we love to sing and sing a cappella, because it has a unique sense to it. All of us are cut-ups. It feeds into our chorus.”

Preparation for contest also has influenced Southwest Pride’s 2025 show. West said the group has made the commitment to perform its “Pirate Show, Barbershop on the High Seas,” last performed by the group in 2005. Members already know they will have a good time: they included a pirate scene in 2024’s show and everyone enjoyed it, West said, adding the group has been practicing for weeks to get two songs exactly right, but just started group practice on a third, a parody of “What a Wonderful World” created when they realized they would need a third song for contest.

Residents who want to watch the competition can do so through the Southwestern District’s web site: swd.org, under the 2024 Convention’s livestream feed. The convention begins Friday with the competition for the 24 quartets, with chorus competition scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. West said he and fellow singer Joel Blomgren also will be competing with the Oklahoma City A Cappella Federation.