It’s the “third place” that does it for Chad Lindsey.

Lindsey, executive director of the City Opera House, is a proud member of the Cherry Capital Men’s Chorus. The group, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, gathers once a week to rehearse and performs throughout the year at various events.

Sure, singing is fun (especially in the roaming barbershop quartets the group is well known for). But Lindsey is perhaps most appreciative of the deep camaraderie he develops with his fellow singers in a society that seems to place less and less emphasis on meaningful, in-person connections.

“We used to be full of third places. Everybody had home and work, but there was also church and men's group and so many other things,” he tells The Ticker. “Now, finding a third place is harder than ever because for so many people, that third place is just online. And that’s not a real place, or a (good place).”

For Chad Hall, CCMC’s musical director (and owner of Red Spire Brunch House and The Dandy), it’s creating something that's so much more than the sum of its parts. Hall speaks of the magic that happens when men of all skill levels come together each week and make music.

“The time that we spend together is so special because when we sing together, it's creating something. You're giving yourself into this entity of the chorus; you're kind of surrendering yourself for two hours,” he says. “You are now part of this giant organization and we're making something together that can't happen individually. Every person's voice adds something.”

The chorus got its start in 1966 when Captain’s Quarters owner Maurie Allen and a few “like-minded guys” gathered at the Park Place Hotel to form a group and get a charter from the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (now the Barbershop Harmony Society).

They succeeded, and hundreds of men have been involved over the years. Right now there are 24, ranging in age from 15 to 94.

“For quite a few years, we had probably 70 to 80 members, and it kind of declined. And when COVID hit, a lot of guys just elected to not come back,” Allen tells The Ticker. “So now we’re rebuilding, but fortunately the rebuilding we’re doing is with youth, which is really encouraging. That means a bright future.”

The group performs four or five full chorus shows a year (often paid, ticketed events), but also sends smaller contingents, often quartets, to perform at nonprofit functions and other charity events. They also perform at scores of senior living facilities around the holidays, all part of the CCMC’s stated organizational goal of “Enriching Our Communities With Great Harmony And Good Works.”

“We're always willing and always happy to do that for any organization in town that wants us to come and perform,” board president Doug Powers tells The Ticker. “That's part of our civic code.”

Around Valentine’s Day, quartets are for hire for what amount to singing telegrams. It’s another fun part of the job, and Powers loves dropping some vocal harmony on often unsuspecting targets.

“It doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman, they're going to be blushing. They're going to be nervous,” he says. “Sometimes people break down and you can see the tears streaming down their face. You don't know exactly why it's touching them so emotionally, but it is.”

Lindsey says it’s another example of the significance of interpersonal contact.

“The power of the human voice at close range plays into it. The idea that someone paid money to have other human beings sing to someone they love plays a huge factor into it,” he says. “It's a gesture that probably used to not be as grand as it is now, but again, human beings doing is a rarity these days.”

The CCMC will have a 60th anniversary show at the City Opera House on Aug. 30. Click here for more information.

Photo: Hall, Powers, Allen and Lindsey at the City Opera House.