MT Vibes

Year: 1996
Place: Raymond, AB
My age: 17-18
As I've mentioned in previous posts, I was in a singing group called the MT Vibes in high school. I joined early in 1996, but the group originally formed, without a name, in the fall of 1995. Jake Heninger was one of the original members of the group. They started off singing at church functions and other organizations around Raymond. My favourite story that I heard about the group before I joined was when they were singing for the seniors at the hospital just before Christmas. A senile woman in the audience kept yelling, "Shut up! You sound terrible! You're ruining our dinner!"
I had joined the Raymond High School show choir in September of '95, and I quickly discovered that I did indeed have a decent singing voice and just hadn't known how to use it properly. I sang bass most of the time. In January of '96, Carol Dahl (the manager, teacher, and driving force behind the MT Vibes) told Jake that she should invite me to join them. I was the 11th member of the 12-man group. Cam Calder was the last to join. The twelve of us were: Jake Heninger, Kevin Calder, and Todd Keeler on top tenor; Jared Hardy, Landon Hardy, and Cam Calder on second tenor; Travis Bisset, Scott Parker, and Jay Dee Hall on baritone; Regan Dahl, Ted Holt, and myself on bass.
We continued singing all over southern alberta. Sacrament meetings, weddings, funerals, and other church events for the most part. My favourite function that we sung at would have to be the Alberta Provincial Cheerleading Competition in Magrath. No, we weren't competitors. We were the intermission. We sang for hundreds of screaming (the good kind of screaming) cheerleaders.
We practiced all the time, and we were ultimately working towards a concert in June. We booked the Raymond Community Centre for two nights, and we sold out both nights. Everyone loved the show, and it was one of the funnest things I've done in my life. Everyone who knew me was shocked. Remember, I was the shy guy at school and at church. I was more open around my friends and family, but no one in my family had ever really heard me sing before. My solo was Elvis Presley's "Teddy Bear". I didn't try to sound like Elvis (I can't do it), so I sang it in my own, natural voice. My family was left in shock. The girl I had a crush on was there, too, and she was my loudest fan. (Also, she was the greatest example of failing to seal the deal in my entire life. I didn't talk about her in my "Failing to Seal the Deal" post, because it would have been a post the size of a short novel, and it would have extended past the '90s, and that's breaking the rules.)
After the concert, Carol used the money we made plus some of her own money to buy some time in a few recording studios, and we eventually made our own CD, which we sold to friends, family, and fans around southern Alberta. It was a lot of fun, and very interesting to be part of recording an album.
The MT Vibes were a major starting point for cracking the shell of shyness that I had built up around myself. I had taken a chance and done something very public and potentially embarassing, and I had been received well.

Later, Carol made formed another similar singing group called Octovox, and one of them (Kyler Rasmussen) was a friend of my roommate's, and eventually became a friend of mine. But that was in 2004, so I shouldn't really be talking about it.