“No one cares how much your earn, what kind of a job you have. It doesn’t matter,” said Mathews, who works part-time in the Lebanon County clerk of courts’ office. “It’s a great society.”

Mathews sings bass with the Lebanon Singing Cedars quartets. For about 26 years, he sang with the Lebanon-area barbershop quartet Sound of Renown. He sang with them until about three years ago. These days, Mathews is singing in the Pop Chords barbershop quartet.

“I love singing,” the Jackson Township resident said. “I sang in choirs. I sang solos.”

His love of singing dates back years, to the days when he performed on Uncle Jerry’s Kiddie Show on WLBR. His wife, Sandy, got him involved in barbershop quartet. Her cousin’s husband was a member of a chapter, and the singers took him to a guest night, held to recruit singers.

“I was sold the first night,” he said.

Mathews said singers may not join the Barbershop Harmony Society the first night they go out. They must first attend three rehearsals before applying for membership, which is meant to engage both the singer and the group.

“We don’t want you if you don’t really like it,” he said.

Although he still enjoys singing in the choir at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lebanon, Mathews said, nothing beats a quartet.

“If you’re singing in a quartet and you hear a chord and it rings, it makes the hair on your arms stand up on end,” he said.

Every year for Valentine’s Day, Lebanon’s barbershop quartets serenade someone’s valentine. The Pop Chords, for one, have gone into people’s homes and restaurants on Feb. 14.

Sometimes, Mathews said, the wives or girlfriends are the ones who have arranged for the singing greeting. While some men love it, he said, others act like they’re terrified, especially if they are in a public place like a restaurant.

“We’ve had them run away from us and hide,” he said.

On other, more serious occasions, the Pop Chords’ singing has meant more. Last year, a Lebanon woman asked the group to sing to her husband, who was seriously ill. The quartet went into Good Samaritan Hospital to sing to the man, who sang along.

About a month later, the man’s wife asked them to sing again because her husband was not expected to live long, Mathews said. The quartet gladly gave up a Saturday morning and sang for him.

“It’s about sharing,” Mathews said.

The following week, the man died.

This year, Mathews and the others in his quartet sang for a woman in Lititz who is in her 90s. He said she wanted to hug them when they finished singing to her.

“She was the most wonderful person,” he said.

And every year, he said, the quartets visit nursing homes to sing to the residents.

“You can’t beat the sharing of music,” he said.

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Each Monday, “Just Folks” tells the stories of ordinary people who live, work and play in the Lebanon Valley.

Reprinted with permission from the Lebanon Daily News: http://ldnews.com/news/ci_3694024

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