About Fastrac Based in beautiful Santa Barbara, California, Fastrac is a singing ensemble consisting of four men's voices with no instrumental accompaniment. In musical parlance, that's acappella singing. We are members of SPEBSQSA, an organization created in 1938 to preserve and encourage the singing of that uniqely American style of music, the Barbershop Quartet. Although we are very active in Barbershop music, including competition, we love and perform many styles of four-part harmony, including doo-wop, folk, gospel, and a little light jazz. We are all four members of Pacific Sound, a men's chorus, also based in SPEBSQSA, that draws on top-notch singers from about 200 miles of California coastline. Our Bass, Rick Davis, is the Manager of the Test Department for a national defense electronics firm with a large operation in the Santa Barbara area. Yes, he does look like a certain famous Governor, not that we would ever stoop to drawing attention to the fact. Our Lead, that is to say, the guy who sings the melody, is Ed Sweatt. Ed is a Physical Education Specialist working for the public schools, as well as a property manager. Not only does he have a "photographic" memory of any music or lyric he's ever heard, he also has a natural gift for interpreting a musical line. As if that weren't enough, he also shows amazing patience with the three "old" guys who were actually alive when some of these lyrics were written, but who seldom remember them. Our Baritone is Chris Elstner, a respected Santa Barbara Pediatrician and lover of obscure humor. When not singing the notes that fall invisibly into place between the Bass and Lead (or the Tenor and Lead), he can be found chortling over some clever turn of phrase or pun. Sometimes he actually turned the phrase or made the pun himself. And the last guy? That's me, Phil Wilson. Well, actually it's Duane Gunn, I AM Phil Wilson, but these days I'm just the webmaster for Fastrac. You see, I'm a baritone, and so is Chris, so when I sang with the quartet we would flip a coin before every performance or rehearsal to determine which one of the two baritones would sing tenor that day. Somehow I always lost. I was starting to get suspicious, but Chris swore the coin he used was always a different one. Well anyway, Duane is a real tenor, and he's an officer in the Air Force so we all look up to him with awe. Actually, we all look up to him with a crick in our necks. He's really tall, seven or eight feet at least! But I digress. Until Fastrac gets its act together and sends me some new text for the website, they're going to get what I put here! And the REALLY interesting thing is that I now sing with a quartet called Counterpoint, and instead of two baritones, we have two TENORS! Luckily, one of them sings lead, so it all kind of works out. The symmetry is undeniable though. Well, that's us. We sing around Santa Barbara and other nearby hamlets and villages. We can entertain at any event or occasion where you would enjoy well-sung and pleasantly-presented vocal music. We have been described as "...a blight on the face of..." no, wait, that's not the right quote! Where did I put the flattering one? Hmm. Well, rest assured, you will enjoy having us sing for you. Please direct your cursor to the Contact Information link for, well... contact information.
Home	Contact Information
©2004 Peachgrove Web Design Last update: May 6, 2004