Finale was formed at the turn of the century. No…not that century…the new millennium: 2000. Their first public performance was at the Masters of Harmony 15th anniversary picnic and celebration in Santa Fe Springs. Well, actually, it really wasn’t a “performance.” A bunch of people in attendance saw us hanging around with each other, stuffing food down our throats and looking like, maybe, we’d like to sing if someone asked us. Finally, someone took pity on us and asked us to sing, so we sang a few tags. People gathered around from all over the park and just stared at us. We were never sure if that meant they liked what they heard or if they were thinking of forming a lynch mob committed to stopping the noise. What the heck. We kept singing anyway.

And, it was a good thing that we did. Past FWD quartet champions Dean Waters, lead, and Scott Kidder, baritone, joined with 4 time International Medalists Gary Steinkamp, tenor, and Joe D’Amore, bass, learned a bunch of songs, bought some really cool electric blue suits and won the Far Western District Quartet Championship in 2001 on their first try.

After purchasing some more very cool suits, this time off-white, Finale did the impossible; we finished in the Top 10 at International in Portland in 2002 after being announced as the 11th place, mic tester quartet. It’s a long story and you had to be there to really understand. But, the Reader’s Digest version is that there was one of those “equipment malfunctions” and the computer made a boo-boo and miscalculated. Everything turned out well, though. We got to sing a third set and no one booed or threw anything at us, and we got to appear on the finalist CD. Pretty cool. Like they say…all’s well that ends well. Not bad for four guys who almost got lynched for singing a few tags at a picnic.

Sample Songs:

Finale - Danny Boy