About Our Chorus

Oil City Slickers Barbershop Chorus

Casper’s own Oil City Slickers is an a capella singing chorus which has been entertaining the Casper community with their unique singing style for many years.   Founded in 1968 by men who desired to sing close harmony in the barbershop style, the chorus recently celebrated its 50^th anniversary.

The director of the chorus, Roy Hayford, has a music degree from the University of Wyoming and over 40 years of experience in both directing and participating in the Casper area music scene.  Currently the group is composed of about 15 members, both women and men, who like to sing close harmony in this fun, entertaining style.

Origins and Founding

The “barbershop” style of music is first associated with black southern quartets of the 1870s, such as The American Four and The Hamtown Students. The African influence is particularly notable in the improvisational nature of the harmonization, and the flexing of melody to produce harmonies in “swipes” and “snakes.” Quartets “cracking a chord” were commonplace at places like Joe Sarpy’s Cut Rate Shaving Parlor in St. Louis, or in Jacksonville, Florida, where, historian James Weldon Johnson writes, “every barbershop seemed to have its own quartet.” The first written use of the word “barbershop,” when referring to harmonizing, came in 1910 with the publication of the song, “Play That Barbershop Chord,”  evidence that the term was in common parlance by that time.

Although many people think barbershop music is strictly stuck in time with old, familiar melodies like “Sweet Adeline,” through the years the music developed into many musical genres.  These genres ranged from Tin Pan Alley and Vaudeville in the 1890’s to gospel and spiritual hymns, love songs of the 1940’s and 1950’s to rock music of the 1960’s and 1970’s, and of course, jazz.  Many men who originated this unique musical style went on to become pioneers of jazz. Today, most contemporary music can be arranged and sung in the close harmony style of barbershop.

The Barbershop Harmony Society

The Oil City Slickers are members of the international Barbershop Harmony Society.  The society’s purpose is to bring people together in harmony and fellowship and to enrich lives through singing. There are approximately 700 chapters in the United States and Canada and other locations across the globe with approximately 20,000 members and associates.

The Society offers members many opportunities to improve their musical talents in chorus, quartet, and individual singing.  Not only are there learning opportunities, there are also performing and competition opportunities as well.  The 2019 international competition of the Barbershop Harmony Society will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, in July.

As many members have come to realize, harmony compels us to blend, to cooperate, and to create beauty. Indeed, to love each other.  Anyone, male or female, interested in singing close harmony in barbershop style can get more information by going to our website at casperbarbershopharmony.org.