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March 11, 2009 -- Singing with rich vocal tones supported by solid barbershop songs, State Line Grocery has released a fantastic sequel recording entitled "Restocked."  SLG has shown improvement since their formation in 2003.  Led by Tim Brooks in the Lead voice, SLG sings with a sense of warmth and charm to their music which we found to be very inviting by evidence of repeat listening.

The other members of the 2008 third place International Quartet Medalists are Dylan Oxford taking the Tenor position, Mark Lamback on Baritone with Drew McMillan filling the Bass line.  While Brooks may get most of the attention for his clean vocals and the unique ability to story tell with his voice, I was more impressed with the Baritone/Bass duet between  Lamback and  McMillan.  Similar to quartets such as Accoustix and OC Times, SLG's core unit sound comes from the resonant lock and ring from Lamback & McMillan (No, they are not a law firm.)  My opinion has always been that a quartet is as good as the bottom two parts. 

I would consider myself to be a picky barbershop listener.  My attention span can only last so long when listening to a barbershop CD before I feel the need to hit the fast forward button.  In the case of SLG, not only did I not skip any songs but they kept my attention through some ballads that I normally find boring and uninteresting.  Their performances of "Danny Boy" and "How Are Things In Glocca Morra"  standout as very emotional and vocally impressive performances.

SLG has hired some of the best arrangers in our Society to write some clever charts.  Some of those names include Jim Clancy, Aaron Dale and Joe Johnson.  But the one arranger who really surprised me was their Tenor Oxford who arranged some fun, chord-rich tunes such as "Isn't This A Lovely Day", "Aren't You Glad You're You" and my favorite, the CD closer "You Are There."  It's very refreshing to hear recordings sing original music, especially when it comes from a member of the quartet.  It makes the peformance more personal.

SLG budgeted a little more money into their liner notes this second time around with a clever graphic cover (The Library of Congress?), more information on the songs and writers and some fun notes which they call "Popular Sayings Within SLG."  (I don't want to know what "He Gipped us" means.)

The recording engineer and mix master was Brandon Guyton from Four Voices and Crossroads fame.  Guyton did a good job in editing the music and balancing the equalization of the quartet.  If any form of auto-tuning was used in editingI couldn't tell. Kudos to Guyton for doing a terrific job in using that tool the way it should be applied.

Restocked would fall into the "must have" category of your barbershop collection.  To purchase Restocked, go visit State Line Grocery's website at www.statelinegrocery.com.  You can also contact them via email at statelinegrocery@yahoo.com.