Four Parts, No Waiting

Averill generally manages to strike the necessary balance among the needs of disparate audiences: scholars, college students, and barbershop singers themselves. In Four Parts, No Waiting Gage Averill has given us an elegantly written volume that should be read by anyone interested in the history of American popular music. * Ethnomusicology *
Succeeds both as a historical account and as a survey of barbershop as an institution in the United States today. In his discussion of race, of values, of relations between generations, Averill finds ways to put historical issues in useful contexts and relate them to modern concerns. * John Spitzer, Professor of Music, Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University *
The story Averill has to tell is an important one for every scholar and student of American music, and it has never been told so well and in such detail before....It should be on the reading list of every course in American music. * Charles Hamm, Professor Emeritus of Music, Dartmouth University *
A superbly written piece of scholarship that promises to be an important contribution to our understanding of American vernacular music. * Ray Allen, Institute for Studies in American Music, Brooklyn College *