Attaché brings Grand Champion winning streak to twenty-six

By Sherry Lucas

Clinton High School’s Attaché Show Choir added another Grand Champion sweep to their competition roster this season, holding tight to their much-awarded streak and “winningest” show choir label.

Their competition show couldn’t be truer to their show-biz fundamentals, with a theme that’s all about TV.

“It’s really unique and refreshing,” says David Fehr, longtime Attaché director with his wife, Mary, who both transitioned to new roles as executive directors of show choirs with the Clinton Public Schools at the end of last school year. Max Lyall is the current Attaché director.

“We’ve got recliners onstage, and remotes,” Fehr says, and the show hits genres such as news, dramas, cartoons and sports, with commercial jingles threading through the presentation, just as they do when folks watch TV for real. And, “the commercials make sense,” he says, from waking up to Folgers in the morning, to the “Plop plop, fizz fizz” of Alka-Seltzer following the news. “We try to keep having that extra layer the other groups don’t have. … there’s no dead time.”

The choir was quite young this school year, bringing a particular challenge.

“Half the group had never competed at the high school level before,” Fehr says. “It was the most inexperienced group ever in the history of Attaché.”

“Basically, we pulled off a miracle to do what we did this year,” Fehr says. “The South has gotten really really strong, and is doing well nationally. We also went to the Midwest and took on the Chicago schools.… Attaché is up to twenty-six Grand Championships in a row, and every one with best vocals and visual/choreography.”

“They worked extremely hard,” says Clay Mansell, whose ninth-grade daughter AnnaBelle is an Attaché member. He notes that the show choir took on more ninth graders, as they had more spots to fill this school year. Students “knew they were going into a show choir that hadn’t lost since 2014, and they were bound and determined not to mess with that streak.”

The ninth graders would get together and rehearse on their own, make videos at the house and group-text with first-year members.

“It was impressive to watch,” said Mansell.

They aced their three competitions — in Laurel; in Chatham, Illinois; and in Biloxi. They wrapped the competition season by hosting the Show Choir Nationals, for the 20th consecutive time, at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Fehr praised Lyall’s direction, as well as that of Erin Linton and Alison Custer with Clinton Junior High’s Ambassadors Show Choir, which swept its competitions’ top spots this season, too.

Fehr credits a strong foundation in the fundamentals for Attaché’s success.

“You have to understand the fundamentals, and you have to demand and insist they achieve those fundamentals.” He points out that Attaché members are also often involved with other school activities, such as sports. “Our kids are just good kids, well-rounded members of the student body. It’s important to me they’re able to do so many different things.

“It’s not all about winning,” he says. “It’s about trying to be the best you can be.”

The Attaché award-winning show choir will perform their Spring Revue May 3-6 in the Clinton High Auditorium.