Volusia County has got talent as well as a rare kind of harmony.Of the "10 Best Tenors of All Time," as selected by The Harmonizer magazine of the Barbershop Harmony Society, two of them just so happen to live within a short drive of each other in West Volusia.Eddy Ryan, 75, of DeBary, and Kent Martin, 72, of Lake Helen, made the elite list, the selection of which the magazine acknowledged as "an impossible task" that involved "several rounds of voting" and "passionate discussion" by "an illustrious, all-star voting panel" of members from the society.But the local tenors said they are not letting the honors go to their heads.“In our society’s 80-year history, some 16,000 to 18,000 tenors have stepped on the stage,” said Martin, originally from New Hampshire.“Eddy and I were picked as two of the 10 best tenors of all time, but that and a buck will get me a cup of coffee, I suppose,” Martin joked.In the high praise of the June edition of the Harmonizer publication, Ryan was described as “a true Irish tenor with the ability to ‘peel paint’ on high B-flats.”Originally from New Jersey, Ryan sang tenor with “The Easternaires,” “a highly creative quartet,” according to the magazine.In his storied career, Ryan said he performed “The Music Man” on Broadway, was an entertainer on the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship, sang with the Boston Pops orchestra on the Fourth of July in 1985 and even made a humorous commercial for Listerine.In recalling his run as a singer of a Broadway musical ,“The Music Man” in the 1960s, Ryan said “it wasn’t like today when everyone is miked up."Singers really had to sing loudly so their voices could be picked up by the microphone at the front of the stage, which was about 10 feet away, he said.A "Music Man" chorus girl named Cass Elliot, who would later go on to sing with the Mamas and Papa's, sat on his knee during the performances.But singing with the Boston Pops for the Fourth of July was a thrill of the lifetime."That made the hair on my arms stand up," said Ryan.Martin sang with the “Boston Common,” which were the 1980 International Barbershop Quartet champions and inducted into the Barbershop Harmony Society’s Hall of Fame.

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Topics:  Florida   Volusia County   Daytona Beach   
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