Kevin Riordan: New Jersey barbershoppers' love notes for Valentine's Day

"All right, boys," Rich Gray announces as 20 fellows in tuxes arrange themselves in rows.

"We're going to air out the songs a bit," he says. "We're going to tune up the performance, work out the kinks - and get some feedback from the lovely ladies who've come here tonight."

Welcome to a rehearsal of the Pine Barons Chorus, those durable and personable practitioners of the a cappella art of barbershop harmonies in South Jersey.

Soon, they'll be delivering Valentines of song to other people's sweethearts. But on this particular evening, their audience will be their wives.

"I listen for the harmonies," explains Valerie Barker, 58, whose husband, Bruce, is lead singer of 4ever Young, one of several quartets within the Pine Barons. The quartets will offer the singing Valentines for $60 at homes, offices, and other locations from Saturday (www.thepinebarons.com) through Feb. 14.

Women want to hear "the romantic-ness of the songs," says Valerie, a Cherry Hill homemaker. "It's the feeling that the singers really love you and want you to be happy. You feel you're really being sung to."

As the Pine Barons rehearse, one immortal melody after another blossoms in the basement of St. Andrew's United Methodist Church in Cherry Hill.

"Blue Velvet."

"Heart of My Heart."

And, inevitably, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," which might be called the unofficial anthem of barbershoppers everywhere.

"Every Monday night, I know where I'm going to be," says Chuck Edgerton, 76, a Campbell Soup Co. retiree who lives in Cherry Hill and has been a Pine Baron for 30 years. "It's a great fraternity."

The Pine Barons was officially chartered in 1964 from a combination of groups in Woodbury, Medford Lakes, Audubon, and Cherry Hill. The chorus is affiliated with the Barbershop Harmony Society, founded in 1938 by fans who feared the musical form was fading away.

Sung in four-part harmony (lead, bass, baritone, tenor), barbershop is a vocal style with roots in the 19th century. Pretty much anyone who can carry a tune can participate.

"None of us are professional singers," says Gray, 39, who makes his living as a jewelry salesman. "We're amateur singers, shower singers, we sang in high school choruses and college glee clubs. Many of us have no idea how to read music."