Persuasions’ Reunion Goes On Despite Tragedy

What started as a happy reunion tour for the Persuasions, the elder statesmen of a cappella doo-wop singing, has turned into a tragedy.

While in Sacramento last week before a scheduled concert in Davis, Herbert (Toubo) Rhoad, the group’s baritone voice for all of its 26 years, died of an apparent brain hemorrhage at age 44.

The remaining four Persuasions are continuing with the tour (including a show tonight at the Strand in Redondo Beach), but with heavy hearts--and an empty microphone stand where Rhoad would have stood.

“He was one of the finest baritone singers and one of the finest gentlemen in the whole world, as far as the group is concerned,” said a tearful Joe Russell, the Persuasions’ second tenor, by phone.

“It’s very hard to go on without Toubo--very hard,” Russell added. “But he would not want us to stop singin’. He had vowed that he would die with a microphone in his hand. He said ‘You cannot let death stop you from pursuing whatever it is you’re out to achieve.’ ”

Rhoad, given the nickname “Toubo” by some Latino friends in youth, had reportedly suffered headaches for several days. When it was difficult to awaken him last Wednesday morning, the group prevailed upon him to go to a hospital.

He lapsed into a coma en route and was pronounced dead the next day. He is survived by his wife, April, and two daughters.

Rhoad’s death could not have come at a more ironic moment for the group. The ‘80s had been disconcerting times in the Persuasions’ long, up-and-down career, with both Russell and lead singer Jerry Lawson drifting away from the group six years ago. But the five original members--Russell, Lawson, Rhoad, Jimmy Hayes and Jayotis Washington--reunited earlier this year and began performing regularly on the East Coast. The group has just released a new album (CD and tape only), “The Persuasions at the Whispering Gallery” (recorded live at Grand Central Station). A Christmas album is still scheduled to be released next year, and there are still plans for starring roles in a movie about their careers set to begin production this spring.

Russell said that the group had to contend with radio’s unwillingness to play a cappella music and record companies (and stores) that didn’t know how to package and promote it. Arguably, that has changed with the success of one-man-a-cappella-band Bobby McFerrin, and the Bobs--both certainly influenced by the Persuasions.

“They may not have been the first a cappella group,” said musicologist Barry Hansen, better known as Dr. Demento, “but they certainly are at the very forefront of what is now shaping up as a revival of that style. I certainly now see them as being a great link between earlier styles of a cappella singing, both gospel, and doo-wop, and the music of today.”

Rhoad’s death will not be the end of the Persuasions. Russell said they will probably try to find a replacement. It will not be easy; the group auditioned many voices before deciding--at first hearing--that Rhoad’s soft tone was the subtle glue that would hold all four distinctive voices together. All of the group used to kid Rhoad about not singing loud enough, with Lawson, in particular, yelling “Turn up Toubo’s mike!”

Come tonight’s concert, as one long-time Persuasions fan put it, Rhoad’s mike will need no turning up. It will be the loudest of them all--for its silence.