Paddockwood country singer glad to be making music again
A clear day was all Elmer Lamadee needed to lift the spirits of a neighbour in the last stages of her fight with cancer.
When the sun broke out on June 12, he packed his trailer with a guitar, a couple of speakers, a drum machine and a voice processor.
“By golly, I’ll just do it today,” he said, bringing the makeshift stage onto his neighbour’s driveway.
Lamadee, a lifelong musician in Paddockwood who turns 77 in August, sang for the neighbour and her family and played country standards for half an hour. He glimpsed a few smiles from the woman who had been battling cancer for almost two decades.
“I feel really good about doing that myself,” he said. “I hope it gives someone a little happiness for a little while, (to) forget about everything.”
Lamadee saw some of himself in his neighbour. Last April, openheart surgery prevented him from singing for more than five minutes without stomach and chest pain.
It was a blow. Lamadee had played music for decades since his foster parents loaded an organ onto a manure sleigh with a team of horses. Almost 70 years later, he still had the organ, but lost his voice. It took months for him to recover.
COVID-19 then cancelled the shows he planned this year.
“I know what it’s like to not be able to get up and do what you want to do,” he said. “Not feeling right, not feeling good. Some days you’re good, some days you aren’t.”
Throughout his life, Lamadee found refuge playing his favourite musicians — singers like Merle Haggard and Stompin’ Tom Connors. He was particularly drawn to Connors’ upbeat music and references to Canadian culture, leading him to finish a tribute album for him in December. To this day, Connors covers form a cornerstone of Lamadee’s performances, and are his most comfortable numbers as he loads his trailer with music equipment.
From his neighbours’ home last Friday, he then packed up and drove on, playing for seniors before he moved his makeshift stage outside the local Co-op store.
As he played a two-hour set, one woman danced to the music and a few drivers parked and watched from the back of their trucks. He knew most of the audience from around town, welcoming them as they passed, waving to him and listening to a few numbers. For Lamadee, it was a worthy break from staying at home to play guitar for neighbours in Paddockwood, almost 200 kilometres north of Saskatoon.
“It was uplifting for everybody a little bit, I think,” he said.
Nick Pearce is the Starphoenix’s reporter through the Local Journalism Initiative