Country music fans enjoy weekly jams at church hall
If old-time country music is your thing, then Tuesday nights in Lourdes is the place to be.
Classic country and traditional Newfoundland music is featured at weekly jams that are held each Tuesday at Sister Catherine Steele Centre in Lourdes, from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Admission is $5 (tea, coffee, sandwiches and sweets are provided), with all funds going to the church.
“It’s mainly a fundraiser for the church hall, to help with heat, lights and other things,” says Bernie McCarron, one of the organizers. “We get between 20-24 players a night and anywhere between 50-60 people in the audience. It’s a night out for the seniors. When I get there at five o’clock, there’s people waiting at the door.” The group started last February, took a break for the summer and resumed in early September. Most of them play acoustic guitars — although they have a bass player, fiddles and a steel guitar player.
“Some of them are first-rate musicians, just fantastic players,” McCarron said, adding players of all levels of ability are invited to take part; they don’t even have to take the microphone and sing, they can merely strum their acoustic guitars along with the music.
“We do one song at a time, and move on to the next person,” says MacCarron, who started playing guitar about three years ago.
His wife Marilyn is one of the volunteers who helps prepare the food. Asked if she plays a musical instrument, she laughed and said no.
“I’m a rug-hooker, that’s what I do,” she said. “But the people who go to hear the music love it — they just love it.”