That first jam started when I overheard a conversation between a few people who were getting together to play music, and I asked to be invited. That jam was held at the Curling Lounge at the McBride Arena. There were four of us, who gathered around to play music, while most of the curlers in the lounge, just continued with their conversations.
The four of us had fun playing, so in the weeks that followed, we met at different houses to play. I wanted to set up something regular and asked Naomi, the McBride Librarian, if we would be able to use the Library Annex (an empty house next to the library, that the library owned and used for some of their activities). “Sure,” Naomi said, and since the library was opened nights on Tuesday, that is when we gathered to play. We became the Tuesday Night Jam.
We were an “open” jam, that welcomed anyone who wanted to play. As word got around the community, more and more closet musicians started coming, and every Tuesday, the rather dingy-looking annex rang out with music. Visiting guitar-playing tourists and young guitar-playing international volunteering farm workers would show up to join us. Below is a 2016 photo from one of those Tuesday nights.
When the McBride Library moved to its fancy new “digs” on Main Street, our jam started playing there, right in the library, on Tuesday nights. This caused our numbers to really swell, as unknowing locals came in to the library and discovered us playing. Below is a 2019 photo showing our Tuesday Night Jam at our peak density.
In 2020, Covid 19 and the many restrictions that it caused, basically closed down normal library operations, and the jam was no longer able to play there, and gatherings were considered a “No-No” anyway, so the jam went on a long hiatus, and we all were doomed to do our playing alone, at home. Covid really did have a negative effect on the jam. We lost a lot of our players, when many moved away.
A couple of years later, when things began to loosen up, during the winter I started renting the Legion Hall, a large open hall, where we could all spread out when we played. (Photo below)
When the summers arrived, The Tuesday Night Jam, started to play on the porch of McBride’s Train Station. While it was nice to be outside watching the setting sun illuminate the view of McBride, weather was always an issue. It often cold or it rained, so we would end up back in the Legion Hall.
This past winter we started playing in the lobby of the train station, which although small, has wonderfully loud acoustics. The photo at the top of the blog shows most of our basic group at last night’s jam. Absent in the photo were three people who generally come to sing or watch, and a few of our regular musicians, who weren’t there last night.
Our jam plays a wide spectrum of the music, songs that our musicians bring in and want to try. Folk, Blues, Rock, Country, and even some show tunes. Songs by Woody Guthrie, Chuck Berry, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Box Car Willy, Randy Newman, The Byrds, The Beatles, Tom Petty, Joni Mitchell, Rogers and Hammerstein, Neil Young, Hank Williams, Gordon Lightfoot, The Band, and Don Henley, to name a few.
Our Tuesday Night Jam is always the highlight of my week, something I start looking forward to starting the Wednesday, the day after our last jam. I have been amazed at how much we all have increased our musical skills, and how much fun we still have playing together, after all these years.
You can view my paintings (my other passion) at: davidmarchant2.ca
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