Country music fans piled into the Tom Rooney Playhouse on Saturday, October 29, to enjoy some local musicians and a Terrace group, The Copper Mountain String Band, perform a variety of country music tunes.
This was the first ever Country Night put on by the North Coast Performers Society in Rupert. Organizer Ray Leonard says that when the event was first proposed, some people thought it wouldn’t be well attended because they thought there were no country music fans in Prince Rupert. They were wrong, because the theatre was packed on Saturday.
The evening started off with organizer Ray Leonard and Cynthia Pyde performing a few songs of their own incorporating the guitar and washboard.
Next up was Frances Riley and Sarah Burgess performing some older country tunes while switching a guitar back and forth between them. The duo have been performing together for years and have even branched out into some more unusual instruments like the glockenspiel.
Lance Clarke and Bruno Hoy finished off the first half of the show with a longer set with covers of obscure country songs as well as some classics by Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. The duo performed tremendously considering they originally had two extra band mates that could not make if for the concert and some technical difficulties on top of that.
After an intermission, a Terrace group called the Copper Mountain String Band started off the second half of the concert with many original from their newest album Midnight Train as well as some covers. The trio is very talented harmonizing their voices perfectly while performing on guitars and a stand up bass.
Leonard knows the band after meeting them while playing festivals and wanted Prince Rupert to be aware of the talented musicians next door.