Feature Article September 30, 2004
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Abrams family presents bittersweet concert to end the seasonby Jeff Green
Joe
and Ann White were the featured guests at the season finale for the
Abrams Family & Clarendon Station at the John Thomson Hall in Snow
Road on September 16. They performed songs from their newly released CD
Dragonfly. Joe White is a champion fiddler and a frequent performer
with Echo Mountain, the 
group that was the featured guest at the August concert.
At that concert Lois White, the founder of Echo Mountain, gave a wonderful performance with husband Bill and son Joe, although she was very ill with pancreatic cancer. Just a few days before the September 19 concert, Lois White died, and the weight of that event brought an added poignancy to much of the concert.
In her welcoming note to the audience, Tanya Abrams, wife of Clarendon Station leader Brian Abrams and mother of the fiddling Abrams Brothers, talked about Lois White and also about her own younger sister, who died earlier this year.
Fortunately there is joy in music, and with fiddlers like Joe White, Shawn Kellett, and John and James Abrams on stage, surely no one in the packed house had too much chance to sink into melancholy, as the musicians put on a great show of bluegrass and gospel fiddling. The show also featured performances by the kids of the band and the stage debut of none other than Tanya Abrams herself, singing Ignoring the Signs, and receiving a standing ovation.
The August concert had also been a benefit for the North Frontenac Food Bank, and it was announced at last weeks concert that the show had raised $400 for the food bank. In addition, many boxes of food were donated.
The Abrams Family and Clarendon Station will be playing on October 8 in Napanee, a fundraiser for the Napanee Centre of the Arts, and in Verona on November 13, a fundraiser for St. Charles Public School. And for those still looking for something to do on New Years Eve, there is a bus tour available to see the Abrams Family & Clarendon Station in Rocky Mountain North Carolina.
A memorial service for Lois White will be held on Saturday, October 2 at 2:00 p.m. at Tyendinaga Community Centre, Old York Road
