Hall of Fame coming to Verona

Jeff Green | Feb 20, 2019

The four-year old Land O’Lakes Traditional Music Hall of Fame got its start when Northbrook based entrepreneur Bob Taylor had a conversation with Bill White of White Pine. They wanted to figure our how to celebrate Reg Weber, who was on the mend at the time, and of that conversations led to the idea of a traditional music hall of fame.

“There is an Ottawa Valley Hall of Fame, which overlaps with is a bit, but we decided to do something for Frontenac, Lennox and Addington and Hastings, and the Land O’Lakes Hall of Fame came from that,” said Taylor

Each year, new inductees enter the hall, which is virtually housed at lolmusichof.ca, in categories such as promoter, songwriter, musician-entertainer, as well as a posthumous category.

The hall has a board of directors, with regional representation, as well as a nominating committee. Anyone is invited to nominate their favourite artist through the website, and for a membership fee of $5, people can earn the right to vote and participate in the process.

The Hall of Fame welcomed its classes of 2016-2018 at the main stage of the Flinton Jamboree. This year, however, the hall will start rotating its ceremony around the region.

“The Jamboree was good to us. Many of the people who attend the jamboree are there, understandably, for the music, and we decided it was time we put our own event together,” said Taylor.

Devoting an entire event to the Hall of Fame will allow for more performances by the new inductees, and a further chance to show off the depth of talent that has been developed over they years in each of the three counties.

In line with that, the entertainer category of the hall has been expanded to include one new member from each of Frontenac, L&A and Hastings County, and there will be a fourth entertainer inducted each year, the President’s choice who will be chosen by Taylor himself.

Part of the reason for the change is that larger number of Frontenac County musicians have been chosen and only one or two from Hastings County, partly due to the strong Frontenac County membership base.

“I will try to choose people who are deserving but would likely be overlooked otherwise” said Taylor. His first choice, for 2019, is John Foreman, a legendary performer in the Bancroft Area who is lesser known in southern Hastings, Frontenac, and L&A.

For all the other categories, nominations remain open until the end of February, and memberships are available at lolmusichof.ca. Ballots will be available in electronic and hard copy format, and voting will take place in March. The winners will be announced in April, and details about the induction ceremony/celebration at the Lions Hall will be publicised over the next few months.