| Mar 21, 2013


In the ’90s they were just about everywhere. They called themselves Country Church at that time and hardly a week went by without the smiling band of bluegrass gospel musicians taking the stage at a church gathering, a community picnic or a seniors home.

It all started innocently enough, recalls Gilbert Whan, a founder and still stalwart member of the Country Church Band to this day. “It was in February of 1992, after a men’s fellowship breakfast at the [Pentecostal] church here in Sharbot Lake. Ron Clark, who was the pastor at that time, had his guitar and Jim Heney [a member of the church], had his fiddle on hand and they started to play, and they asked me to get my guitar and join them. I asked Ron to get his banjo, and we started to play guitar, banjo and fiddle and it sounded pretty good. So we said, why don’t we play a song on Sunday morning. And it went on from there.”

Country Church played their first concert in Plevna at the Clar-Mill Hall in the fall of 1992, and shortly after that Janice Wilson (vocals, piano) and Bruce Walker (harmony fiddle) and Jim Smith (bass) joined the band.

Over the next six years Country Church released four cassette tapes, and sold enough of them to donate over $17,000 to the church’s renovation fund. They also performed over 300 concerts across Eastern Ontario, travelling as far east as Prescott, as far west as Brantford, south to Amherst Island, and as far north as Shawville, Quebec. The largest audiences they played over that time were at the fairs in Shawville and Perth (3 years in a row) where as many as 1,500 jammed the grandstands to see the show.

In the late 90s the original band broke up when Ron Clark left Sharbot Lake to take on a ministry in Frankford, ON, and Jim Heney moved from Maberly to Kingston to work in a brake plant.

Country Church, now known as Country Church band, continued on, with Gilbert, Janice and Bruce being joined by the Chatson family from Denbigh. Another former pastor at Sharbot Lake Pentecostal, Ed Beattie, played with them until his death in August of 2008. In addition to playing several hundred more concerts over the years, the Country Church Band has released a CD. In all its incarnations the band has performed traditional gospel and bluegrass in the style of the White and Cox family bands of the southern United States. Earlier this year Francis Chatson died as well, and Bruce Walker does not perform as often, leaving just Gilbert Whan and Janice Wilson to perform as a duet.

This Sunday, March 24, the original band will be getting together for a one day reunion, culminating in a concert at Sharbot Lake Pentecostal Church at 6:30 pm.

“Ron Clark is visiting from Swift Current, where he lives now, and Jim Heney is coming as well; also Bruce Walker along with Janice and myself,” said Gilbert Whan, “it should be quite a bit of fun.”

The band won’t exactly have a lot of rehearsal time, but they are playing at Sharbot Lake Seniors Home from 3 until 4 pm.

“That’ll be our rehearsal,” said Gilbert.

Both concerts are open to the public and everyone is welcome. There is no admission fee; a freewill offering will be taken.

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