A tribute to a radio show that gave many classic country music singers their start came back to Melfort for a third performance.
The Louisiana Hayride Show performed at the Kerry Vickar Centre June 8.
Lori Risling, the founder and host of the show, said they pay tribute to the many performers who got their start in the show, like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline and George Jones, as well as others that were influenced by the legacy of the show decades later, like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain.
Seven members of the band came to perform and sing live, paying tribute to the stars with strong performances of their hit music, said Risling. Some of the tributes were done in full costume, dressed up as the star whose music they were performing.
The songs the band chooses to perform are the ones that stir up a lot of memories, said Risling, with people singing along and dancing in their chairs.
“We need people to recognize the songs. We don’t want to do ones that people don’t know, even if they’d be well done.”
Over the last couple of years, it’s not just the older generation who knows the songs from when they came out that come to the shows, but also younger people that enjoy classic country tunes.
“We’ve got young people, maybe in the 15 to 35 age range, coming more and more, loving it, recognizing the songs from what their parents or grandparents were playing, said Risling.
The main reasons that tributes to singers like Brooks and Twain are being added to the show is to give younger members of the audience more of what they would recognize and bridge the gap between classic and more contemporary country music,” the host said.
“The younger ones are recognizing that and really love the upbeatness of those two characters.”
The band started in the Okanagan and have spent the last eight years touring Western Canada.
Risling said the members of the band was based on what was needed for the show, but the core five members have become much like a family, with the addition of two more members from the Battlefords in the past year and a half.
“We just say it was meant to be because that’s how it turned out.”
