A FULL WEEK OF CHRISTMAS PERFORMANCES 2012

Barry Ziegler

Tonight, December 6, 2012, is the third night this week we have participated in Christmas music for some of the great people of Charlottetown. Here we were at 501 Queen Street , a Seniors' Residence for many of Charlottetown's older citizens. Grace MacIntosh, the director of music we will call her,has invited SMUG many times in the past 5 years to perform for the wonderful and enthusiastic group that live there. Tonight we performed well and were indeed appreciated by those who were in attendance. It's Wednesday morning at Andrews of Stratford and THE NANAS AND THE PAPAS from Whisperwood Villa are visiting THE ANDREWS STRUMMERS for the first time . Here the two ukulele groups are being led by THE NANAS and THE PAPAS conductor, Leah Ziegler. HERE our very talented RETROFRETS performing at Andrews of Charlottetown, a community care facility, with some Christmas music for many of the residents that attended on Tuesday night.The Retrofrets have a busy month planned as well. This was at the First Baptist Church in Charlottetown, where we performed during a Christmas turkey supper held annually for the Charlottetown folks who are less privileged than others. It is always a well attended event put on by the Church and for the past three years SMUG has been invited to provide some Christmas flavour to the evening.

SMUG'S FIRST CHRISTMAS PROGRAM AT BELFAST NURSING HOME

The 2012 SMUG Christmas season began yesterday at the Dr. John M. Gillis Memorial Lodge in Belfast, as a large number of Smuggers turned up for 45 minutes of a rousing and stimulating extravaganza of Christmas ballads and carols. Everyone was extremely pleased to have our hostess, Lynda Sharpe, play the piano with us which gives SMUG a new and sparkling sound. Lynda is organist and choir director at St. Andrew's United Church in Vernon Bridge.It was because of her kind invitation that we played at The Home yesterday. Following the performance, the staff provided a great lunch for us which gave us opportunity to chat with some of them as well as the many residents who were most encouraging in inviting us for a speedy return to the Lodge. One resident even helped us out by taking some photos. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Last evening SMUG performed a short program at the Milton Community Center for the ladies at the Grand Master of Masons Ladies' Night. We were hosted by the Grand Master's wife, Linda Coles, and joined in SMUG for the evening by his daughter, Diane. Before our allotted time was up we had the pleasure of hearing the ladies sing and many play ukuleles as well. A real fun time seemed to be had by both SMUG and the ladies.Unfortunately no photos were taken Pastor Dennis nursing his broken foot in a wheel chair.Forgot to get a picture of the foot! Ah.....there is the foot

Beautiful Morning at Beach Grove Home

Beautiful Prince Edward Island Morning out our front window

This morning SMUG again had the privilege of playing a new fall program for the residents of Beach Grove Home in Charlottetown. We performed an hour show of the oldies along with some gospel selections all under the capable direction of Hazel,  filling in for the director who played the bass due to the absense of the groups usual bassists . It wasn't long before Hazel had everyone singing and some even dancing(it's true) as we sped through the program and kept the residents all happily singing until we reached the final pieces. As we finished the program we had requests to sing  "Till We Meet Again" and that all-time favourite piece "Amazing Grace". Hazel played the piano and we all sang along.

It was very noticible since our last performance at Beach Grove, the lack of many familiar faces, but one familiar face, that of Andy Northcott, was in evidence as he welcomed many of us to "His" home.

 

I KNOW WHO HOLDS TOMORROW

St.Marks Presbyterian Church
 

This morning SMUG were at the home church of one of our founders, Ron Tallon. The church was St Mark's Presbyterian Church in Sherwood(which of course is really now Charlottetown). The clergy at the church are the Reverend Tom Hamilton and his wife, The Reverend Paula Hamilton. Together they make a wonderful team and Rev. Tom provided us and a full church with a message about getting t o heaven. Our anthem,"I Know Who Holds Tomorrow" was most appropriate and I have to say that SMUG's performance was the finest we have had to date. Everyone was in top notch form and the whole program went flawlessly from beginning to end, which ended in a standing ovation and many encouraging remarks from many of the congregation as well as the clergy. To be asked to "come back anytime" is a pretty positive bit of encouragement.

It must also be said in this blog, that Ron's wife, Marguerite, passed away last Sunday morning and to have carried on with this planned service, was a courageous effort on his part. We all offer our condolences to Ron at this very difficult time.....he is indeed a tower of strength


Organist and choir director Jacqueline Sorensen Young

Here we are again

 

Here they are

Congregation begins to arrive

Arriving Sunday Morning




Rehearsal on Saturday

 

 

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND......with DIANNE SUTTON 2011

Attached is a video taken at the Campbell summer home in Stanhope in August 2011 during the visit of Dianne Sutton and her daughter ,Jessica, from South Carolina. Dianne is the director of Yesterukes, and has become a good friend of SMUG over the past four years. The video was taken by Jessica during our annual SMUG picnic.  We just received this video from Dianne last night.

JAMES HILL GIVES A WORKSHOP AT INDIAN RIVER

James and Anne practising for their Indian River evening on the deck at Heidi and Rob's home

About 20-25 PEI ukulele players were treated to a workshop by James Hill at Indian River Church last Saturday afternoon, August 25..James, along with Anne Davison(Janelle) on cello, provided a most interesting hour or so of new and fun things to do on the fretboard of our ukuleles. In his words: "The ukulele is an easy instrument to learn to play, and many start out learning to chord and strum where there is a steep learning curve for a short while but then it quickly levels off".  "As a result, interest  wanes because the player is not advancing in new skills and learning". James taught us some inversion chords and we spent time doing a  "Premiere Performance" of "All Night Long" from his Ukulele in the Classroom book. James then spent some time explaining the value of jazz chords and the great sound that comes from incorporating some of them into well known classics like "Sway" which we all gave a try. The time finished up with James and Anne doing a selection for us from a previous performance "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" A fabulous ending to a great workshop. Those of you who were able to make the evening performance of James and Anne I understand were thrilled at the variety of entertainment they provided. Unfortunately a previous commitment prevented us from making it. We give thanks to Heidi Litke for providing the photos you see here.....she took a ton of them. I'm sorry you can't double click to enlarge them, because this can't be done with the small resolution.I hope Heidi might use her influence to persuade James and Anne to do something like this again on PEI in the future.

ANDREWS OF STRATFORD ANNUAL FAMILY BARBECUE

ANDREW'S STRUMMERS put on a "Real Big Show" today as Andrews of Stratford held their annual outdoor barbecue and family picnic. Wonderful food compiled by chef Terry and served by the staff of Andrews.The STRUMMERS sand and played two sets, one before the meal was served and one following which had the visitors singing clapping and rolicking in their seat. Just We`Two (Ann and Molly) did several numbers also in the dining room while dinner was being served in there.  Sorry I missed getting all the photos I should have as well as some names of those who participated.  Rain was threatening during the barbecue and eventually a few drops drove most inside. But still a lot of fun had by all who visited and all who participated. The members of SMUG who direct and support th ANDREWS STRUMMERS were out in full support of the event.