June is the month where we honour fathers, so seeing as my father, a father of five and grandfather of four, is the Westman Jams musician of the month, I’m pleased to tell you all a little about how my dad, Jim Terry, got his start in music.

            Originally from Rapid City, MB, and now living on a small acreage in Cottonwood Acres, Dad began playing the violin somewhere between the ages of 12 and 13 years old.  He never did take that many lessons… something about his ear getting too sore from his teacher chastising him for not practising, but the lessons he did take he put to good use.  As happens with most people though, life gets busy and Dad didn’t have a lot of time to play too often.  Still, once I began my first piano lessons, it wasn’t long before we were playing together.  The types of songs that Dad liked were mostly Don Messer, King Ganam, or Al Cherney tunes.  Dad also used to play guitar and sing when I was little, and I have quite a few tapes of his clear, deep singing voice, so I can attest that he’s good!  Just don’t ask him to do any Willie Nelson impersonations.

When we played fiddle tunes when I was young, they were usually the well known Canadian fiddle tunes that most people recognize.  Once Dad retired at the age of 53 (he’d worked in Shilo as a high pressure welder and a maintenance supervisor), he had time to play more seriously and explored the more complex fiddle music of Gordon Stobbe, Ivan Hicks, and Calvin Vollrath.  

Dad enjoys playing music with others, and Westman Jams has provided some good opportunities to meet many new people.  Dad is always keen on following the younger people who are keeping the tradition of old tyme music alive and would like to see more young people at our jams.