Last Saturday was certainly a nostalgic evening at the community hall: Participants, with the exception of only a few, had gray or white hair, slightly inflated bellies and performers were well in tune with their audience in terms of their age; and the music played dated back to 1950s and 60s.
The Louisiana Hayride concert turned out to be a popular event in Stettler in the first performance of its kind and Gil Risling of the group said they were intent on coming back.
Saturday’s show started with the playback of the a few original recordings from the first Louisiana Hayride show on the KWKH radio and continued with live music performed by Gil Risling on guitar, Mike Melnichuk in bass, William Brookfield in keyboards and Andrea Anderson in vocals.
A performance simulating Hank Williams’ famous appearances in the original show drew a big applause from the audience and the show continued for quite a while to include famous songs from Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash, among others.
Risling said they were touring communities throughout western Canada and he said they would be looking forward to visiting Stettler again.