MANITOULIN—George Williamson, Little Current’s own Friday night downtown singing sensation, is the latest Islander to be nominated to the Great Northern Opry in Sault Ste. Marie. He was feted at a recent evening of music at the Sheguiandah Seniors’ Hall.
The ever-humble Mr. Williamson said he had been chatting with fellow musician and Opry inductee Ben Lentir this spring about the upcoming Bluegrass in the Country event in Providence Bay, where Mr. Williamson had been tapped to play. “(Mr. Lentir) then said, ‘oh, by the way, congratulations on being named to the Opry’,” Mr. Williamson recalled.
Mr. Williamson’s cousin, Jeff Pyette, had nominated him. “I thought that was great,” he said. “It’s such an honour. I’m not a competitive person, but when things like this happen it’s great, and so well-appreciated.”
Mr. Williamson comes by his love of music honestly. His father played a lap steel guitar. He said he didn’t know too many songs, but he loved to play. In high school, the musician then managed to talk himself into a band headed by his Lively High School’s music teacher. “We were booked solid for two years playing all over Sudbury and the North Shore,” he shared. “I got a lot of good training there.”
Mr. Williamson admitted that country classics wasn’t his first love. He loves the music of the 1970s—Jim Croce, Dan Hill, The Eagles—but he saw the response he would get when he’d break into a classic country favourite and so he began to cater his playlist to meet the needs of his Manitoulin crowd.
Mr. Williamson, before settling on the Island, would visit sister Betty Heis in Sandfield. He recalled the days of the Sandfield picnics when the Dewar brothers (now known as the Islanders) and Peter Tilston would be playing. He thought they were wonderful.
The first day he moved to Manitoulin he was invited to play with the Islanders, an honour he still enjoys to this day.
“I do enjoy it, that’s for sure,” he added. “I’ve met a lot of people through music. I’ve even met a guy who played for Ernest Tubb—that’s pretty amazing.”
Mr. Williamson said he is looking forward to his November induction ceremony. “I’ll feel like a celebrity,” he chuckled. “I haven’t been on a bus trip since Grade 8!”
“I do love helping Cole (Hughson, his Friday night Soldier Park music partner) and anyone else that comes along and loves live music.”
Mr. Williamson’s official induction into the Northern Ontario Country Music Foundation’s Great Northern Opry will take place in November in Sault Ste. Marie.
