by Michael Erskine
LITTLE CURRENT—The list of 2023 inductees into the ranks of the Northern Ontario Country Music Association’s Great Northern Opry has been released and George Williamson of Little Current was surprised to be included among its ranks.
“I never expected that, it really was a surprise,” said Mr. Williamson. “It is nice to be recognized.”
Mr. Williamson is the 2023 Manitoulin District inductee. His official induction will take place during the NOCMA annual awards weekend November 3-5, to be held at the Quattro Hotel in Sault Ste. Marie.
Mr. Williamson is probably best known on Manitoulin Island for the free-will offering Friday evening summer concerts he founded, usually held at Soldier’s Park in Little Current. The first of those Friday evening concerts featuring local musicians took place several years ago, raising funds to support Manitoulin Family Resource’s food bank, but Mr. Williamson’s connections to Manitoulin country music extend quite a ways further back than that.
Mr. Williamson and his wife Lynda moved to Manitoulin in 2014 from Azilda when she took up a job offer on Manitoulin. “I always had it in my mind that I would like to move to the Island,” he said. He was very familiar with the Island from many summer visits to his sister’s camp.
“My sister would always arrange to have someone like (Island musicians) Jeff Pyette, Debbie Robinson or the Dewars come by to play,” he said. “Then there were the Sandfield picnics, I believe that is where The Islanders first started.” It was only a matter of days after first moving to the Island that Mr. Williamson found himself onstage with The Islanders.
Mr. Williamson comes from a musical family, with memories of his father’s cherished Hawaiian lap steel guitar among his earliest recalls. “I got my first guitar when I was seven or so,” he said. “I always had an interest in music.” His sister Betty Heise had a great collection of Everly Brothers records and he would learn the harmonies with her. “I really had a thing for ‘60s music.”
When he was 13 he bought his first electric guitar and amplifier. “It was a lot easier to play,” he said. By the time he was 17 he was performing in a wedding band formed by his high school music teacher.
“We must have played just about every hall in Sudbury, along the North Shore, sometimes even on Manitoulin,” recalled Mr. Williamson. “We were booked pretty much solid.” He credits his teacher with instilling a sense of discipline that really helped his music go to a new level.
A few years later marriage bells rang out and Mr. Williamson set his guitar aside for a while, eventually selling the electric and buying a 12-string that was more suitable to his more restricted playing opportunities. His wife Lynda has always been very supportive of his music, he stressed.
The idea for the concerts in downtown Little Current came about through his experiences while visiting his older sister Joan Sagle in Florida. “They had a circle that would play and support each other in a nearby park,” he said. “It was an open mic kind of thing.”
“Gordie Greenough of the Islanders was the first person to play with me downtown,” he recalled. “Lynda would organize the music and I provided rhythm guitar to help hold things together.” The crowds were small to start, but Mr. Williamson and his growing cadre of musicians kept at it. “It was important to keep showing up,” he said. Eventually, the audience grew and the concerts became a fixture on the Little Current waterfront.
Mr. Williamson became a mentor of sorts to Cole Hughson, having been introduced to the young musician by Cole’s grandmother Norma Hughson. “We were playing at a Christmas dinner at the United Church, and she asked if Cole could come up and sing a song,” recalled Mr. Williamson. “Cole sang ‘White Christmas.’ I was very impressed with how nice and polite he was. He had good timing and reminded me of myself when I was younger.”
Cole became a regular in the Friday night crew and later joined Mr. Williamson on his online concerts during the pandemic. The duo are slated to play together at Bluegrass in the Country later this summer.
Mr. Williamson joins Sudbury District’s Andre Giroux, Cathy Brooks and Mike Foisy of Nipissing-Parry Sound, Sylvie Blais and Eric Girard of Cochrane and Temiskaming, Terry Eaton and Jerry Bouchard of Algoma West and Jim Graham of Algoma East as the 2023 inductees.
