We parked on Sherbrooke and walked around the corner to head south on Cavendish. Just ahead were two grey-haired women in high squared heels, flowered blouses and wide skirts. We followed the pair as they turned east into an alley. As we turned, we saw that the alley was actually a cement staircase leading down to a door. A camera man stood halfway down filming a small red-headed woman in a blue cowboy hat below a neon sign reading “The Wheel Club.” She paused in her monologue to wave us into the building with a curtsy.
So began our first Hillbilly Night at the Wheel.
“If you’re a country and western fan, there is no other place to go in Montreal,” says Margo Pfeiff, who introduced me to the event. “It’s got everything: cheap beer, fun music, and mothers step-dancing with their kids…It’s like having a small country community in the middle of the city. Everyone knows everyone and they come every week.”
As we walk in, I look around. The Wheel Club is nothing fancy. It looked to me a bit like a Legion Hall, with dart boards, pool tables in the back and tables covered in plastic next to a stage. An elderly gentleman at the bar smiled at us and asked what we’d have. He poured the beer first and then served my rum punch, finishing by carefully opening a small green umbrella to set in the plastic cup. It felt like stepping back in time.
Turns out he’s Richard Hearn, a retired Westmount fireman who bought the Wheel Club in 1992. Hearn runs the bar until 11 or so every Monday, as he has done since the event moved to 3373 Cavendish sixteen years ago. Hearn tells me that he started watching Bob Fuller play when he first arrived in Montreal in 1957. By 1966, Hillbilly Night was underway, although it took place downtown at the Blue Angel then. It then moved to O’Leary’s until “Jack” bought the place and wanted them to move. That’s when Hearn asked them to come to the Wheel and the event has been going strong ever since. They celebrated their 45th anniversary on January 12, 2011. You can still see the video from that night on YouTube at http://youtu.be/cNPWUB-lGOI. The video is great, but it still doesn’t capture the fun of being there in person.
“These people are dedicated,” said Hearn. “They’re really a close group of people. They have about 130 people who come regularly, including a retired RCMP officer and a private airline pilot who once flew between Vancouver and Japan. Once Les got to Vancouver, he turned around and got onto a plane to get back to Montreal. He gets off the plane at 8 and at 9, he’s singing at the wheel. Jeannie goes to a family reunion in PEI, but she makes sure she gets back in time for Monday night.”
“Jeannie” is Jeannie Arsenault, the force of nature in the blue cowboy hat. Arsenault keeps everything running smoothly and is very strict about enforcing the three rules for anyone who wants to jam. Musicians and singers can select any song they want, as long as it’s a country song written prior to 1965. They can also play any instrument they want, as long as it’s not electric, although an exception is made for steel guitars. When we mention that one of us would like to sing, she hands us one of multiple binders containing words to some of the songs available, like Green Green Grass of Home and Mockin bird hill.
Then the musicians start to play. Jeannie, Bob Fuller and some others play several tunes, including some from Hank Snow, Wilf Carter and other country music icons. The dance floor includes couples step dancing and lots of women and one man line-dancing. Musicians and singers take turns.
Musicians from all over Canada make a point of visiting the Wheel Club on Monday nights. That night, Vancouver musicians Stephanie Webster and Mike Shaver were there after taking a brief delay in their cross-country bicycle trip. They were awesome musicians and were quite adept at playing the old-time country tunes outside their usual repertoire.
At about 10 p.m., young people poured in. Hearn told me later that several were students from Craig Morrison’s Concordia classes. Morrison and the Internet have revived Monday Night at the Wheel in the last decade or so, says Hearn. Audiences now range in age between 18 and 80.
We ended up staying until the place closed at about 1:15 in the morning. By then, the place was starting to clear out, as it does every week. I can’t wait until our next visit.
