Elmer Lamadee plays a driveway concert from his trailer. (Submitted photo/Skylar Magee)

By Alison Sandstrom

A Neighborly Gift

Trailer becomes stage: local country singer back on the road

Jun 19, 2020 | 8:00 AM

A year after he underwent open-heart surgery, Paddockwood musician Elmer Lamadee was ready to get back on the stage – then COVID-19 happened.

“All the shows that we had booked with the Country Music Association got cancelled, and any of the ones I had had been cancelled too,” the 77-year-old told paNOW.

“I was getting tired of sitting in the basement just singing to myself.”

Lamadee’s eagerness to perform and his desire to support a neighbour in need led him to come up with a unique solution. Last Friday, on the type of rainless day that has been rare this spring, he loaded his sound equipment onto the back of a small trailer and attached it to his truck.

The first stop on what Lamadee called his “one-man show on the road” (he also drove the truck) was his neighbour’s driveway. Shirley Allenby has terminal cancer and hasn’t left her home in three months.

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“I thought maybe it would just give them a little uplifting for a little bit,” Lamadee explained simply.

But for his audience who watched the trailer concert from their front deck, the gesture was anything but simple.

“We have not seen our mom/grandma smile so much since receiving the bad news of her diagnosis,” Skylar Magee, Allenby’s granddaughter said, speaking on behalf of her family.

“We cannot express how grateful we are to have Elmer take his time to do something so nice and special for our grandma.”

Over the course of the day, Lamadee made his way to various other locations around the village of Paddockwood, culminating with a few hours at the parking lot of the local Co-op.

“I think people really enjoyed it… I even had a lady dancing there for a while,” he said.

With the success of his first series of trailer concerts, Lamadee said he’d like to get back on the road again soon, although no dates have been set.

“You have to really watch the weather when you’re doing something like this,” he explained.

He’s even considering playing at some of the long-term care homes in the area where he had been scheduled to perform before the facilities were locked down due to the pandemic.

“A person’s got to do what he can to try and keep everybody else feeling a little better,” Lamadee said.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom