Canadian Country Jubilee


CANADIAN COUNTRY JUBILEE

Canadian Country Jubilee was a travelling show produced by Dusty Lee Rivers for the Western Canada Fair Association. Active from 1975 through to the fall of 1976, it featured Dusty Lee Rivers, Shelley-Lou Marie, Art Young, and a five-piece band consisting of Jimmy Flett, Wayne Link, Ray Rogers, Don Renville and Gene Bretecher. The show made its debut in the fall of 1975, with seven appearances at Winnipeg's Playhouse Theatre. It went on the road in June 1976, touring from Ontario to Alberta until September.

"We were the largest all-Canadian country music show ever to play the western grandstand circuit," Rivers said. "We rehearsed six hours a day for a month before we hit the road, and then it was six days a week of two shows every day."

One album was recorded at Roade Recording Studios with such notable artists as Aileen Murphy of Sugar and Spice fame, and Michael Rheault, future keyboardist for Burton Cummings in his solo career, participating. Ralph Watts, guitarist for The Guess Who from 1979 to 1980, was the engineer and musical arrangements were handled by Ron Paley, Elmer Nault, and Dusty Lee Rivers.