As usual, the music scene came together to help out with a few songs, Dec. 18.
A group of Honkers Pub regulars took the stage to help “Captain” Morgan Dyck, who is fighting Stage 4 brain cancer.
There was a $10 cover at the door and a silent auction which raised $12,420 for Morgan Dyck’s medical and transportation expenses.
The show started in the afternoon with Chuck Reinhart at 5 p.m. followed by Earl Halmrast.
I arrived in time to catch most of Andy MacNamara’s 6 p.m. set. He covered a variety of ’90s and 2000s hits including Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” but he ended on a Celtic note with Great Big Sea’s crowd pleaser “Is’e The Bye”
The Trippy Hippys’ Laurie Wintoniak and Joy Pizzengrilli showed off their range and vocal harmonies, playing everything from old country to soul to ’80s pop.
They started their set with “Teach Your Children Well,” and followed it with Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again,” then went ’80s with Doug and the Slugs’ “Day By Day.”
They were in the middle of “Under the Boardwalk” when I had to leave to do my radio show.
But there was still a lot of fun yet to come with a new country band Circle Ridge Country, bluesman Steve Keenan, local Tragically Hip Tribute the Hip Trip and Driving w While blind, winding up their show followed by an open stage.
Honkers Pub owner Vicky Vanden Hoek called the fundraiser a “huge success” in an e-mail and presented him with the proceeds on Dec. 24.
Because of new Covid restrictions, Honkers Pub has decided to cancel their Thursday karaoke beginning Dec. 30 until restrictions lift as well as all Christmas parties.
But live music will continue from 7-11 p.m. on Fridays and 5-9 on Saturdays.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor