Christmas Time's A Comin' - Lawrence Russell

                                                                            Lead Vocals: Lawrence Russell

                                                                                        Fiddle: Scott Moody

                                                                                         Banjo: Sandy Campbell

                                                                       Rhythm Guitar: Ken Denby

                                                        Second Rhythm Guitar: Gary Borden

                                                                                 Mandolin: Lawrence Russell

                                                                                Accordion: Jeannette Denby

                                                                              Bass Guitar: Brendan McDonald

                                                                               Sleighbells: Humberto Pacheco

                                Biographies

                                               Lawrence Russell

                                               Lawrence has been playing the mandolin for some years, but started on the accordion,

                                               then the guitar, and also the banjo. He loves joining in on any jam that is happening.

                                               He has played with numerous musicians.  One group was the  “Grammas, and Grampas”

                                               which consisted of Lawrence, Harold Singbeil, Anne Vercruysse, Jeannette Denby, and

                                               Ken Denby. Good old time music that  was. He played the mandolin for the Country

                                              Gospel Group “Outreach”.   This group consisted of Lawrence, Glenn Scheibler, Lorraine

                                              Malyk, Tom Stratton, Anne Vercruysse, Ken and Jeannette Denby, and Karen Bevilacqua. 

                                              He is very proud to be on the recording with this group. Since then Lawrence is always

                                              having people over for making music by the lake in Georgina’s Gazebo. He is now happy

                                              to be part of this awesome Sunset Country  Christmas Treasure CD.

                                              Lawrence’s song is…….Christmas Times a Comin’

                                            Scott Moody

                                            My love for music started very young. My dad, Neil Moody, played the guitar and

                                            sang. I would always get involved with musicals and play at my old public school,

                                           Sprucedale. Usually playing one of the lead roles I gained lots of confidence to stand

                                           up in front of crowds. I started learning on the guitar at about the age of 8 and then

                                           enrolled in lessons with none else than Ken Denby. I was there for one term and used

                                           my good ear instead of learning to read the music. I still can't read music, all of my

                                           music ability is listening to the songs and playing them over and over. Around the age

                                           of 12, after learning quite a bit on the guitar I became inspired to play the "fiddle" at

                                           camp one weekend when Mel and Sarah Auren came over for a "jam" session with

                                           us. The things Mel could make that fiddle do, made me want to play one. He let me

                                           squeeeek a couple of notes out of it and that was all it took for me to want one. My

                                           uncle, Ray Moody, had an old beater kicking around that he gave to me and I started

                                           to practise. It sounded like an old tin can but I learned a few tunes and thought I was

                                           getting pretty good while I played along with old fiddle records. Dad and I would get

                                           together and jam with either Mel Auren or Bob Oversby, or both. We had a lot of

                                           good times and learned quite a lot from these guys. At the age of around 16, Lorrainne

                                           Malyk got ahold of Louie Haukeness, and Myself to play at Eaton-Rugby Hall. Lorraine

                                           on vocals and rhythm guitar, Louie on vocals and bass, myself on lead guitar and fiddle,

                                           "Country Friends" became our name. We played at smaller functions, got noticed and

                                           gained Tom Stratton, on lead/rhythm guitar, along with Rick Smith on drums/vocals.

                                          Later Louie retired, we picked up Everett Rourke as our bass player and Colleen Nicoll

                                          harmony vocals. We played all over Dryden, almost every weekend starting from the

                                          August Fall Fair until around March. After about three years of playing and running back

                                          and forth to trade school in Thunder Bay, I packed in the band life. This was one of the

                                          greatest musical experiences of my life. The band continued on and became "Cross Road

                                          Country". In 1993 I got married to my wonderful wife Susan, now we have two great boys,

                                          Ben(6), and Will(3). I jam once and a while with dad, my nephew Brendan McDonald,

                                          Ken and Jeannette Denby, who are inspiring Brendan to be better than ourselves. Now my

                                          love is my family, "Ham" amateur radio, and playing around with computers. I'm honoured

                                          to have been asked to play on the "Sunset Country Christmas Treasures" album and dedicated

                                          this website to all of the people who where involved.