Perogies and Jam presented their first Gospel Night with over 110 present at the Vegreville Pentecostal Church on Saturday, November 17. The featured group was “Rod and Friends” which provided a great selection of old time gospel, christian contemporary and country gospel songs. By the end of the evening, MC Don Harfield announced to the audience that the benefit event raised about $ 1,000 in support of Loaves and Fishes which provides a meeting place and free lunches to the community every Friday most of the year.

The event started off at 6:30 pm with Colleen Albert leading a children’s group from the Lutheran Church singing lively tunes such as “Chariots, Bones and Wheels” and finishing with “Peace on This Silent Night.

Rod and Friends took the stage at 7 pm with the 1970’s popular country song “Lord, I Hope this Day is Good”. Their warm, mellow country sound was well received and their 10 song set list included the blues tune “Poor Wayfarin’ Stranger” and the upbeat 1950’s “I Saw the Light”. The group consists of Rod Werezuk (guitar and vocals) and his wife Juanita (vocals) from Vegreville, Vivian (piano) and Leanne (fiddle) Grinde from the Holden area, Doug Grovet (drums) from Galahad, Darrell Ball (lead guitar) from Sedgewick, and for this evening Ralph Lange (upright bass) of Perogies and Jam in Vegreville. Young (11 yrs old) Meghan Werezuk did a great job when she joined the group to help sing “A Beautiful Life”. They ended their set with the audience joining in “Thank You Lord for Your Blessings on Me”.

Don Harfield and Peter Arnold performed “I Can Never Go Home Again” which was an original blues song from the perspective of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. Barb Harmatys (guitar) from Tofield sang three songs including “Better Than a Hallelujah”. Colleen Albert (piano, clarinet) and Debbie Fedoruk (voice) performed five songs including “Mary’s Boy Child”, a jazzy clarinet solo, and had the audience rise to their feet to sing the well known Christmas Carol “Joy to the World”. Norm Walcheski (electric guitar) from Willingdon with Ralph Lange on upright bass, sang several crowd pleasing numbers including “Makers Manufacturer’s Instruction Manual” and “Something Got A-hold of Me”.

The music worship team from Vegreville Pentecostal Church led by Laura Lillies (and including Pastor Dallas on electric bass) performed several gospel hymn songs, finishing off the evening with the audience singing the classic “Amazing Grace”.

Photos
Pages Courtesy of Rob Hughes