Members of the Portage du Fort community were treated to a concert at the Lakeside Bar and Hotel on Saturday evening from the local duo Small Town Rootz.
The event was organized by Angie Beausoleil, the bar’s manager, who said she thought about having the band over for a show after seeing their card on the counter.
She said the performance was the first live music event at the venue since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had live music like this,” Beausoleil explained. “With covid, things have kind of slowed down a little bit. This is our first one in years.”
Small Town Rootz members Robbie McCallum and Jamie Cameron are both from Portage and have been playing as a duo for only a year, but the two have known each other for decades.
McCallum explained it was Cameron, a lifetime musician, who taught him to play the guitar when he was 12. He said the two would often jam together but were separated when McCallum moved to Alberta.
“We hadn’t played in years,” McCallum said. “But now that we have the time, I made a point to get back and to start practicing.”
McCallum reached out to Cameron to see if he would be interested in playing together again, and they began together with casual jam sessions at a friend’s open mic nights, and later went on to perform at a variety of events in the area.
“We’re happy to play a show at our hometown bar,” McCallum said. “We grew up coming here.”
McCallum said the Lakeside Bar has always been on his list of places he’s wanted to perform. “I used to say ‘If there’s one spot I’d like to play it would be Lakeside,’” Cameron agreed.
Beausoleil explained the amount of customers hasn’t been what it used to be before the pandemic, but hoped this new concert could be a chance to revitalize the bar.
“We used to have country bands every Sunday and rock bands on Saturdays,” Beausoleil recalled. “It would be nice to bring that back.”
Beausoleil is considering hosting more live music events at Lakeside, based on the feedback and turnout from the event. “If we can get a good crowd in here, it would be lovely to start doing this again.”
