The Country Memories Band stays busy

It’s not too hard to find most genres of music in town, but what if you’re really into old-timey country tunes? If Hank Williams is your jam, then head on over to The Gumbo House every weekend to hear The Country Memories Band, headed up by Davis Normand.

“I started playing with my fiddle player, Jill Ekstrom, he told me. “About 20 years ago we started playing together, and then I added on some members as I go along, you know? But holding a band together is not so easy.”

The current line up includes Ekstrom on bass, Normand on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Elizabeth Santoros on stand-up bass. On Satruday nights, says Normand, Tom Lambert comes out to play lead guitar. Judy Jacobs plays fiddle with the group sometimes, too. They play “old-time country music,” according to Normand, who rambles amiably from topic to topic with a slight cajun accent.

The Country Memories band plays Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, he says. “But we also do some popular songs. Like ‘Someday.’ Normand hums a few bars to make sure he’s being clear. “You know, ‘Someday you'll want me to want you, da-da, da-da.’”

They do gospel music too, but not usually at the Gumbo House, unless someone requests it. The second Friday of every month, Normand can be found playing at a condo development off of Muldoon road. “Once a month we play at Chester Park Co-op,” Normand says. “We play in the dining room; we've been doing that over there for about 10 years now.”

Normand and crew hit the Senior Center on the first Wednesday of each month during social hour. They’ve also been playing the Pioneer Home for the past 20 years or so. “We do mostly gospel over there.”

They played the Lion’s Club in Eagle River on Thanksgiving and Christmas, too. It’s clear that Davis Normand and his country band get around. “I play music just about every night,” he tells me. Including a weekly Sunday night gig at the Rescue Mission on Tudor.

Normand grew up in a little town called Marksville in the middle of Louisiana. “I've always liked music, you know, and I always could sing,” he says. “But in my hometown, people don't ... you know, if you can sing, they don't recognize in your hometown.”

The cajun and his wife jumped into the car one day back in 1968 and came to Alaska on a summer lark. He’s seen a lot of changes in this town, he says, like all the malls that have gone up. “God, that Target mall over there, across from the old Seward highway,” he says. “I can’t believe the changes that happened over here. I really can’t.”

What’s changed in the music scene, though? “Well, when I came up they had some good old country music on the radio, I know that,” he says. Normand thinks he might be the only person doing old country music in Anchorage. “They don't have good old country music no more,” he laments.

Normand doesn’t get out to see other people’s live music anymore. “I’m pretty much too busy. Sometimes I go to Guido's on Tuesday night. They have a jam over there.”

Though he doesn’t like jams, too much, either. “(There are) too many instruments and nobody can hear you sing,” he says. “So I don't particularly like jams. I like to perform.”

It’s not just the old folks that love the classics, either. "I'll never forget when this young native lady walked into the Gumbo House, and she said, ‘Can I sing a song?’” he says. “I said, sure. She was about 20 years old and she sang a Hank Williams song. I just couldn't believe it. I said, ‘I didn't think you knew who Hank Williams was.’”

Normand doesn’t like to call his outfit a professional band, preferring to focus on the fun he has playing in front of people. The Gumbo House pays his band in food and tips. The rest of the gigs tend to be for free, too. “I’ve always volunteered because I retired, you know,” he says. “I was a hairdresser and I retired. And I have a little money coming in. You know, Social Security and all that. And seniors benefits. You know, I don't need more money.”