Island Jubilee Old Time Radio Music Show

A legacy of the 2023 Canada Games, the Island Jubilee Old Time Radio Music Show starts its new season at Florence Simmons Performance Hall in Charlottetown on October 22 and will run until April 2024.

As a nod to CBC’s Don Messer’s Jubilee, The Island Jubilee is an old-style radio show that revisits the early sounds of country and old-time music recorded in front of a live studio audience. Featuring the region’s brightest music stars, step dancers and storytellers, backed by a professional cast including:

Nudie (Host, Bass):
An Island sensation for years, Nudie has toured long and far and played in venues of all sizes across North America. Along with club & festival shows in Canada & the United States, Nudie has showcased at the North by Northeast Festival, the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals, the Americana Music Festival in Nashville and the North American Folk Alliance in Memphis, Tennessee. His songs have been featured in CTV television’s Saving Hope as well as the 2021 crime/thriller, A Small Fortune.

Janet McGarry (Co-Producer, Host):
Janet McGarry has been a dominant presence in bluegrass music, both at home and abroad since she recorded her first cd in 2000.    She has shared stages with some of the most revered performers of this genre, and of her time. Janet fell in love with Bluegrass music and felt right at home with its people.   And through 13 cd’s, over 180 recorded songs and countless appearances, bluegrass fans loved her back, awarding her with Album of the Year and Gospel Performance of the Year at the Eastern Canada Bluegrass Music Awards where she is also a five-time recipient of the Female Vocalist of the Year Award, the first artist in this master category.   In 2009, Janet was inducted into a special sisterhood of leading female Bluegrass Music Artists known as “Daughters of Bluegrass” as their first international artist and went on to record and share stages with her newfound sisters from all over, all the while making life long friendships, and still keeping in touch in spite of choosing to stay at home on Prince Edward Island to continue her musical journey. Janet’s voice is often ascribed to the sounds from deep in the mountains of Appalachia where this music originated, but no matter where she performed, Janet McGarry held steadfast to her Irish roots and humbly affirmed her native home being Prince Edward Island, Canada.  

Serge Bernard(Co-Producer, host, acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin):
Serge started playing music at the age of 6 in rural Balmoral, New Brunswick and to this day remains involved in nearly all facets of our music industry while he pursued, and now recently semi-retired from, a career as a well-respected land surveyor and consultant in boundary law. He played weekends in country music bands in Northern New Brunswick and the Gaspé Coast during his teenage years, was a member of the New Brunswick Country Music Showcase house band from 1988-1993, played with various country/bluegrass bands, and appeared on country and bluegrass albums recorded in New Brunswick until 1995 when he moved to PEI. He eventually met and married his wife Janet McGarry and together they recorded 13 albums and appeared on many bluegrass and country music stages in Eastern & Central Canada as well as the United States. Serge also created “Bluegrass Island” a weekly radio show which aired on CFCY for over 24 years and now airs on CFTA-FM with co-host with Charlie Hansen. Serge also has his own recording studio and over the last 20 years has produced/appeared and collaborated with many artists including Lester MacPherson, Frank Whitty, Peggy Clinton to name a few. Serge has always been an active member of the PEI Bluegrass & Old Time Music Society and a life member of the Down East Bluegrass and Old Time Music Society serving in various capacities, this year producing/chairing the 1st annual PEI Winter Bluegrass Festival. Serge is a five-time recipient of the MC of the Year Award, and Radio DJ of the year at the Eastern Canada Bluegrass Music Awards earning him a master in the category, and together with his wife Janet, they received many awards and accolades.

Thomas Webb (steel guitar):
Thomas Webb is a fourth-generation farmer, multi-instrumentalist and award winning side-musician who is thrilled to be spending the winter months on the Holland College stage with the PEI Jubilee Band*. Although more widely well known for his banjo-picking and bass-thumping with the internationally touring/ECMA award winning group Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys, Thomas has also had the pleasure of playing alongside a plethora of renowned artists over the last two decades (Nudie and the Turks, Haunted Hearts, Shane Pendergast and Eddy Eastman to name a few). Thomas has played with the best of them, on stages from Denmark’s Tönder Festival and the U.K.’s Glastonbury, to Merlefest in North Carolina and the Port Fairy Folk Festival in Australia. But no doubt if you were to ask him, he would say the best audience he’s played for in recent years has been at his very own kitchen table in O’Leary, PEI, teaching the songs of Stompin’ Tom to his 3 year old son Casey.

Courtney Hogan-Chandler (fiddle):
Courtney Hogan-Chandler began piano lessons at the age of five. Growing up, she would also listen to her great-grandfather playing around with some old Don Messer tunes so she decided at the age of 11 to take up classical violin and orchestra. Her passion however was with the old-fashioned fiddle tunes. She quickly started learning Celtic and traditional tunes on the fiddle and taking step dancing lessons. PEI’s “Red Headed Fiddler” started hosting her own Ceilidhs which ran for over 15 years, has four PEI music award nominated CD’s, created her own Ceilidh cookbook and continues to entertain audiences with her jigs, reels and beautiful slow airs. She continues to enjoy her musical passion while also working as a doctor of veterinarian medicine and the mom of two beautiful red headed children.

Johnny Ross:
Johnny Ross took great interest in the piano at an early age and soon discovered immense joy in live performance. Audiences can see this reflected in his natural adeptness for fun, uplifting entertainment in multiple genres. He has shared the stage with a wide range of artists, including his siblings in the long-running PEI roots music show, The Ross Family Ceilidh (2006-present) and as one half of a popular country music duo with Peggy Clinton. Ross also plays with the ’50s/’60s rock ‘n roll band, Fallback, and he is a founding member of Haunted Hearts, an ECMA-nominated group that toured regularly and won six Music PEI awards for its two albums circa 2009-2011. A career highlight was house band member for the nationally broadcast CBC production, Just Bidin’ My Time: A Tribute to Gene MacLellan (2012). In addition, he is the Music Director at Christ Church Cherry Valley (2013-present). The list of collaborations has grown long over the years and Ross continues to be called upon as a freelance sideman today, as well as a session player for local artists’ recording projects — and he wouldn’t have it any other way!

Bobby McIsaac:
Bobby McIsaac has built a career and reputation on versatility.  As a guitarist he’s toured in an award-winning funk rock band, recorded for folk, indie-rock, and pop artists, and played live with several country acts (including Nudie!).  As a bass player, Bobby is busy with cover bands playing events across PEI.  He also spent nearly a decade music directing various productions that spanned a plethora of genres.  All of these experiences add to the style with which he approaches a song and keep him looking forward to the next new musical experience.