Janis Graham: small but musically mighty
Country Connection
She is tiny but exudes inner strength, kindness and warmth, courage and rare joie de vivre. Janis Graham is an extraordinary human being with an unusual musical talent that fascinates everyone who ever crossed her path.
She was born in Eaton, Quebec (Kingsley neighbourhood, three miles from Sawyerville) as part of a loving family of eight brothers and sisters. She was raised on a farm where they had chickens, turkeys and hops. She said she had a normal and happy childhood.
“My mom was from England and Dad met her at Bury St Edmonds during World War One. My mom was very strict on manners, so we were raised with her British etiquette. The Ward family ( my father’s side) was musical, my brother and my dad and my Aunt Jenny Ward Baker and Uncle Pete and Aunt Clara Ward, they were all musicians,” Graham shared.
Every kid in her family took piano lessons from neighbour Mescal Mcburney Wilson in High Forest, but the petite lady is the only one who continued pursuing music. She said she also studied with Bertha Mcrae and Curtis Lowry.
“I began playing my Grammy Ward’s old pump organ at the age of four. My legs were too short to reach the pedals so my sister, Betty, held me and pumped the pedals for me while I played, much against her wishes, but my mother insisted. As I got a little older, my two hands found each other and I played “You are My sunshine”. How great that was!” she recalled.
Graham also remembered that a friend of the family, Truth Hamilton, had no place to put her piano so her family stored it in their house. she was delighted to have a piano to play but also had tears when the piano left a couple of years later.
“I played with my brother Dinty while he played guitar and violin and sang cowboy songs. My dad played violin also, along with Uncle Pete Ward and Aunt Clara who visited us from Lennoxville. As I got older, I played at many parties accompanying many musicians. I would love to mention each and every one of them but I’m afraid I might leave someone out so I won’t. They know who they are” said the talented piano lady.
When Graham first started playing the piano, she played by ear. Then at school, her teacher, Mrs. Mabel Waldron recognized her gift and supported her and encouraged her parents to let the young girl further explore her music through piano lessons.
“Mrs. Waldron also told me if I took piano lessons and exams through the Mcgill University program, I could drop algebra and use those marks for my report to graduate from high school. So, each Saturday George Loveland would take me on horse and buggy to Cookshire, to Mrs. Eardley Wilmot to take my program. Mrs. Waldron helped out with the cost of these lessons and also Mrs. Mcrae, plus myself by doing housework for local families.”
“The courses were taken from the Mcgill Conservatorium in Montreal studying Pianoforte and Theoretical, Primary, Elementary, Junior and Intermediate in classical music,” she explained. “I studied from 1947 to 1950 and received diplomas obtaining high grades ‘With Distinction’ from the Vice Chancellor and President of Mcgill and the Dean of Music. The examiner would come out from Montreal to Cookshire to test me on my practical skills as well as music theory and I was so nervous. I remember the examiner and my teacher saying, “oh, listen to the expression when she plays.”
To Graham, that time spent learning and practicing piano was far from being an imposition. Rather, she said that she loves music with all her heart and every fiber of her body. She is somehow inhabited by music and melodies.
The pianist stopped taking lessons when she graduated from high school and went back to playing the way she loved to play: by ear. She played music from the 30s and 40s. Her ability to transpose what she hears into notes is by some means magical.
“I could hear a tune and I could sit down and play it without any sheet music, and I still can,” she said. “I close my eyes and my fingers find the keys and away I go. Even now, people recognize my style when I’m playing. I love playing ragtime, honky-tonk and country but enjoy all types, swing, big band, and sing along.”
Graham has her favorite artists such as Liberace, Guy Lombardo, she loves Engelbert Humperdinck’s voice and she has a special appreciation for Patsy Cline. She is fond of Canadian country singer George Canyon because he sings about real life and his family.
Graham, who plays harmonica as well, started performing for a public other than her family when she was a teenager. She reminisced about playing Piano Roll Blues in Bury at an amateur hour and received four dollars.
She married in 1953 to Harry Graham Jr. and they had four beautiful children, Peter, Wendy, Pam and Scott. The first three took music lessons but none of them wanted to be performers.
The soulful musician is now also the proud grandmother of nine and has six great grandchildren, with another on the way. The task of raising kids and taking care of a household was enough to keep her very busy but never enough to put her music to the side.
“I kept playing. Music was number one. And I played for my children too. After our marriage, my husband bought me Mrs. Lloyd Hunt’s Heinzman piano for $100. I brought music into the house. The kids sang and danced and Harry played the drums and guitar with me. I introduced them all to music and today each of them relish and appreciate it. They enjoy listening to me play” she said with pride.
Janis Graham is generous with her time when it comes to music playing. She has played at so many events and venues. The list goes on and on but just to name a few: she played for the Sawyerville School functions for years, at the West Stewartstown, N.H. Senior Residence where her Aunt Gladys lived at one time, on a Carnival cruise in the