Online kitchen party going strong
The Ultimate Online Nova Scotia Kitchen Party (COVID-19 edition), with more than 281,000 members in 99 countries, has been spreading joy for three months with no plans to call it a night.
Its delighted founder, Heather Cameron Thomson, is still trying to get her head around the numbers.
“It took off in minutes and the emotional attachment people feel is far beyond anything I ever imagined,” she said.
Early on, Premier Stephen McNeil cited it as a glowing example of what Nova Scotians can do for each other and it has since been saluted in Zoomer Magazine and on the Marilyn Denis Show. Day and night the party just keeps turning out tunes, whether it is somebody playing the spoons, neighbours singing down the street to each other or accomplished musicians backed by high tech equipment.
“I remember the shock of seeing our first international post just a few days in. A stranger in Italy was touched by our Nova Scotia music and sent greetings while her country was being wracked by COVID,” said Cameron Thomson.
FIGHTING FEAR AND ANXIETY
An essential worker in residential care, Cameron Thomson was feeling the weight of early days COVID as she scrolled through Facebook at her home in Rocklin, Pictou County, on a late March morning.
“I was absorbing the fear, anxiety and isolation of Covid when I came across a song posted by local musician Jason Brushett and then another song by Kyle and Leah Samson, also local musicians. That’s when I knew I wanted to flood Facebook with music.”
She quickly formed the group and watched the music flood in.
“I remember checking the numbers at work and we had 6,000 members, then 7,000 and then 10,000.”
The numbers skyrocketed to 282,000 before better weather and a lift in some restrictions brought a slight drop.
MUSIC, STORIES, MEMORIES POUR IN
“I’m not that tech savvy but I understand the reach of the internet”, Cameron Thomson said.
“I also thought I understood the power of music but I wasn’t at all prepared for the stories, the memories, the music people have shared. The talent and the emotion are staggering, from coast to coast in Canada, across the U.S. and beyond to France, Spain, Mexico, even Japan.”
The group was meant to cheer people through COVID-19, mass murder at Portapique, the loss of a sixmember Canadian Forces Cyclone helicopter crew and the death of a Halifax crewmember in an RCAF Snowbird crash.
“These tragedies certainly had a profound impact on the Kitchen Party. At Portapique alone, we lost four members. We lost another contributor in the helicopter crash and another in a car crash so we’ve had to pull together.”
Despite the abiding shock and grief, Nova Scotia musicians and others, offer up their music all day, every day.
“It could be Cape Breton’s lively Kelly family or the wonderful harpist and vocalist Caedda Enright from Pictou County or someone playing bagpipes or a classical number,” said Cameron Thomson.
Among those adding to the variety are Darcell Cromwell of Windsor, bringing church to those unable to attend, Rosalie Kennedy McNamara of Evanston, singing soulfully of love and loss, and Keith Smith standing alone in his kitchen, reviving old tyme country classics.
NOT WITHOUT CHALLENGES
The massive audience has its challenges and Cameron Thomson is grateful not to have given in to a fleeting urge to shut the party down.
“I’ve had people who wanted to make negative, hurtful comments directed at performers and at me. Some wanted membership confined to Nova Scotians. Others wanted to ban professionals.”
As the thousands of posts and messages began to overwhelm Cameron Thomson, her friends and co-workers stepped in to form an administrative group.
“It has lessened the load on my family and brought back the joy,” said Cameron Thomson.
Beyond keeping the show going, the administrators are coming up with ideas to enhance the party beyond its theme weekends and spotlight evenings.
“This Kitchen Party is about the contributors and the listeners. It is not about the numbers, it never was. It has always been about the comfort and joy of music.”
Cameron Thomson dreams of a day, post-COVID-19, when many of the performers can come together in a live concert.
“We have people watching from the wings who think it could and should happen.”
THERE IS MAGIC IN MUSIC
The value of a song is rising exponentially for contributors to the Kitchen Party.
Barbara Gillis, an NSCC instructor in Yarmouth, and her children, Catherine, 13, and John, 10, are becoming the party’s most prolific contributors as they try to honour non-stop requests.
“If a simple song is going to brighten someone’s day in these stressful times, surely my children and I can do that much,” said Gillis.
She joined the party when a cousin from Boston asked her to post a song.
“Catherine said she’d sing with me and then it bounced to another cousin and another. Requests started coming in as if we were all together at a bonfire on the beach and it has not stopped.”
Gillis grew up at Cribbons Point, Antigonish County, where extended family often sing around a beach fire on summer nights.
“To be asked to sing for a family that has not been able to hold a traditional funeral due to COVID or to provide a busy first responder with a few minutes of enjoyment is an honour,” she said.
Gillis has added to her extensive repertoire and her daughter has learned countless new songs while her son entertains enthusiastically in the background.
“I share the feedback with the children so they understand there is magic in music when it is shared. I’m no counselor but I’ve learned a lot about what people are going through lately and it is easy enough for us to send them a song to brighten the day.”
A GLOBAL AUDIENCE
Phil Veinotte retired to Mahone Bay area a few years ago but did not join the local jam sessions until last fall.
“Once I made the move of walking into a fire hall people were extremely welcoming. I was playing at several sessions a week before COVID came along and shut everything down.”
The Kitchen Party had only 6,000 members when he joined. He posted a song mainly for his daughter, who works in health care in Alberta. She and his granddaughter had been forced to cancel a trip back to Nova Scotia this summer.
“I was not expecting a big response but I often get hundreds of comments from across Canada and the U.S. and also from South Korea, Australia, Japan, England, Ireland and so on. I’ve been shocked by the sincerity of the listeners and the connections made.”
He has not missed a day posting and spends several hours daily responding to comments and requests.
““I like to think we’re all helping each other get through this and since we don’t know how long it is going to last, the Kitchen Party is a great resource.”
BRINGING LAUGHTER TO LISTENERS
Kevin Vallillee of Yarmouth created a distinctive character, Covie Dix-Neuf, to send a message to his elderly parents via the Kitchen Party.
“They were isolated and worried so I just wanted to make them smile. When I was a kid I’d watch the Jackie Gleason Show with my dad. At the end of the show there was an odd-looking character who’d show up at the bar and he’d surprise everyone with a beautiful song so that was my inspiration.”
Covie Dix-Neuf, sporting dark glasses and a sideways hat, offers a joke or two, a few words of encouragement or wry observation and as often as not winds up with an emotional blast of a song such as Leader of the Band.
“I’m out of work because of COVID myself so I understand people are worried about so many things and Covie Dix-Neuf seems to give them a laugh. That’s what it is all about, a little break from the daily grind.”