A marriage fittingly born in a flea market
They met a few years back at the Port Elgin flea market. Brendan Stephens was busking his regular blend of old timey music for the crowd. Norah Spades was there shopping with her grandma.
She caught Brendan’s eye, so much so that he forgot the words to the song he was singing. Grandma gave Norah a nudge, suggested she should check out the busker. It was love at first sight. The rest, as they say, is history. Brendan eventually moved in to Norah’s camper van and the two became, not only lovers, but musical companions in the Hamilton-based busking trio The Vaudevillian.
Brendan plays guitar and sings. Norah works the washboard and teases the crowd. There is also an upright bass player, named Piedmont Johnson, born in North Carolina.
The Vaudevillian specializes in the music of the ’20s and ’30s, old ragtime and country blues. They dress the parts, old-time hillbilly clothes found in flea markets, just like the one where they met. You may have seen them on James Street North playing the monthly Art Crawls.
Last November, Brendan finally got around to popping the big question. It happened on a trip to the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia where Norah’s grandmother (Norah McCallum) was born. They were there to spread grandma’s ashes.
Brendan sneaked off to Wolfeville and purchased a diamond ring. He had got himself a credit card that week just so he could make the purchase.
Norah accepted, of course. The wedding is
going to be in September at the trailer park near Carlisle where Norah was raised by her grandmother.
But first, Brendan and Norah are going to have a “spectacular” musical stag and doe on Friday, June 23, with a ragtime/circus theme at Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology. The Vaudevillian will perform and there will be circus acts, courtesy of the Mental Floss Sideshow, as well as carnival games, cotton candy, popcorn and whiskey tasting from the Elmira-based Murphy’s Law Distillery.
“We’ll be singing songs that will make you want to dance,” Norah says. “We desire the most memorable evening for all with dancing and laughter echoing throughout the high ceilings of the steam museum. It’s a 1920s themed event. Almost like a Great Gatsby event.”
“It’s going to be the craziest stag and doe in the world,” adds Brendan.
Meanwhile, the couple is well into plans for the actual wedding.
“We’re going to get married at the trailer park right on my grandma’s lot,” Norah says. “And as soon as the wedding ceremony is completed we’re going to have a frogcatching competition. I used to do that every day when I grew up there. I’ve taught Brendan the ropes and we’re going to try to get our family and friends to learn the secret art of frog catching.”
The Vaudevillian also has a new record in the works on the Busted Flat Records label and is planning an album release party at This Ain’t Hollywood on July 14.