In this series of articles, Dr. Richard Hiebert tells the stories of the Battlefords' great dance bands from the 1940s to the present.
At the outset, I must thank Jack Bouma, a former member of the Swingalongs band, for giving me the story on this early swing group. Jack and I met at the Discovery Co-op cafeteria during the morning of March 30. It was a fine interview. At age 82, Jack’s memory was still sharp as a tack.
In this article, I will discuss the members of the band and the band’s history. I will also describe Jack’s musical journey in some depth from the time he was an adolescent student at Brada School, a few miles east of North Battleford, to when he retired from playing.
In addition to Jack, other members of the band included the following:
Ed Racicot, who played saxophone. In his other life, Ed was a painter at the Saskatchewan Hospital. It’s interesting to note Ed served in the navy as a sonar operator in the Second World War. He was at Normandy on D-Day. He is reported to have said, “Cannons were firing, the ship was shaking and so was I.” Unfortunately, Ed is now deceased.
Clarence Kildaw played lead guitar in the Swingalongs Band. Clarence was a bartender by vocation. Clarence is a bachelor and has some land and cattle near Medstead.
Lawrence Racicot (Ed’s brother) played saxophone in the band. Lawrence was the bandleader. Lawrence was a plumber by trade. He co-owned Beaver Plumbing and Heating. He is retired and he and his wife currently reside at Turtle Lake.
Jim Munroe was also in the band. He played steel guitar. Jim was a pilot. He flew planes for the legendary Howdy McPhail. Later, he got his helicopter licence and worked for Athabasca Airways in Prince Albert and Saskatoon.
As Jack put it, the band came together “amongst ourselves” in 1961. The Swingalongs had a fine 10-year run and disbanded in 1971.
You may have noticed from the picture that the band instruments consisted of rhythm guitar, lead guitar and twin saxaphones, but no drums. The Swingalongs had a drummer for a short while – a high school student. According to Jack, he was really good but he wanted to play rock and roll. But the Swingalongs were a swing band, not a rock band, so the young percussionist left.
In my opinion, the two most difficult instruments to play in a band are the fiddle and steel guitar. The Swingalong’s steel guitar was a complex, difficult instrument to play. It had 16 strings positioned on two necks and two guitars. Jim Munroe was an excellent steel guitar player. He was also versatile. On one occasion, Jack was visiting Jim in Prince Albert in the mid 1970s. Jim whipped out a button accordion and played a set of rousing Scottish tunes. He was really good. Jack’s remark was, “Where were you hiding that when we played in the band?” All of the Swingalongs’ players were excellent musicians.
As mentioned, the Swingalongs were definitely not a rock band, although they could play a few 1950s and ‘60s rock and roll numbers. Lead guitarist, Clarence Kildaw, could pick a mean guitar boogie shuffle, for example. And the group was certainly not a country band. The Swingalongs played 1940s big band music. Moreover, they played it in a style reminiscent of Billy Vaughn.
The band played in many locations in the Battlefords and in surrounding communities. They played the IOOF hall on the second floor of the old bus depot, the legion and other dance halls. The Swingalongs also played for the patients in a beautiful dance hall at the Saskatchewan Hospital. On one occasion, a patient played the violin and a staff member played piano. The Swingalongs also played in the communities of Glaslyn, Fairholm, Livelong, Turtleford, Paradise Hill, Maymont, Radisson Cut Knife and Paynton, and others.
Jack left the farm near Brada in the spring of 1956. He got a job at Saskatchewan Hospital. Later, he worked for the City of North Battleford. Jack retired at age 60 as a special constable.
Jack began his musical and entertainment career in 1948 with the Brada Orchestra while he was still in school at Brada and only 15 years of age. Jack remembers walking to a dance on roads that were impassable for cars after a heavy rain, and also in the bitter cold of winter when roads were blocked by snow. In the spring, Jack’s dad would drive him to dances across temporary ploughed roads through fields (these roads melted first because they were ploughed). He also drove himself on the back roads on occasion, as necessity required, even though he did not have his driver’s licence. Jack never missed a dance. He got there, one way or another.
The group played for dances in the district including at East Hill School, Willow Heights School and, of course, Brada School. Jack recalled the dances were lively affairs and there was always a fight. In addition to Jack, who played guitar, members of the Brada band included Russ Iwanchuck on guitar, Owen Day on banjo, Leon Charabin on piano (and later accordion), Mrs. Kinnie (the boys’ school and music teacher) on violin and piano and Jack Illingsworth on drums. After a few years, the Brada band members changed the band’s name (and made a few band member changes) to the Melody Ranch Boys (the Melody Ranch Boys later morphed into the Mello-Tones – one of the truly great early Battlefords dance bands).
Jack related an interesting story. On one occasion, the band was playing for a community dance at the Fairyland (school) Hall northwest of Wilkie (in years past, it was a real hot spot for dances). While they were setting up before the dance, Leon Charabin moved the hall’s old piano into position and struck a few notes. Nothing – more like a muffled rat. Try as he might, Leon couldn’t get any reasonable sound out of the old keys. So, he got his tools from the car and took the piano apart. It was full of mice nests and enough mice to give every woman who walked through the door the fright of her life. Couldn’t have that, so Leon and company chased the mice around the hall and dispatched them with a shovel and other means. Leon cleaned out the piano, put it back together, and it played like it had never seen a mouse. Great dance.
Another good story related to the Fairyland Hall was that there were strings of gas lamps in rows overhead to illuminate the hall. Once, while the band was playing a schottice, a gas lamp fell off and landed in the middle of the dance floor. A bit scary and potentially injurious to be sure. A quick-thinking farmer interrupted his schottice dance, scooped up the flaming mess and threw it outside. The band played on without missing a beat and the brave farmer finished the schottice.
Of course, all of the players in all of the dance bands in the Battlefords and area knew each other well. There was an unwritten rule in the dance bands community that if a band was short of a player, they could call on a member from another band to step in (Personally, I’ve stepped in with bands to play guitar and sing, and other band members have stepped in with my band on occasion). Jack certainly stepped in, but he was also extremely proficient at adjusting and tuning guitars. Harry Startup used to get Jack to tune his 12-string guitar, which is not an easy instrument to tune.
Jack decided to give it a rest and so he quit the Melody Ranch Boys in 1953. After that, he played for a number of pick up dances, and with Julian Kirk (a carpenter by trade) a few times at the North Battleford Ukrainian Centre.
In 1953, Jack tried to join the RCMP, but was declined because of an injury. In 1958, he joined the reserve army. From 1959 to 1964, Jack was a member of the North Saskatchewan Regiment (No. L804162). He achieved the rank of quartermaster. He recalled, with a bit of nostalgia, that he loved this life. Jack also farmed part time and worked at the Saskatchewan Hospital.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Jack’s beautiful Gibson L4 guitar, which he bought for the princely sum of $220 in 1952. A guitar player from Long and McQuaid in Saskatoon once offered Jack $2,000 for the guitar, sight unseen. Jack turned him down. Russ Iwanchuck (of the Mello - Tones fame) appraised Jack’s Gibson much higher. Jack still owns this priceless Gibson guitar. It’s willed to his grandson. Jack also owned an expensive Martin guitar for a time.
Jack didn’t play for many years but then stepped in to play guitar with the Meota Hobby Band for three years a few years back. Jack still has a great love for music, and likes to reminisce about the good old days when his band was at the pinnacle of the Battlefords and area social scene. When you play in a band, you get to know many people – people who like your music, and people who play your music – other musicians. I count it my good fortune to have had (and still have) the privilege of knowing Jack Bouma – a fine gentleman who played in a great early band, the Swingalongs.
