Honouring George Pinder

Merle Haggard is George Pinder’s favourite artist of all time.

So maybe it’s fitting that in the same year his idol passed away, Pinder himself is inducted into the Northern Ontario Country Music Hall of Fame.

“It’s an honour. It really is,” Pinder told SooToday. “When your peers in any organization anywhere think enough of you to put you in a permanent position in a hall of fame, it’s incredible. I was kind of speechless when they told me.”

A humble statement by someone who’s responsible, at least in part, for very organization honouring him.

After decades of performing, collaborating and touring with other popular country musicians from the region, Pinder along with Al Mooney and Carol and Dave Patterson formed the Country Club in 1989 to celebrate and showcase local talent.

In 1991, the group initiated the Sault Ste. Marie and District Country Music Hall of Fame and honoured Don Ramsay as its first inductee.

The Country Club officially adopted the name The Northern Ontario Country Music Association (NOCMA) in 2000.

Since then, 60 artists have been inducted into the hall of fame, and more than 100 have been registered into the Great Northern Opry which began in 1993.

Pinder was there through it all, although not to the extent he would have liked.

“It was an incredible ride. And all this time playing part time music, there was full time jobs,” he said.

This weekend, Nov. 4, 5 and 6 at the Quattro Hotel and Conference Centre, northern Ontario country fans and artists will gather to honour Pinder as well as nine inductees – including those from Perry Sound, Manitoulin Island, North Bay, Timmins, and Sudbury – into the Great Northern Opry.

The 27th annual NOCMA Country Music Weekend features live performances from Timmins’ Yvan Nadeau and the Bandidos; North Bay’s Back in Tyme; and from Sault Ste. Marie White Stallion, Lise White and of course George Pinder.

To learn more about The Northern Ontario Country Music Association, please click here.