That’s the outgoing answering machine message for Lucille Morin-Isfeld and it’s no joke. Morin-Isfeld is a talented musician who plays multiple instruments and in her spare time attends every country music jam she can find.
Born in Winnipeg and raised in Progress, B.C. Morin-Isfeld moved to Athabasca in 2002 and has not slowed down a whit in her 84 years. A self-taught musician Morin-Isfeld started off playing the Hawaiian guitar at 12, an instrument she and her sister Vivian worked for a neighbour to save up money to buy.
“Vivian had to go over the one Saturday and I went over the next – I was Dad’s boy on the farm, Vivian helped Mom in the house – I was made to iron silky curtains in the house and everything else and get underneath the beds and dust,” Morin-Isfeld recalls. “Vivian was out there cleaning the hen house and we both hated our jobs so bad, but we got our guitar.”
A couple of years later Vivian was given a mandolin and the girls learned to harmonize and they had loads of built-in talent to draw from.
“My mom played the fiddle and my grandfather, her father, played the fiddle and his two brothers and on Dad's side you have instruments hanging all over the wall,” she said.
She quickly graduated to playing the piano and fiddle, even playing at dances at the tender age of 15.
“When I was 15 years old a bunch of teenagers and I would gather, and I would play the fiddle and play the piano, another guy would play guitar a little and they’d dance a little,” she said.
After she got married and started having children her traveling music days were few and far between, but her passion and the notoriety of her skill remained.
In the mid 1950s Morin-Isfeld was so well known she was challenged to play a song for charity on the local radio station in Dawson Creek. If she didn’t show up within the hour to play, she had to pay $20, which was a lot of money for a mother trying to make ends meet. So, she packed up her guitar in a blanket to get through the –20 Celsius weather and headed off walking to the station. She won the challenge.
All six of Morin-Isfeld's children play instruments or sing. Daughter Janie lives in Washinton state, Mark is in Texas, Joey lives in California, Celia is in Lethbridge and daughter Dena Ricard and son Ed Nahirney live in Athabasca.
The children grew up in a musical household and Dena and Ed both remember growing up with music in the house.
“If you can put an instrument in her hand, she’ll get a tune out of it on you,” Ricard said. “She plays the guitar, the fiddle, harmonica, the mandolin and keyboard. She definitely has an ear for it; she's never had a music lessons in her life.”
Nahirney agrees, “I’ll tell you right now, it was fantastic growing up like that. She taught me everything I know basically about playing the guitar, although I don't play professionally or anything like that for money. I'm good at house parties and around campfires and stuff like that.”
After working as a camp cook for many years when her youngest children got to be teenagers, Morin-Isfeld found her way back into music jams and playing in places like the Athabasca Extendicare, where she still plays solo every month. Initially she played with other people, but they slowly got busy or moved on.
“I used to ask people to help me up there. Nobody wants to help anymore. So, I still go up by myself,” she said. “I'm going up next on Valentine's Day. Oh yeah, man, just me and my guitar. I've been doing it ever since I came here.”
Come summer people calling her will hear a lot more of her catchy answering machine message because summers are Morin-Isfeld's time to jam. For six weeks she will be traveling Alberta and B.C. chasing music and playing up a storm adding to the long list of jams and bands she has played with over the years.
Longtime fans of the local music scene like the Whispering Hills County Music Jam may not even fully be aware of Morin-Isfeld's full talents even though she is a fixture.
She is definitely a hidden gem in Athabasca and will happily chat about her music and volumes of poetry and songs. She is also great at giving hugs.
“I just love people,” she said. “I have no time to hold a grudge.”
Heather Stocking, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @HLSox
