On Saturday, Sept. 24, Sudburians will have the chance to thank Stompin' Tom Connors for his music and help create a professionally produced music video for the song, “Sudbury Saturday Night.”
The music video will be shot on Grey Street, outside of The Townehouse Tavern (on the lower roof level) the location where Stompin’ Tom wrote and first performed his legendary song about our hometown.
“Sudbury Celebrates Stompin’ Tom” is a joint effort between The Townehouse Tavern, Downtown Sudbury and local businessman Colin Firth. Collectively, the group believes that it is time that Sudbury got together to say thanks to the Canadian icon by singing his famous song "Sudbury Saturday Night.”
The song has been covered by everyone from Kim Mitchell to The Tragically Hip over the past 50 years, but the organizers think it's about time we did our own cover of our song, and are inviting the whole community to join in the making of this historic music video.
“Being a part of the Stompin’ Tom Connors statue committee along with our chair, Jeff MacIntrye, we at Downtown Sudbury are enthusiastic to join in the fun with Sudbury Celebrates Stompin’ Tom,” said Downtown Sudbury executive director Maureen Luoma, in a press release.
“Inviting everyone to come downtown and stand together to sing 'Sudbury Saturday Night' seemed like such a natural extension of the statue’s theme and the celebration of Stompin' Tom’s long association with Sudbury.”
Townehouse Tavern general manager Paul Loewenberg first started talking about the project with Firth in early August, and he felt it was a natural to hold the event at The Townehouse, the birthplace of our city’s unofficial anthem, “Sudbury Saturday Night.”
Loewenberg has offered up the Townehouse as the event’s location and is bringing in a band of professional musicians that will be playing on the lower, outside roof level of The Townehouse.
“We will have some really talented local musicians playing and they will be doing two versions of the legendary song, a cover of the original by Stompin’ Tom and then a more kicked up modern, extended version that will really rock it up a few notches,” he said. “We won’t be changing the original lyrics so that everyone will still be able to sing along and stomp their foot just like they always do when they hear 'Sudbury Saturday Night.'”
“Sudbury Celebrates Stompin’ Tom” is free event and is open to the whole community. Registration to be a participant in the music video starts at 6:30 p.m. outside of the Townhouse with video production set up and event instructions beginning at 7:30 p.m.
This is an alcohol free, family-friendly event. The Townhouse Tavern and The Laughing Buddha will be open for food and beverages. The completed music video will be premiered on Saturday October 1st at 9 p.m. at The Townehouse Tavern and also posted on YouTube.
For more information, visit the event's Facebook page.
