| Arden Wiebe Hey this is us, we is the Jericho Road dudes. We are a local band from High River, AB. The makeup of this group consists of Maxfactor, Mary-K and Revlon. Instuments provided by music store's. Wardrobe provided by Ozark clothing company. Now that we have all the techy stuff out of the way we can get down to telling you about the group. Band founder Arden Wiebe...thats me, love's to play music, preferably bluegrass, however he has been known to dabble in country as well. He enjoys playing happy upbeat stuff and has a pretty crazy sense of humor. (Webmaster's note - Ya'll gotta believe that statement!!) Arden has played in six bands throughout his musical career. At the age of 12 he acquired a guitar and his mom taught him 3 chords on the thing, and he's been bothering people with his music ever since. About 6 years ago he bought himself a mandolin and a dobro and is now annoying audiences with his new toys. Arden sings lead and some harmony in this group and writes the occasional song now and then. Irene Wiebe Ok enough about me. Mom, Irene Wiebe, is harmony singer in the bunch, and tries to keep us in line like every good mother would. Now this is an amazing stretch for her as she likes classical stuff; Bauch, Montovonie, and other groups that I can't spell. She grew up in the country and went to church where they had no musical instuments, so she learned to sing accapella, so she's pretty much got a handle on this harmony thing after 71 years (oops, I said that out loud didn't I?) Ok so now you know her age. I took her to Shady Grove last year and got her hooked on bluegrass, and now she is up here singing with her baby. (that would be me.) Eric Thiessen Eric Thiessen is my identical twin except we had different mothers, he grew up in the same country as my mother and went to the same kind of church, so he also learned to sing accapella and therefore he also has some harmony in his blood. Eric and me we go back a long ways. He was there when I got hitched and I was with him when he got hitched. We played in a country rock band back in Manitoba, then he got religion and I figured if Jesus could save him there was hope for me too, as Eric was nicknamed the wildman.(NOT ENOUGH ROOM FOR THAT STORY). Some time after I got religion ,we put our first gospel group together, which lasted about 2 years then I decided to go trucking long distance so I left the band to persue my driving career. I then left the province and later so did Eric, I went to BC, and he moved to AB. where we both got involved in gospel groups. Then he moved back to Manitoba to farm, and 7 years later I moved to High River AB. to truck oil. One year after we moved here, Eric moved here too. So we thought it only fitting to put a band together. Angie Thiessen Eric's daughter Angie also play's with us. This is really kool as I remember I was her favorite non-uncle. She would sit on my knee when she was little, and tell me all kinds of stories. It's quite an honor to have her playing piano and singing with us in the band. Eric and Angie do some duets and the harmony is really awesome. Aaron Bonny Now as for our banjo player Aaron Bonny, I don't know him so good yet as he just joined us not so long ago. We asked him what nationality he was, and he said he wasn't sure, but they traced his family tree down, and found out he is related to William Bonny, alias Billy the Kid. Aaron plays banjo, mandolin, and guitar,and plays for a bunch of groups in Calgary. He didn't make the picture as he was busy playing elsewhere that day. On behalf of Jericho Road Band we would like to welcome you, players, and audience to our first annual country and bluegrass gospel festival.  Oh...and here is our 'after the festival picture!' Pretty clever, huh? |
