Clarksville: Arden Gang allows visitor to experience time warp

Once upon a simpler time, before cellphones and on-demand TV and all-things internet destroyed humanity as we know it, Americans would find their entertainment in low-tech venues.

Inside a grange, say, or maybe a high school gym.

People would come and tap their feet and dance to the beat as some homespun band twanged the hits made famous by radio royalty like Johnny and Dolly and Merle and Hank, both senior and junior.

Those days rode off to the bone yard on Old Paint. Modern living is far too frenetic for that sort of thing anymore.

Except, that is, at the Arden Community Hall, where just such a gathering is called Wednesday night.

“We’re basically just a bunch of over-the-hill has-been wannabes who don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Terry Reese said.

Reese, 75, is a retired airline pilot with 20,000 sky hours logged under just about every condition. Far more prestigious, Reese is lead guitarist for the Arden Gang.

The seven-piece ensemble of old-time musicians has been filling the Arden Community Hall with the sounds of classic country every Wednesday night for the last three years.

Though minuscule, Arden is not so hard to locate. About 5 miles or so south of Colville, turn right off the highway onto Hall Road. The community building is just up ahead and to the right.

The Wednesday fun starts at 5 p.m. and runs to 8:30. Admission is free, although donations are always accepted. Whatever comes in, the Arden Gang graciously kicks back to the community hall and it adds up.

Last year, for example, the contributions bought a new air-conditioning system for the building.

These weekly get-togethers draw a wide variety of fans, said Laurel Somerlott, who rarely misses a Wednesday.

“Retired schoolteachers, registered nurses, farmers and loggers. My sister-in-law came once and didn’t want to leave,” she said, acknowledging the rarity of what’s going on.

“We’ve never seen anything like it.”

That was my reaction when I toted my guitar case into the hall last Wednesday.

I felt like I’d stepped into a time warp.

Thanks to Russ Elmore, my wonderful first guitar teacher, I learned to love old country as a kid, picking and singing tunes like “Lovesick Blues” and others.

So when Somerlott called to tell me that the Arden Gang had granted permission for me to join the band for an evening, well, I wasn’t about to give them time to come to their senses.

“It’s kind of a closed group, not like an open mic,” explained Al Kyle, an electric guitarist and the band’s 81-year-old leader.

But for purposes of journalism and curiosity, the group was willing to embrace a Spokane stranger for a night.

Reece put it this way a little later: “You can come up and visit; just don’t come every week.”

Direct and to the point. Gotta love that.

So I sat down next to rhythm guitarist Rick Taylor and plugged my Gibson into an unused amp channel.

Then I kicked back and had the time of my life playing along with the Arden Gang’s vast repertoire of tunes like “Ring of Fire,” “You Are My Sunshine,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and dozens of others.

“It’s the kind of stuff we all like to play,” added Kyle. “The old country-western songs, most of the people who come, that’s what they want to hear.

“No place else to go to hear that kind of music and dance.”

About 60 people filled the hall, nearly all of them wearing smiles. Out on the dance floor in front of me, I watched Kathy Clark and a number of other line dancers strut their stuff. Two of them were the cutest kids ever: the Winnop sisters, Paxton, 7, and Parker, 5.

They’ve become line-dance aficionados thanks to the tutelage of their grandma, Beth Philpott.

I was lucky to be onstage for another reason.

It was Roy Fosback’s last night with the band. A brilliant pedal steel player, Fosback is moving to Spokane.

He added fluid solo breaks and also played a number of polished instrumentals like the “Last Date,” Floyd Cramer’s iconic “slip note” hit.

Fosback’s style is pure vintage country. Being able to play that way earned him some dough back when he was young, he said.

Stars like George Jones, Ray Price and Faron Young would roll through the area needing local players to fill in for a gig or two.

The son of a fiddler, Kyle said he grew up around music. “Johnny Cash, Don Williams, all of them old tunes. They’re just in my blood, I guess.”

Randy Boring on rhythm and vocals and bass player Morley George and his wife, Twilla, rounded out the rest of the Arden Gang.

Twilla has a killer voice, and the couple sang a few duets with spot-on harmonies.

The Arden Gang has been together six or seven years, and it shows. They play county fairs and rodeos, but consider Wednesday nights in Arden special: a way to rehearse and please a crowd, too.

It just goes to prove how great a time you can still have without having to check your iPhone every five seconds.

“It’s a culture,” Buck Hall said of the music at the end of the evening.

“From an era gone by,” echoed Herb Munro.

“Happy music and it makes you feel good,” added Teri Bybee.

She’s right. They’re all right. My time at the Arden Community Hall was a total blast. Why, I’d grab my guitar and head back up Wednesday night except that, well, I know better.