For one Saturday afternoon, ‘everything stopped’ for a couple hours in Brantford for about a dozen people who attended Bob’d Wire’s outdoor Music on the Porch Day concert.
“Basically, (Music on the Porch Day) originally comes from a children’s book,” said Jeremiah McCaw Budnark, who along with Bob Wannamaker, James Dobrick and Joe Reading form the Brantford band Bob’d Wire.
“The premise is, what if everybody just stopped doing stuff and listened to music for one day,” said McCaw Budnark. “At the moment I believe there are over 70 countries involved and over 1,000 cities – people basically doing this sort of thing.”
“I have a former classmate who started doing this in Stirling, Ontario, about 20 years ago,” said Wannamaker. “He would just settle on his porch and play away and people would gather, just like we’re doing here. So it’s something that has been going on for some time.”
Bob’d Wire played a two-hour set of mostly cover songs Saturday at a residence on Wellington Street, including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Alabama and Ricky Skaggs – mostly country, although McCaw Budnark said he is pushing for a bit of folk roots.
“He’s trying to convert us,” said Wannamaker.
About a dozen people set up lawn chairs in the driveway with umbrellas ready for bad weather.
“We like the music, being outside,” said Susan Murray from Burford, who had watched Bob’d Wire a couple weeks earlier.
“It’s the leisure of it,” said Dave Murray.
“Kitchener does a porch party all the time,” Susan noted. “They have a day when you can travel around and do porch parties.”
“But you can’t do this with every house though,” said Dave. “We didn’t know what to expect today.”
Some of the audience belonged to the Brantford Open Stage’s open mic performances which will be starting again in September.
“It’s nice to see people out there listening,” said Reading. “Normally we’re in the house. They can hear us, but nobody can see what we’re doing.”
“I need fresh people who haven’t heard my bad jokes before,” Wannamaker laughed.
Bob’d Wire, founded by Joe’s father Robert ‘Bob’ Reading who passed away in 2022, has been performing together in the Brantford and Ancaster areas for about 10-plus years, including an Ancaster ‘Breakfast Jam’ through the winter which usually starts up the weekend after Thanksgiving.
“We’ve also been playing Tunes in the Park every year,” said McCaw Budnark.