May 11, 2009 - 03:02 PM

By Mike Ruta

OSHAWA -- Settling in for some live music at 8:30 is pretty common -- but on a Monday morning?

It happens every week at the Marwood Park Restaurant in Oshawa, where the joint is generally lively as country music lovers from all over the region assemble to hear the band Classic Country. While eggs, coffee and toast are brought to tables, the band is serving up a hearty dose of real country music, not new country. Ernest Tubb. Hank Snow. Marty Robbins. This is what the patrons want to hear, and they won't be disappointed.

"I've been into country music all my life and I perform a bit," says Millard Cunningham, an Ajax resident for 40 years. "I just like it. I don't like this new (country) stuff, I don't like jazz and I don't like blues."

Originally from Nova Scotia, he learned to play the guitar and his grandmother played the squeeze-box.

Like many of the Marwood music lovers, Cunningham and his wife, Anne Louise, make several music and dancing stops during the week. They were out Friday and Saturday night as well.

"We go wherever there's music; we follow this band," he says.

The fans' loyalty to the band is a recurring theme among the patrons.

Classic Country is "the best", says Lorraine Sobczak. The Whitby resident doesn't come out often as "I don't do mornings." But her husband is away in British Columbia and she's here for a dose of country.

The country music breakfasts are also an open mic, and Myrtle's Bev Glover tries to come every Monday and sing a song. She often performs with Kirkfield-based The Country Strings.

"I'm one of these crazy ones who gets up early to come dancing," she says.

Raised on country music, Glover says she'll go almost anywhere to hear it. She likes it because "every song tells a story." And the vibe at the Marwood, on Wentworth Road at Wilson Road, makes for a great start to the week.

"It's a good time," she says. "Everybody is family. It's like a big house party."

It's true. Everybody seems to know everybody else. There are a lot of waves and conversations between tables.

While it can be tough getting up before dark to load the music equipment and set up for the morning show, Garry Gardner does it for the love of music and to entertain people.

"We try to please them," he says. "We play for them. We play for the dance floor."

He and fellow Oshawa resident Arlene McLellan, who started the band about a year-and-a-half ago, used to do their morning show in Brooklin. And when they moved the music to Oshawa, the majority of their fans moved right along with them. They both play guitar and share the vocal duties. A bassist and fiddle player round out the band. Classic Country performs two out of every three Mondays at the Marwood.

"There's not many places where you can get up and dance at 8:30 on a Monday morning," McLellan notes.

And people are dancing. If they're not, they're clapping as they recognize the first few notes of a favourite song, singing along or mouthing the words.

Among the tunes played this Monday are The Keys In The Mailbox by Freddie Hart, Honky Tonk Angels by Kitty Wells and Jack Kingston's Wait Til You See My Darlin'. Other sets might contain songs by artists like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and George Jones.

"We're all having a good time," says Andy Van Hemmen, of Bowmanville, who's here with his wife, Henny.

They go dancing four times a week and the Marwood is a regular stop.

"It's ridiculous, I know," Henny says, of listening to live music and dancing on a Monday morning. "I've got to get some housework done."