Stewart Kelly Read

A Tribute from Jack Walton:

The true troubadour. RIP Kelly. He cherished music as a life source and shared it with all who would pull up a chair to listen, and there have been so many. From the edge of a stage in a bar, to a room of seniors, all eager for his varied, versatile and spirited musical gifts. He didn't always strive to be an angel, but he sure as hell sang like one. My heart goes out to all of Kelly's family, including Lynn Rodgers and Brian B.C. Read. To all the musicians that shared the stage with Kelly, I recall the year Kelly joined us at the closing of our annual Winter Solstice show. Kelly had finished his earlier gig and dropped in to the club for a nightcap. Terry Hoknes sat at the piano, Kelly on a stool beside the piano, drink in hand and a grin as wide as a mile. Together, they gifted us with the most wonderful version of 'Blue Christmas'. This one is now especially blue. A toast to you Kelly. Thank you for your gift and for your sharing.

A Tribute from Terry Hoknes:

One of Saskatoon's greatest continuous performers. Kelly played over 2,000 local gigs in Saskatoon over 45 years. He performed in many various groups, as well as a 45 year run as a solo performer and performing in hundreds of music jams over the years. Kelly is one of three talented musical brothers - singers and multi-instrumentalists, along with his older brother Brian "BC" and his younger brother Keith Read. The family moved to Saskatoon in the early 1970s. Many of Kelly's early gigs (1980-1996) are documented from finding listings in the Star Phoenix, which show a small portion of the gigs he played. Kelly first performed professionally in 1979 at age 17. In the 1980's, he was in bands “The Movies”, “Silverush”, “Read Grace Read”, “Kelly Read & Terry Lemke”, and “Not Brothers Brothers and Others”. By 1991, he was hosting the weekly Sunday jam at Morley's on 22nd Street West. Some of the regular performers at the Morley's jams in 1992 included Dale Enns, Phil Miller, Kevin Castator, Terry Long, Dan Hicks and Blue Adair. His brother Keith brought Terry Hoknes and his double bass to a jam on February 9, 1992. That very day, jamming and meeting for the very first time, the band What's His Name And The Other Guys was formed with Kelly Read (vocal/guitar), Terry Hoknes (vocal/keyboard/bass guitar), Keith Read (vocal/drums/banjo) and Doug Bodie (vocal/guitar/mandolin). They performed almost every weekend for 15 months traveling as far as Swift Current. One day, Kelly picked Terry Hoknes up on his motorcycle, and Terry had to hold his huge double bass while they traveled all the way from Taylor Street over the river to Morley's one afternoon. One night, at the peak of Achy Breaky Heart mania, Kelly had to sing the song 3 times in a single night because people could not get enough of it. Kelly was always a very confident performer. Kelly was a decade younger than Doug Bodie but a decade older than Terry. A gig in March 1993 at Stan's Place led to Stan banning Kelly from performing there as he had been drinking for 7 hours earlier that day at Frankie & Johnnie's pub just down the street. The only way Kelly could stand up to sing during that gig was leaning on Terry's shoulder to hold himself up. Keith Read wrote a song and created a demo with Terry that was accepted for a new recording (recorded at Audio Art) on the C95 Cityworks '92 CD under the name Doc Rock and the Far Side. Hoknes left the group in summer 1993 to hit the road with Marilyn Faye Parney, which led to the end of What's His Name. Kelly continued to perform hundreds of solo shows through the 90's. Kelly married Terry Long whom he had performed with for years and they had two children - Taylor Long-Read (September 1992) and Casey Long-Read (March 1994). After a decade on the road gigging, Terry Hoknes became available again, and Keith and Kelly Read started performing as a trio in 2004 at Buds on Broadway doing shows every couple of months. (The oldest video footage of them performing is on youtube from 2006, filmed by Terry). The G string broke on Terry's Yamaha fretless bass in December 2005, and Terry never replaced it. It took Kelly 9 months to notice that Terry was playing a Three String fretless bass and they decided to name the band after that. Three String Fretless was the name used for all Kelly and Terry Hoknes' gigs from 2007-2024. The group played a gig every 2 months at Buds for that 20 year period. In total, Kelly and Terry played Buds together about 190 times, including Kelly's final gig at Buds with Terry just 2 days before Kelly passed. It's possible that Kelly played more with Terry Hoknes than anyone else, with close to 300 gigs together. Over the years some songs morphed into their best moments on stage, with some songs turning into jams and becoming the groups’ trademark on songs such as: Rocket Man, Black Water, It Feels Like Rain, Same Old Love, Trudy, Can't Find My Way Home, Stormy Monday, The Load Out. Over the years, the drummers changed (as rapidly as Spinal Tap). Some of the great drummers that made up the trio included Brent Taylor, Keith Read, Brett Williams, Theo Brown, Fabian Minnema, Graham Templeman, Rick Van Dusen, Tom Cunningham. When Terry Hoknes was not available he would bill the band under the name “We're Thorry” featuring Terry Thorsteinson on bass. The folk group Crooked Creek reformed around 2012 with Kelly Read as one member of the trio. They played Ness Creek numerous times and still do a few shows each year. The Crosby Stills Nash tribute show with Kelly, BC Read and Brent Taylor was formed in 2023 and performed numerous sold out shows at the Bassment and Somewhere Else Pub. Terry filmed the band numerous times and has posted dozens of videos performing over the years on youtube. Over the last 17 years, mainly Three String Fretless. Kelly put in many thousands of hours playing and improvising solos and was really great at his finger picking style of acoustic playing. Music was truly #1 to Kelly, and he played every second of his life that he could. Kelly was very lucky to have Lynn Rodgers in his life the past decade who was so good for him and such a wonderful person. Kelly's other passion was golf, and he loved playing with his close friend Don Middlemiss. Kelly entertained at over 2,000 events in his life and truly is a gem in Saskatoon music history.

“If you have a request, put a $50.00 bill in a jug of Appleton's and bring it on up!”

“May the birds fly upside down the next time you wash your car!”

And “I'm Mr. Dressup! Welcome to Broads on Budway!”

Included is a link to a playlist of 100+ videos of Kelly Read performing Live between 1986 - 2024

Thank you Terry Hoknes for the footage and for keeping his voice alive for all of us who miss him dearly.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqfyHVf3iM4sF5xEeWR2LcfI-VNFXfkFE&si=9yU0Yk616JfgDBO7

Instead of a funeral service, Bud’s on Broadway will be hosting a jam and Celebration of Life on Sunday, February 23rd, 2025. Arrangements in care of Derryl Hildebrandt.