With a few notes from his guitar, John Ormerod transformed the Picture Rocks Community Center into a little slice of the Grand Ole Opry last Thursday night.
Dressed head-to-toe in classic country attire, Ormerod channeled the great Hank Williams, crooning "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" into an old-fashioned microphone while an audience of more than 40 locals watched intently from cafeteria-style tables.
The longtime musician and signmaker, who spent years as a touring artist, regularly attends the Hummin' and Strummin' jam sessions, held every Thursday in Picture Rocks.
The weekly gathering celebrated its 10-year anniversary in February. It attracts musicians from all over the Tucson area.
"Whether you are good, bad or otherwise, everyone has a good time," Ormerod said of the sessions. "That's what it is all about."
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Ormerod was one of more than 15 musicians, including banjo, fiddle and guitar players, who participated in the jam on Thursday. That's a pretty typical number these days, said coordinator and co-founder Carol Brooks.
Brooks and her husband, Larry Brooks, along with Larry's brother Randy Brooks, his wife Deb Hume and Carol's sister-in-law Merrillynne Prohl, helped get the jam session off the ground more than a decade ago as a way to provide free music for a community that is often on its own when it comes to live entertainment.
"We wanted something that made people feel good," Carol Brooks said.
The group had a slow start.
The first few months saw only a handful of musicians and audience members.
"People were saying maybe we ought to do it every other week," Carol said. "But I knew if we wanted to be successful, we had to promote it and stick to it."
Today, the community center's lunch room fills to capacity nearly every week with spectators and musicians playing an all-acoustic mix of country, Western, folk and old jazz tunes.
The group has played memorials for regular participants who have died and do occasional gigs in public settings, like at the Marana Heritage Conservancy's spring festival, held on May 5.
Some are old pros with their instruments. Others could use some practice.
"We applaud everyone like they are wonderful," Brooks said. "We treat everybody the same. If they are bad, we don't tell them."
The age range for hummers and strummers varies. All are welcome, but many of the performers are retirees.
Mae Camp carpools north every other Thursday with Ormerod and a few other players from the Tucson Estates area, 14 miles south of Picture Rocks.
Camp, 85, learned to play guitar while running the Triple C Chuckwagon restaurant, 8900 W. Bopp Road, with her husband, Chuck Camp, in the 1970s.
She, Chuck and her four kids were a family band at the steakhouse before the Sons of the Pioneers made it their regular spot to play in the 1980s.
"My husband always said music is good for the soul," Camp explained.
Camp loves the jam for its comfortable, relaxed environment.
"These are really good people," she said. "You can really let yourself go here."
Sue Steadman split her time between her vintage Martin guitar and an upright bass, which stood about a foot taller than her 4 feet, nine inches Thursday night.
Steadman, 87, has a long history in music.
She had her own country and Western group, called Sunny Sue and the Sunset Ranch Boys, as a teenager growing up in Pennsylvania, New York and then Iowa.
"The band all lived in the same house," she said. "My mother would do the cooking, cleaning and laundry and my dad was our manager."
Most recently she auditioned and made it through several rounds of the competition TV series "America's Got Talent."
Steadman, a Picture Rocks resident for more than three decades, has participated in Hummin' and Strummin' since shortly after the group started.
She came across one of Brooks' fliers while attending a crafting class at the center.
Her first visit to the jams was merely as an observer.
"I liked it," she said. "It was my kind of music. The people were nice. It was for me."
Steadman is one of the oldest, but also one of the most energetic of the group - her friend, audience member Hope Minor, calls her "the Energizer Bunny."
Minor, 68, comes every week to watch Steadman and the rest of the Hummin' and Strummin' gang play.
She and her husband, Don Minor, started attending the weekly gatherings early on.
When he died six years ago, Minor decided to keep coming.
"It is good therapy," she said. "This and church. I get to be around people, enjoy my friends. It is really awesome."
"There is nothing that makes your heart feel better than music," Carol Brooks said. "Whether you are going through good times or bad, you can express those feelings through music."
If You Go
• What: Hummin' and Strummin' jam session
• When: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursdays
• Where: Picture Rocks Community Center, 5615 N. Sanders Road
• Cost: Free
• More information: Call 908-0732
Contact reporter Gerald M. Gay at ggay@azstarnet.com or 573-4137.
