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The Trans Canada band was and is the result of the influences of musicians and orchestras that existed in our home town of Dysart Saskatchewan.
Our little town, for some reason, has always had a large number of active musicians. Perhaps it was the result of the cosmopolitan nature of our community. This cosmopolitan grouping of European cultures seemed to foster pride in the uniqueness of each individual group and from that grew a number of very special musicians and bands.
Even though groups like the Ray Konescni Orchestra, the Leo Konescni Band, Nick Costea's group had little or nothing in common with what Trans Canada became, they were a huge influence on Trans Canada.
They were the ones who encouraged us to "get up there and play".
The boys were heavily influenced by uncle Steve Molesky and by Albert's dad Jack Michlik. They influenced us to perform a wide variety of music for a wide variety of crowds. This taught us to be sensitive to the crowd and always try to satisfy their tastes and interests.
Trans Canada was also very directly influenced by the local group "The Mustangs" who, for a time, had Ken Richea, Larry's older brother, and Bob Melnick, Albert's uncle playing with George Smadu, the Anton brothers and Walter Antonio. These guys really showed us that playing rock music was an exciting and viable option for a band from a small town.
The earliest version of the group included Murray Krofchek on drums , Norm Grohs on guitar, and Dave Molesky on bass. That band was called "The Sands of Time". Murray left to join the Chickasaw County Fair, a band the grew out of the Mustangs.
The second version of the group was called
"The Act of Supremacy".
It included Norm, Dave and Dale Ripplinger on drums.
The lineup that played the reunion show in Dysart in 2009 was actually the third version of the group and was to become the core of the group at that time.
By late 1972 the name changed to Trans Canada. Mathew Macknak joined the group for a period as an organist. We became one of the groups represented by the Nellis Booking Agency in Regina.
We played One Nighters and Clubs until the late spring of 1975.
Nobody really remembers why, but one night, at Wally's bar, we decided "that's it, we're done". We remained the closest of friends ever since and we all continued to play music in other projects since then.
Norm was a founding member of Grimstone.
Larry and Albert were founding members of the group Cornerstone .
Dave has continues to play in Moose Jaw.
Thanks to Richard Brown, Jack Dolejsi and Brent Heck
for their assistance in providing some names of these musicians.
Please contact me at lrichea@sasktel.net if you have more information
