1950’s era show Louisiana Hayride will once again have a huge performance in Swift Current.

The show, modelled after the classic radio program of the same name, was started by Gil and Lori Risling, who have deep roots in Swift Current.

After moving here with his wife in 1974 and having three children, Risling started Sounds Good music in Wheatland Mall and worked for CKSW 570. After 16 years of living in the Southwest, he made the move to Salmon Arm, BC to work in radio and print business.

“We have since come back to Saskatchewan,”he said. “My daughter Melissa married a young man from the area, and she moved back here 14 years ago. We have two little grandsons, so it was time to come home to the grandsons.”

For them, the show is a way to remember the music of the past.

“My wife (Lori) wrote a show called the Louisiana Hayride show, which started over eight years ago in Salmon Arm,” he said. “(The original program) was a radio show that ran from 1948-1960, and it was broadcast from the Shreveport, Louisiana Municipal Auditorium.”

Risling says the show originally gave start to some of the biggest names in music history.

“They were young, they were new, they were looking for a place to break into the business, and this radio show which was broadcast all over North America and to the armed forces, gave them a start,” he said. “You know the phrase ‘Elvis has left the building’? That was first said on the Louisiana Hayride show, where Elvis appeared as a 19 year old.”

In Risling’s version of the classic show, music from Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Willy Nelson will be featured. He says that the show also inclides modern country music from artists such as Shania Twain and Garth Brooks, who he says were shaped by the artists of the past.

“A lot of these folks were influenced by these entertainers, artists they looked up to and tried to model themselves after,” he said. “We’re trying to build it up to the current level of music where entertainers are now, and try to tie it in to the older country that did influence them.”

The first tour of the Louisiana Hayride show will take place March 28 at the Lyric Theatre, before moving further west across the country.

“You’re gonna hear some great songs,” he said. “This has been just way too much fun, and the folks appreciate it when they get there. Some folks have come seven, eight, nine times, they tell us, which is pretty awesome. Pretty fun.”