CALUMET -- As you may have heard, our dear old friend and mentor, Johnnie Perona, left us on February 1. There will be a visitation at the Ryan Funeral Home on 6th St. in Calumet from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3; and from 8 p.m. - 10 p.m. we will be gathering down the street at the Michigan House to continue our remembrance of John and to play some of the music that he loved and taught us.
The late John Perona adds some of his percussion talent to ethnic music being played during Heikinpäivä 2008. (Keweenaw Now file photo © 2008 Michele Bourdieu)Members of his last band, the Finnwoods Ramblers, will be there; and we may hear from some of the Pasi Cats, the Thimbleberry Band and who knows who all...
Raised in an Italian immigrant family in rural Calumet, Johnnie learned to play the music of his own heritage and went on to absorb, play and transmit the music of the Finns, the Slovenians, the Croatians, the French-Canadians and, of course, the USA. He played the concertina, the 2-row accordion, the fiddle, the mandolin and the guitar, but achieved national recognition for his rhythm bones and his unique chiming spoons.
John was named as a Master Folk Musician by the Michigan Traditional Arts Program and passed on his skills to a number of apprentices and students, one of whom went on to win the World Bones-Playing Championship in Ireland.
If you can't join us on Tuesday night, John's funeral will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church on 8th St. in Calumet.
Editor's Notes: Keweenaw Now thanks Oren Tikkanen, local musician, for permission to post this article.
John Perona's obituary is published in The Daily Mining Gazette, Feb. 2, 2009.
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