Kevin Stephenson, a Canton resident and board member on the Canton Area Heritage Center, has been making PowerPoint presentations on Canton’s musical history.
Stephenson has researched music performances that occurred in Canton mostly during the 1960s and 1970s, a time when small towns like Canton (population 13,000) could attract prominent performers that were already famous or would go on to make names for themselves.
“We had an amazing run here. In the 60s and 70s when we had at least 14 big-time acts appear. A lot of the groups were brought here by the Canton Friendship Festival, a September four-day event comparable to the Morton Pumpkin Festival or Pekin Marigold Festival held today. The high school and Spoon River College would also book acts, sometimes all together,” he said.
One of the highlights of Stephenson’s presentation is the appearance of Jim Morrison and the Doors on Sept. 13, 1967 at Canton High School just as their breakout song, “Light My Fire,” had climbed to the top of the charts.
The admission cost to see the Doors at the high school was $4, he said. “There are still people here who talk about being there. A lot of the old rock and roll guys loved it. Some hated it. Canton was probably not ready for the Doors at that time,” said Stephenson.
Four days later the band was in New York to do the Ed Sullivan Show, famously ignoring Sullivan’s request that the group change the lyrics of their number-one hit to avoid possible drug references, noted Stephenson.
The list of acts that Stephenson said made appearances in Canton—some more than once—included the Serendipity Singers, the Lettermen and pianist Roger Williams.
“John Denver made his first appearance as lead singer of the Chad Mitchell Trio (after Mitchell left the group) in Canton,” he said. Kenny Rogers also made an appearance in 1965 as a member of the New Christy Minstrels, said Stephenson.
More information about Canton’s musical history is available at the Canton Area Heritage Center.
