Otter Creek

When some staff members of the W. Ross Macdonald School for the Visually Impaired and Deafblind in Brantford discovered they shared a love of bluegrass music and each played an instrument needed to put together a band they formed ‘Otter Creek’. Named after the school mascot, the otter, Otter Creek performs both traditional and contemporary bluegrass with hallmark three-part harmonies and instrumentation. Marisa Parker (vocals/guitar) won the Senior Vocal Rosebowl in the Woodstock Music Festival in 1998 and is a music therapist at the school. Cindy Dell (guitar/fiddle/vocals), a teacher at the school, also teaches music privately and has played professionally for years. Denis Rondeau (double bass/vocals) teaches music at the school and is a free lance bassist playing classical, blues and jazz. Gary Bridgett (guitar), also a teacher at the school, and John Dorlas (banjo), a Bluegrass Canada winner, have been playing around the southern Ontario bluegrass scene together for many years. Bill Gall (mandolin/harmonica) is a residence counsellor at W. Ross and also plays the bagpipes. Together, the members of Otter Creek have a sound and repetoire that incorporates searing bluegrass and melodious mountain ballads by such well-known artists as Bill Munroe, Rhonda Vincent, Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss and Union Station, as well as songs they have penned themselves.