Mark Robinson to be inducted into the Great Northern Opry

A longtime local resident and former teacher and principal at Elliot Lake Secondary School, Mark Robinson, is to be inducted into the Great Northern Opry later this year. Robinson learned of the honour in February. When Robinson heard on the nomination, “At first I was a bit surprised. I was pleased, really honoured.” He was [...]

Article content A longtime local resident and former teacher and principal at Elliot Lake Secondary School, Mark Robinson, is to be inducted into the Great Northern Opry later this year. Robinson learned of the honour in February. When Robinson heard on the nomination, “At first I was a bit surprised.

I was pleased, really honoured.” Recommended Videos He was nominated by fellow bandmate Jim Graham, who play in the band Front Porch with Peter Evans, the trio’s standup bass player. Graham became a member of the Great Northern Opry in 2023.

Robinson has played several music genres including country, rock ‘n’ roll and folk. “John Prine was a big influence on me, said Robinson. “He was kind of underground, but everybody did his songs.”

He adds that while he can read music much of what he learned was by ear. He learned to play blue grass in the 1970s while in university, which was quite popular back then. Robinson says since 2025 they don’t play concerts as much as they had in the past.

“I’ve got grandkids. So, we’ve (he and Evans) slowed down a bit on how much we play publicly, but we still get together pretty well every week to just play,” says Robinson. Over the years, Robinson had been in a number of bands including Jukebox, which is made up of Don, Dennis and Marcel Jacques.

Robinson says Jukebox had a great influence on him. With Jukebox they played largely country music, but there were few tunes that touched on bluegrass. However, he had a bit of an issue with some tunes such as Fox on the Run (bluegrass version).

He felt strongly for such tunes it needed a banjo. He then practiced on his banjo and included it the next time they played that tune. “So then we did The Ballad of Jed Clampett... and added on songs that had a banjo.

“Playing with Jukebox encouraged me to relearn other instruments. I don’t remember why, but I started playing the mandolin. “I’m not the best at anything, I’m OK, but I can play a lot of different ones.

That’s kind of my strength being a multi-instrumentalist.” He says in today’s world learning to play music is a lot easier than it was in the past, now just can just go on the internet. He adds that he also occasionally played with Women in Song made up of Lois Jones, Debbie Rivard and Patty Dunlop, all of who are also members of the Great Northern Opry.

Currently, much of the music Robinson plays including country, blue grass, old rock and a bit of jazz, such as Fly Me To The Moon, but with a bit of a country feel. Learning to play Robinson says he started by learning to play the piano when he was about six years old. “My whole family was classically trained, including me.”

He says learning to play music was almost a prerequisite in his family. “In my family the minimum requirement was you had to go up to Grade 8 in conservatory piano and Grade 2 theory.” His older sister went to university and got her masters in music and became a concert pianist.

When his father backed off from making his son take piano lessons, he bought his son a guitar and took lessons. Over the years, he began playing rock ‘n’ roll, moved on to folk music – such as Gordon Lightfoot. He started playing the electric guitar.

At the age of 13 he started his own band, and while they had five guitar players and no drummer, Robinson then took up the drums. When they had no singer, they did find a teenager about a year older than them, but all he knew were Motown songs. And they learned to play Motown.

“It was hilarious. It didn’t last, we weren’t very good.” He continued playing when he went to university, which was when he got more into blue grass.

Moving to Elliot Lake Originally raised in a small southern Ontario farming community, he moved to this community in 1982 when he became a math teacher at Elliot Lake Secondary School. He later became principal of the school before retiring. While teaching at ELSS he also taught music.

When he came to Elliot Lake he got into the music scene in the region and played in jam sessions and local concerts. He also taught his children to play music, his daughter Caily, now a teacher at ELSS, and his son Cooper. They also played in some local concerts.

Music has always been important to Robinson. Someone gave him a sticker ‘Music is a gift – share it’ and he believes it. “I found that music has made life fun.

I met a lot of people through music, and made good friends through music.” The Great Northern Opry The Great Northern Opry nomination event was held at the Moose Family Centre in Elliot Lake and there was plenty of music, including by the Jacques Brothers, Women in Song, Robinson’s family and others.

Lois Jones says as many as 200 attended the June 30 event that will lead up to Robinson being inducted into the Great Northern Opry. The induction ceremony will take place in Sault Ste. Marie in November.

The main band for the evening was Don, Dennis and Marcel Jacques with Dave Allen on the violin. Also performing that evening were: Women in Song, Jim Graham, Peter Evans, Kevin Ritchie, Tim MacLeod (nominated for the under 30 award). In addition, Robinson’s family joined in with Caily, Cooper and his wife Julia.

He will join more than a dozen other area musicians inducted in the Great Northern Opry, including: Don Jacques, Marcel Jacques, Dennis Jacques, Jim Graham, Patty Dunlop, Lois Jones and Debbie Rivard, to name a few. The three members of Women in Song are the Algoma East representatives of the Northern Ontario Country Music Association which operates the Great Northern Opry. They scout the region looking for talent worthy of being inducted into the association.