Courtesy Photo Carole Cadarette plays her keyboard, “Miss Yamaha.” She will perform Right Time, Right Place, A Tribute Concert: Music Celebrating My Roots, with special guest Ted Rockwell, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 26.

ALPENA — The community is invited to a special afternoon of music and memories at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 26 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Alpena, celebrating the musical talents of Carole Cadarette, with special guest Ted Rockwell.

The concert, titled Right Time, Right Place, A Tribute Concert: Music Celebrating My Roots, is a free gift to the community.

Cadarette, a beloved member of Trinity since 1942, will showcase her signature range and expressive style singing and playing her Yamaha keyboard, which she calls “Miss Yamaha,” dedicating her selections to those who have influenced her rich musical journey. The talented Ted Rockwell will bring the historic Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ to life.

When Cadarette was 8 years old, she was given the choice between tap dancing or piano lessons.

“I chose the piano lessons, because my family was always musical,” Cadarette said. “I was already playing a little bit of piano. So, they sent me to a local music teacher … and about three lessons in, the teacher figured out I was playing by ear. The reason why I was playing by ear is when I look at music notes, they move on me. It’s some form of, maybe, dyslexia. It still does it to this day. If I look at a piece of music — written music, with notes — they will walk on me. So I play strictly by ear.”

She started playing in her family band when she was 14.

“At that point, everywhere you went had an upright piano,” Cadarette said. “And I got an accordian when I was 14, so I played in the band with those two instruments, until I lost my dad in 1964. At that point, I gave up music almost totally.”

She returned to music in 1979.

“In 1979, the autoharp found me,” Cadarette said. “The autoharp always was a fascination for me, simply by seeing it in a catalogue. And then I heard Mother Maybelle play it on a television program, and it got me interested. And I taught myself to play that, and taught a few other people how to play it, without reading notes.”

She played autoharp in a group called “Three on a String” and another group called “Ladies’ Choice.”

“We did a lot of music around Alpena,” Cadarette recalled.

She added that “Three on a String” traveled downstate and performed at festivals, as well.

In the 1980s, her brother said she should learn to play bass because there were not enough bass players in the Alpena area.

“So he handed me a bass, and I taught myself to play that,” Cadarette said. “I played with several different groups in several different styles — polka, bluegrass, country — and started playing in 2004 in a band at Maplewood” Tavern, which her family owns.

Maplewood Tavern is located at 7930 French Road, in Alpena Township.

“From 2004 to 2011, I was the bass player in that band,” Cadarette said. “We had a bad stroke of luck where our lead people were not able to play anymore, and we had to rebuild the band. That’s when I went back to piano, and it had been over 40 years.”

She saw a beautiful Yamaha keyboard in a catalogue, just like the autoharp, and she decided to give it a try.

“My mom said to me, ‘If you want that keyboard, and this is what your brother needs from you to rebuild the band, get the keyboard,'” Cadarette recalled of her late mother, Clarise Grzenkowicz, who passed away on June 8, 2021 at the age of 102. She is in the Guinness World Record Books for having the “Longest Career as a Bartender in the World,” at Maplewood Tavern.

Cadarette loves her keyboard.

“I make this be my band,” she said of her keyboard. “Every sound that comes out of that, you tell it what you want it to do, and it will do it.”

The Yamaha keyboard has been her main instrument since 2011.

Cadarette plays with “The Almost Country Variety Band.” She also performs with a band called “The Car Trio.”

She is excited to perform a concert at her home church, Trinity, where she was baptized.

Her niece, Marion Cadarette, was slated to do the concert with her, but she passed away unexpectedly on Jan. 11, at age 52.

“So, I came up with this plan to do Right Time, Right Place, and do music that is my roots, but each song is going to be dedicated to a certain person in my life that either did the song, or talked me into doing the song,” Cadarette said. “Nearly every one of the songs I do will have a story, and I’m going to try to keep the ‘yada, yada, yada’ to a bare minimum.”

Deb Staeb will narrate the concert.

“She’s going to narrate and tell people who I’m doing it for,” Cadarette said.

For example, she will be dedicating the song “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” to her mother.

“That was her favorite,” Cadarette said.

She will also be playing “Johnny B. Goode” for the late Bobby Kruse.

Cadarette explained that Rockwell will be playing the organ during the concert, while she takes a break.

When Rockwell asked her what she’d like him to do, Cadarette told him, “play that organ like it’s not normally played in church. I want you to dust the rafters … Whatever you’re feeling, go for it. And that’s what he’s going to do in between, to give me a break.”

Rockwell is also a member of Trinity.

“We’re going to give them an earful of music, and it’s going to be everything, from country to big band,” Cadarette said.

Jeff Powers will be running sound at the the concert.

Admission is free, with a freewill offering to support the ongoing work of the Women of Trinity. Trinity is located at 124 E. Washington Ave., in downtown Alpena.

Reach Darby Hinkley at d 989-358-5691 or dhinkley@thealpenanews.com.