Manitoba Music Museum is an online treasure trove of musical memorabilia

Virtually every era and genre of Manitoba's music is represented in the online Manitoba Music Museum, including the likes of The Guess Who, the D-Drifters, Mood Jga Jga...you name it. The site is an enormous repository of musical memorabilia dedicated to the province's musical past and rich social history. 

Now the Manitoba Music Museum Facebook page has become equally important in what it offers.  The page has literally exploded since the fall with members exchanging stories and sharing more than 1600 vintage photographs too date. And it's growing daily.

David Perich started both the website and Facebook group. He's been involved in the local music scene since the early 1970s, touring with Burton Cummings, Alice Cooper, Hall & Oats and ZZ Top, among others.  He's also a talented photographer.

David calls the page "a '60s Love-In' - not only for the decade that most of the action surrounds, but for the average age of the participants on the Facebook Group."

David's friend Henry Kriendler joined the group in November and has taken on the role of page administrator. A former owner of Banquox Sound, he has a keen interest in preserving and restoring LPs, 78 recordings and old photos.

The page has turned into a big meeting place for music lovers. The members are mostly musicians (professional and amateur), people connected with the music industry in every which way, and music fans, of course.

And it's the members themselves who contribute content. Leading the pack are music historians John Einarson and Owen Clark as well as Burton Cummings and Ray St. Germain who contribute photos regularly.  

So what drives the site? Henry says, "My simple answer would be nostalgia.  For many of the members, the best times of their lives were in their mid to later teens. As they developed and became really passionate about music and their place in the music world, they lived a life that was different from the average teenager or young adult. The music scene drove everything. It drove their dreams, their desires, their hopes, their feeling of accomplishment, their finances and their loves.  The music to most of these people was not a business or a job.  It was a way to live and do things that were different from the day to day grind that many others (older) were living."

Listen to David Perich and Henry Kreindler with Larry Updike on Up to Speed: