photo by: Alan Olson

Slim Lehart, left, Roger Hoard and Blaine Busey begin their jam ses|Alan Olson| Slim Lehart, left, Roger Hoard and Blaine Busey begin their jam session Thursday night.sion Thursday night.

WHEELING – A reunion among friends is always something worth celebrating with a little party music.

Longtime friends came together Thursday evening, reuniting a small group of musicians whose careers – or hobbies, as some insist – brought them to the Wheeling Jamboree in decades past. The small jam session was held in Elm Grove, with an invite-only audience of just over a dozen people having gathered by the time it started.

Singer-guitarist Slim Lehart said this was the second year that the informal group came together to jam out in the summer. He recalled their younger days, when they’d pack the seats of the Capitol Theatre.

“This is just a little reunion, and this is the top of the bunch, too,” Lehart said. “… The people here this evening, they’re the girls and boys that made the noise at the Capitol Music Hall every Saturday night. We put the buses up and down Main Street, … a lot of people from Canada, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, two shows a night.”

Lehart was joined by numerous friends in the audience and performing alongside him, including Blaine Busey, Jennifer Jean, Bob Haglock and Roger Hoard. Each had played solo or with groups for numerous years since their start, and some continue to play to this day – Haglock said he’ll be performing at the Jefferson County Fair next week.

Each brought with them a story – Jean, for example, recalls riding her horse two miles to Dallas to her fiddle lessons, and eventually selling that same horse to buy her first bass guitar. Hoard, who had been a Wheeling Jamboree staff band member in 1971, did many shows with Lehart over the course of their friendship.

The thing the musicians have in common – aside from a love of music – is their strong, enduring friendship.

“This is what we live for. We love it. It’s good to see everybody,” said Jean.

“It’s a family,” Hoard said. “We’re decreasing in size a little bit, but we’re all still here, and we’re happy to play together, which is why we’re right here.”