Found while housecleaning over the holidays…the souvenir program from the 1997 Canadian Open Country Singing Contest held in Simcoe, Ont. I was a judge that year, one of six (I had also been a judge in 1993). We were divided into two groups, Band A and Band B, to judge the preliminaries. For the finals, all six judges and Randy Satchell, a past winner and head of the judges, joined us. There were 219 solo contestants that year and nine duets for a total of 288 acts. The contest began on Friday, July 11 and ran all day Saturday and Sunday. It’s amazing now to go through the list of contestants from back then and recognize many names. The program also has photos of the previous year’s winners including the “18 And Under Male” category. The winner that year was a 13-year-old Tebey! The program also listed the contest’s previous winners and it’s no surprise to see Tebey had won the “Male 12 & Under” category in 1994 and 1990. Last year, he earned his first #1 song as an artist with “Who’s Gonna Love You.” I can’t say I was there for the start of his singing career, but I was there in the early days. I believe Tebey is now 38. Coincidentally, that picture of him is on page 38 of the 1997 program.