Maxine MacLennan is leaning on music to help her heal.
And the popular P.E.I. singer/songwriter has been doing a good deal of healing, with room still for plenty more recovery, since a violent motor vehicle collision on Nov. 23.
The crash delivered her life – musical and otherwise – a major jolt.
She had a broken bone in her neck.
Her sternum was broken, as were five vertebrae.
A kneecap, ankle and heel were also broken.
“My doctor said I shouldn’t be here,’’ she says.
“I was spared for some reason. I’ve yet to find out what that is. My daughter says I’m here because she needs me.’’
There are many reasons P.E.I. is a better place with MacLennan around.
She is a loving wife, a caring mother, a talented musician and a thoughtful school bus driver of roughly 20 years.
She simply does a lot of good, from performing for free time and again for one worthy cause after another to co-ordinating for years the Students Against Violence Everywhere chapters in Montague, Souris and Morell.
“Maxine has a big heart in a very little body,’’ says Jolee Patkai, a fellow band member of Treble With Girls.
“She takes on other peoples’ hurt.’’
For more than three months, though, MacLennan has been battling her own hurt – physical, emotional and mental.
She took some very bad panic attacks during her month-long stay in hospital. Earlier this month, she wrote a song about the role mental health plays in everybody’s life.
“It was awful,’’ she says of the attacks.
“It was debilitating. They’re gone, thank God.’’
Special concert
- A fundraising concert for the QEH Foundation will mark Maxine MacLennan’s return to stage with her band, Treble With Girls, following a serious crash in late November. The concert is Sunday at 2 p.m. at Our Lady of Assumption Parish Hall in Stratford with guests Taylor Johnston, Thomas Harrington and Nick Van Ouwerkerk. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door.
MacLennan has been pushing hard to recover from the horrific crash in hopes of getting her life back.
After her release from hospital, she spent a couple weeks in a wheelchair. She progressed to a walker, which she stepped away from last month.
Still, her body is far from fully healed. She remains unsteady on her feet and in pain.
MacLennan raves about her physiotherapist, Brent MacAdam, of Physio East in Montague doing a wonderful job of building her body back up. MacAdam guides her through 45-minute physiotherapy sessions three times a week to increase her strength and mobility through a number of exercises, including peddling a stationary bicycle and walking on a treadmill.
“And it’s going to take a while,’’ MacLennan concedes.
Patkai is confident her friend and bandmate will rebound.
“Although she has had a big setback this year, she is coming back,’’ she says.
“She’s very stubborn. You haven’t seen the last of her.’’
In fact, fans will see her on stage for the first time since the crash tomorrow when she makes an emotional return to performing with Treble With Girls at Our Lady of Assumption Parish Hall in Stratford in one of the band’s many fundraising concerts for the QEH Foundation.
MacLennan, a diverse musician who is lead vocalist, guitarist, mandolin player and percussionist for the band, is both excited and nervous about her first performance back.
“I’m thinking about it a fair bit,’’ she says during a lengthy interview with The Guardian one week ago.
Music has been too great a joyous mainstay in MacLennan’s life for the woman to simply walk away from performing without putting up a gutsy fight.
Her musical career has been intriguing.
MacLennan, who grew up in St. Charles before moving to Cardigan at age 10, where she has lived ever since with the exception of a five-month exodus out west at age 18, first took to the stage as a terrified 12-year-old girl.
She was coaxed to join her father Gordon Gallant’s band at a New Year’s Eve concert at Fortune Hall in Souris.
“I can remember both of my knees literally hitting each other,’’ she recalls.
“I thanked God that I had the long dress on because I was that upset and that worried and nervous.’’
She was a hit as the ridiculously young lead singer and drummer of a popular local country music band.
She quickly grew to love performing in front of a crowd, singing country music songs made classics by the likes of Merle Haggard, George Jones and Tammy Wynette – music she always heard in her very musical house with her father who always had a band on the go and her mother, Helen, who played organ and sang at house parties.
MacLennan would sing songs, she says with a laugh, that 12-year-old girls had no right to be singing – songs like ‘Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ On Your Mind)’.
MacLennan started competing – and placing well – in singing competitions in her mid-20s, including finishing third in a national competition.
She went on to perform throughout Canada and parts of the United States. She appeared on many shows including The Tommy Hunter Show.
A number of singles from her first three albums, that were mostly country music, received major air play in Canada, U.S. and Europe. Some cracked the Top 10 in Europe and the U.S. and Top 20 in Canada.
Her most recent release, called “Pieces of Me”, came out in 2016.
MacLennan enjoyed the headiness of recording in Nashville.
“It was awesome to be a part of it,’’ she says.
“I’ll never forget walking in. They had a big bouquet of flowers and fruit for me and a welcome session. (They said) ‘here’s what we’re going to do, here’s how we’re going to do this. We’re going to take your career one step at a time.’’’
As much as MacLennan wanted to advance her musical career, her daughter, Jessica, who is now a teacher, always took priority – no contest, no regrets.
“She turned out to be a beautiful, young woman and we’re so proud of her,’’ she says.
Performing, though, is ingrained in MacLennan.
Treble With Girls, a group consisting of Norman Stewart (vocals and guitar), Sheila MacKenzie (vocals and fiddle), Patkai (vocals, guitar and percussion) and MacLennan, has pleasantly scratched that musical itch for MacLennan for the past five years.
“It’s fun now for us all,’’ she says.
“I left the national stage and I have no desire to do much more. I mean if it happened for us as a group it would be great, but let’s face it we’re all working and we have families. This (band) enhances our lives. It brings a lot of fulfilment.’’
And music, she believes, will play a major role in her road back from a nasty setback.
“It’s probably a healer,’’ she says.
“I might not be able to get back to all the stuff I did before, but I’ll be damned if you are going to keep me from doing this. My voice box is not hurting. I can still play guitar.’’
Gift of musicians
Maxine MacLennan estimates she has performed hundreds of benefit concerts.
She sees the charitable act as simply being a community member stepping up.
“If you have something to give, why wouldn’t you,’’ she asks.
And, she adds, a person never knows if and when they may be in need.
Well, following MacLennan’s serious motor vehicle collision in November, the community was quick to rally to her cause.
A successful fundraiser was held the following month at the Montague Regional High School.
“It was pretty humbling,’’ says MacLennan.