LANA MICHELIN TALKS WITH SEAN McCANN IN FRIDAY FORWARD
Far from The Sea Sean McCann thrives in his solo career » PAGE 2
OCT. 31, 2015 CENTRAL ALBERTA’S GUIDE TO DIVERSIONS AND DISTRACTIONS
TV PULLOUT
INSIDE
INSIDE
POLAR BEAR TOWN TUE TUESDAY ON OLN CANADA
OILERS RALLY TO TAKE DOWN HABS
Sat. Oct. 31
RED R ED DEER
HALLOWEEN H A LLOW LOWEEN OWEEN PA PARTY
See S Se e pg. A8 fforr de fo d details tails
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Red Deer Advocate FRIDAY, OCT. 30,2105
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The power of music
CORBY OAKLEY HAS EARLY-ONSET DEMENTIA BUT HE DOESN’T MISS A NOTE WHEN HE IS PLAYING HIS GUITAR BY LANA MICHELIN ADVOCATE STAFF
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
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“I’M STARTING TO LOSE SOME WORDS … BUT THE MUSIC COMES WITH MUSCLE MEMORY.”
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WEATHER Increasing cloudiness. High 9. Low -4
FORECAST ON A2
INDEX Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Business . . . . . . . . . C3-4 Canada . . . . . . . . . . A6-7 Classified . . . . . . . . D1-2 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . D4 Entertainment . INSERT Sports . . . . . . . . . . . B1-7
y l i m Fa ht g i N Fun Skate with the
Red Deer REBELS
— CORBY OAKLEY
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Please see GUITAR on Page A2
Notley, Gallant renew efforts for pipeline Notley and NB premier Brian Gallant say they’re hoping for a renewed push to get the Energy East pipeline built under Trudeau. Story on PAGE A5
PLEASE RECYCLE
Fri. Oct 30, 2015
Game Time 7:00 PM
Rebels Vs. Spokane Chiefs Enmax Centrium.
Parents and children, join in the fun! Bring your skates and helmets and enjoy skating with the Rebels hockey players at the Centrium after the game. All youth participating in the skate MUST be wearing skates and a helmet
Tickets at Ticketmaster 1.855.985.5000
7258951
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Denise Oakley listens as her husband Corby plays one of his guitars in their Innisfail home this week.
Forty-one-year-old Corby Oakley is riding an “unstoppable train.” The Innisfail resident has a rare form of early-onset dementia for which there’s no treatment or cure. He had to quit working for an oilfield company since being diagnosed last fall with a condition that’s obliterating his short-term memory. Over the last 12 months, he started to stutter and take forgetful pauses. He also stumbles from dizziness when he walks. But whenever Oakley sits down to sing with his guitar, he’s the same guy he ever was — the same gifted musician his wife fell in love with when they were both junior high students in Red Deer. Oakley doesn’t stumble over lyrics when he sings ZZ Top, Collective Soul or Green Day songs with his pitch-perfect rock voice. And he doesn’t miss a note when he fluidly plays his electric guitar — as many Red Deer farmer’s market patrons will have noticed when they passed Oakley, who was busking last summer in his wheelchair across from the antiques stall. “I’m starting to lose some words … but the music comes with muscle memory,” explained Oakley, who spent two decades as a professional singer and guitarist with the Calgary-based cover band Applejax. Along with Calgary band mates Jerry Day and Grant Mitchell, Oakley was twice invited to entertain in Hong Kong by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. The Applejax trio also backed Ronnie Prophet at the Calgary Stampede Grandstand Show, and worked with such hit-makers as Buddy Knox (Party Doll), Lucille Starr (When the Sun says Goodbye to the Mountains), and renowned fiddler
Al Cherney. In the late 1990s and 2000s, “we played many high-profile corporate gigs,” said Oakley — including a decade of STARS fundraising galas in Calgary, for which the band received a 10-year recognition plaque. But the group played its last gig in February. A few months earlier, Oakley had learned something was going seriously wrong with his brain. He had been forgetting things, like driving to work. One day, he arrived at his job and walked away from his car without setting the brake. It rolled into another vehicle. His wife was called by his employer and took him to the hospital’s emergency department. After a series of tests, Oakley was told he has a degenerative condition that’s killing his brain cells. Specialists believe he has either Lewy body dementia or the hereditary spinocerebellar ataxia. In both cases, the progressive conditions are irreversible and untreatable. He had to go on long-term disability from his job as a crane operator. Without corporate music gigs on weekends (Day and Mitchell shelved Applejax rather than continuing without Oakley who had been an integral part of the band since 1995), Oakley was left with a lot of time on his hands. To boost his spirits and allow him to continue doing what he’s always loved, his wife Denise suggested he perform as a busker at the Red Deer farmers’ market last spring and summer. “I thought it would give him something that he’s very competent at that’s his. He’s been good at it his whole life, so he doesn’t have to doubt himself when he plays,” she said. The idea of busking “was very scary,” said Oakley, since he wasn’t used to playing solo.