Handley’s Oldtimers
Square Dance Jamboree, Souvenir Sounds RR 26500, 1970s
Les Handley, fiddle; Ken Krogman, fiddle; John Weibe, guitar; Vic Wilms, drums; Melody Handley, piano; Roger Handley, accordion; Lloyd Handley, banjo; Richard Handley, bass
Recorded in Lethbridge, Alberta
Tunes: Tunnel Thru Square
Dance; French Minuet; Varsovienne; Call of the Pipes; Poor Girl Round Waltz;
Waltz Quadrille; Pretty Girl Square Dance; Valeta Waltz; Butterfly; Westphalia
Waltz; Red River Square Dance
Back as early as the ‘dirty thirties’ the Handley Brothers ‘Les and Lloyd’ got their first start at entertaining at school parties and dances under the supervision of a kind hearted and musically interested elevator agent by the name of Len Morrow who helped them get started. Many times they played for free or what could be collected by passing the hat. The constant encouragement of their parents Mr & Mrs Roy Handley, who were early settlers in the Turin area, kept them playing for parties and dances specializing in old time tunes which they learned from other older fiddle players and musicians. As many of the old time dances are without music and the rhythm of these dances is very important they became well known in Southern Alberta as a good time orchestra with a good old time swing and a definite beat you just couldn’t get out of step to.Public demand for the Handley’s Orchestra to get back together again and bring back he old tunes in the same old time swing as they remember them to be played in, brought about this souvenir album.
More than one full year of effort by the Handley Brothers, Les and Lloyd, their sons and daughters along with the very cooperative assistance of Jerry Hammon of Turin whose square dance calling has always been greatly appreciated in the past; Ken Krogman of Lethbridge on the fiddle; John Weibe on guitar and Vic Wilms on drums, both of Coaldale; this old time album has come about.
Melody Handley plays on piano; Roger Handley the accordion; Lloyd Handley on the banjo; Richard Handley the bass guitar; and Les Handley is on the fiddle.
It is hoped that many hours of entertainment will be provided for others to enjoy, for many years to come, through this recording.
Just The Way We Are, No Label HF-001
Fiddlers: Joe Berton, Gordon Cratty, John Hall, Slim Hauser, Alf Johnson, Joe Ordog, Les Rattray, Cec Sveinson, Tom Tourand; Bill Best, guitar; Bob Brown, drums; Sam Channel, guitar; Frank Fissel, bass; Peter Gaudreault, guitar; Pat Hauser, piano and bass; Vi Lillos, piano, guitar and fiddle; Alice James, piano; Emma Rogers, guitar; Peter Rubeniuk, guitar; Cec Sveinson, banjo; Chris Staeheli, banjo; Art Riedlinger, accordion; vocalists: Sam Channel; Maurice Hall, Peter Rubeniuk, Chris Staeheli
Produced by Cec Sveinson; Engineer, Al Rempel; Recorded at Bullfrog Recording Studio, Vancouver, BC
Tracks: Joys of Quebec; Logger’s Breakdown;
Spanish Waltz; Rattling Cannon Ball; Irishman’s Heart to the Ladies; Prisoner’s
Song; Peacock Polka; Georgianna Moon; Balkan Hills; Over the Waves; Walk
Across Texas; Dad’s Waltz; Naomi’s Jig; Will The Circle Be Unbroken; Iona’s
Waltz; Westphalia Waltz
Favourite old-time jigs, reels, waltzes and songs as played by the fiddlers at their regular monthly dances held at the Albion Hall, Maple Ridge, BC.The Haney Old Time Fiddlers are Branch No. 2 of the BC Old Time Fiddlers. The club was formed in 1966 by Gordon Cratty, Slim Hauser and Les Rattray who are charter members and still participating.
Our members come from all over the Lower Mainland, with two members from Armstrong and Penticton, BC who still attend whenever they are in the area.
Produced by Mike Harris and Jean Daniels; Manufactured by Rada Records, Burnaby BC
Tracks: Silver & Gold; Crooked Stove Pipe; McDougal's Polka; Buffalo Gals; Joys Of Quebec; Rollaway; Mike Harris Polka*; Turkey In The Straw; On The Road; Flanigan's; Chamberlains; Red Wing; Rubber Dolly
Born and raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada, Mike Harris became fascinated by the violin at an early age. After only three years of practicing on his own, Mike entered an Old Time violin contest against some of the best Old Time players in Canada. Mike won by a unanimous vote, and with this accomplishment to his credit, Mike decided there and then to become a professional musician.
Mike began travelling during the early stages of his career which has taken him to various parts of the glove - Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, The Phillipines, Hawaii, Hollywood, Nashville, New York, Puerto Rico, Greenland, Alaska.
From being featured fiddler at the world famous WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia to appearances with Wayne Newton, Art Linkletter, Whosyer Hot Shots, The Lancers, Mike has played to and been acclaimed by vast audiences and packed houses.
Mike's repertoire in the thousands - Old Time, songs of the Old South, current tunes - is unsurpassed.
You will certainly enjoy this album as much as
the many thousands of music lovers who have heard Mike "live" at his countless
performances.
Voyageur Fiddler, North Track Records NT 04, 1980
Joe Harrison, fiddle; Helen Harrison, piano
Engineer: Clive Perry; Produced by Ken Hamm with grateful assistance from Jojo Rideout and D’arcy Deauville; Recorded at the Wayne Finukan Studio, Winnipeg, Manitoba, November 1980.
Tunes: Voyageur Reel (Hangman’s Reel); The
Keel Row; C’est la Viron; Heel and Tow Polka; MacKenzie Strathspey; Grondola;
House Party Jig; Red Wing Two-Step; Buffalo Girls; Big John MacNeil / Dusty
Miller; Kam River Reel; Westphalia Waltz / Joe’s Favourite Waltz; Renee
Polka; Joe’s First Change; Crooked Stovepipe; Thunder Bay Jig; White River
Stomp; Finnish Schottische; Sleeping Giant Two Step; Silver and Gold
This album you hold in your hands is the first long play recording of Joe’s music. Why it has taken so long for Joe to get on disc is a mystery to us at North Track – he has enough tunes to fill ten L.P.’s – but we are extremely proud to have the opportunity to offer this album to those countless people who have heard and loved his music. Side One features Joe solo, playing as he does four times a week at Old Fort William. On Side Two he is accompanied by his wife, Helen, on piano.You’ll hear tunes familiar and unfamiliar. If you have a notion to dance, you have a large range of choice here: jigs, reels, 2-steps, and waltzes. Or just sit back and listen.
Most importantly, you’ll hear Joe’s own compositions: Kam River Reel, Joe’s Favourite, Sleeping Giant 2-Step (which he co-authored with Andy Dejarlis), Thunder Bay Jig, and Joe’s First Change – tunes we think are destined to become standards in their own right.
Enough said. Listen. Enjoy. Joe Harrison, the Voyageur Fiddler.
This Album Is Dedicated To The Family
(Inner Sleeve Notes)
Most visitors to Old Fort William know Joe Harrison as the Voyageur Fiddler. But how many are aware that at one time he played under the name ‘Happy Harrison’; or that over thirty years ago he played a fifteen minute noon hour slot on CKPR radio for Bennet’s Book Store; or that, he had a lifelong friendship and musical association with the late Andy Dejarlis. Joe has been a vital part of the Northwestern Ontario music scene for the past 60 years. No exaggeration. Proof? He has been paying dues to the local musicians’ union since 1922 – certainly some kind of record.
Trying to draw a bead on Joe’s life, it’s tough figuring out where to start. The man has simply done so much. But if we’re going to avoid book length copy we’ll have to focus on Joe’s earlier years. Therein lie Joe’s creative sources, the experiences that give life to his music.
Since the days of the fur trade in Canada that gave birth to Old Fort William, old time music has been played to serve the needs of the working man. To provide some respite from the long hard hours of labour; to lift weighted spirits. Yet paradoxically, the music had to be born out of the work, whether that work be swinging a scythe in a field of wheat, wielding a pick and shovel in a mine, or carrying a canoe over a long portage.
For the fiddler to capture the lives of the men and offer it back to them in song, he had to be where the work was done. And this is the key to the musical artistry of Joe Harrison. He has been there. In the fields and mines, mills and railway yards. He has been there and he has absorbed the rhythms and melodies and harmonies of work. He has felt the everlasting kinship with the places he has worked, with the men who came and went, with the families whose existence depended on the continuation of the job. You can hear it all in Joe’s music.
In the small village of St. Anne des Chanes, Manitoba, where Joe was born in 1903, farming was the main work, that and some wood-cutting. At fourteen years of age Joe was driving logs down the Whitemouth river. “I had no idea what they were going to pay me. I was so young,” he recalls, “but at the end of the run they gave me a full share, same as the other men.” He speaks with obvious pride: “They said, ‘You did a god job, little Joe’.” It was also around this time that Joe began playing the fiddle.
In 1921 Joe ventured east to Sioux Lookout and then came to Port Arthur. The next spring, while loading ties coming down from Strawberry Creek to the Kam River, a fellow worker taught him how to play “The Hangman’s Reel” (Joe has since renamed it The Voyageur Reel). “I already knew how to untune the fiddle,” Joe explains. “Fellahs were doing that back in Manitoba.”
During the 1920’s Joe worked at various jobs in the Lakehead area. Meanwhile he was developing his fiddling style. He played barn dances, picnics, union halls, and school houses; in places like Nolalu, Lappe, Geraldton and Kapuskasing. He even played moccasin dances which were held out on the ice of frozen lakes. He went to some of these places just to play, but often he was working at a ‘regular’ job in the same vicinity. In the bush camps he entertained his fellow workers almost nightly. “You know,” he says, his eyes twinkling as he lets his mind wander back in time, “first thing you had to do when you went to the bush camps was make your bed. They’d just issue you an axe and send you out in the bush to start chopping it.”
At this time Joe was also making musical contacts. Two other old time fiddlers he remembers were Ernie Valley and Jack Brown. There was a stand up bass player named George Rudd; a banjo virtuoso, Art Sparks; and guitarist Ross Kinney, who gave Joe some instruction on the instrument. Joe looks pensive for a moment. “I wonder where they are now?” He suddenly chuckles and breaks into a grin. “There was one guy, Oscar Gefari, played the musical canoe. That’s right. Charley Donati had a bar on Cumberland Street and he had this advertisement. ‘Now Playing – Oscar Gefari and his Musical Canoe’. I guess it was a harp or a zither or something. Then there was Ozzie Dumont in Hurcotte, who beat on the fiddle g-string with cedar sticks…”
In those days when men weren’t working they hung around the Stanley Café, the Diamond Café, and Quinn’s Pipe Shop. At night they went to a dance hall above Maier’s Hardware Store, affectionately called “the Bucket of Blood”. Joe remembers it as being “a pretty wild place” where they danced the Charleston and drank ‘monkey blood’, a homemade concoction of unspecified but powerful ingredients.
The jobs, which had seemed so plentiful and readily available through the 1920’s, suddenly disappeared in the fall of 1929. Joe recalls the change as being totally unpredicted and a shock to everyone. “Elevators were filled to the top, but nobody was taking the grain. Work stopped.” Thus began the long depression which spared no region of Canada.
Joe talks about enlisting in ‘Cox’s Army’. The mayor of Port Arthur at the time seems to have devised his own kind of public works program. There was a daily line up outside Mayor Cox’s office of men looking for some kind of employment. Anything, to keep the wolf from the door.
Actually, Joe fared better than most during those lean years. More than ever, a good fiddler was in demand. The work was in Joe’s music and as long as he played people could exist as if the trains were still chugging, the elevators loading and the shops filling. They would listen to a song like ‘Crooked Stovepipe’ and suddenly feel transported to the bush camps where the old wood stoves would get so hot at times they’d be dancing on their iron legs. Or they’d listen to the ‘Kam River Reel’ and for the length of the tune the big logs would be rolling down the river again.
Wherever Joe played they’d pass the hat and he old pick up a few dollars. With that money he could by a meal ticket to eat at the Finn Hall for a week. Obviously thinking of today’s soaring food prices, Joe speaks enthusiastically: “A meal cost twenty cents – all you could eat.” Then he suddenly remembers the harsh reality and says quietly: “Many didn’t have the twenty cents.”
In 1935 Joe married Helen Heisler (who now, forty five plus years later acts as accompanist on this album). Soon after their wedding they left Port Arthur, heading toward Beardmore, where Joe had employment in the Empire Mines. For five years Joe worked in the mines and his experiences further enriched and widened his music. While the job lasted the pay was good – Joe was able to buy a small house for his family, which son included two children. But the work was hard and the danger ever present. One accident still haunts Joe and Helen to this day. A cable on the lift snapped and several men plummeted to their deaths. As a registered nurse Helen had to attend to the broken bodies of the victims and try to bring comfort to the men’s families.
The mine closed in 1940 and the Harrison family had no choice but to leave the Beardmore area. They simply walked away from their house – there was no one to buy it – and returned to Port Arthur. There the family settled permanently and Joe once again pursued a variety of jobs though his chief occupation was that of a millwright. As the years passed and his family grew to six, Joe sought alternate means of providing for them. Like his pioneer ancestors he hunted, fished, and gardened with great success. Frozen fish, moosemeat, and vegetables stored in the root cellar helped the Harrisons through many a long Lakehead winter.
All this time – as one decade gave way to another – Joe continued to perform his music. In the fifties he was a familiar sight at the now defunct Wilderness Inn which was located on he Duluth Highway. In the sixties he played months on end at the old Mariaggi on Water Street. And always he played for weddings and special occasions – so many one could never keep track. Wherever men and women gather when the workday was done or when they wanted to celebrate an important event, there was Joe, telling the story of their lives.
So it is only fitting that in the 1970’s and 1980’s Joe should find a second home at Old Fort William, where history is recreated. Joe has been recreating history for years with his music.
George Rideout
Lookin’ Back, Icicle Records ICL5009, 1981
Brian Hebert, fiddle; Carol Dawson (Kennedy), piano; Terry Morin, drums; Blain McEwan, bass; Earl Stencill, acoustic guitar; Randall Prescott, banjo & harmonica; Al Brisco, steel guitar
Engineer: David Dennison; Producer: Brian Hebert; Recorded at Snocan Studios, November 1981
Tunes: Snowshoer’s Reel / Trip to Windsor;
Raemona*; Crooked Stovepipe; Shades of Dawn*; San Antonio Rose; Rolling
Thunder Reel*; Could I Have This Dance; Royal Wedding Jig*; Bonnechere
Point Strathspey; Black Mountain Rag
It’s an honour to be asked to play on any recording, but it’s an extra thrill to perform on an instrumental fiddle album.Brian Hebert has put together an excellent selection of old favourites, current hits and some exceptionally good original tunes such as, Raemona, Rolling Thunder Reel and Shades of Dawn.
Since I’m originally from the Ottawa Valley, it has been a real treat to come back and record with Brian (who I must say came to the studio well prepared).
This fiddle album belongs in your collection for your listening and dancing pleasure.
Al Brisco
Brian Hebert, fiddle; Al Brisco, steel guitar, dobro; Tim Hermitte, acoustic and electric guitar; Dean Levoy, jazz bass; Vito Rezza, percussion
Musical arrangements, Brian Hebert; Co-Producers: Brian Hebert and Peter Sabourin; Engineer: Ken Hill
Tracks: Timber Train*; Your Choice Waltz*;
Smash The Window / Little Burnt Potato; Sentimental*; 3 Sisters Jig*; Bird
In A Tree; Brian’s Country; Allen’s Reel; Sassy’s Jig*; Appledale Ride;
Phil & Irene’s Waltz*; Montee Legault / High Level; Luxton*
Ottawa Valley fiddle performer and Master instructor Brian Hebert strikes again with a spirited collection of Canadian compositions and national favourites. All are delivered with a unique blend of tradition and country flavour. The sound of this exciting, live, ‘off-the-floor’ recording will quickly put you in a party mood and deserves a special place in your collection. Hop aboard, it’s a great ride!Sound Reinforcement: Brian uses Yamaha Silent Strings Electric Violin – Vito uses Yamaha Percussion
Curtis Hicks: Portrait of an Old-Time Fiddler, Maritime Express ME-1000, 1981
Curtis Hicks, fiddle; Ivan Hicks, mandolin, 2nd & 3rd fiddles, rhythm guitar; Bessie Hicks, Hawaiian guitar; Vivian Hicks, piano; Tom Johnson, bass
Produced by Ivan Hicks & Gary Morris; Engineers: Gary Morris and Owen Vallis; Recorded at Prime Time Sound Studio, Sussex, New Brunswick, July & August, 1981.
Tracks: Skipper’s Fancy (Wesley’s Tune);
K-K-Katy / Baie Verte Two-Step; Silver and Gold; Silver Lake Jig; I Got
No Use For The Women / Twenty-One Years; Hear ‘Dem Bells; Old Timer’s Polka;
Sting of the Wasp; Zip Coon; Tina’s Reel; Waltz Medley; Mont’s Tune
My long time ambition to present Dad, the old-time fiddler, as well as to preserve a few of the tunes seldom heard today that Dad has played during the past fifty years, has been realized in this, his first recording.Born in the farming community of Midgic, New Brunswick, on August 17, 1915, Dad is the eldest of eleven children. When he was five years old, his parents took him to a house dance where he heard his first fiddle. Impressed by the tone of this instrument (on which he plays “Skipper Fancy” on this recording) he later attempted unsuccessfully to make a fiddle out of a shingle and rabbit wire).
Dad was 17 years of age before he was able to buy his first fiddle for the grand sum of $5. Being unable to afford music lessons and not having access to such modern conveniences as tape recorders and record players. Dad had to rely solely on memory to learn tunes. At every opportunity he attended house gatherings and dances to hear and watch the fiddlers of the day. Then he would go home and apply what he had learned. On numerous occasions I can recall Dad hearing a new tune on radio, picking up the fiddle and within a few minutes playing the piece of music with every little variation from the original.
Dad began playing for house dances in his late teens and about the same time started working in the lumber woods where, after a hard day’s work, it was usual and relaxing to rosin up the bow and play a few tunes in the evening.
It was in November of 1934 that Dad and Mom met at a house dance (of course) and in September of 1937 they were married. In the fall of that same year, Dad purchased a guitar for $3 and Mom learned to chord Hawaiian style. She began to accompany Dad at different house functions. On this album you will hear Mom accompany Dad on two tunes using that original guitar.
Dad worked for Canadian National Railways for over 37 years, beginning just before 1940, retiring in December, 1977. Throughout these years (and sometimes working long hours and many days with very little rest). Dad continued to practice on the fiddle and play at community functions, dances, house gatherings, etc.
In July, 1940, I came along and being an only child, it was not long before I was introduced to a number of musical instruments including the fiddle. By the late ‘40’s I was playing the mandolin with Dad at the Baie Verte (New Brunswick) Friday night dances. Another favourite dance spot at which Dad and I fiddled for many years was the Frank Fawcett Hall at Silver Lake in Middle Sackville, New Brunswick. The hall, which no longer stands, was built in the mid 1950’s, and folks came from all around to square dance to the Melrose Quadrille.
Today Dad continues to enjoy his favorite pastime – the fiddle. He is a fiddle collector; he enjoys doing minor repairs and alterations on them; he participates in fiddling contests at which he has won many competitions; he performs for various community groups including senior citizen functions as well as at old-time and bluegrass festivals and stage concerts; and he has assisted the Sackville Lions Club in establishing the New Brunswick Old-Time Fiddling Contest.
However, he still finds time to visit the local shoe repair shop or post office to tell a few yarns and jokes. In the summer, he’s out mowing the lawn or tending the garden. Around Christmas time he becomes Santa Claus to many local organizations and children.
I suppose Dad’s fiddling can best be described as being plain and danceable which makes for easy listening. He plays with very little effort using a small portion of the bow. He has a great repertoire of tunes, many of which I have never heard other fiddlers play.
On this album, we have attempted to capture the authentic sounds of Dad’s fiddling as well as to reveal his life and personality through conversation. Some of the persons and places mentioned on this recording will bring back memories to many of you who listen to the album. Although others will not recognize these names, I hope that all old-time fiddling fans enjoy meeting Dad and listening to his music through his first recording.
P.S. Dad dedicates his album to the following old-time fiddlers: Lee Allen, Mike Cameron, Hector Legere, Albert Troup, Ernie roup, Alfred Niles, Clarence Cormier, Mont Allen, Leo Burke, Wesley Estabrooks, Elton Rushton.
Fiddlingly yours,
Ivan Hicks
Ottawa Valley Hoedown, Banff SBS 5190
Tracks: The Road To Fort Coulonge*; Renfrew
County Centennial Breakdown*; Peek-a-boo Waltz; Leo Caroll’s Hornpipe*;
The Short Grass; Granny’s Breakdown; The Logger’s Jig*; The Arnprior Centennial
Breakdown*; The Helicopter Polka*; The Buck Fever Rag*; The Dancing Waters
Waltz*; Reg Hill’s Breakdown*
Reg Hill, one of the all time greats in Canadian Hoedown Fiddling, started playing the instrument in High School in Avonmore, Eastern Ontario, purely out of necessity. Reg had been singing and playing Spanish Guitar with a small western group that he and a fellow classmate had formed and as they had to hire an old time square dance fiddler for each engagement, Reg decided to give the fiddle a try. His mother, who came from a large musical family and could play a lively jig or breakdown, encouraged her son and would often play along with Reg accompanied by his older brother Sid on Guitar or the family organ.It was during these years that Reg gained a knowledge of the bass fiddle, mandolin, banjo, piano and later on when the band changed from western to modern and jazz music he learned the tenor saxophone. Even though he plays these different instruments, his favourite is the old time fiddle and he claims Don Messer has been a great inspiration to him through the years. He says Don has been his favourite fiddler since the first days of radio of the Islanders on CBC network.
Incidentally, Reg has appeared on the Don Messer Jubilee TV program three times along with two other members of the Ottawa Valley Melodiers.
Reg joined the Ottawa Valley Melodiers in 1954 and with the group has played on a number of radio stations - CFRA and CKOY in Ottawa, CJET Smith Falls, CKIC in Kingston and CHOV in Pembroke where they aired three 13 week series of half hour music to the now defunct CBC Coast to Coast Dominion Network.
As for TV the group has worked out of CJOH TV in Ottawa where they appeared on an original CTV network program “Cross Canada Barndance”. At the time of this writing the Melodiers have a local TV show out of CHOV TV in Pembroke, Ontario.
Most of the selections in this album are original compositions by Reg but he has included in this album two traditional favourites of his late mother, namely “Peek-a-boo Waltz” and one he has named “Granny’s Breakdown” as a tribute to her memory.
Reg now lives in Arnprior, Ontario with his wife Ramona and their four children, Eddy, Shirley-May, Tommy and Gordon, one of whom he hopes will eventually take up the old time fiddle and carry on the family tradition.
Tracks: The Kiddie Car Reel; The Timber Raft Jig; Avonmore Breakdown; Waltz Promenade; Bonnechere Point Strathspey; Dad's Breakdown; The Long Sault Hornpipe; Clayton Poirier Two Step; The Hangman's Waltz; Scrambled Eggs; Musty Muldoon's Irish Jig; The Broadaxe Breakdown
As a follow up to a very successful first album (RBS 1190), here are some toe-tapping tunes from the prolific pen of Reg Hill and played in hos own down to earth style. Included in this album is the Avonmore Breakdown, named for his hometown where he started his fiddling career a few years ago. Another selection, The Long Sault Hornpipe, was named for the scenic wonder of the Long Sault Rapids, near Cornwall, Ontario. This tourist attraction has long since vanished with the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway, but it is remembered by many as a thrilling sight especially to those who had to opportunity to take the exciting ride on the "Rapid Prince", an excursion boat that sailed thru the foaming waters of the rapids.
Reg Hill, fiddle with the Ottawa Valley Melodiers
Tracks: Money Musk; My Love Is But A Lassie
O; Westphalia Waltz; The Headlight Reel; The Road To The Isles; Shamus
O'Brien; Cock O' The North; Haste To The Wedding; The Golden Stream Waltz;
The Devil's Dream; The Soldier's Joy; The Chateaugay Reel; Bonnie Dundee;
To Daunton Me
In response to requests from many of his fans Reg Hill has prepared an album of old fiddle favourites which will do much to excite the collectors of this type of music.One of the Greats of Canadian fiddlers, Reg is a member of Mac Beattie's Famous Ottawa Valley Melodiers and has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows Trans-Canada, in particular on many of Don Messer's shows.
A prolific composer of fiddle tunes, Reg has done much to retain for Canada the country's indisputable claim to housing the world's greatest fiddlers.
Reg is married and resides in Arnprior, Ontario, with his wife Ramona and four lovely children Eddie, Shirley May, Tommy and Gordon.
This is an outstanding album of Fiddle Music.
Reg Hill, fiddle; Jimmy Mayhew, piano; Garnet Scheel, piano; Gaetan Fairfield, guitar; George Courschene, bass; Mac Beattie, washboard
Produced by Ralph Carlson; recorded by Ralph Carlson at Carlsound Studios, Ottawa
Tracks: Leo Carroll's Hornpipe*; Billy Wilson's Clog & Angus Campbell; Black Velvet Waltz; Nellie's Jig**; Ontario Place Polka*; B.C. Centennial Polka*; Father O'Flynn & Patronella; Country Waltz; Maple Sugar; Pat Leonard's Breakdown*
* by Reg Hill
** by Jim Mayhew
I respectfully dedicate this album to my dear departed friend, the late Leo Carroll of OttawaLeo Carroll was not only a friend of mine, but of all old tyme fiddlers near and far, from Andy de Jarlis in the West to Don Messer in the East. He was an avid supporter of old tyme fiddling and country music throughout the Ottawa Valley and was a member of the Ottawa Valley Fiddlers Association.
Although Leo could not play a note himself, he was a very fair but severe critic and was often called upon to judge old tyme fiddling contests.
Every year March 17th was a big day in the life of Leo Carroll. Being of Irish descent, Paddy's Day called for the traditional celebration, and Leo was a master of gathering the gang for a real old Irish Party. Not only on Paddy's Day but any special occasion such as a birthday or anniversary, Leo was the organizer and the resulting parties were always a huge success.
Leo's last party was a Mother's Day gathering at which he had asked me to provide some fiddle music. Three days before the occasion Leo was called away suddenly and as my wife and I, together with friends and relatives gathered to pay our last respects, I thought to myself... "Leo said we should all get together on Mother's Day!"
Reg Hill
Ottawa
Valley Fiddlin', Rodeo International, Canadian Country Classics
Series RCCD 7103 circa 1996
Reg Hill, fiddle; Mac Beattie, washboard, drums; Ottawa Valley Melodiers, other instruments
Tracks: Madawaska River Breakdown*; The
Road To Fort Coulonge*; Uncle John McDermid's Reel*; Lake Kamaniskeg Waltz*;
Sleigh Ride Reel*; Pembroke Centennial Breakdown*; Allumette Island Hornpipe*;
Puffin' On The Ole Cigar*; Danging Waters Waltz*; Wally On The Deer Trail*;
The Kiddy Car Reel*; The Timber Raft Jig*; Avonmore Breakdown*; Waltz Promenade;
Bonnechere Point Strathspey*; Dad's Breakdown*; The Long Sault Hornpipe*;
Clayton Poirier Two Step*; The Hangman's Waltz*; Scrambled Eggs*; Musty
Muldoon's Irish Jig*; The Broadaxe Breakdown*
The Canadian Country Classics series was compiled to pay tribute to the significant contribution that these fine artists have made to country music. We are pleased to present this collection of treasures. These masterpieces are sure to delight veteran fans and music lovers of all ages.(Liner Notes on Reg Hill virtually the same as Ottawa Valley Hoedown, Banff SBS 5190)Note: The recordings for this album are very old, some having been made for 78 r.p.m. discs. Some variation in quality of reproduction will be apparent (especially due to the clean, precise format of compact discs) and the selections made are therefore intended more for the folk-music collector than the audiophile.
Fiddle & Songs, Icicle Records - ICL 5006
Clair Hodges, fiddle; Clifford Dally, lead guitar; Mike Hammel, rhythm guitar; Ron McRostle, drums; Dave Garland, piano; Wayne Shay, bass
Tracks: Maple Sugar; Your Old Love Letters (vocal); Ballad of T.J.'s (vocal); Country Waltz; Truck Driving Man (vocal); Highway 11 (vocal); Waltz Across Texas (vocal); Jimmy's Jig; Reserve Me A Table (vocal); Joys of Quebec
Clair started playing the violin when he was in his teens. He enjoyed playing for house parties and hit the hearts of young and old. He decided to form a band to entertain the public which he has been doing for some time. He and his band are well known for their entertainment throughout the Ottawa Valley.
Jerry Holland, Rounder Records 7008 - 1976
Jerry Holland, fiddle; Joey Beaton, piano
Produced by Mark Wilson; Recorded in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Tracks: My Friend’s* - Joey Beaton’s* -
reels; Lady madelina Sinclair - Lord Blantyre - Miss Wedderburn’s - strathspeys
and reel; Hiawatha - Newcastle - President Garfield - clogs; Rhea Steel
and Ann Marie MacDonald - Mark Wilson’s* - Traditional Jig - Cape Breton’s
- jigs; Temperance - Malcolm Finlay - Molly McGuire - reels; Miss Maxwell
- The Laddie with the Pladdie - Miss Ratray - march, strathspey and reel;
Lasses O’Ballantrae - Carnie’s Canter - reels; The New Fiddle - The Tipsy
Sailor - Jessie Ann’s Favorite - jigs; Miss Barker - The Rocket - Gillian’s
- Return from India - hornpipes and reels; Glen Rinnes - Loch Leven Castle
- Miss Lyall - strathspey and reels; Ferry Bridge - Ivy Leaf - Garfield
Vail* - clogs and reel; Mrs Wallace - Red Shoes - The Old Man and Old Woman
- old style reels; Maggie Brown’s Favorite - Farewell to Catawba - Jimmy
MacKinnon of Smelt Brook - jigs; Auby Foley* - Auby Foley’s Hornpipe* -
Cary Clare* - strathspey and hornpipes
One wonders if the genuine musical prodigies of this earth ever realize the havoc they create amongst the ranks of we lesser musicians. A person may profess to be the most self-effacing and retiring of amateurs, yet within his heart there will always be some private guarded region of pride and self-esteem. It is always a shock to meet a talent like young Jerry Holland, who played better at the very beginning of his musical career than most of us will achieve at the top of ours. His development since has been truly remarkable and now, at twenty-one, Jerry is probably the brightest star in the ranks of up-and-coming Cape Breton fiddlers.Jerry Holland was born in Brockton, Massachusetts in February 1955. His father, Jerry Sr. was originally from New Brunswick and his travels throughout New England and the Maritimes met many of the finest old-time fiddlers of the day. When he settled in Boston in the thirties, he took his place among the best dance players in the area. His friendship with Alec Gillis, then the dean of the local Cape Breton scene, cemented his interest in Scottish music, an enthusiasm he later passed on to his son. Jerry began playing at age five and soon he and his father were appearing regularly at many of the Gaelic events around Boston. young Jerry was greatly aided by the attentions of Bill Lamey and Angus Chisholm, two famous Cape Breton violinists who had recently moved to the States. Bill often had Jerry down to Orange Hall to play for a set or two.
During this same period, Jerry learned to become an accomplished stepdancer and several times won both the fiddle and stepdancing contests at the French Club in Waltham. One day, almost by accident, he decided to combine these two abilities. He was wandering aimlessly around the house as he played and he reasoned that if he could climb stairs and so forth as he played, there was no reason why he couldn’t dance as well. He worked up a virtuoso little routine which won him an impressive number of prizes, including several victories on Ted Mach’s Amateur Hour. Today Jerry is a bit reluctant to perform what he regards as a mere novelty, little realizing that a similar act was once a chief drawing card of the renowned fiddlers, Michael Coleman and Scott Skinner.
For the past several years, Jerry has been a member of the “Cape Breton Symphony” on John Allan Cameron’s television show. It is naturally very encouraging for a young fiddler to be able to play on a national television program and it has also provided Jerry with an opportunity to play extensively with Winston ‘Scotty’ Fitzgerald, his friend and idol since childhood. Any dancer from Cape Breton will recognize how well Jerry has incorporated Fitzgerald’s easy grace and swing into his own playing.
Jerry is also proficient on the piano and guitar, although on this record he only plays fiddle. He plays a rare Italian violin passed on to him by his father who told him it was now up to him to carry on the tradition. It’s hard to imagine a father with a son more worthy of that trust! Since the Holland family recently moved to Cap LeMoyne, Cape Breton, Jerry has been playing all over the island, including the weekly dances in Mabou with Joey Beaton. Cape Breton is now realizing it has a fine new composer in its midst and local fiddlers are now passing around dog-eared transcriptions of Holland originals, including some of those found on this record.
When we first asked Jerry to make this album, he said that his dream would be to have Joey Beaton as accompanist. Fortunately this dream was very easy to put into reality and we think the results live up to Jerry’s expectations. Joey is a member of one of the most famous musical families in Cape Breton, the Beatons of Mabou, and is in great demand as a pianist. Joey is also deeply involved in the work of the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association and hosts a weekly program of Scottish music on radio station CIGO in Port Hawksbury.
Mark Wilson
Jerry Holland, fiddle; David MacIsaac, guitar; Hilda Chaisson, piano
Produced by David MacIsaac & Denis Ryan; Engineer: Pat Martin; Recorded at Scorpio Studios, Halifax NS 1982
Tracks: Reichswall Forest / Easter Elchies / Winston in the 50's / Mrs Gordon of Knockespoch reels; Andy De Jarlis / Ingonish / Mrs McGhee jigs; My Lilly (Gaelic Air) / The sweetness of Mary (slow strathspey) / Hughie Jim Paul's reel; The Street Player / Mrs Crehan's / Gerry Commane's reels; Cutting Ferns & Alex Dan MacIsaac's strathspeys / Brenda Stubbert's* / Mutt's Favourite* / Bernadette's* / Lady Gordan's of Gordanstown reels; Dundee clog / Forester's clog / Lord Gordan's & Sleepy Maggie reels; Miss Johnson / Miko Russel's / Carrigaline reels; Mike MacDougall's / Mom's* / Carrickfergus jigs; Sir Archibald Dunbar strathspey / The Forth Brig & Glenlyon reels; Domhnull Iain An Taillear & Alex Beaton's strathspeys / Billy MacLeod's* / Pigeon on the Gate reels; The Beauties of the Ballroom / The Tripper / Mrs MacGregor's Favourite jigs; John MacColl's Favourite march / Father John Angus Rankin reel / Jock Wilson's / Kay Girrior's / Dan Rory MacDougall's reels
Lively Steps, Fiddlesticks Music - 1988
Jerry Holland, fiddle; Hilda Chaisson, piano; Grady Poe, guitar; André LeBlanc, guitar; John Morris Rankin, piano; Lew Alpaugh, bass; Bob Rossi, 2nd fiddle
Produced by Jerry Holland & Lew Alpaugh; Engeneered by Lew Alpaugh in Cape Breton; Mixed at Little Apple Studios, Raritan, NJ
Tracks: Jenny's Wedding / Drowsy Maggie
/ The Shaskeen Reel; Castle Newe strathspey / Delnadamph Lodge reel / Lady
Forbes of News; My Cape Breton Home*; Reel made with Hilda* / Hot
Fingers* / Little Man's Homecoming*; The Hearty Boys of Ballymote
/ Daniel Michael Collin's Father's Jig; The British Press (slow march)
/ Lady Augusta* strathspey / We'll All Gang Back to Yon Town / Pepin Arsenault
Reel* / Joe Roach*; Major Molle / Lady Erskine / Courtney MacPherson's
reel; Happy to Meet, Sorry To Part / The Thatcher's / Miss Casey's; Margaret's
Waltz; O'Mahoney's reel / Lucy Campbell; Miss Catherine Anne Lamey / The
wandering Minstrel / The Tar Road to Sligo; Cranking Out* / Lively Steps*
/ Garmont Smiddy's Reel
Jerry Holland, fiddle; Alan Dewar, Mary Jessie Gillis, Jerry Holland, piano; JP Cormier, David MacIsaac, Gordie Sampson, guitar; Kieran O’Hare, Uilleann Pipes
Produced by Jerry Holland; Editing & Mastering: Jamie Foulds and Reg McMichael; Biographical notes, Alf McConnell; Recorded at Lakewind Sound Studio, Point Aconi, Cape Breton – Limited release by Jerry Holland July 1998 – Worldwide Release by Odyssey Records, July 1999
www.capebretonet.com/Music/Holland
Tracks: Wake Up to Cape Breton Medley; Everyone’s
Fancy; Miss Hutton’s Medley; Boo Baby’s Lullaby; Alexander William MacDonnell;
Ashley MacIsaac’s Request; Paul Cranford’s Medley; Fiddling Friends; Thelma
MacPherson’s Raised Bass Set; For My Mother Dear; Glenn and Karl’s Set;
Dave ‘Normaway’ MacDonald’s Wedding; Dance Your heart Away; Roderick Cameron’s
Set; Paddy’s Trip To Scotland
1. Reels – Union Street Session / Rannie MacLellan / Denis Lantôt’s Reel* / Wake Up to Cape Breton – Union Street session is one of the great reels by composer and lighthouse keeper Paul Cranford. He wrote it for Kyle MacNeil of the acclaimed Cape Breton group The Barra MacNeils. Rannie MacLellan is a popular tune written by Brenda Stubbert for a mutual fiddling friend. It is found in her book, Brenda Stubbert’s Collection of Fiddle Tunes. I wrote Denis Lantôt’s Reel in a style that I hope suits him. He is a brilliant fiddler whom I first met in Ottawa. Wake Up to Cape Breton is a new Brenda tune already published online at the tune-of-the-month web site. If your toe doesn’t tap to this one, you should check your pulse.2. Jigs – Buddy MacMaster’s Fancy* / Irishman’s Heart to the Ladies / Jessie’s Fancy* / Harvey Tolman’s Fancy* - I composed Buddy MacMaster Fancy with that great fiddler’s style in mind. I was delighted that he seemed to like I as soon as he heard it. Irishman’s Heart to the Ladies is one of those popular old tunes that never dies. Jessie’s Fancy is one that Mary Gillis plays frequently on the piano. Harvey Tolman’s Fancy was an immediate hit with Harvey, and so, like many of my tunes, that’s how it got its title. Harvey is a fiddler from New Hampshire, who was a friend of my father and then became a friend of mine.
3. Strathspeys and Reels – Miss Huton’s / The Braes of Tullymet / Miss Johnson of Pitsworth / Captain Keeler – This group of tunes was played by Winston ‘Scotty’ Fitzgerald, one of my earliest fiddling heroes. They are all old Scottish ‘book tunes’ to which Winston added his own touches.
4. Waltz – Boo Baby’s Lullaby* - I composed this lullaby for a special little lady just after her birth in January 1996. Later the nest year I recorded it on the Fiddler Magazine video.
5. Jigs – Angus MacIsaacs Jig* / Alexander William MacDonnell’s Jig* / John Morris Rankin’s Jig* - This track is the first recording of Cape Breton music ever to use uilleann pipes. Angus MacIsaac’s Jig I named after a great friend and supporter of my music. Alexander William MacDonnell’s Jig was composed in memory of a special friend whom I miss dearly. John Morris Rankin’s Jig is named after the fiddler, composer, piano player, and member of the well-known Cape Breton group, The Rankin Family. I always enjoy playing with John Morris, who is Alex William MacDonnell’s son-in-law. John Morris played piano on my album ‘A Session With Jerry Holland’.
6. Pipe Reels – John Alex Francis MacLellan’s Reel* / Ashley MacIsaac’s Request* / Hilda’s Choice* - When I composed John Alex Francis MacLellan’s Reel, I felt it had a quality that John Alex would have liked. John Alex was a great old-style Cape Breton player who always welcomed musicians into his home. Ashley MacIsaac’s Request is my response to Ashley’s request for me to write him a tune. (Ashley made this request in the liner notes to his recording, ‘hi how are you today?’). Ashley, let me know what you think of this one. Pianist Hilda Chaisson asked that I name the final reel for her. Hilda’s Choice is published in my book, Jerry Holland’s Collection of Fiddle Tunes.
7. March, Strathspey and Reels – Margery Ross Stewart / Emily Stewart / The Jovial Journalist / The Hunter’s House / Rubber Face* - This medley starts off with a set of three more of my favourite Paul Cranford tunes, each composed for someone n his family. I think they have great character. I first heard the Hunter’s House, one of Ed Reavy’s most popular tunes, when I was in Ireland. Rubber Face is a nickname for a terrific musician who is also Cape Breton’s newest clown, comedian Howie MacDonald.
8. Jigs – Bryden MacLean’s Jig / James Kelly’s Trip to Cape Breton* / J.P. Cormier’s Jig* - Bryden MacLean’s Jig is a David Greenberg tune with a flavour of compositions from yesteryear. James Kelly is one of Dublin’s great Irish fiddlers. He taught fiddle in Cape Breton during the summer of 1996. Multi-instrumentalist J.P. Cormier joins me on guitar for this track. He asked me to name his last tune after him.
9. March, Strathspey and Reels – raised bass set – Mary Jessie Gillis / Anne Germaine MacDonald / Allan ‘Big Alex’ MacDonald* / Thelma MacPherson* / The Grey Old Lady of Raasay / Dillon Brown – Mary Jessie Gillis is one of the most expression-filled marches I have ever heard. Paul Cranford originally composed it in the key of C, but I moved it up to the key of A because of the nice drones in the counter-bass tuning. It is published in both tunings in Pauls’ book, ‘The Lighthouse Collection’. David Greenberg loves playing in high bass, and his two strathspeys are great additions to the Cape Breton musical repertoire. They also compliment the march beautifully. Thelma MacPherson is named after a sweet lady who offered her name for the title of a tune. The Grey Old Lady of Raasay is a tasty old pipe reel I learned from the late great Bill Lamey. Dillon Brown is a popular tune that I first heard played by Irish-American musicians.
10. Waltz – For My Mother Dear* - The title says it all. I loved my mother and miss her very much.
11. Strathspey and Reels – John Pellerine’s Strathspey* / David White’s Reel* / CBC’S Glen and Karl* / Just Cruising* / The Harsh February – John Pellerine’s Strathspey was composed for a fiddler/step dancer/friend who lives in Antigonish. David White’s Reel is named for a step dancer from Detroit. Glenn Meisner and Karl Falkenham are CBC’s Glenn and Karl. Titles are sometimes hard to find. I often get the idea from a tune when I’m Just Cruising down the road. Mary Jessie and I love playing The Harsh February, a popular session tune composed by Scottish piano-accordionist Phil Cunningham.
12. Reels – Dave ‘Normaway’ MacDonald’s Wedding Reel* / Arthur Muise’s Reel* - Dave ‘Normaway’ MacDonald’s Wedding Reel was composed for a newly wedded couple who have a successful venue that supports Cape Breton music. Arthur Muise’s Reel is named after a powerhouse of a fiddler who hails from Cheticamp. This tune is in my music book.
13. Jigs – Mac Morn’s Jig* / Dance Your Heart Away* / Jerry the Newscaster’s Jig* - Mac Morin’s Jig is named after a young piano player who often visits for a few tunes. My fourteen-year-old son, Jerry Junior, is quite a character. He often comes to my dances. I get a chuckle to see him dancing his heart away with every woman in the hall, thus inspiring the title of the second tune. Almost every week, Jerry Junior calls up a Sunday morning radio show, giving the announcer, Jack Bonaparte, the latest news from the fiddling world, thus the name Jerry the Newscaster’s Jig.
14. March, Strathspey, and Reels – James Cameron* / Roderick Cameron’s Strathspey* / Joys of Mabou Coal Mines / Alex MacMaster’s Reel* - James Cameron was named after the father of Roderick Cameron, a baroque flute maker who commissioned me to write a tune in memory of his father. Roderick Cameron’s Strathspey is a composition in appreciation of our friendship. I had a visit from David and Nancy MacIsaac just after I composed the first reel, and it seemed like something they might enjoy. Joys of Mabou Coal Mines is one of those tunes that just feels old. The composer, Donald Angus Beaton, was one of the best dance players I ever knew. Alex MacMaster’s Reel is a tune named after a great music fan.
15. Reels – Paddy’s Trip To Scotland / Ciaran Tourish* / The Shetland Fiddler – I heard the first and last tunes in this medley played by the famous Irish band Altan. Ciaran Tourish is named after a fiddler from Buncrana, Donegal, Ireland who has since joined Altan. Ciavan visited Cape Breton a few years back. My neighbour, fiddler Dougie MacDonald, wrote the first half of the tune and I wrote the second half. All three of these tunes are notated in my music book.
Jerry Holland was born on February 23, 1955, in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother was from Quebec, and his father was a carpenter and fiddler from New Brunswick, Canada. Jerry was considered a prodigy from the age of five when his father started teaching him to play the fiddle and to step dance. His father would gently attach Jerry’s eager little hand to the bow with an elastic band and patiently teach him to play a note at a time. Jerry’s mother was equally supportive of his interest in music, and in the 1960s, the Holland family began taking summer vacations to Cape Breton, an island off the northeast end of Nova Scotia.
Cape Breton has more musicians per capita than any place in the world, and most of those musicians are fiddlers. Cape Bretoners have their own style of step dancing and square dancing, fitting their energetic style of music. The roots of their music trace back more than two centuries to the Highlands of Scotland. Over time, Scottish fiddle music changed and traditional step dancing faded. But because Cape Breton was remote, its fiddle music and dancing kept to the old Scottish style, a tradition that Jerry Holland was raised to respect and support.
Aside from his father’s fiddle playing, Jerry’s earliest memory of music goes back to a house party when, at the age of three, he first heard the legendary Cape Breton fiddler Winston ‘Scotty’ Fitzgerald. “My father wanted me to hear all the Cape Breton fiddlers possible, and through his determination I was exposed at an early age to great fiddlers such as Winston Fitzgerald, Angus Chisholm, Bill Lamey, Johnny Wilmot, Auby and Bert Foley, Jimmy Kelly, Theresa MacLellan, Cameron Chisholm, Dan R. MacDonald, and many others. I owe a great debt of gratitude to these fathers and mothers of Cape Breton Music.”
When Jerry was six, he was invited to play at one of Bill Lamey’s Cape Breton dances at the Rose Croix Hall in Boston. By the age of ten, he began to play regularly at Bill’s dances. Jerry’s first television appearance came at the age of seven when he step danced on Don Messer’s Jubilee, a variety show that aired in Canada from 1959 – 1969.
Jerry has always been a versatile musician, playing acoustic and bass guitars, piano, mandolin, and of course, the fiddle. At the age of fourteen, Jerry played backup guitar and fiddle for the great Cape Breton fiddler Angus Chisholm. They played at Tom Slavin Club, where Jerry earned $15 for a night’s work. In his early twenties, Jerry played frequently with his boyhood hero, Winston ‘Scotty’ Fitzgerald, as a fellow member of The Cape Breton Symphony, which was regularly featured on the Canadian television program The John Allan Cameron Show. Living on Cape Breton, Jerry developed close personal and professional ties to David MacIsaac and Paul Cranford, musicians and historians of Cape Breton music.
For many years, Jerry was credited with being the first person ever to step dance while playing the fiddle. (In recent years, music historians have discovered that there may have been others who did it earlier.) He is also a prolific composer, one of the best composers and musicians in the history of Cape Breton music. Fiddlers around the world play many of his tunes. To date, Jerry is the featured artist on eight recordings, appears with others on an additional twenty-three recordings, and has written a book of fiddle tunes.
Special thanks to:
Paul Cranford, Mary Jessie Gillis, Patrick Lamey, Dougie MacDonald, David MacIsaac, and Glenn Meisner for their support and encouragement, and to the wonderful musician who participated in this project.
Home Sweet Home, Home Sweet Home Records - HSH1001 - 2011
Boyd Benjamin, lead fiddle and feet; Keitha Clark, harmony fiddle, vocals, fiddlesticks; Kate Weekes, guitar, vocals; Bob Hamilton, upright bass; Patrick Hamilton, drums
Produced by Home Sweet Home and Bob Hamilton; Recorded, mixed and mastered by Bob Hamilton and Patrick Hamilton at Old Crow Recording Studio, Whitehorse
Tracks: Old Crow Duck Dance; Downriver Blues; Archie Linklater's Handkerchief Dance; Travellin' Light**; Peter Tizya's Square Dance; Crazy Arms; Charlie Peter Charlie's Rabbit Dance; Eagle Island Blues; Sense of Distance**; Home Sweet Home; Eight Couple; Boil Them Dzeegyuu Down*; Bonus Track: Boil Them Cabbages Down / Boil Them Dzeegyuu Down*
**a song by Kate Weekes
Old Crow Duck Dance, Archie Linklater's Handkerchief Dance, Charlie Peter Charlie's Rabbit Dance and Eight Couple are all dances known in Old Crow (YT).Down River Blues and Eagle Island Blues are popular Athabaska tunes from Alaska.
Travellin' Light fights heartbreak with memories of the Tombstone Mountains.
Peter Tizya's Square Dance is a version of an unknown older tune modified by Old Crow fiddler Peter Tizya.
Crazy Arms is a favourite among northern fiddlers.
Sense of Distance was inspired by a hike to the Bonneville Lakes, near Whitehorse.
Home Sweet Home is traditionally the last waltz of the evening at an Old Crow dance.
Boil Them Dzeeguyy Down (Ts'ii gyuu = rubarb) is Old Crow fiddler Allan Benjamin's version of the American standard, Boil Them Cabbages Down.
We made this album to celebrate the Gwich'in Fiddle Music found in Old Crow, Yukon, (populartion 300) and to share Kate's songs about northern life and landscapes. We've had a blast adding twin fiddles and new arrangements to these northern tunes and, we are excited to share them with you.
Boyd, Keitha & Kate
Old-Tyme Fiddle Jamboree, MRD 001
Marcel Vaillancourt, fiddle; Martin Grenier, guitar; Eric Laurin, Mandolin; Gerard Maurice, bass
Recorded at Mr. Digital Studios, Midland, ON
Tunes: Huronia Ole Tyme Breakdown; Fiddler's
Fancy; Dagenais Special; Cheyenne; Shamus O'Brien; Don Messer's Breakdown;
Chapeau Reel; Fiddler's Hornpipe; Rocking Chair Jig; Blind River Breakdown
/ Winding Stream; Westphalia Waltz; Hand Glider Reel; Ripple Rock Jig;
Islandview Hornpipe
Marcel Vaillancourt, originally from Gaspé. Now living in Penetang, ON.
Martin Grenier from Penetang, ON.
Eric Laurin from Lafontaine, ON
Gerard maruice from Lafontaine, ON
Lawrence “Teddy Boy” Houle, Sunshine Records SSBCT-442
Tracks: Hay In the Loft Two Step; Bacon Ridge Jig; Teddy Boy's Breakdown; Roulette's Reel; Walter's Reel; Edith's Waltz; Peace Garden Two Step; Lady Do Si Do; Swinging The One You Love; Rodrick's Reel; Devil's Waltz; Six Nations Reel
Old Native And Métis Fiddling in Manitoba, Vol 1, Falcon FP - 187
