End of the Line

Google has inexplicably altered the procedures for editing and updating posts and pages such that I am unable to do so without learning some kind of secret code, so I am regretfully abandoning this blog. If I get another one started on another platform, I'll post the link here.

Upcoming Performances

'Fine Traditions'

Sat., Feb. 8, 2020:  The Toad & Turtle; 5155-130 Ave SE - Newfoundland music; Jig's Dinner

Tues., March 17:  Kildare's Ale House; 1202 19369 Sheriff King St SW; 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Performing at Book Launch

I will be providing music (songs/guitar/harmonica) at the book launch for Sophie Stocking's novel with Thistledown Press.  Fri., Sept. 20; 8:00 - 10:00 pm; The Lantern Community Church, 1401 10 Ave SE, Calgary.

Fiddling Performance

I'll be playing solo fiddle for 'Hustle for the House', a fund-raiser for Ronald McDonald House.  Sunday, Sept. 15; 10:45 am - 1:00 pm, North Glenmore Park, 7305 Crowchild Trail SW, Calgary.

Show

Friday, June 4; 3:00 - 5:00: Robert McClure Farmers' Market, 5510 26 Ave NE, Calgary

Poetry Show by Kevin Pittman

My friend Kevin Pittman has a unique presentation of new poems coming up, if you happen to be on the Rock - or want to make a special trip.  Ocean View Art Gallery is located on Water St., Carbonear, next to the cenotaph and across from the post office.

If you are unable to be there for the opening, the show will continue until September 3. Following the opening, interested persons can access online a conventional book version of Essential Tremors: Poems at lulu.com. Lulu delivers.

Cape Breton Fiddlers & Dancers on Up Home Tonight

Discovered this clip (here) last night - a VHS compilation.  Includes:  1) Two young women (Natalie MacMaster & Stephanie Wills?); 2) Arthur Muise; 3) John Morris Rankin; 4) Kyle MacNeil (?); Dave MacIsaac.

Here's a painting of Niel Gow and his brother Donald, circa 1784:

In related news, here's video of Nathaniel Gow's violin in action:

Upcoming Appearance

I'll be at the Clothesline Festival again this year:  Sat., June 4, 2:00 - 3:45; Sun., June 5, 11:00-12:45.  It's at the Leighton Art Centre - a breathtakingly beautiful spot, and just outside of Calgary.

New PEI Fiddling Site

I recently came across an excellent, new fiddling site:  http://bowingdownhome.ca/.  It's dedicated to the Prince Edward Island fiddling traditions, with a vast array of recordings - audio & video - 'sheet music', interviews, and written commentary.  It is presented by Ken Pearlman, under the auspices of the University of PEI, based on his extensive fieldwork in PEI.  Highly recommended!

I've put up some video clips of Blues-harp stuff, a few songs with Craig Galambos on guitar - live at Huntington House - on the brand-new page(!):  "Listen to the Music: Blues".  Check it out.

I've added a few new photos to the "Gallery" - some shots from this past summer, good times knocking tunes around with Floyd and Cecilia MacKinnon of Richmond, PEI.

New Pics

I've added a number of photos to the 'Photo Gallery', a couple of real old-timers.  Check'm out ....

There Oughta be a Law!

A gang of youths, who were parading the roadway, shouting obscene language, playing mouth organs, and pushing respectable people down.  The young ruffians were all armed with thick leather belts, on which there were heavy brass buckles.

                                 -         The Daily Graphic (England), Aug. 25, 1898; quoted in:  
                                       Geoffrey Pearson, Hooligan, London, 1983; p.83 (my italics)

Updates

I've just put recordings of three original tunes on the 'Listen to the Music' page, guitar accompaniment by  Calgary rocker Craig Galambos.

Lots of new things in the 'Library', including a link to "Arm of Gold", on youtube.  This is the documentary film about Cape Breton fiddler Lee Cremo going to compete in Nashville.  Highly recommended.

Irrepressible Hopefulness

From Middlemarch, by George Eliot:

So Fred was gratified with nearly an hour’s practice of Ar hyd y nos,
Ye banks and braes, and other favourite airs from his Instructor on
the Flute; a wheezy performance, into which he threw much ambition and
an irrepressible hopefulness.

Fiddle Contests in PEI & Cape Breton?

In the latest edition (June, 2012) of The Island Fiddler, there's an article in memory of Bishop Faber MacDonald, a founder of the PEI Fiddlers Society, in which the author, Margaret Ross MacKinnon, recalls that:

Father Faber strongly emphasized the 

necessity to end the damage and hard feelings 

caused by fiddle contests by banning fiddle 

competitions on P.E.I. and avoiding the jealousy and 

disunity that competitions create. In our vocations as 

an Ordained Priest and a Registered Nurse 

respectively, Father Faber and I knew that it was 

critical for our new group to develop trust, respect, 

cohesiveness, comradeship, esprit-de-corps and 

have fun in order to share our individual God-given 

talents and let go of the competitive ways of the past. 

Somewhere years ago, I read a similar remark about fiddle contests in Cape Breton - but have come across no such reference since. Does anyone out there know anything about early fiddle contests in Cape Breton, and when and why they came to an end (assuming they did)?

I've come across another youtube clip of Cape Breton fiddler Billie MacPhee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ViFis3efeE&feature=related.  He starts off with a version of the old standard Road to the Isles, but with variations that I haven't heard before.

jt

Seems that grumbling about cultural appropriation/misrepresentation/misappropriation in showbiz is nothing new, no more than the Irish pipes standing in for Highland (as in Braveheart) - from the aforementioned article:


One newspaper correspondent, styling himself ‘The Ghost of
Carolan’ and complaining about Courtney’s stage costume in Oscar
and Malvina, incidentally confirms his nationality and that of his
pipes:
As an Irishman, give me leave to observe, that in the representation
of Oscar and Malvina the Irish pipes are introduced; but why the
piper should be habited in a Highland dress, I cannot reconcile to
my feelings... Now, by my shoul, I tink an Irishman playing so well
upon the pipes as little C——y, should not be ashamed of his
brogues, and let the music give his Scotch bonnet the lie.

(1791)

jt

I've started a page having to do with fiddle lessons - not much there yet; I'll be adding to it as time allows.


A great article here having to do with the etymology of the term "uilleann" pipes, with a lot of peripheral information about Irish and Scottish music in England from the 17th through 19th centuries.  It's a long article; I haven't reached the end of it yet.  Here's a contemporary description of a certain nobleman I'd like to have met:


Although no person can be more tenacious of the dignity due to
high birth, or more jealous of the privileges of Aristocracy, yet his
appearance, manner, and habits, are strikingly plebian, and his
companions are selected from the very dregs of democracy. The
principal friends and attendants on his Grace, are a Mr. Se—ge—
ck, a subaltern actor belonging to the Haymarket Theatre, Mr. C—
n—y, the celebrated performer on that harmonious instrument the
bagpipe, and the noted Captain M—r—s, whose excellent songs
have acquired him such unbounded popularity.

jt