File: macinnisbillyjunior06-oh-musiccareer_M.mp3
Speakers:
BM – Billy MacInnis Jr
BM: When I started playing fiddle, that was my first instrument. And then to make a long story short, I recall gettin' up one morning and finding a guitar in the house. And I didn't know my Dad played guitar. So I started to get into the guitar and the next thing I wanted a guitar. My Dad's a left handed player, fiddle and guitar player, so they had to get me a guitar that was right-handed. So he started teaching me some chords on the guitar, which was a great help to him, too, because all of a sudden he had somebody to accompany him. So I spent quite a bit of time goin' with him to different house parties or dances or what have you, and play guitar for him, which was great. It taught me a lot for accompanying fiddle. And then I got into – Country music is a big part of my life, it's always been there. I started playing more serious with guitar for a few years, and I was playing lead guitar with some country bands. And fiddle was still there, but I was spending a lot of time just playing guitar. Then I started to get back into the fiddle, just sticking mainly at the fiddle when I started to record some newer albums again, and just concentrate on doing some of my own shows with fiddle. That's where I'm kind of going now. My first recording was when I was 13, thirteen years old I recorded an album called Fiddle Favorites, and it was done in my Mom and Dad's home, recorded in the living room there. And then after that I've done another – Cassettes were the big thing, so I done three cassettes: one recorded at the Silverado Lounge in Chalottetown. That's not there any more. Actually it used to be the place Don Messer played at years ago. At that time it was called the Rollaway. It turned into a popular country bar for a while, and I done a live recording there on a Saturday afternoon. And then after, that I teamed up with a fiddle player from New Brunswick, and he played on one side of the tape and I played on the other. His name was Winston Crawford and we done this cassette called Fiddling From the Heart. Then after that there was a few years there that's when I would be playing guitar with country bands and what have you, and wasn't recording my own stuff at the time for a few years. And then CDs were popular, so I recorded a CD called Fiddlin= with Tradition, which done pretty well, and then went on to do another one called On the Bow Again. Then my most recent one is a CD called Fiddle Fingers.
BM also did the contest circuit around the Maritimes and in Ontario, but mostly in the Maritimes. He did well at them. There used to be a contest almost every weekend B Dartmouth NS, Woodstock NB, Sackville NB, Sackville NS, Truro NS. Some of them aren't still going. But it was a great way to meet other fiddle players and learn new tunes. At Sackville NS they had both old-time and Scottish divisions. Most contests, though were "down-east" oriented and you did your waltz, jig and reel. He played in his first contest at 7, at a contest in Montague. He recalls that Duke Nielson was a judge.
14:20
BM has been doing a lot of touring the last few years, a lot of playing through Ontario. The last three years he's been touring with Stompin' Tom Connors, and that's big crowds all across Canada.
KP: How is your style regarded on the Island?
BM: I find my style B I'm heavily country influenced so I've got that southern style to my playing. I like the southern tunes. And the downeast style, which I refer to as Don Messer, and Earl Mitton, guys like that. Which I find isn't as popular any more, it's not being played as much by fiddle players. A lot of fiddle players that are learning are learning the Scottish style, like Cape Breton style. The style that I do is down east with a touch of my own style. I find in Ontario and western Canada there's different styles too so I touch on those. I don't know if there's a PEI style, if I'm doing it or just doing part of it. I don't know how to describe what I do other than my own style. But I do hear B a lot of the different fiddle players in each province, some of them have that one province style. But mine I find is a little mixed up.
KP: Tell me about your grandfather
Jack MacInnis, originally from Charlottetown. Jack's wife was originally from Village Green; Billy MacInnis Sr. liked Village Green a lot and bought a place there when he brought the family back to PEI from Ontario.
17:40
KP: Did you every find yourself at music parties or house parties?
Lots of times, fiddlers were always welcome at house parties. It was almost a necessity to have a fiddle player. His father would be there playing, and Billy Jr would play guitar for him, and play a few tunes on fiddle as well. There's not as many of these as before, televisions took over and people don't socialize like they used to. Now they have the ceilidhs which are popular, and they're doing pretty well. He has performed at quite a few of these ceilidhs.
