File: cheveriecharles-oh-rolewithfidsociety_M.mp3
Speakers:
CC - Fr. Charlie Cheverie
CC: Getting back to our friend Joe Chaisson. Joe died in 1981 in Rollo Bay. I went to the funeral, and the pastor at the time knowing my relationship to the Chaisson family asked me if I wanted to say the final prayers at the gravesite. So I took the advantage quite readily. And after the closing prayers, "Young Peter" Chaisson come over and asked me why I wasn't playing the fiddle anymore, 'cause he knew that I had played some time back; he knew his Dad and my Dad were good friends. It was at that time, I guess, I was inspired to go back to play the fiddle. So I've been really playing since 1981 with some seriousness. So it was about '84, '85 when they asked me if I'd take over as director at Queens County [the Queens County Fiddlers]. And I had a few criteria that had to be observed if I were to take over. One, we had to have fun, it had to be a fun thing. Secondly, we had to respect each other's playing, because there were only about ten fiddlers in the group at that time. And so it was at that time that I started introducing into our repertoire some Scottish tunes, some marches, and some reels. And then in recent times I've been introducing some strathspeys. And as we started playing some of these tunes and had a wider repertoire, then some of the other fiddlers started to come back. And so we went from about 10 to 15 at the most in those days to right now we're up to close to 60: some who are beginners and some who are well-seasoned fiddlers.