File: cheveriecharles06-oh-youngfiddlers_ceilidhs_M.mp3
Speakers:
CC - Fr. Charlie Cheverie
CC: These young people who are now coming along and producing their own CDs, we're finding that they are starting to go at an earlier age to perform in communities. And this is something, as far as I'm concerned, there are plusses and negatives to this. [A] plus in terms of giving them confidence to go out to play and be in front of people. The negative as far as the fiddling group is concerned, is that they tend to leave the group earlier than I'd like to see them leave. I'd like to see them remain. They tend to go out on their own, they tend to play the modern tunes that are being more recently composed. Sometimes I feel that they may be immature in going out. I wish that they would stay and get a better feeling for the tunes. Another big thing that has happened generally in the music scene - If you'd take a look at the Charlottetown Guardian in the 80s or even in the 90s and see how many times you would see the word, "ceilidh" you'd have to go searching, but summer time here [now] in PEI you can get two full pages of ceilidhs across the Island. Now the ceilidh of old time of getting the fiddlers, the piano player, the guitar players and dancers going, that's one thing. You might have three four or five fiddlers coming in and swapping, changing around. But now it's a matter of - They advertise a ceilidh, it's a money making thing in the summertime, with all the visitors, all the tourists, it's a come all ye. So you have all kinds of young people going out [to play]. And that's another thing, when Richard [Wood] and Paul MacDonald, and others started to play the fiddle, going to school, they'd be laughed at. But once they got to the stage where they could play and could get some money for their playing, that was a horse of a different color. So as a result these young people today, this is what they're up to, to try and get out and get into the ceilidhs and get some money. So there are plusses and negatives I feel in terms of what's happening in the fiddle scene.