File: chipmangary-oh-donmesser_M.mp3
Speakers:
GC – Gary Chipman
KP – Ken Perlman
KP: Were there fiddlers in particular that you liked to listen to?
GC: Messer!
KP: Messer.
GC: Don Messer was really the only one I heard. That was only show that was on the radio at that time that I could find and the only music that was played around the house was that style of music so that's what I grew up with, and I guess that's what I picked up.
KP: So you would listen to him on record or . . .
GC: Yes, I had records and so on
KP: You would pick it up off there?
GC: Yeah. I think Don Messer was kind of an idol of mine. He was a guy that played the fiddle, and he actually ended up with his own show and his own band. I felt he went as about as far as he could go for a guy who played the fiddle. He made the big time as far as fiddle players go. So he was an idol of mine.
KP: I'm sure you heard this a lot around the island that a lot of people will have picked up tunes from Don Messer, but they'll say things like "Oh, we didn't like his style, there was no, how did they put it - It was just all straight ahead, there was no - He didn't have the ornaments, he didn't have the little changes in rhythm on the notes. How would you. . .
GC: Well, that burns me!
KP: How would you present your…
GC: That really burns me, when I hear that it really burns me. . . If a person plays a certain style of music, why put it down? And the other side of the coin, Don Messer, as far as I'm concerned, is – Like I say, he made the big time. And he made it without the so called frills, and so on. But his music was a lot more complicated than some people give him credit for. He had a band that I guess a lot of people for years and myself included until I was talking – I know all the Islanders personally of his band and that kind of thing, and I talked to some of them. I was very interested in hearing some of their stories about their travels, and there's another chap here that passed away a few years ago. His name is Loman MacCauley. He was announcer on CFCY for years. And apparently Loman used to tape Messer's shows, he had the rights to all his shows and they used two microphones for those shows, and I'd still haven't heard a production that they have on CBC now with 25 microphones that's any better. They had them placed in the right place, and the studio must have – The room must have been perfect or something. The sound is beautiful; you can hear everything. Not only that, the music was arranged so that the piano player was playing certain runs, and the bass was playing counter runs, and the guitar player was plugging in the holes and the banjo player was doing something else and the drummer was doing what he was supposed to do and the fiddle player was doing the leads and the clarinet player complimented the fiddle player.
KP: Do did Messer write out charts?
GC; Oh yeah, he would have things arranged that this – And it was a really a distinct sound; that you can hear – You can listen to ten fiddle players on the radio with bands and you can tell, I can tell anyway, Messer's band everytime. Because I think it's very organized, it was worked out and the sound was distinct in every tune that they played.