File: doucettepat06-oh-musichome_M.mp3
Speaker:
PD – Pat Doucette
KP – Curator Ken Perlman
KP: Were you born on a farm?
PD: No, a little fishing village. Dad used run the Post Office; he worked the lumber woods. We had guitars in the house, and one of my brothers he step danced and [played] jew's harp. My mom played the bakepan [he demonstrates the motion she used to play rhythm]
PD: One fellow had a horseshoe and a spike, and one of the other fellows had knittin needles
KP: And he used those to pound on the back strings of the fiddle?
PD: Yeah. And one fellow had, I don't know if there was sandpaper them days, there must have been. Emory cloth! [demonstrates the rhythm of sandpaper blocks]. Stuff like that. There was some 'shine, and they'd have a party. Dad used to sing a lot of the rum runner songs. Dad had sent to Eaton's for an accordion. It was a Hoehner. So the other fellow, [Andrew] Gallant, he wanted to learn the accordion too and he kind of sent for one. So the other fellow didn't know, he got one exact the same and they used to play the fast tunes. It was Andrew Gallant; it didn't take him long to learn the accordion. There was a fiddler, Thibodeau, Carl Thibideau who played left-handed, and he'd play along with Dad and this other guy, the fast tunes. And when he'd play he'd hum at the same time, you could hardly hear the fiddle.