Bowing Down Home Oral History Transcripts

File: mackenziesheila06-oh-youngfiddlers_M.mp3

Speakers:

SM – Sheila MacKenzie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

SM: There's definitely a lot less older fiddlers out. You'd go to the ceilidh in Monticello on Sunday night and you'd have George [MacPhee] and you'd have a couple of other

banksreg06-oh-changesfidmusic_M.mp3

Speakers:

RB – Reg Banks

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

RB: There's an awful lot of the old-time tunes you don't hear the younger people playing at all. They play more waltzes and more songs and this kind of thing, but the real old tunes you don't

File: gaudetdavid06-oh-declineandrevival_M.mp3

Speakers:

DG – David Gaudet

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

DG: When I was growing up to be a fiddler, there wasn't many around then. There's wasn't a big demand then. I wouldn't even take the fiddle to a party if there was a bunch my age

File: doucettejoe-oh-frolics.mp3

Speakers –

JD: Joe Doucette

KP – curator Ken Perlman

JD: Tell you how they worked. Supposin' that you had a piece of wood to cut and you were alone. Well they'd make what they called a bee. He'd ask a bunch of men or they'd offer themselves.

File: farrellleo06-oh-frolics_M.mp3

Speakers:

LF – Leo Farrell

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Did they have frolics in your day?

LF: Yeah, choppin' frolics. All the neighbors go to your place and cut wood for you, eh. You maybe had an operation or

File: mackenziesheila06-oh-womanfiddling_M.mp3

Speakers

SM – Sheila MacKenzie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Did you experience any sort of resistance yourself to your wanting to play?

SM: I definitely didn't meet any resistance, just because I think – Around

File: chappellella06-oh-wintertravel_M.mp3

Speakers:

EC – Ella Thomson Chappell

EC: And then I remember when I went to school, there's no snow plows then, and then we'd go through the field. They'd break a road with the horse and sleigh, and then they'd go and take branches off a

File: lowejudy06-oh-elliottwightdance_M.mp3

Speakers:

JL – Judy Lowe

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Tell me about how got started playing with Elliott [Wight]?

JL: I went to the dance, I was 19, at the Junior Farmer's Hall in North River, which

File: cheveriecharles06-oh-womansrole-M.mp3

Speakers:

CC – Fr. Charlie Cheverie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Why do suppose there are more girls than boys excelling at the fiddle, or getting serious about the fiddle.

CC: I don't know what the demographics of

toolestephen-oh-goodfiddler_M.mp3

Speaker:
ST – Stephen Toole

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

ST Well, I think that there has to be music in you, yes. I've known people that are trying to play the fiddle, but I know very well that they'll never be able to play.

KP

File: hughesemmett06-oh-housepartydress_M.mp3

Speakers:

EH – Emmett Hughes

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

EH: Back then nobody would dance with their overalls on. It was kind of a B The whole damn trouble was, back when I was a young man was B [to] get money enough to

File: huestislowell06-oh-wppartyline_M.mp3

Speaker:

LH – Lowell Huestis

LH: That was on at 11:30 in the morning, every morning Monday through Friday. We would go to the country and record at some of these various talent shows, whenever there was a talent show advertised

File: livingstonemarie06-oh-wellingtonjam_M.mp3

Speakers:

ML – Marie Arsenault Livingstone

EA – Edward P Arsenault

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

ML: Friday evenings for the last six years we have a jam in Wellington at the Boys and Girls Club

EA: Every

File: macdougalljim06-oh-weddings_M.mp3

Speakers:

JM – Jim MacDougall

JM: There was always what they'd called a wedding shower. I can remember my oldest sister when she got married, we had borrowed this dancing booth they had for the parish for their picnics and we had it set up in our

File: woodrichard06-oh-olderfiddlers_M.mp3

Speakers:
RW – Richard Wood

RW: Those experiences, they were great for me because it was a bonding time with my Dad [Terry Wood]. It would be nothin' for us to be up at a ceilidh, or be in Monticello. Or say, "We just had dinner, what do you

File: farrellleo06-oh-liquor_M.mp3

Speakers:

LF – Leo Farrell

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

LF: There was lots of liquor on the Island, but no bars like there is today.

KP: I understand there was prohibition for a long time.

LF

File: oconnorattwood-oh-violence_M.mp3

Speakers:

AO – Attwood O'Connor

SB – Stanley Bruce

KP – Ken Perlman

KP: I've heard of lots of fighting at some of these parties. Noone ever says what anyone was fighting about.

AO: Actually, I don't think that a lot of them

File: cheverieomar06-oh-valedictory_M.mp3

Speakers:

OC – Omar Cheverie

RC – Randy Cheverie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

OC: And the most enjoyment I got out of playin' the fiddle was for some of my dear friends that liked the way I played and appreciated that, and I could

Name of File: arsenaulteddy-oh-glasgow_M.mp3

Speakers:

EA-Eddy Arsenault

KP-Curator Ken Perlman

You just told us a story before about about coming to Glasgow on V-E day. Will you tell us that story?

EA That was about the biggest square dance I've ever played for ... They

File: mcpheehugh06-oh-contests_M.mp3

Speakers:

HM – Hughie McPhee

HM: The last one I was at – The three judges talkin', and one says to the other "The first fellow that plays a tune on the flats gets first prize." But nobody played anything on the flats (laughs). I knew this, I played

File: smithtony06-oh-mysterycontestant_M.mp3

Speakers:

TS –Tony Smith

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

TS: A fellow from up Bangor way – But that feller, he - One night they were having this here contest at the Forum, they used to have a lot of them at old the Forum in

File: robinsonpeter06-oh-tynevalleycontest_M.mp3

Speakers:

PR – Peter Robinson

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

PR: It was originally tagged as the PEI Fiddling Competition. I took over middle 80s.. Keith Milligan was a one time Premier [of the province]. He ran it; it was his pride

File: morrisseyjohnny-oh-learningtunes_M.mp3

Speakers

JM – Johnny Morrissey

JM The way I'd picked up tunes, I'd go to a dance, I'd hear a tune that I liked. And I'd take particular notice to that tune. And then when I'd go home I'd go to bed and the tune would be still floating

File: chaissonjj06-oh-learning_composingtunes_M.mp3

Speakers:

JC – JJ Chaisson

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Do you have a strategy for when you compose?

JC: A couple of different ways. I've woken up before with a tune just in my head, and you play it, you

File: hughesemmett-oh-learningtunes_M.mp3

Speakers:

EH – Emmett Hughes

EH: See then, the difference [between] then and now is you could jig reels and jigs and whistle them when you were 5 or 6 year old. See, now there's no -- A young person that that goes startin' to

File: doucettevictor06-oh-twists_M.mp3

Speakers:

VD – Victor Doucette

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: How did you go about learning tunes?

VD: Just listen to Dad playing and others playing. Try to go back and figure out what they are doing. The

File: macleanclarence06-oh-learningtunes_M.mp3

Speakers:

CM – Clarence MacLean

KP: How did you go about learning tunes? Did you have them in your head?

CM: Yeah.

KP: Some fiddlers said they'd wake up in the middle of the night…

File Name: albertjoe06-oh-learningtunes.wav

Speaker: Joe Albert

You wake up sometimes in your sleep, and you whistle the tune that you heard before, and they tell you that the right thing to do when you wake up like that if you want to hear a tune is learn it before breakfast. Try and learn it before

File:

Speakers: maccannellneil-oh-lunch_M.mp3

NM – Neil MacCannell

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

NM There was lunch served always by the hostess. Just good old-fashioned home-baked bread, and biscuits and jam and that sort of stuff. And sweets, too many

File: mcpheehugh06-oh-togannyandfairy_M.mp3

Speakers:

HM – Hughie McPhee

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: You told me a story about your ancestor Toganny McPhee.

HM: Oh yeah. What Toganny meant I don't know, it would be Gaelic for something, probably some kind

File: dauschmidtkathryn06-oh-future_M.mp3

Speaker:

KD – Kathryn Dau Schmidt

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KD: Two of my grandfathers and a great-grandfather were fiddlers [in Iowa and Wisconsin]. I never knew any of them. Well, I knew one of my grandfathers, but I never

File: stewartarchie-oh-3mostimportant.mp3

Speakers:

AS – Archie Stewart

AS I heard an old fellow saying one time, the three most important people in the district‑‑the minister was first, the schoolteacher was next, and the fiddler was next! (laughter). That was the three most

File: doucettepat06-oh-williethibodeau_M.mp3

Speakers:

PD – Pat Doucette

PD: There was as fiddler player up west, Willie Thibodeau. He'd play the fiddle, he'd make you cry. He was a fisherman. You must have heard tell of the mermaid. Remember the ship was going through? To me Willie

File: o'connorjimmy-oh-davebeck_M.mp3

Speakers:

JO – Jimmy O'Connor

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

JO Dave Beck, he was about the best when I was younger: around our place, anyway.

KP Did you try to play like him?

JO Yeah, in a way. He was good.

KP Did you ever

File: chaissonyoungpeter-oh-weddingreeldemo_M.mp3

Speakers:

PC – "Young Peter" Chaisson

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

PC: That's the first tune that used to be played at a wedding, fifty, sixty years ago around here. And they always hired the fiddler before they got the date of the

File: oconnorattwood-oh-musichome_M.mp3

Speakers:

AO - Attwood O'Connor

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Would you have music sessions in the house?

AO: Oh Yes.

KP: Can you tell us a little bit about them.

AO: My father's house there when we were kids, that

File: wilsonteresa-oh-fiddlingsanta_M.mp3

Speakers:

TW – Teresa MacPhee Wilson

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

TW: My father was Santa Claus one time, the first time I ever remember seeing Santa Claus. I had no idea who this chap was that come in. There was no radios then, you know,

File: bernardalvin-oh-everycommunity.mp3

Speakears:

AB - Alvin Bernard

ES – Edwin Simmons

KP – curator Ken Perlman

ES: Well, every community seemed to have one or two people - if something went on in the community, they were the ones who were

File: cheverieomar06-oh-capebretonradio_fitzgerald_M.mp3

Speakers:

OC – Omar Cheverie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

OC: I can remember the first radio that we had in our neighborhood. Our next door neighbor had a radio.

KP: Was that one of those big battery radios

File: macinnislargus-oh-breakdowns_M.mp3

Speakers:

LM – Largus MacInnis

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

.LM An odd time the old folks would get up and they'd dance what they called a "breakdown."

KP And what was that like?

LM It was all

File: dauschmidtkathryn-oh-rollobayschool_M.mp3

Speaker:

KD – Kathryn Dau Schmidt

KD: Some of those kids that are doing so beautifully now just started right then. They were 5 and 6 years old, some were 7. So they had a little start but they pretty much started with me

File: swensonamy06-oh-fiddlersgrandkids_M.mp3

Speaker: Amy Swenson

AS: I would say at least half of the students I teach have fiddlers in their family background, somewhere. And it's often their grandparents or great grandparents. And the fiddling skipped their parents' generation. But the

File: hubleylibby-oh-stepdancingchanges_M.mp3

Speakers:

LH – Libby Hubley

LH: Now, I wasn't the first step dancing teacher. There were others before me but not for very long, I wouldn't say. I think that change came because when I came to step dancing I also brought with it

File: mcdonaldleonard-oh-chordsonfiddle_M.mp3

Speakers:

LM – Leonard McDonald

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

LM Well like I mean every area had its own – I have my own distinct style of playing. I learned to play the fiddle pretty much by myself, and I'll tell you I play a lot of

arsenaultrobert06-oh-acadiansyncopation_M.wav

Speakers:

RA – Robert Arsenault

KP – Ken Perlman

RA: What the basic pattern is, it's what I call the rock and roll rhythm. A rocking rhythm needs two beats to rock. You need two beats to rock. Like it's a dance rhythm. So you need

File: chaissonkenny-oh-baptists_M.mp3

Speakers:

KC – Kenny Chaisson

LC – Lemmy Chaisson

LC If you go east of Souris, then there were – It would be the worst place you could ever play, because it took them all night to get up. And, they were great listeners, but they wouldn't

File: oconnorfrank-oh-musicinhome_M.mp3

Speakers:

FO – Frank O'Connor

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

F0: A family of ten and everybody played. In the hard times in the 30s, we had about one mouth organ, an old organ that was pretty weazey, one fiddle my dad played and he

File: macdonaldhilda-oh-jimmysimmons_M.mp3

Speakers:

HM – Hilda MacPhee MacDonald

GM – George MacPhee (Hilda's nephew)

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

HM: Oh Jimmy Simmons, he was the best fiddler that ever was heard of I suppose, anywheres around. Yeah. Oh my God he was great

File: cheveriecharles-oh-alchohol_violence_M.mp3

Speakers:

CC – Fr. Charlie Cheverie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

CC: On the Island in particular, in the Prohibition days in particular, a lot of the drinking was done – First of all, drinking was done; people drank. But it

File: arsenaultlouise-oh-twists.wav

LA: So I mean, every fiddler is different, that's for sure, there's not one fiddler that plays the same as you. I would listen to Eddy Arsenault play and I would learn that tune, but I would play it a different way. And then all of a sudden I

File: macinnislargus-oh-quadrillecalls_M.mp3

Speakers:

LM – Largus MacInnis

KP – Ken Perlman

LM Quadrilles, you started in by salutin' your partner and then you go eight hands 'round. And then the two head couples would go right and left. And the ladies would change [chain]

File: richardfred06-oh-politics_M.mp3

Speakers:

FR – Fred Richard

FR: If you went to a meeting of politics. I'd play maybe a couple of tunes there and you'd get the old politicians, or the strong Liberals or the strong Conservatives would be gettin' up and givin' a step, and everybody

File: maccannellneil-oh-stepdancing_M.mp3

Speakers:

NM – Neil MacCannell

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

NM They'd be requested to step dance; usually there was two or three step dancers among the group.

KP I was told they each had their favorite tunes, is that

File: pitredennis-oh-stepdancing_M.mp3

Speakers:

DP – Dennis Pitre

VD – Vincent Doucette

VD: In the olden days, too, well we're not that old (laughs), but I remember if you were at the harbour on Saturday afternoon after everybody was all done fishing and stuff

File: doironpeter-oh-stepdancing_M.mp3

Speakers:

PD – Peter Doiron

KP – Ken Perlman

PD Our house if you can imagine it, is a very small hut, or bungalow I suppose you'd call it, -- a very small place but it would literally be filled with people from the village or

File: hubleylibby-oh-stepdancingolddays_M.mp3

Speakers:

LH – Libby Hubley

LH: I think when the men danced, it was only those who had that love and great feel for the music, the music just moved them to do those different little patterns with their feet. And the patterns

File: pitredennis06-oh-stepdancing_M.mp3

Speakers:

DP – Dennis Pitre

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: You were saying that the tempos, the speed that the people wanted the music for step dancing was a little bit slower then?

DP: Not too fast, they'd always tell you

File: macdonaldjoe-oh-parishpicnics_M.mp3

Speakers:

JM – Joe MacDonald

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

JM: They were pretty busy in the summer time. There wouldn't be too much - There wouldn't be house parties but there'd be outside things like picnics in the summertime

KP

File: pitredennis06-oh-changes_M.mp3

Speakers:

DP – Dennis Pitre

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

DP: There's no change much since 15 years ago. Everything is the same. We play in the Hall Saturday Night, for the Saturday Night Dance. And we play pretty well once a week for the senior

File: wedgeclifford-oh-songorigins_M.mp3

File:

Speaker:

CW – Clifford Wedge

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

CW: My Dad and so many other people would go to the woods in the wintertime. And they'd always bring songs home.

KP: From the wood!