Bowing Down Home Oral History Transcripts

File: cheveriecharles-oh-foundingfiddlerssociety_contests_M.mp3

Speakers:

CC – Fr. Charles Cheverie

In 1975, Faber MacDonald, the priest for our diocese, along with Joe Chaisson –And Joe and Fr. Faber wrote to all the fiddlers they knew at that time on the Island to gather at St.

File: mcpheehugh06-oh-forerunners_M.mp3

Speakers:

HM – Hughie McPhee

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Were people talking about forerunners in your time?

HM: Oh yeah there were lots of forerunners.

KP: Can you tell me about what forerunners

File: doucettejoe-oh-bowing,findingnotes.mp3

Speakers:

JD – Joe Doucette

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: When you were six years old and just taking up the fiddle, did your father show you anything on the fiddle?

JD: NO, anymore than he told me that to start [with]

File: cheveriecharles06-oh-future_M.mp3

Speakers:

CC – Fr. Charles Cheverie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

CC: I think it's going to flourish. There's enough interest in younger players that they will develop. Again, you're going to get all kinds of players that will play at it as

File: bergeronhelene-oh-kitchenparties.mp3

Speakers:

HB – Helene Arsenault Bergeron

HB: Yes, I'm very partial to my father's fiddling. It's the reason that I started dancing in the first place. Because it's the most danceable fiddling that I know of. The kitchen parties

File: macleandanny-oh-goodfiddler_M.mp3

Speakers:

DM – Danny MacLean

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: what do you think makes a good fiddler? If you hear a fellow play, what about his music would stand out for you?

DM: What do you think makes him a good fiddler?

File: morrisonrita-oh--womanfiddling_M.mp3

Speakers:

RM – Rita Morrison

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

RM But they weren't encouraged as much maybe, were they?

KP I don't know! What do you think?

RM Well, it's like everything else now. There'

File: robinsonelmer92-oh-musicalbackground_M.mp3

Speakers:

ER –Elmer Robinson

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: Did you grow up in Woodstock?

ER: No, about 15 miles down the road here: Mount. Pleasant. Been up here fabout 20 years.

KP: Do you come from

File: doucettevictor06-oh-fathersrole_M.mp3

Speakers:

VD – Victor Doucette

Victor: I was in Ontario for a few years and then started to play it [the fiddle] up there again and started to fool around with it. But then when I got home and got married in the late 70s, then

File: macdonaldward06-oh-professionalopportunities_M.mp3

Speakers:

WM – Ward MacDonald

I think it's a combination of things: just the time right now, the time we're in right now. It's very easy to make a CD, any player that's trying to go anywhere has a website and they put a press kit

File: leardwarren92-oh-flourmill_M.mp3

Speakers:

WL – Warren Leard

KP: 1925. And I was told you own a mill, a flour mill.

WL: Yes, I have the only mill left on Prince Edward Island. That's a custom flour mill. We do grinding for the farmers, and I'm the third generation. My

File: macdonaldfaber-oh-thegift_M.mp3

Speakers:

FM – Rev Faber MacDonald

FM: I used to talk about the social nature of the gift. See, the gifts, God's gifts, are given to us not for ourselves. No! They're entrusted to us for everybody. And the human person, when he engages himself

File: cousinsjohn-oh-thegift_M.mp3

Speakers:

JC – John Cousins

JC: To become a fiddler, to become a good fiddler the term everyone used ad nauseum was "It was a gift." It was a gift; you were given this gift. And people said it sincerely. Only a few people were given this gift, but

File: arsenaultrobert-oh-fiddlersrepcultures_M.mp3

Speakers

RA: Robert Arsenault

RA: A fiddler carries his own level of feeling with him when he plays. A fiddler when he plays he plays with his body. A fiddler is a dancer and his whole entire body plays. You stop a fiddler from

File: albertjoe06-oh-musichome_lent_frolics_M.wav

Speakers

KP: curator Ken Perlman

JA: Joe Albert

IA: Ivan Albert

IA: Me and Joe's brothers but we got 12 brothers between us, between the two of us 10 others and we got 12 sisters. And we got 18 livin', and pretty much all