Bowing Down Home Oral History Transcripts

File: baglolesidney-oh-gettingstarted_M.mp3

Speakers:

SB – Sid Baglole

KP – curator Ken Perlman

KP: What year were you born?

SB: 1912

KP: 1912n

SB: Yeah, I'm 80 years old. Just had a birthday, just gone by.

KP: Did you come from a musical family?

File: sonierervan-oh-houseparties_M.mp3

ES And then again, there was nothing till the fiddler arrived. And they used to hit them with the -- hit the strings with the knittin' needles. Remember them on the fiddle. Keep time with the knittin needles.

KP That's like fiddle sticks.

File: quinnmerlin-oh-stoppingwork_M.mp3

Speakers:

MQ – Merlin Quinn

MQ: Somebody might come in with a fiddle if they ever did. My father loved the fiddle. So if anybody ever came in that could play fiddle, it just stopped everything right off. That was the end of the work, we all went

File: biggarjackie06-oh-poweroutages_M.mp3

Speakers:

JB – Jackie Biggar

KP – Ken Perlman

Years ago the power used to go off, we didn't have a – A storm, a transformer would get hit by lightning and stuff. There's be a severe storm, the power would go

File: macdonaldjoe-oh-gettingstarted_learningtunes_M.mp3

Speakers:

JM – Joe MacDonald

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

JM: Around here, there was good old fiddlers around here. There was Gregory MacEachern, a neighbor of ours. He's dead now long of it. He was a great old fiddler and

File: corbetttrudy06-oh-dancinginschools_M.mp3

Speakers:

TC – Trudy Corbett

FC – Fulton Corbett (husband of Trudy Corbett)

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

MS – Mary Pineau Smith

FC: But she started in school; I went to school with her. She started at school with a comb

File: arsenaultlouise06-oh-acadiansyncopation_M.mp3

Speakers

LA: Louise Arsenault

KP: Ken Perlman

LA: When you do the shuffle it's like two up bows in a row.

KP: Can you take your fiddle and illustrate that

LA: I sure can,

File: macdonaldhilda-oh-frolics+weddings_M.mp3

Speakers:

HM – Hilda MacPhee MacDonald

HM: That was like the wedding that my brother Hughie and Ronnie Archie went to down to Kellys', down Fort Augustus. And it was Owen Kelly's wedding. Oh I guess it was a dandy. They go

File: pitredennis-oh-gettingstarted_M.mp3

Speakers:

DP –Dennis Pitre

DP: But my mother had two brothers that played. One played the accordion and one played the organ. But there was no fiddle playing.

KP: So how did you learn?

DP: Just because I loved it (laughs). Just

File: quinnmerlin-oh-gettingstarted_M.mp3

Speaker:

MQ – Merlin Quinn

MQ: It was the thing. It just simply seemed to me to be the thing to be able to do. It was so great! I could whistle and I could jig, and I could sing and so could my father, as I said, was a good

File: smithtony06-oh-dirtytrick_M.mp3

Speakers:

TS – Tony Smith

AG – Alfred Gallant

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

TS: Him and this other guy played all night at this house party. They used to have big money years ago, black cents, they were big ones.

KP

File: chaissonkevin06-oh-valedictory_M.mp3

Speakers:

KC – Kevin Chaisson

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: There are certain people like an Earl Scruggs or a Pete Seeger, somebody who starts something and you see what happened and hundreds or thousands of people get involved in

File: stewartarchie-oh-houseparty.mp3

Speakers

AS – Archie Stewart

AS: Back then in the Depression, we had no entertainment. There was no radios, there was no television, and that was the only entertainment we had. You know in the wintertime probably once a week

File: gotellwilfred-oh-halfwayhouse_M.mp3

Speakers:

WG – Wilfred Gotell

WG But in the old house there they used to have the parties over there, and they used to call it the halfway house - halfway from the village to my place, you know. A couple guys would get together

File: sonierervan-oh-badinstrument_M.mp3

Speakers:

ES – Ervan Sonier

ES: But I always got a kick - And this was a true story, I think – Getting back to the fiddle being the devil's instrument. I remember Guy Buolter, a terrific fiddler from up west. And they were going to get Guy.