Bowing Down Home Oral History Transcripts

File: macdougalljim06-oh-gettingstarted_M.mp3

Speakers:

JM – Jim MacDougall

KP – Curator Ken Pelman

KP: Now how did you get started playing?

JM: Well again, that's another story (laughs). My father was very strict with the B He had a violin and it wasn't a

File: smithreuben-oh-learningtunes_M.mp3

Speakers:

RS –Reuben Smith

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

RS Learning tunes? Well, I...

KP Did you just get them in your head?

RS Yeah, I just get them in my head. I used to go to the dances and that, and if somebody played

File: smithreuben-oh-gettingstarted_M.mp3

Speakers:

RS – Reuben Smith

RS: My father used to take the fiddle out in the evening after supper and there usually wasn't too much back then to do, only the music and that. And he'd play and I used to watch him, and I decided that I wanted

File: macdonaldpaul-oh-slurs.mp3

Speakers

PM – Paul MacDonald

PM: Recently I was up to Richmond, the Richmond MacKinnon Festival [the Richmond Scottish Music & Dance Festival], and watched Jerry Holland play, of course. I've seen Jerry play many times, and I guess it's getting

File: macdonaldpaul-oh-slowgrace_M.mp3

Speakers:

PM – Paul MacDonald

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

PM: The other type which is considered a grace note in fiddle music but I think in guitar music it's most often referred to as a hammer-on…

KP: Like a slow grace

File: sheehancharlie-oh-parties_organs_M.mp3

Speaker:

CS – Charlie Sheehan

KP: What were the house parties like?

CS: Oh, they were good. Just a bunch would gather, a bunch of boys and girls and get into a house and dance to about twelve or one o'clock at night

File: swensonamy06-oh-gettingestablished_M.mp3

Speakers:

AS – Amy Swenson

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: So you moved here in

AS: 1998.

KP: So how did you get established, teaching?

AS: I put notices up at the malls,

File: mcquaidjenny-oh-onermschools_M.mp3

Speakers

JM — Jenny O'Hanley McQuaid

KP — Curator Ken Perlman

KP: So in a way, the old school in Monticello and perhaps in other parts of the Island was a community building as well

File: toolestephen-oh-lawnparties_M.mp3

Speakers:

ST – Stephen Toole

KP – Curator Ken perlman

ST: And then there was another type of thing on the island here, was Lawn Parties in the summertime. Now, my father and my brother done a lot of playing at lawn parties. There'd be a

File: macdonaldjoe-oh-nellybanks.mp3

Speakers:
JM – Joe MacDonald

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

JM: It was dry then, dry as could be. But there was a few years later then the rum started to come in. Capt. Dicks used to be up here with the Nellie J. Banks.

KP: I

File: dayivan06-oh-findingthefiddler_M.mp3

ID – Ivan Day

JG – John Gauthier

ID: I remember there was a party back in Frank Murphy's one night up in Norboro, and they come to me, got me out of bed at 10 or 10:30. They want to have a dance back there. A bunch of them got together and

File: rossfamilyband06-oh-bandhistory_M.mp3

Speakers:

JR – Jonathan Ross

JR: This was when Danielle was first learning the fiddle, so she gradually worked her way into this dance show on the fiddle, more than just dancing. And I was already in the show as a side act with piano stuff,

File: robinsonelmer-oh-wmharvey_M.mp3

Speakers:

ER – Elmer Robinson

JC – John Cousins

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

ER: I was 25 or 30 before I had my hands on the fiddle.

JC: You never played at all when you was a kid or anything?

ER: I'm just playin with it. I

File: macdonaldward06-oh-ceilidhs_M.mp3

Speakers:

WM – Ward MacDonald

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

WM: Back around that same time there was those two ceilidhs [at Monticello and Orwell] and the ceilidhs that they were holding at the BIS [Benevolent Irish Society] which were really

File: cheveriecharles06-oh-youngfiddlers_ceilidhs_M.mp3

Speakers:

CC - Fr. Charlie Cheverie

CC: These young people who are now coming along and producing their own CDs, we're finding that they are starting to go at an earlier age to perform in communities. And this is something, as far