Fiddlers of the Maritime Provinces
by Paul-Emile Comeau

Not too far from Detroit there's a billboard with huge letters that boldly advertises a downtown Detroit gun store with an attention-grabbing Guns Galore! Cape Breton could take a lesson from that and set up its own billboard at the causeway, one that declares Fiddlers Galore! Although statistics for such things are probably not available, the percentage of fiddlers, and good ones to boot, is inordinately high there. Besides producing more than its share of well-known singers (such as Rita MacNeil, The Rankins, Mary Jane Lamond, John Allan Cameron, and The Barra MacNeils), the place that Alasdair Fraser has called "a crucible of fiddle energy" has, in recent decades, never ceased to also produce highly reputable fiddlers such as J.P.Cormier, Jerry Holland, Brenda Stubbert, Winnie Chafe, Theresa Morrison, the legendary (and recently deceased) Mi'kmaq fiddler Lee Cremo, and many more. For that matter, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island also have well-known fiddlers who play in the traditional, downeast, bluegrass, or Acadian styles.

Fiddler Ashley MacIsaac became a star six years ago with the amazing success of his Hi, How Are You Today?, a triple-platinum (300,000) album in Canada. He returned to his roots with a traditional album called Fine, Thank You Very Much, but then seemed more intent in nurturing a bad -boy image of "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" than he was in the Scots tradition of "kilts, haggis, and strathspeys." His controversial career-killing antics and blatantly racist comments, which are often the subject of both national news reports and idle gossip, are on a par with Metallica's attack on its Napster downloaders in terms of alienating a fan base in record time.

Helter's Celtic [Loggerhead 76974 2192-2], MacIsaac's fourth album, is a good pun and a title that happens to be very fitting. The album starts off badly with a voice declaring condescendingly that "This is probably the most challenging thing that you've ever put on your turntable." Well, hardly! The first track is an original tune that is equal parts traditional fiddling, techno, and rock. As an opening track it's probably designed put off fiddle fans, but it's actually quite enjoyable. This is followed by some good fiddling tunes, some original and some traditional, that are played with electric accompaniment, not unlike some of the sounds that made him famous. The "B Flat Cloggs," and "The F Cloggs," the fifth and sixth tracks, are traditional fiddle/piano sets. The next track intersperses fiddling with intermittent heavy-metal power chords and it works surprisingly well. The next few tracks, however, which have vocals, are a mess. MacIsaac redeems himself with a techno-punk version of "I'm Movin' On" (the Hank Snow hit from 1950 that is probably the most commercially successful anthem ever by a fellow Nova Scotian), on which MacIsaac's voice sounds almost disembodied. The album eases down with a couple of pleasant techno-fiddle fusions. An interesting, albeit erratic, album that should be approached with dollops of trepidation.

After the success of Ashley MacIsaac's ground-breaking album, it became difficult for young fiddlers to resist wrapping traditional sounds in modern arrangements. Natalie MacMaster flirted with other styles quite successfully but, with My Roots Are Showing [Rounder 11661-7033-2], which she actually recorded before her highly successful In My Hands, she remains loyal to the CD's title, with the only accompaniment being piano and guitar. The album, which won a Juno award, starts off with "Hey, Johnny Cope!," the same tune that closed Helter's Celtic. As is the custom with Cape Breton fiddling, the album consists mostly of medleys of reels, strathspeys, jigs, or hornpipes, in this case drawn from such legendary players as Winston "Scotty" Fitz gerald, Angus Chisholm, and other island fiddlers. With six albums to her credit, the last three of which went gold in Canada, MacMaster is considered to be the most well-known practitioner of the genre, and My Roots... reveals yet again why that is so.

MacMaster's album ends with a live duet with her uncle Buddy MacMaster, who had long been known as the world's leading exponent of the Cape Breton fiddle style, at least till his niece won people over with her winsome ways. In spite of the elder MacMaster's reputation, and a career that spans 60 years, he has only a couple of albums to his credit, the first one having come out only in 1989. On The Judique Flyer [SMPCD1012 NewSound or Tall Ships], MacMaster plays 14 sets of tunes with accompaniment by an equal number of piano players who span the entire history of Cape Breton piano accompaniment. These include Marie MacLellan, Doug MacPhee, Tracy Dares, Hilda Chiasson, Howie MacDonald, and his daughter, Mary Elizabeth MacInnis. MacMaster, whose interest in music was piqued more by his lilting mother than by his fiddling father, has a clean bowing style that produces a sound that is both sweet and robust. Like the other fiddlers of the region, MacMaster is used to playing for both stepdancers and square dancers, and his intricate playing is imbued with the kind of spirit that produces the proper lift for dancing. A very informative 24-page booklet is included.

Dave MacIsaac, a Halifax resident who is the guitarist on Natalie MacMaster's album and one of the pianists on Buddy's, is a very busy and versatile multi-instrumentalist. MacIsaac and his friend Scott Macmillan have made major contributions to the local music in recent decades. From the Archives [Pickin' Prod. 02 50400 Tidemark] features MacIsaac, the son of fiddler Alex Dan MacIsaac, playing fiddle and, to a lesser extent, Celtic flat-picking guitar. He is accompanied by the innovative pianist Mary Jessie MacDonald, a Boston resident who is also the daughter of a legendary Cape Breton fiddler. This time around, MacIsaac sets aside his electric guitar, mandolin, and piano to limit himself to the type of traditional and local tunes he heard growing up, most of which come from the same sources as those on Natalie MacMaster's album. As with the Natalie and Buddy MacMaster CDs, this is quintessentially Cape Breton in both style and repertoire.

Dave MacIsaac is also one of two guitarists on Tunes Until Dawn [Marquis DPRO 1946], an album by David Greenberg and pianist Doug MacPhee. Greenberg, a Maryland native who was trained as a classical violinist, is the founder of Puirt a Baroque, a group whose three CDs mix Scottish classical music with Cape Breton fiddle tunes. With his wife, Kate Dunlay, who also plays fiddle on this CD, he is also author of an acclaimed book on Cape Breton fiddle styles. Greenberg's playing is just as precise as MacIsaac's except that his style of playing is more formal, as befits someone with his background. Greenberg and MacPhee also play medleys, in this case 18 of them comprising an amazing 68 tunes in all, so listening to the album in one sitting can be a daunting experience. Unlike the above-mentioned fiddlers, Greenberg tends to draw more from 18th century sources such as the Gow family. One track features the now- rarely used pump organ, an instrument that was replaced by the piano in the 1930s.

Howie MacDonald is another well-known fiddler, having been a member of the Rankins and also having extensive experience in the studio. MacDonald is, additionally, well-known as a comedian, and the punningly titled Why 2 Keilidh [HMDYCD Tidemark] is a sequel to his fictional square dance called The Dance Last Night. This one, ostensibly a parody of a house party, consists of the usual sets of tunes, both original and from such sources as J.S. Skinner and Dan R. MacDonald, with the occasional surprise, such as snippets of "The Beverly Hillbillies Theme" and "Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be." J.P. Cormier, a very impressive fiddler himself, but mostly featured on electric guitar here, is one of the accompanists on the fiddling sets. The album runs into a few minor problems trying to replicate the humor that works very well in the live shows, but is more difficult to adapt to the recording medium.

Jennifer Roland is a young fiddler who, you guessed it, grew up with a fiddle-playing father. Dedication [JLR97 Rave Entertainment] is Roland's first CD, although another is due soon, and it features the usual medleys of jigs, reels, strathspeys, and clogs, as well as many recent tunes, including six of her own. Roland also plays slow airs, a relatively recent development to the Cape Breton tradition, and her renditions of a couple of poignant slow tunes written by her sister are especially heart-rending.

Glenn Graham is another acclaimed young fiddler whose third release, Step Outside [Bowbeat GG-003A, distributed by Tidemark], refers to mixing traditional medleys with original material. Graham played mostly traditional material on his earlier CDs, the second one consisting of duets with Rodney MacDonald, a fiddler who also happens to be the province's Minister of Tourism. Graham plays with a forceful style and has a sharp attack to his bow and, except for the long, traditional, closing set, he gives most of the tracks a highly charged modern twist. The album also contains four original pop-type songs that could be considered a bit incongruous, especially the couple that feature no fiddling at all. These are sung by Graham or by his sister Amy, the latter revealing as much potential as a singer as the former does as a fiddler.

Earlier in this century it was common for Nova Scotians to emigrate to the Boston area. As a result, some of the province's finest fiddlers ended up in Boston, including Acadian fiddlers from each end of the province, Joseph Cormier and Tommy Doucet, and Cape Breton fiddlers Bill Lamey and John Campbell. All four now have Rounder releases to their credit. Lamey's early recordings, which were released on Shanachie in the 70s, were limited in length by the78-r.p.m. technology. Full Circle From Cape Breton to Boston and Back: Classic House Sessions of Traditional Cape Breton Music 1956-1977 [Rounder 82161-7032-2] is a session that was taped at more informal and congenial house parties on an early consumer-model tape recorder. The tape made the rounds between Boston and Cape Breton and went on to influence the great Jerry Holland and a whole generation of players. Lamey, who died in 1991 at the age of 77, had a distinctive and fiery style — one which was highly acclaimed in Scotland, where his traditional syncopated approach to playing was fast becoming a thing of the past. Lamey, who is accompanied mostly by Boston-based pianist Mary Jessie MacDonald or Eddie Irwin, plays primarily Scottish tunes from the 18th and 19th centuries, and there are also shades of Scottish piping in his snappy bowing. A 40-page booklet adds to the overall worth of this tribute to a fiddler who was looked upon by some with near reverence.

While most of the Cape Breton fiddlers seem to have learned their craft from their fathers, or from some other relative, that is not so often the case on the mainland. Gordon Stobbe, who lives close to Halifax, is originally from the Prairies and never played the fiddle till he was in his 20s. Known mostly as the host of a long-running national TV show called "Up Home Tonight," Stobbe is also known for playing guitar, mandolin, and banjo in bluegrass and string bands. After publishing four fiddle instruction books, Stobbe has put out New Traditions [NT01], consisting of 14 original compositions. Stobbe puts his own stamp on the myriad of influences from which he draws, including Métis, Québecois, Irish, Cajun, old-time, East European, and klezmer. Only a few of the tracks are medleys and all are judiciously and sparsely accompanied by a combination of guitar, piano, mandolin, banjo, and percussion. Stobbe's playing, whether exuberant or restrained, is fine enough in itself, but what makes the album especially noteworthy are the distinctive tunes. They stand out one from the other, and a few of them, such as "Time Goes By," are instantly memorable.

Another masterful multi-instrumentalist is Ray Legere, who lives very close to the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia border. Like J.P.Cormier, Legere went to Nashville, but came back home after three years, having been unable to get a work permit. Although Legere's roots are mostly in bluegrass and old-time music, his Squirrelly Moves [EMI Music 7243 5 20091 2 1] CD also features traditional and original tunes. Legere was responsible for absolutely every aspect of the album except the cover design. Unfortunately, no information is offered as to what instruments he played on each cut, but the main one is obviously fiddle, and mandolin and guitar are also prominent. Such a one-man effort is very impressive, but, as admirable as the playing often is, overdubbing sometimes takes away from the passion and makes for a sound that, over the course of 20 tracks, doesn't offer as much variety as one would wish. Still, Legere has more skills on a range of instruments than most musicians could ever hope to acquire.

One of New Brunswick's most well-known fiddlers for the last few decades has been Ivan Hicks, who was born where Legere now lives, but is now settled in the Moncton area. Hicks, who was influenced by both his fiddling father and Don Messer, has been fiddling for over 50 years, mostly in the old-time style, with the occasional foray into bluegrass and country. He has recorded a dozen albums over the last few decades, but his new one, named Connections [ME1012 Tidemark], takes a different approach. The title refers to the fact that he recruited the well-known Scottish guitarist Tony McManus, whom he met at the Fiddles of the World event in Halifax in 1999, and Raymond McLain, the bluegrass banjo and mandolin player from the U.S. Added to these are his wife, Vivian, on piano and a few other local musicians. It's an interesting hybrid that features original rather than traditional material.

Don Messer, who was born in New Brunswick, but is generally associated with Prince Edward Island, is arguably the most famous Canadian fiddler ever, with "Don Messer's Jubilee" (produced in Halifax) having had a long and successful 17-year run on CBC television. Messer's daughter bestowed upon Frank Leahy, a cousin of the Leahy family, her father's fiddle, and Leahy has now returned the favor by paying tribute to Messer with a stage show and an album, namely Frank Leahy & Friends: Don Messer's Violin [CBC Records TRCD 3000]. Messer had a loyal following and a unique sound whose scope was limited by the conservatism of his most loyal fans. Leahy's tribute includes many of the tunes for which Messer was known, but he takes a few liberties with them: a touch of Grappelli jazz here, a bossa nova flavor there, or a modern swing band rendition of a barndance. "Redwing" is given a swinging dixieland arrangement, while "Blue Mountain Rag" is played as a polka, neither arrangement straying too far from the Don Messer sound. A few of the arrangements verge on the maudlin, but, for the most part, the Messer sound is freshened up just enough to make it appealing to a new audience without forsaking the nostalgia seekers.

The Prince Edward Island fiddle sound has been well documented, especially by Ken Perlman, and Newfoundland also continues to produce its share of excellent fiddlers. Richard Wood, although from P.E.I., is by means representative of the 'island' sound. The 21-year-old fiddler, composer, and step-dancer has already put out five albums. Wood is not above adding bits of rock and jazz to his pyrotechnical sound, but on Come Dance With Me [self-produced, distributed by Tidemark], his latest release, he brings in foreign elements very sparingly and once again shows great artistic acumen. Even though Wood recruited 15 back-up musicians, he makes use of only a few of them at a time, and he always stays at the forefront. On one set of original jigs and reels, for example, he builds up the intensity and then a trumpet comes in a bit at a time to jazz things up. Wood knows how to appeal to traditionalists as well as to those who are more partial to modern styles of playing. He is a virtuoso who knows when to rouse the listeners with just the right dazzling flourishes.

There has also been quite a flurry of activity in Acadian music in recent years. The Saint Mary's Bay region in Southwestern Nova Scotia has produced its share of well-known fiddlers, but all as members of groups. First there were Johnny Comeau and Kenneth Saulnier, and now Christal Thibault, a teenage prodigy, and Daniel LeBlanc are the latest to draw attention. LeBlanc, who started out as a very promising guitarist, came out with a collection of mostly original fiddle tunes called Le Djâble dans L'Corps [0197DL] in 1997. LeBlanc's playing has become more polished and confident since this debut, but as Grand Dérangement (LeBlanc's highly acclaimed group) becomes better known, fans may want to explore this more modest early production, which features the members of that group as backup musicians.