tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21148574041073536402024-03-03T19:25:48.359-05:00Erskine Morris: Old-Time Fiddle Music from the Gaspé CoastThis blog is dedicated to the music and life of Erskine Morris, an old-time fiddler from Douglastown, Quebec. Through this blog myself and Erskine's son hope to document and promote the local fiddle traditions of the Gaspé Coast.Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.comBlogger144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-81892138115451316602021-12-09T22:19:00.001-05:002021-12-09T22:19:12.097-05:00"At Manny's Place" and the 1990 Tape now available on Bandcamp<p>Dear readers,</p><p>A while back Brian Morris and I decided we would slowly put up all of Erskine's home recordings on a <a href="https://erskinemorris.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Bandcamp page</a> for his father. The internet has changed a lot since we started this blog in 2010. For years, I struggled to find a way to share whole albums of Erskine's music online in a playlist-like format. Platforms that seemed like they would be a good fit came and went. But Bandcamp seems to be here to stay and is increasingly popular for independent musicians and producers. All the music will be available for free listening and downloading by but you are welcome to leave a donation if you like. The first two albums - "Fat Molasses" (The 1990 Tape) and "At Manny's Place" - have now been published there for your listening enjoyment.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1884838133_16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="700" src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1884838133_16.jpg" width="700" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manny's barn "At Manny's Place" - Douglastown, Gaspé, 2011.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-61902754566611214442021-08-13T17:05:00.006-04:002021-08-13T17:33:36.951-04:00Green Grow the Rushes - From Alden Patterson and Claude Methé<p> Hello everyone,</p><p>There's been a tune I've been meaning to share on here for a few years. In 2018, Laura, Brian, and I were in Goderich, Ontario playing at the Celtic music festival and camp where we were showcasing Gaspé Bay fiddle music. We spent the week teaching and performing to a very interested audience of traditional musicians - both beginner to professional. There I met husband-and-wife duo Claude Methé and Dana Whittle from Ste-Béatrix, QC who were also there performing and teaching. We had a lot of fun jamming and it was also a fortunate encounter for our research as well.</p><p>While we were talking, Claude brought up an old fiddler named Alden Patterson (1916 - 1989) that he met once in the early 1970s and who was living in Ste-Foy, just outside Quebec City. Alden had originally come from Sandy Beach, Gaspé. As a teenager, Claude had met Alden's two sons, Daniel and Beverley, who were playing guitar around Old Quebec and the three became friends hanging around Old Quebec together. At the time, Claude was early into his interest in the fiddle and managed to acquire a few home recordings of Alden. Although Claude doesn't know what happened to these tapes, he remembers this one tune he learned from Alden's playing called "Green Grow the Rushes." </p><p>Claude played this tune for me to record during our hangout in 2018 so that I could share it on this blog. <a href="https://app.box.com/s/naijmjn3d9gu7423mftal09ppekxcw9j" target="_blank">Have a listen to him playing Alden Patterson's "Green Grow the Rushes."</a><br /></p><p>Claude played this tune often during his stage appearances throughout the week. He also recorded it on a 2000 album with the group Entourloupe. This title is applied to many different melodies in traditional fiddle music but the version here is very Québécois in its structure and phrasing although the melody seems to suggest an Irish polka, perhaps <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y_gSsfeusw" target="_blank">this one</a> bearing the same title.</p><p>We don't know much about Alden and where he learned his music yet but if you or anyone you know has any more information, we'd love to hear from you. I want to thank both Claude and Paul Fackler for their contributions to this post.</p><p>Enjoy and have a go at learning this delightful melody.</p>Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-47780509346408602552021-06-16T11:06:00.007-04:002021-06-16T12:02:22.961-04:00"Airs piqués" - A New Album of Guitar Duets from Guy Bouchard and Mathieu Fournier<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0482846970_10.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="800" height="285" src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0482846970_10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Earlier this month I opened my mailbox to find a CD copy of the latest project from Gaspé musicians Guy Bouchard and Mathieu Fournier. Both excellent fiddlers whom I've gotten to know over the years, like Brian and I, they also enjoy playing Gaspesian fiddle music on the guitar in the flatpicking style. Indeed, Brian has always said that this music suits the guitar well and this new album proves just how much this is the case. <p></p><p>The sonic qualities of Mathieu's lead guitar and Guy's accompaniment, along with their more relaxed tempos, give the listener a more contemplative space to appreciate what I've always considered the enigmatic beauty of these melodies. The older Gaspesian fiddle music doesn't tend to follow the more predictable melodic contours and harmonies of 20th century fiddle music and the two guitars work perfectly to highlight the unusual and unique contours of the music. It was a joy to put this CD on the stereo and get lost in the sounds, expertly recorded, mixed, and mastered by Ike Barsalou in Gaspé. It felt like I was getting to hear this music from somewhere new and fresh and appreciate just how special these old melodies are. </p><p>There are sixteen tracks of guitar duets on this new album. All the selections are drawn from fiddlers around the Coast, much the material learned from various archival collections. In fact, there are a few tunes from Erskine Morris and others that have been mentioned on this blog: Bill Lucas, James Henry Conley, Cyril Devouge, and Tunny Hottot. As well, Guy and Mathieu have also been learning music from other Gaspesian families from the north shore and Baie des Chaleurs region of the Coast: Anglehart, Chouinard, Denis, Francoeur, Keighan, LeBreux, Mimeault, Riffou, and Richard. As such, the CD is also a wonderful cross-section of older Gaspesian fiddle repertoire from a wide swath of different communities across the Coast. The beautiful cover design comes from their friend and fellow musician Eric Bond.</p>You can listen and download or order this CD on <a href="https://airspiques.bandcamp.com/album/airs-piqu-s-r-pertoire-de-violoneux-gasp-siens-aux-guitares" target="_blank">their Bandcamp page</a>.<div><br /></div><div>Here is <a href="https://www.radiogaspesie.ca/nouvelles/culturel/mathieu-fournier-et-guy-bouchard-lancent-airs-piques/?fbclid=IwAR0j_-mpxtCV8Wu63oJOCWpLVwIp35OmCLeuas_4P91Cg_qWrsxponiRiiQ" target="_blank">an interview</a> Mathieu did the other day for Radio Gaspésie where he talks about the project. And here he is <a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/premiere/emissions/bon-pied-bonne-heure/segments/entrevue/358515/airs-piques-mathieu-fournier?fbclid=IwAR3kFb10zKS-LLjw91SptA3nZuVhv5YhY8k3ymXZjH0-5TT8fD4AfXXBTa4" target="_blank">on CBC-Radio Canada</a>.</div>Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-29367618249846301352021-05-21T12:37:00.003-04:002021-05-21T12:48:09.874-04:00Airs-Mémoire: Traditional Fiddle Tunes from the Tip of the Gaspe PeninsulaI'm happy to announce that the latest edition of the Airs-Mémoire collection of transcriptions is now available for download. This project to preserve these melodies in sheet-music form is a collaboration between musicians France Dupuis (Quebec City) who did the transcriptions and Guy Bouchard (Douglastown) who played the melodies for France and suggested the guitar accompaniment that appears along with the music. I was fortunate to see the beginnings of their collaboration when I was visiting Guy shortly after he moved to Douglastown in 2018; France was visiting at the same time and we all passed many hours jamming on some of these tunes in Guy's living room. We even got to perform them for Bernard and Christina's wedding anniversary party that year!<div><br /></div><div>France and Guy see this collection as "a tangible way to preserve and disseminate tunes from the local oral tradition." The new edition contains 54 traditional tunes from the eastern Gaspe Peninsula, a table of contents, and an appendix of references. <div><br /></div><div>It is available for download for $18 <a href="http://www.studiofrancedupuis.sitew.com/Airs_Memoire_Sheet_Music.K.htm " target="_blank">from France Dupuis' website</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>It has been astounding to see so many people helping make this music and Gaspesian musicians better known far and wide. I want to congratulate France and Guy for their ongoing dedication and tireless work with this music.
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKsVtsTMK3eMg8k43SOI0lYqLOj3YwKE3sYU-3DJK56uzc2d-oRHwZyPVIkP_7QyiQ_Oi4pYi0C8UQUYVxZoYPOO2H8_Risu55PwKq20QOSf5u1wDAjl6D-sAbWnMIuHJhiqYhjMqbjhv1/s1433/CaseyKennedysPorchJam2018.png" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="1433" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKsVtsTMK3eMg8k43SOI0lYqLOj3YwKE3sYU-3DJK56uzc2d-oRHwZyPVIkP_7QyiQ_Oi4pYi0C8UQUYVxZoYPOO2H8_Risu55PwKq20QOSf5u1wDAjl6D-sAbWnMIuHJhiqYhjMqbjhv1/w640-h326/CaseyKennedysPorchJam2018.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Porch jam session. The Kennedy Homestead, Douglastown 2018. L to R: Guy Bouchard, Laura Sadowsky, France Dupuis, Glenn Patterson, Brian Fournier, Norma McDonald</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div>Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-47043492641455973462020-09-14T17:13:00.004-04:002020-09-14T17:13:43.286-04:00Another Tribute to Anthony Drody<p>Anthony Drody's niece Debbie Sams of Gaspé, a frequent contributor of material for this blog and other projects I do, sent me a video montage she produced paying tribute to her Uncle Anthony upon his passing last December. This montage was used at Anthony's service. It features some beautiful old photographs of Anthony's life and and (mostly) Anthony's music taken from home recordings. I'm even on there playing a half-arsed version of one of Anthony's favourite tunes, "The Four Corners of Saint-Malo."</p><p>Enjoy the video. Thank you, Debbie for sharing this with us.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R7G0vYPUZfQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="R7G0vYPUZfQ"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-22340660689735682812020-08-18T21:48:00.000-04:002020-08-18T21:48:03.921-04:00Gaspé Fiddle @ 10 Livestream - Available Online<p>For those of you who didn't manage to tune in to our 10th anniversary party, we had a wonderful afternoon filled with impassioned performances and touching commentary and testimony. The video can be viewed on the public Facebook page (i.e. you don't need a Facebook account to view it) of a project I'm currently running for the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network. </p><p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/101281071341264/videos/298332104925913/?__so__=channel_tab&__rv__=all_videos_card" target="_blank">Here is the link.</a></p><p>I want to take this opportunity to thank all the performers and community members who contributed their time, music, and insights to make this event possible. As well, Vision Gaspé-Percé Now and the Douglas Community Centre; my co-host Laura Risk at University of Toronto for all her help organizing the performers and emceeing with me; Norma McDonald, Gordie and Ernest Drody; and the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network and Canadian Heritage for their financial support.</p><p>The performances were as follows:</p><p>[00:11:00] </p><p><b>Glenn Patterson & Brian Morris</b> </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Fat Molasses</li><li>Pearl of the Coast & Fred Kennedy's Tune</li><li>Roland White's Tune & The Donna Reel</li></ul><p></p><p>[00:27:00]</p><p><b>Guy Bouchard et ses amis</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>North Shore of Gaspé; </li><li>Laura's Breakdown& Holly's Reel</li><li>Video: Dance Documentary Teaser</li></ul><p></p><p>[00:50:00]</p><p><b>France Dupuis: </b>The Making of Airs-Mémoire (Slideshow with Music)</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Reel des Colons de Charlie Drody</li><li>Anthony Drody's Tune & Father Morris' Tune</li></ul><p></p><p>[00:59:00]</p><p><b>Norma McDonald: Oral History Interview & Archival Music</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Broken Wedding Ring (Norma McDonald)</li><li>The Road to Boston (Erskine Morris)</li><li>Mockingbird Hill (Norma McDonald & Glenn Patterson)</li></ul><p></p><p>[01:07:00]</p><p><b>Stéphanie Lépine</b>: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Bois-Brulé Jig</li></ul><p></p><p>[01:14:00]</p><p><b>André Brunet</b>: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Little Boy's Reel</li></ul><p></p><p>[01:20:30]</p><p><b>Robin Servant:</b> </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Erskine Morris' Grondeuse</li><li>Leslie Devouge's Tune</li><li>Piss and Keep the Hair Dry (Reggie Rooney's Tune)</li></ul><p></p><p>[01:32:00]</p><p><b>Tribute to the Drody Family: Archival Video</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Joe Drody's Jig (Joseph, Anthony, & Brigid Drody; Laura Risk; Glenn Patterson; Brian Morris)</li><li>Money Musk (Joseph Drody & Laura Risk; Brigid Drody and Brian Morris; Debbie Sams)</li><li>The Old Man and Old Woman (Joseph, Brigid, Anthony, and Justin Drody)</li><li>Tommy Rooney's Jig (Anthony and MaryEllen Drody)</li><li>The Old Man and the Old Woman (Johnny, Anthony, Brigid, MaryEllen Drody)</li><li>Rambler's Hornpipe (Johnny, Anthony, Brigid, and MaryEllen Drody)</li></ul><p></p><p>[01:47:30]</p><p><b>Lisa Ornstein:</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Murphy Reel</li><li>Grandmother's Reel</li><li>Tommy Rooney's Jig</li></ul><p>[02:06:00]</p><p style="font-weight: bold;"><b>Ernest Drody: Oral History Interview & Archival Music</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Silver and Gold Two-Step (Ernest Drody and Glenn Patterson)</li><li>Flowers of Edinburgh (Charlie Drody)</li><li>The Cockawee (Ernest Drody and Glenn Patterson)</li></ul><p></p><p>[02:15:30]</p><b>Alexis Chartrand:</b> <p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Eva Drody's Tune (Erskine Morris' version)</li></ul><p></p><p>[02:19:50]</p><p><b>Paul Fackler: Transcription Project, Discussion and Tunes</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Belle Kathleen</li><li>Comparison of Interpretations: The Indian Reel (Soucy, Allard, Devouge, Morris)</li><li>Mouth of the Tobique</li></ul><p></p><p>[02:46:00]</p><p><b>Martin Aucoin:</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Cockawee</li><li>Shannon Reel</li><li>Erskine Morris' Devil's Dream #2</li></ul><p></p><p>[03:00:00]</p><p><b>Pascal Gemme:</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Reel des Colons de Charlie Drody & The Bois-Brulé Jig</li></ul><p></p><p>[03:06:29]</p><p><b>Pria Schwall-Kearney:</b> </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Tommy Rooney's Jig</li></ul><p></p><p>[03:09:30]</p><p><b>Laura Risk:</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Father Morris' Tune</li><li>The Rocky Road to Dublin</li></ul><p></p>Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-79763851911034091562020-07-24T12:27:00.001-04:002020-07-24T12:27:50.441-04:00August 8, 2020 - Come Celebrate 10 Years of Gaspé Fiddle (Online)I previously mentioned that it has now been 10 years since we started this blog and, somehow, this music has travelled far and wide and touched the lives of many fiddlers - some as far away as Australia! I also alluded to some happenings we are planning to mark these ten years.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3S6mOozLSg8ebFakIi-WfztK1_FNsAJ5Ez5_vrwGzjfyAJzLTNVf7kFK9KWt7NJBhKMNWfofdT3X1ULTvTJatdrATJsj1VbAcPRtxdkinmDGtAwCeriKTWSwIB4ZtwiLnoI5JJcOEu0UN/s1600/Gaspe+Fiddle+%2540+10+FB.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3S6mOozLSg8ebFakIi-WfztK1_FNsAJ5Ez5_vrwGzjfyAJzLTNVf7kFK9KWt7NJBhKMNWfofdT3X1ULTvTJatdrATJsj1VbAcPRtxdkinmDGtAwCeriKTWSwIB4ZtwiLnoI5JJcOEu0UN/s320/Gaspe+Fiddle+%2540+10+FB.png" width="240" /></a>In my current job, I am helping community groups across the province put on events to celebrate their local musical heritage. And so it is with great pleasure to announce that I have teamed up with Vision Gaspé-Percé Now and the Douglas Community Centre to put on an afternoon celebrating these 10 years and the many people involved.<br />
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On August 8, 2020, from 1 - 4 pm, we will be live streaming a musical gathering across three countries and two continents, virtually bringing people together who have been involved in helping preserve and share this music during the past few years. You can tune in on any of the the following Facebook pages:<br />
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<a href="https://facebook.com/adifferenttune/live" target="_blank">A Different Tune</a><br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/visiongaspe/live" target="_blank">Vision Gaspé-Percé Now</a><br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/DouglastownCommunityCenter/" target="_blank">Douglas Community Centre</a><br />
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Featuring the following performers/speakers:<br />
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Guy Bouchard, Matthieu Fournier et l'Orchestre de danse de Douglastown (Douglastown)<br />
Laura Risk (Montreal)<br />
Brian Morris & Glenn Patterson (Montreal)<br />
Lisa Ornstein (Washington State)<br />
Robin Servant (Rimouski, QC)<br />
Paul Fackler (North Carolina)<br />
Martin Aucoin (Beresford, NB/Lévis, QC)<br />
France Dupuis (Quebec City)<br />
André Brunet (Mauricie, QC)<br />
Pascal Gemme (Eastern Townships, QC)<br />
Pria Schwall-Kearney (Australia)<br />
Stéphanie Lepine (Lanaudìere, QC)<br />
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<br />Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-29626506637539132402020-06-11T16:13:00.003-04:002020-06-11T16:13:53.700-04:00Prix CQPV: Congratulations to Guy Bouchard, the Douglas Community Centre, and Friends!<div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Well this is a nice follow up to my last post where I mused on 10 years of a bunch of us working together preserve the fiddle music of the eastern Gaspésie!</div>
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I want to congratulate to Guy Bouchard and his friends at the Douglas Community Centre in Douglastown for their work to collect, teach, and celebrate the traditional fiddle music and dance of the Eastern Gaspésie. With their regular dances and workshops throughout the winter featuring almost exclusively repertoire local to the region, they have just been awarded the prestigious Prix CQPV from our province's Intangible Cultural Heritage organization. What Guy and his friends started in Douglastown picks up where this project left off four or five years back. Moreover, it is one of those special instances where anglophones and francophones come together to celebrate their shared culture together on the Gaspé Coast. Their work is helping making it part of local cultural life once again. </div>
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Congratulations to everyone. Here is the press release:</div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/CQPVTrad/photos/a.192315190796803/3559106327450989/?type=3&theater">https://www.facebook.com/CQPVTrad/photos/a.192315190796803/3559106327450989/?type=3&theater</a></div>
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Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-31178659172892782962020-05-15T21:42:00.004-04:002020-05-15T22:07:16.669-04:00Musings on 10 Years of Gaspe FiddleTen years seems like a fitting time to reflect on this project, taking stock of some of the accomplishments and beginning to thinking about what the next ten years will look like. The principal goal of this project was simply to make this music and Erskine known to fans of traditional fiddling. Brian and I couldn't be happier in this respect. Many of the new releases from Quebec's professional traditional musicians over the past five years or so have featured Erskine's tunes learned from this blog; many more of these tunes are being played at sessions and at festivals all around the globe. Lisa Ornstein; André Brunet; Alexis Chartrand; Davi Simard; Le Vent du Nord and De Temps en Temp; Le Bruit court dans la Ville; Pascal Gemme; Laura Risk; among many others have helped share this music (please leave a comment if there are other performers I should add).<br />
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Knowledge of Erskine and the Gaspé fiddle style has even gone global! Laura Risk recently taught at a fiddle camp in Australia and arrived to find that the local fiddlers already knew "Joe Drody's Jig" and were eager to learn more tunes from the region. Just the other week, Lisa Ornstein taught two of Erskine's tunes to an online fiddle class with several dozen students from the United States (several years ago she featured Erskine's setting of " Tommy Rooney's Jig" on her website as the <a href="http://www.lisaornstein.com/quebecois-tune-of-the-month-archive/" target="_blank">Québécois Tune of the Month</a>). The list goes on and on.<br />
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It has also been touching to see how many people have joined in our efforts to promote this unique musical culture by creating their own online resources. In particular, Guy Bouchard and Laura Sadowsky, who now reside in Douglastown, have been sharing not only this music, but also trying to bring back the old dances that went alongside this music through regular workshops and dance nights during the long Gaspesian winters (Guy is currently working a film project about these dances). Much of their activity is documented on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/douglastownorchestra/" target="_blank">their l'Orchestre de danse de Douglastown Facebook page</a>. You can also hear recordings of Guy and Mathieu playing this music over at <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-517417011" target="_blank">Guy's Soundcloud page</a>; Guy has often provided inspiring and subtle guitar accompaniment to these tunes. Their friend and cellist-mandolinist France Dupuis has produced an excellent set of transcriptions of the tunes they have learned for their project, all of which can be downloaded from <a href="http://www.studiofrancedupuis.sitew.com/Airs_Memoire_Sheet_Music.K.htm" target="_blank">France Dupuis' personal website</a> for a small fee.<br />
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In the United States, Paul Fackler has been working tirelessly to transcribe every tune on this blog while also promoting Erskine's music among the various jam groups he interacts with all over the country. Brian and I are currently working with Paul to help him publish these transcriptions in a free PDF. (You may recall that Paul reached out to help us a few years ago by providing a detailed list of alternate tune titles for the material found on this blog in cases where the tune is played elsewhere in Quebec or in other fiddle traditions; these notes and sources will be part of Paul's upcoming set of transcriptions.)<br />
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The Internet is, in many ways, a very different place in 2020 than 2010. Social media rose to dominate how most of us find, seek out, consume, and engage with online content; as well streaming both audio and video has become both norm and expectation. (Ten years ago, I could simply write articles here and know that this would find its way out to a small but loyal audience of blog subscribers; an interface for streaming a whole set of tracks in a playlist didn't exist on Blogger - and still doesn't).<br />
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My own ability to keep up contributing to this project has also considerably slowed. In 2012, I left Montreal for 7 years to pursue a doctorate degree in ethnomusicology in St. John's and found myself with decidedly less time to write about and share content here. Currently, I'm working two jobs and am still trying to finish that degree. In one of these jobs, I'm fortunate to be directing a <a href="http://facebook.com/adifferenttune" target="_blank">province-wide survey of musical heritage</a> in Quebec's diverse English-speaking communities for the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network. As well, my own musical interests have drifted a bit to new communities and cultures in Quebec and elsewhere around the world (Turkish, Greek, Ottoman, Arabic, and Armenian music in the last year or so, for example). Still, Erskine's music has a special place in my heart - not least because of all the wonderful people it introduced me to, from Gaspé to the Ottawa Valley and beyond. And we have so much music from Erskine's home recordings to share.<br />
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In this era of the meme, tweet, and quasi-ephemeral posts on Facebook, it's touching to see this material still making the rounds online and in-person and getting musicians excited. It seems that there is as much interest in this music now as there ever was, perhaps even more thanks to the work of all the people and others mentioned above.<br />
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Brian and I have been discussing this state of affairs recently with some of the people named above. And from this, we've decided that it is time to fully open up our archives and expand even further the sense of community involvement in this project. Brian firmly believes that his father would have shared his music with anyone interested. In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, Erskine was dubbing his tapes and putting them in the mail to friends and family from Vancouver to Gaspé. And today, his music is travelling far and wide online and person-to-person due to all our efforts.<br />
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The exact form this next phase of the project will take is still taking shape, but we are currently exploring other online platforms for sharing entire home recordings which will give listeners the chance to hear, download, and learn tunes that I haven't had a chance to share here yet. Each of these recordings represents a unique moment in Erskine's life, where he sat down in his parlour during an afternoon to record tunes he was learning or reworking. In this way, they are a precious window into Erskine's <i>metier </i>as an old-time fiddler. This blog will still have a place in this already-expanded ecosystem on Gaspesian fiddling - its role a testament to the first chapter of this collective project and a narrative of the journey Brian and I undertook, meeting Gaspesians near and far to learn more about this music and the people who played it, danced to it, or simply loved it.<br />
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We are also planning an online event (given the current restrictions on public gatherings due to COVID-19) for August 2020 to mark this first decade of the project. We will be inviting some of our new friends who have taken up this music to share a few tunes they've learned from Erskine and his neighbours.<br />
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That's all for now - here's to the next ten years. Thank you for all the support/Merci pour votre soutien.Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-9770813375492405642020-05-03T21:30:00.003-04:002020-05-03T21:30:32.385-04:00Downloading Links Now EnabledA few users have recently asked about the ability to download links from the Box.com site where the audio files are stored. We've now enabled this functionality on all the links (if you find one or two where it still doesn't work, let us know). This will make life easier for those of you wanting to download the files and slow things down and possibly adjust the pitch to A440 in order to learn these tunes. Happy listening and learning.Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-38300019315162270032020-01-08T00:35:00.000-05:002020-01-13T13:31:11.344-05:00Remembering Anthony Drody (October 9, 1932 - December 26, 2019)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anthony Drody. 2012 Douglastown Irish Week</td></tr>
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I'm writing this post in memory of Anthony Drody who passed away the other week. Anthony was the son of Joe Drody Sr. who, as many readers will know, was Erskine Morris' fiddle mentor back in the 1920s and early 30s. Fiddling was just kind of ubiquitous in the house - I never got the sense that it was something that any of the Drody's set out to work, to sit down and practice hours on end. But it was always there. I remember Anthony telling me the way it usually worked: no one would play for weeks but whenever one of his siblings picked up the fiddle, they would all be fighting over it.<br />
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Anthony was one of the last links to the living memory of the old Gaspesian fiddle music before the influence of fiddle styles began reaching Gaspé from afar in the 1940s through radio, vinyl, and later, cassette. As such, he was a great help to Brian Morris, Laura Risk, and me in our work. Anthony gave us lots insight into who the older fiddlers were, what made their style unique, and stories about their lives and music. His specialty perhaps was in supplying alternate tune titles. For example: he noted that the original name of the "Bois-Brulé Jig" among many old-timers was "The Spruce Knot"; similarly, Anthony provided such obscure and outlandish titles like "The Tune that Connie Maloney Danced On" (for "Joe Drody's Jig") and "Piss and Keep the Hair Dry" (for "Reggie Rooney's Tune").<br />
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Like many others, Anthony left the Coast with his wife Connie Ingrouville (of Barachois) for work decades ago, eventually ending up in Old Bridge, New Jersey where they raised their family and he was an ironworker. Still, Anthony and Connie generally made the trip back to Gaspé in the summers. Anthony played an eclectic repertoire of tunes learned from many sources over the years: In addition to the tunes he kept up from his father and uncle Charlie, he learned from radio fiddlers like Don Messer while also keeping up many of the old tunes he learned from his father and other Gaspé players; I even heard Anthony play southern old-time tunes he picked up from friends in New Jersey. It was always a joy to be around him at Pembroke or Gaspé when one of the old Gaspé tunes would come back to him, sometimes after five decades of not having played or even heard it.<br />
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Like many of the Drodys, Anthony had a calm and generous disposition and was as happy to sit back and listen to you or anyone else play fiddle as he was to play music himself at a gathering. In typical Drody style, time always had an unhurried quality when I was around Anthony. Simple things like chatting over toast and coffee at Pembroke, or stopping for a visit at his summer home in Gaspé - I always left feeling more at-ease in the world and like Anthony had some kind of secret to everyday happiness for the modern world.<br />
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You can read his official obituary from the family <a href="https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/10415243/Anthony-Drody" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I recently uploaded a series of videos to our project's YouTube Channel, and below I've shared some of the highlights that feature Anthony's fiddling. The footage was supplied to me by his niece Linda Drody. She made this home movie during a 1990 Family Reunion that took place in Haldimand and L'Anse-à-Brillant. I love these videos because they show the bigger picture as it were: music was simply a way the Drody's connected to family, friends, and their community far and wide.<br />
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I hope these videos give you some time to see this special connection between family and music and, if you knew Anthony, to remember him fondly by getting to see him do something which ran both so deep and unassumingly in who he was.<br />
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<li>Here is Anthony playing the great Douglastown step-dance tune, Tommy Rooney's Jig (of which there are several versions of Erskine playing elsewhere on the site). His sister, MaryEllen Drody-Savidant is backing him on the guitar. I'm amazed by much Anthony drives the tune with a bow stroke that just glides gently back and forth over the strings. Anthony always loved this tune and thought it was the best tune that Erskine played. </li>
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<li>In the second video, Anthony plays the Bob Wills classic, "Faded Love" again with MaryEllen chording for him. I love the way that Anthony plays this with a danceable march-like tempo rather unlike Bob Wills slower and smoother rendition. At the end, there's a nice teasing moment between brother and sister at the end of the video: perhaps influenced by American bluegrass and old-time jams, Anthony brought the practice of raising his foot to indicate when he wanted to end a tune - his siblings always found this a little peculiar.</li>
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<li>Here is Anthony playing "The Old Man and Old Woman" with his brother Johnny on fiddle and again, and his sisters MaryEllen and Brigid on guitar and piano accordion respectively.</li>
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<li>Finally, here's a clip of three Drody siblings (Brigid, Anthony, and Joseph) all playing fiddle together on "McNabb's Hornpipe" as MaryEllen and Johnny back them up on guitar with Debbie Sams (MaryEllen's daughter) on piano accordion. You can see Anthony's mastery of the bow-work required to play this tune.</li>
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There's plenty of other good music from this same tape on the following <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqwJsSqXBHZC9QWCMqZOXRvuYMRFCcc10" target="_blank">YouTube playlist I created</a>.<br />
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Enjoy the music.Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-81610039683141729052020-01-03T13:11:00.001-05:002020-01-03T13:11:55.264-05:00Alternate Tune Titles with Paul FacklerA few years back, I received an email from a gentleman in North Carolina named Paul Fackler who runs a local fiddle appreciation group where they have monthly presentations about fiddlers whose music they've been studying and share the music. He had been learning some of Erskine's tunes and was wanting to present this music to the class.<br />
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His email also contained a spreadsheet of various tunes from this blog for which he knew alternate titles from his knowledge of fiddle music in Ireland, Cape Breton, and elsewhere in Quebec. A few of them I was aware of but the vast majority were a revelation. Sometimes I'll be listening to a bunch of Joseph Allard or Isidore Soucy on my iPod while driving, hear a tune I recognize from Erskine or Cyril, and then not be able to find it later. I had started little documents in the past to note these down but never got very far. Paul's document on the other hand was full of all kinds of additional information, commentary, and even links to other places on the Internet where you could hear these tunes played under such alternate titles. I've compiled his extensive efforts with some of my smaller contributions into a PDF document that you can see here (I'll post it in the "Listen to All the Tunes" page too for reference). Anything that appears in blue can be clicked and you'll be taken to the appropriate webpage.<br />
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<a href="https://app.box.com/s/busw2ovhme1z9w50u2uxofsg041i0wpt" target="_blank">Here is the document.</a> The text in blue should allow you to click on it to be redirected to the online source where you can listen and/or read more.<br />
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Paul and I also had a more philosophical discussion about tune titles in Quebec. In all fiddle traditions, there is a certain amount of variability in tune titles, say when someone doesn't correctly recall the title of a tune learned at a dance and then shows it to someone else. However, in places like Ireland and Scotland, there is for the most part, a strong consensus about what the "real" title of any given piece is and that is the title that most will use. This might have to do with the early availability of tune collections of Irish and Scottish music going back to the early 1800s (tune books were especially prominent in the Scottish and Cape Breton traditions). In Quebec, it is a whole different story. If you take two fiddlers from different parts of the province who play the same tune, they will almost always have a different title. Even in the 78 rpm recording era, a fiddler like Joseph Allard would record a tune like St. Anne's Reel several times using different titles (for example, Esquimault Reel). I can only think of a handful of older tunes in Quebec that have a fairly stable title: Reel du pendu; La grande gigue simple; La tuque bleu. There are more of course but they tend to be the exception to the rule.<br />
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A lot that can be said for this, including the fact that there was often a language barrier for Irish and Scottish repertoire that entered circulation in Quebec in the late 18th and 19th centuries. In Gaspé and other areas of the province which once had significant anglophone populations (e.g. Eastern Townships and Quebec City), it's even possible that the language barrier was crossed back and forth multiple times: Erskine—who didn't speak French—surprisingly referred to "La grande gigue simple" not with it's anglicized "Grand Jig" (a title I've heard other anglophones from Gaspé use) but with the French "La Grande Rouge" which actually hints at its connection to the Métis version, "La gigue de la Rivière Rouge" or "The Red River Jig."<br />
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I remember visiting Cyril DeVouge back in 2010 and he told us that the old fiddlers didn't care what tunes were called. His favourite joke after we would play him a tune would be to tell us that he knew the title. When we would ask him what it was, he would reply that it's called "I Don't Know." Classic Gaspesian oddball humour. Indeed, in my experiences in Gaspé, for both local and well-known tunes, they are as likely to be known by the name of the fiddler who played it or someone who enjoyed it (E.g. Edmund McAuley's Tune, Eva's Tune, Tommy Rooney's Jig, etc.). Still, it's very useful for those of us learning this music to be able to compare versions and so I'm grateful for Paul having reached out to us.<br />
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If you know any other alternate titles when exploring this blog, please let me know.<br />
<br />Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-82485028540180765792017-04-15T20:55:00.001-04:002017-04-15T20:55:33.286-04:00The Bone in the Cupboard or Blackberry BlossomsHere's a tune of Erskine's that Brian sent me a few years back that I've always loved. It's one of those ones with such a peculiar title that it makes you wonder if the person who named it was just seeing what they could get away with.<br />
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<a href="https://app.box.com/s/65eqm0fzk26eft1rg8z9wx3pfxptaem5" target="_blank">Hear Erskine play "Bone in the Cupboard"</a><br />
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I've always loved this tune because, technically speaking, the melody never resolves (it always ends on the 2nd rather than the 1st note of the scale). Because of this, you just want to keep going and you find yourself caught in a hypnotic loop with this simple little tune. A few of Erskine's Gaspé tunes have melodies like this (e.g. Fat Molasses, Little White House Under the Hill, Eva's Tune) and so I'd just assumed this tune must also be one from around Gaspé. It has a few snakey string crossings but overall, feels nice under the bow once you get it down. Erskine has a nice soft touch on this one, almost a plaintive sound.<br />
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I've been learning the 1-row button accordion since this past summer and have been really getting into the repertoire of the New York-born German-American accordionist John J. Kimmel. Kimmel was one of the earliest musicians to record, as early as 1906 on wax cylinders for Edison records). Kimmel is still revered 110 years after he made his first recordings, especially in Quebec where he is perhaps best known for his unrivaled and virtuosic interpretations of Irish tunes. Driving around town today, I was listening Kimmel's music interpreted by Raynald Ouellet, Denis Pépin, and Christian Maes on their <a href="http://www.mnemo.qc.ca/spip/les-prix-mnemo/article/prix-mnemo-2010-le-double-cd-john" target="_blank">homage to Kimmel album</a> when a familiar melody came on. Indeed, it was the elusive "Bone in the Cupboard" but under a different title, "Blackberry Blossoms" (it's the 2nd tune in Kimmel's "Stack of Barley Medley")<br />
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<a href="http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/5078/" target="_blank">You can hear Kimmel's version here</a> (just wait until the second tune in the set) recorded in 1916 with Joe Linder on piano. It's remarkable how close his version is to Erskine's and given Kimmel's massive popularity in Quebec in the early 20th century, I wonder if Erskine's version comes either directly or indirectly from Kimmel.Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-78642954340578874172016-10-21T13:41:00.002-04:002016-10-21T13:41:54.477-04:00The Gaspé ReelHere's a catchy little D tune that Erskine composed called the "Gaspé Reel." The melody and phrasing are quite intuitive but the string crossings and some of the note orderings make this one just enough out of the ordinary to keep it interesting. I'm sure our fiddle playing readers will have fun with this tune.<br />
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<a href="https://gaspesiancommunitysound.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/04-the-gaspc3a9-reel-original.wav" target="_blank">Listen to the Gaspé Reel</a><br />
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Erskine recorded this tune on several tapes. In fact, one of the earliest tapes Brian and I used to share music on this blog back in 2010 featured this tune. But today was a rainy day and I had a fire going and wanted to listen to a tape on my reel-to-reel player. I put on a reel that Brian loaned me last year which features acoustic fingerstyle guitar music dubbed from a commercial recording on side A and, tucked away 15 minutes into side B which is otherwise blank, is half an hour of his dad playing alone at home.<br />
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One thing I really appreciate about Erskine's artistry was that his playing intensity varied by context. At parties he could play hard-driving, syncopated fiddling with the full weight of his bow arm; at home, playing solo, he would sometimes play a little sweeter, with a softer touch, weaving through the twisty passages with a surprising gentleness without sacrificing the drive and danceability of the tune. Case in point: as soon as this tune was over I found myself reaching for my fiddle case, the melody still buzzing around my head, to see if I could catch what I'd just heard.<br />
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Of course, there are several well-known melodies that go by this title and here is yet another. Erskine wrote quite a few original tunes throughout his life, often for different relatives and family members. I look forward to sharing a few more of these originals in the year to come.Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-21452910236481978912016-08-01T13:20:00.002-04:002016-08-01T13:20:49.158-04:00How To Chord For Fiddlers - With Brigid Drody<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25.5px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Today I'm cross-posting from our sister blog (Gaspesian Community Sound Archives) to share something extra-special and often overlooked when it comes to fiddle music: chording on the guitar.</div>
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One of the aims of this project is to provide aspiring musicians in the community with resources to develop their playing or singing. There's a lot of practical knowledge about playing music among the wider Gaspesian community at home and away. The archives can in a small way, help convey this know-how. In a region where resources for public and private music education are limited, I think this form of archival outreach could be valuable.</div>
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In July of last year, Brian Morris and I visited Brigid Drody at her place in the Chateauguay Valley south of Montreal (Brian and Brigid's music was featured in the previous post). I had been asked to give a rhythm guitar workshop at the 2015 Irish Week in Douglastown and I wanted to bring my students some videos of good rhythm guitar playing to learn from. We setup the camera to focus only on Brigid's hands to give viewers the best possible angle to study her style. I'll be giving another guitar workshop at this year's festival, on Saturday, August 6, 2016 at the Douglas Community Center as part of the <a data-mce-href="http://www.douglastownirishweek.org/program.html" href="http://www.douglastownirishweek.org/program.html" style="color: #00aadc;" target="_blank">Douglastown Irish Days</a>. Voluntary contribution.</div>
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<dt class="wp-caption-dt" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; overflow: hidden;"><img alt="IMG_2686" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1194" height="300" src="https://gaspesiancommunitysound.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/img_2686.jpg?w=225" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; border: 0px none; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="225" /></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; background: rgb(243, 246, 248); color: #4f748e; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px; padding: 16px;">Brigid Drody-Miller at her home. June 13, 2013. (Photo by Glenn Patterson)</dd></dl>
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Today I'm featuring these videos of Brigid's chording and will provide an overall commentary on her style of backup for old-time fiddlers.</div>
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Brigid has six decades of experience chording for fiddlers, beginning in the 1940s with her own musical family in Douglastown. Her father and uncle, three brothers, and two of her sisters played fiddle. She began guitar at a very young age by strumming on a neighbour's guitar that was hanging on the wall of her home - she was forbidden to take the guitar down from the wall.</div>
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I've been playing music with Brigid for about 6 years now and she is a joy to play with. When you play with her it feels like you are having a conversation. She doesn't try to copy your rhythm but instead responds to and complements what you are doing.<span data-mce-style="line-height: 1.7;" style="line-height: 1.7;">Her style has a lot in common with the older guitar style you'll hear on early records of fiddle music from the 1920s and 1930s (listen to old Joseph Allard recordings for an idea) but with her own unique twists.</span></div>
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Here is a YouTube playlist where you can see the videos of Brigid's guitar playing. </div>
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Here's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVCumecPqwU&list=PLpBfgnIhhso2nbDj2fiJg5fUX6GvXiS_B" target="_blank">the address for the full playlist</a>, should the above embedded video not work on your platform.</div>
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Common Rhythm Problems</h2>
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<span data-mce-style="line-height: 1.7;" style="line-height: 1.7;">One of the single biggest problems I notice with people new to chording for fiddlers—even if they are otherwise experienced players and especially if they come from a folk, rock, or post-1950s country background—is that they have an "undisciplined" right hand. Their style is just far too loud and "strummy." Every time they touch their strings it's always with a full-force strum across five or six strings, the pick flailing </span><span data-mce-style="line-height: 1.7;" style="line-height: 1.7;">up and down</span><span data-mce-style="line-height: 1.7;" style="line-height: 1.7;"> in an unpredictable rhythm. There are a few problems with this approach besides its unsteady rhythm.</span></div>
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Firstly, from a fiddler's perspective, it completely overwhelms the melody simply because five or six strings constantly ringing out creates far too much sound. You will drown out the fiddle player and the rhythm you are providing lacks clarity. Second, if you are playing at the faster tempos required for fiddle music, your arm will quickly tire out and you will soon start to drag the beat and pull the tempo down. The music begins to feel like a quickly deflating tire. It is simply not possible to play for faster tempos or for the longer durations required for square dances if you strum like this.</div>
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The Alternating Bass-Strum Style</h2>
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As you'll notice in Brigid's guitar style, there are two basic alternating parts to her chording style that she uses for most of her playing:</div>
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<li><strong>The Downstroked Bass Note:</strong> First, there is a bass note in the chord played on its own. These happen on the three lowest-pitched strings (E, A, or D) and <em>always </em>happen on the downbeats with a heavily accented downstroke of the pick. <em>It is the downbeat that creates a sense of drive in this music not the strums.</em> [This is probably the single biggest misconception that I encounter. People think you need to emphasize the strumming aspect of rhythm guitar but this isn't really true for old-time music.]</li>
<li><strong>The Light Strum: </strong>Between these bass notes is where you put a single strum using a downstroke of the pick. Importantly, this single strum shouldn't be too loud—a light brush will do. Otherwise you will make the music sound like reggae (which it isn't) because you will drown out your downbeat bass notes. And this creates the opposite of drive: drag.</li>
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On the bass note that follows this strum, Brigid will often alternate to a different bass note in the same chord as the first step.</div>
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What you notice with the above is that there are actually no upstrokes in the this basic pattern. Both the isolated downbeat bass note and the offbeat strum happen on consecutive downstrokes. This basic pattern is most evident in her performances on "Leslie DeVouge's Tune," "Another one of Roland White's," and "Casey's Hornpipe." You'll also notice that Brigid often "walks the bass" to change from one chord to another. To figure this out, you need to use your ear to find the possible in-between bass notes from the lowest notes in the two chords you want to connect. These can come later after you've mastered the basic pattern described above. </div>
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Sometimes, Brigid will put in a brief burst of rapid-fire strumming using alternating down and upstrokes to complement the fiddle part. However, these are the exception to the rule in her playing. They are effective but should be used sparingly (see her playing in "La ronfleuse Gobeil" for an example of this technique). I have met some solid guitar players around Gaspé who have a tight and non-overwhelming "strummy" rhythm guitar style with few bass notes. but this is rare in my opinion (it is a more common guitar style in modern Irish and Celtic music and is often used with a delicate right hand touch).</div>
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Enjoy and please leave a comment if you get something out of this or have any questions.</div>
Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-31008093887835239732016-07-12T11:55:00.000-04:002016-07-12T11:55:10.971-04:00The Little Boy's Reel (Teaching Files)The Little Boy's Reel is one of my favourite D tunes of Erskine and is one I've played for the last five years or so. I first encountered it on Erskine's 1990 tape, one of his best and most energetic recordings. Have a listen to the original tune that I posted back in 2011:<br />
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<a href="http://gaspefiddle.blogspot.ca/2011/10/little-boys-reel.html" target="_blank">Hear Erskine play the Little Boy's Reel</a><br />
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A reader of the blog from the Saguenay region of our province recently emailed me to ask if I would break the tune down for him so he could learn it. It's been a long time since I shared any teaching files on this blog so I thought I should fix that. Here's how I play the tune. I'm sure it's not note-for-note how Erskine played it. I play it slowly all the way through before breaking apart the low and high part in the next two files.<br />
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<a href="https://app.box.com/s/w9ws2sd7dguunp8b7uf5l9iwfqabvuu6" target="_blank">Learn the Little Boy's Reel</a><br />
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Enjoy and feel free to write me or leave a comment if you would like me to break down other Gaspé tunes you find on the blog.Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-35084991380966626032016-07-09T22:55:00.002-04:002016-07-09T22:56:12.796-04:00Live From Brigid's Trailer (2013) - Brian Morris and Brigid DrodyOn our sister blog, I just posted a playlist of guitar duets featuring Brian Morris (lead) and Brigid Drody (rhythm) that I recorded at the Pembroke festival in 2013. (It's easier to make playlists on the Wordpress blog platform). This is some top-notch instrumental guitar music and for me, captures the spirit of laid back afternoons with friends at the Pembroke festival. <a href="https://gaspesiancommunitysound.com/2016/07/09/live-from-brigids-trailer-2013-brian-morris-and-brigid-drody/" target="_blank">Check it out over there.</a>Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-42215383824470562382016-03-29T14:34:00.002-04:002016-05-09T18:56:49.989-04:00Erskine and Brian Morris - 1985 Cassette (ENTIRE TAPE!)<b>Today's post marks a first in this project: </b>We are featuring an entire cassette of music of Erskine's fiddling! I've long wanted to share a whole tape that our readers could listen to continuously without having to click on each tune, however, the blog interface on this site doesn't easily support this kind of listening. However, the sister blog I began last year on another platform has support for audio playlists and I recently made a post featuring this music and some commentary.<br />
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<a href="http://gaspesiancommunitysound.com/2016/03/29/erskine-and-brian-morris-1985-cambridge-tape/" target="_blank">Check it out here.</a><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7_veen4Rpr0opAqsIkOCpcvL8pv6ZftkW5GmaRdi1PyYgu-EBobUen-P70K7xH4h3PCg1cf6K5WzN7zFXJKAAm_pSVB6JN3uWshGlHuoJXISH-4MCLCmwfsABnWsazhwnpT2apNj3FVJK/s1600/02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7_veen4Rpr0opAqsIkOCpcvL8pv6ZftkW5GmaRdi1PyYgu-EBobUen-P70K7xH4h3PCg1cf6K5WzN7zFXJKAAm_pSVB6JN3uWshGlHuoJXISH-4MCLCmwfsABnWsazhwnpT2apNj3FVJK/s320/02.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 1985 Cambridge Tape - Photo courtesy of Brian Morris</td></tr>
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<br />Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-33956210496931023822016-02-16T23:09:00.002-05:002020-04-06T16:55:32.067-04:00One of Fred Kennedy's - Pearl of the Coast RevisitedNearly six years ago, <a href="http://gaspefiddle.blogspot.ca/2010/04/pretty-little-snippet.html" target="_blank">I posted</a> what I still feel is some of the most beautiful Gaspesian fiddle music I've encountered during my time working with Brian Morris on this blog. Back in April 2010, Brian salvaged twenty-five seconds of a tune off an old reel-to-reel that his father made in the 1960s and the sound has captivated me since I first heard it. For lack of a title, Brian decided to call this tune "Pearl From the Coast" back in 2010, a reference to Douglastown's unofficial title.<br />
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<a href="https://app.box.com/shared/894f65jzq3" target="_blank">Here is the twenty-five second clip</a><br />
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Although twenty-five seconds was enough to give me a sense of both parts of the tune, I wasn't sure if Erskine played any variations throughout the rest of the performance. Or perhaps there were even additional parts not captured in this recorded fragment?<br />
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Last month, however, Brian sent me a tune he had just found. It was on one of the remaining tapes of his father's that he had yet to digitize. Erskine identifies it as one of Fred Kennedy's tunes. As I listened for the first time, I began to smile as I knew I was hearing something familiar if somewhat distant. And then it dawned on me that this was the mysterious and beautiful tune from the early days of this project. The tempo here is faster and more driving, but it is otherwise quite close to the other performance, crooked twists and all.<br />
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<a href="https://app.box.com/s/0d63gk9azgrx1u0deo4m1vm5wdp5g0pc" target="_blank">Here is the latest recording, "One of Fred Kennedy's"</a><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK_pxuvhqqBRBSa-eAbvh-XojIKGMnfqsBfKnEU4-_3lt4mkhYq-ILZJAoEr4a3Jezt-f0a5jZwwGEKziNQN4wEm1kTm4sRhEhJwFmGAtB82cgKWHYAfNEcfvn5VZ4BPDYYJS6fKLaqANE/s1600/SDC10535.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK_pxuvhqqBRBSa-eAbvh-XojIKGMnfqsBfKnEU4-_3lt4mkhYq-ILZJAoEr4a3Jezt-f0a5jZwwGEKziNQN4wEm1kTm4sRhEhJwFmGAtB82cgKWHYAfNEcfvn5VZ4BPDYYJS6fKLaqANE/s320/SDC10535.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Douglastown - The Pearl of the Coast</td></tr>
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We haven't been able to find out much about Fred Kennedy although he was clearly a fiddler from Douglastown. According to Joseph and Anthony Drody, he was one of the very old local fiddlers who they don't remember very well.<br />
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The wonderful site, "Our Gaspé Roots," shows a Frederick Thomas Kennedy who lived from 1855 until 1942. Given when this Fred Kennedy lived, Erskine would have known him in Douglastown from before his stint in the army; and Joseph and Anthony would have been teenagers when he died at age 87. And so it is possible that this is the same Fred Kennedy from whom Erskine learned this gorgeous tune.<br />
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If so, his parents were John Kennedy and Catherine Morris, both born in the 1810s. This Fred Kennedy's great-grandfathers were William Kennedy and Thomas Morris, both among the first settlers of Douglastown, having arrived in 1785. William Kennedy (approx. 1740-1797) was an Irish-born Loyalist refugee who had been living in New York State before the American Revolution broke out; Thomas Morris (about 1750-1792) was also Irish-born and had been a British sea captain who had fought the American's at Valcour Island and later escorted Loyalist refugees to both New Carlisle and Douglastown (where he also settled). More information on Douglastown's early settlers can be found in Al White's newsletters, the <a href="http://www.gogaspe.com/douglastown/history2.html" target="_blank">Douglastown Historical Review</a> from a few years back. I find myself constantly returning to his newsletters for the extensive research they contain.Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-56568533477388447702016-02-04T22:17:00.001-05:002016-02-04T22:17:12.886-05:00"Uncle Peter's Tune" - Erskine & King MarionHere's a tune that caught my ear a few years ago and is one I've been playing often for the past six months. Erskine didn't supply a title for it—this came a few years later when I found a tape of old Gaspe fiddlers in Willie Methot's collection. On the tape, Kingsley Marion played this tune during a house party and the person recording announced it as "Uncle Peter's Tune." Kingsley (or "King" as he was known) seems to have been from the Line Road, either Bougainville or Belle-Anse. Some of the old timers still remember him but he left the coast many years ago. I'm in the process of finding out more information on him. He was certainly a wonderful player. Also, if any readers thinks they might know who Uncle Peter was, drop us a line.<br />
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<a href="https://app.box.com/s/23dcy14ims9y6eqgimorg4c0yc5psazg" target="_blank">Here is Erskine's Version</a></div>
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<a href="https://app.box.com/s/e29yb1e4noawl1r31yq6l25xtw427mzd" target="_blank">Here is King Marion's Version</a></div>
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Both Erskine and King provide some nice footwork along with the tune, Erskine using what sounds like quite a bit of double toeing to my ears. Bill Lucas from Haldimand also played this tune and so it seems the tune may have once been in wide circulation around the Gaspé area. This lovely melody is just a little peculiar, with loads of lift. It starts off with a charming and sharp melody in G, but when the turn hits it sounds more like a bunch of syncopated bow riffs than a clear melody. As Brian Morris told me a few years ago when we were talking about the character of the old Gaspé tunes:<br />
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<i>They’re more rhythmic instead of melodic, because the dancers loved that. I mean there’s syncopated, off-beat stuff. Man, it’s good for dancing. </i>(Brian Morris, July, 2011)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYQPepW-CG_NgsXrjnxITjDFbnAUPE0FoTnTPVJZx2vTPTk_z5n-Y3-KTnx3jBks20WA3bPvD7iJJNfEbhz62rns3eRtID7mqeB1k9GgOuxMsZMhydU-pUII1x-nbGhhIdCG5IRm1i6A7/s1600/IMG_4920.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxYQPepW-CG_NgsXrjnxITjDFbnAUPE0FoTnTPVJZx2vTPTk_z5n-Y3-KTnx3jBks20WA3bPvD7iJJNfEbhz62rns3eRtID7mqeB1k9GgOuxMsZMhydU-pUII1x-nbGhhIdCG5IRm1i6A7/s320/IMG_4920.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from the yard at Belle-Anse School</td></tr>
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Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-73703909053294320732015-11-12T00:04:00.002-05:002015-11-12T00:04:33.095-05:00Music from the October Gaspé Wellness Centre<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUWZ0qe6jW6fYCOzuTWKwVuyens7trZvcBpBADIkTsBKj4JPS4Ngc3LYN6_iM9vnvhazp43VIEgHtMnn3_0svZQNmDyo10copHR_l6td6H1j30EUxS6TsDtJNg53VzKU9FsfrT-5xhcLa9/s1600/IMG_4889.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUWZ0qe6jW6fYCOzuTWKwVuyens7trZvcBpBADIkTsBKj4JPS4Ngc3LYN6_iM9vnvhazp43VIEgHtMnn3_0svZQNmDyo10copHR_l6td6H1j30EUxS6TsDtJNg53VzKU9FsfrT-5xhcLa9/s320/IMG_4889.JPG" width="320" /></a>I put up a playlist of 27 songs and tunes from a sampler CD I prepared for the Gaspé Wellness Centre on the new sister blog, "Gaspesian Community Sound."<br />
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I created the other blog to share a greater diversity of local music in our archival recordings including country, rock n' roll, and guitar picking as well as, of course, fiddle music. However, I want to use this blog as a resource that is devoted more-or-less exclusively to Gaspesian fiddle music.<br />
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On the playlist you'll find some great fiddle music that we've recently acquired from old tapes, tunes played by people like Hermas Réhel, Bill Lucas, Willie Methot, Charlie Drody, James Henry Conley, Réjean Fergusson, and Gérard Durrette. Some of these players I would like to feature more right here in the near future.<br />
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<a href="http://gaspesiancommunitysound.com/2015/11/11/gaspe-wellness-centre-cd-sampler-now-available-for-online-streaming/" target="_blank">Click here to go to the music</a>Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-83221999085283259002015-10-26T14:29:00.001-04:002015-10-27T08:12:21.325-04:00Tunes from Mrs Edgar's Kitchen - Brian and GlennHello readers,<br />
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Today I'm sharing some tunes that Brian and I recorded this past August in Douglastown in the house where his father Erskine grew up. Erskine's parents were Edgar and Beatrice (or Mrs. Edgar, nee Fortin) and built this house where they raised their ten children. The house was eventually passed to their son Watson Morris, Erskine's brother, who lived in it until his death.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhge7Duj1xFZeTZpSM4YC6-jxWx7fa_1Ks7efLfQuBiS-UbzZhH-Y9AXyet7nt6kFNZS0mUijwj7vMPgdJtyBCezXANkOkixFDoC-46WupaegNO3z3A-mqoCflF-tuHzQWht0f8aVUNUah8/s1600/IMG_4510.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhge7Duj1xFZeTZpSM4YC6-jxWx7fa_1Ks7efLfQuBiS-UbzZhH-Y9AXyet7nt6kFNZS0mUijwj7vMPgdJtyBCezXANkOkixFDoC-46WupaegNO3z3A-mqoCflF-tuHzQWht0f8aVUNUah8/s320/IMG_4510.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
I'm currently living in the summer kitchen of the house, a portion which was separated from the main living space and moved further up the property where it now serves as a camp. It is a quiet and beautiful location far from the main road (the 132) and I enjoy amazing views of the Bay of Gaspé and the Forillon Coast every time I look out the window. I moved here last July to do fieldwork for my PhD dissertation (hence, why posts have been so slow). The current owner of the property has done a wonderful job preserving the best aspects of the work that Edgar and Watson Morris put into this place.<br />
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A lot of music was made in this space—both Erskine's fiddling and his mother's lilting as well as numerous house parties—and it was a special experience for Brian and I to make this recording where the music began so to speak. After a wonderfully hectic Irish Week, it was nice to escape and focus on the music, free from distraction for an afternoon in Mrs. Edgar's summer kitchen.<br />
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These recordings feature more diversity than many of the recordings we have made and include the guitar duets that Brian and I often do (I was a guitarist long before I picked up the fiddle, although I'm a little rusty these days) with a bit of bluegrass repertoire thrown in. The most inspiring moments for me were when Brian picked up the mandolin. He's never owned a mandolin but somehow, his father's tunes just came pouring out of his fingers on the first take, even at breakneck tempos. It's a real treat to get to hear this surprising and latent side of Brian's musicianship, something both of us think is embedded in his intuition for music, having hearing so much of his father's playing growing up.<br />
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A special thanks to Brian Morris who EQ'd and mastered the recordings.<br />
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<b>Here are the tunes:</b><br />
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<li><a href="https://app.box.com/s/0udxykq8ghsm69m9f4fwc56q7yugkl4v" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Whiskey Before Breakfast (Two Guitars)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://app.box.com/s/tmgfy9abi4ple43t7o6v0bz4ougk9eku" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Reel du pêcheur (Two Guitars: from Joseph Allard)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://app.box.com/s/vemw7c57egp10vd3zx2jd2rmg84oml24" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Reel du boulanger (Two Guitars: from Isidore Soucy)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://app.box.com/s/mjtzoubd4drlvvjdcwnpmje2pwceblbs" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Anthony Drody's Tune (Brian - mandolin, Glenn - guitar)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://app.box.com/s/wzkpwd8wl0d0e6v7yjfsmh9pi9akfg0v" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Blindman's Reel (Glenn - fiddle, Brian - mandolin: from Erskine Morris)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://app.box.com/s/hxol2sfoeqt21lf78fuaimnqfkzl6gg7" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Medley: Unknown Reel & The Irish Jig (Glenn - fiddle, Brian - mandolin: from Erskine Morris)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://app.box.com/s/5n20k9zhl06xbu510uj03x21ksu4fq76" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Medley: The Donna Reel & Uncle Peter's Tune (Glenn - fiddle, Brian - guitar: from Erskine Morris) </a></li>
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<b>Some notes on the tunes:</b></div>
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<ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjVCrAfkCIxIjFhxp31uORVVRQu66cXgambyQ6aNSJJs_75pAEhoRxzsVgyjBXi2QuJKwwXFMSgH9lStY4eTQ42aZuQ0DG5TPstqpF7q-s02QoaLm7QIiMaz5SxtkqbJTlix-QETMBjWw/s1600/IMG_4604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjVCrAfkCIxIjFhxp31uORVVRQu66cXgambyQ6aNSJJs_75pAEhoRxzsVgyjBXi2QuJKwwXFMSgH9lStY4eTQ42aZuQ0DG5TPstqpF7q-s02QoaLm7QIiMaz5SxtkqbJTlix-QETMBjWw/s320/IMG_4604.JPG" width="212" /></a>
<li>"Anthony Drody's Tune" is an old tune that lots of older fiddlers used to play. Erskine, Joe and Charlie Drody, and a local fiddler named Kingsley Marion (whose music I've recently encountered) all played this tune. Anthony Drody showed it to me at about 2 a.m. one night during the 2013 Pembroke Fiddle and Stepdance week.</li>
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<li>"Donna Reel" is one of Erskine's original compositions. Erskine composed several tunes which we have on different recordings. He usually named them for people in his family, this one for his daughter Donna who lives in Cambridge.</li>
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<li>"The Irish Jig" is another old local classic played by people like Erskine, Joe and Charlie Drody, and Bill Lucas of Haldimand. It's not a jig in the Irish sense (in 6/8 time) but instead, a short reel good for stepdancing (i.e. dancing a "jig").</li>
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<li>"Uncle Peter's Tune" comes from the playing of both Erskine (who supplied no title) and Kingsley "King" Marion. I'm trying to find out more info about King. He was a very good fiddler from the area with an interesting older repertoire. Not many people today seem to know much about him. I'm not sure who Uncle Peter was, but we got the name from a tape Willie Methot put together of recordings of older local fiddlers from the Barachois - Malbay - Belle Anse areas; the person announcing the tunes called it "Uncle Peter's Tune."</li>
</ul>
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Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-40054148418040331232015-03-31T17:51:00.000-04:002015-04-02T14:31:24.288-04:00Historic Gaspé Footage and the Keel RowAwhile back a friend, Marc Bolduc, posted this historic NFB film <i>le Pays du Québec </i>(the Land of Quebec) on Facebook with some wonderful old footage of the Gaspé coast and the cod fishery. The footage is from all around the province but there is definitely a focus on the Gaspé. The filmaker, Laura Boulton, was a prolific American ethnologist and collector of music and instruments from around the world and has a <a href="http://www.ethnocenter.org/about" target="_blank">centre named in her honour</a> at Columbia University. She made several films for the NFB in the 1940s, it seems at least partly under the guidance of Canadian folklorists and anthropologists like Marius Barbeau and Helen Creighton.<br />
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<iframe height="320" src="https://www.nfb.ca/film/pays_de_quebec/embed/player" width="516"></iframe><br />
<div style="width: 516px;">
<a href="https://www.nfb.ca/film/pays_de_quebec" target="_blank"><em>Le pays de Québec</em></a> by <a href="https://www.nfb.ca/explore-all-directors/laura-boulton/" target="_blank" title="more films by Laura Boulton">Laura Boulton</a>, <a href="https://www.nfb.ca/" target="_blank">National Film Board of Canada</a></div>
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At about 12 min 30 sec, you get to see the Famille Ouellet from the Kamouraska area tearing up a tune at a house veillée (kitchen party). I immediately recognized the tune as a melody that I had heard on one of Erskine's numerous home-made cassettes. According to Marc, the tune is called <i>The Keel Row </i>or <i>The Kilrow, </i>among many other titles. The tune is believed to have originated in the northeast of England (around Newcastle or Northumberland) and a keel is a type of river boat, apparently particular to the rivers Tyne and Wear.<br />
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Here is Erskine's own driving setting of this tune, complete with an additional third part with classic Gaspesian syncopation. He did not have a title for this tune as far as we know.<br />
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<a href="https://app.box.com/s/ch8wi35kdxx8k7qmvdz3s9fuis0hip3f" target="_blank">Hear Erskine play <i>The Keel Row</i></a><br />
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EnjoyGlennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-22331742660657991202015-03-18T01:36:00.006-04:002015-04-01T09:12:07.884-04:00Happy St. Patrick's Day 2015Wishing everyone out there from Gaspé and beyond a very happy St. Patrick's Day. Here's a lovely rendition of "My Lovely Rose of Clare" that Norma McDonald and Debbie Sams recorded for the archives last spring. They did a consummate job and really bring out the beauty of the melody and lyrics. This is by far my personal favourite Irish song and their version can't be beat. Great job, you two!<br />
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<a href="https://app.box.com/s/2ihvz0q1u0pxobads754d3tg9mo7rrbl" target="_blank">Hear "My Lovely Rose of Clare"</a><br />
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We featured this song as sung by Norma's neighbour, Graham McDonald, on our recently-released CD, <i><a href="http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/various633" target="_blank">Douglastown: Music and Song from the Gaspé Coast</a>.</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joe Girard step dancing at an annual St. Patrick's Day concert in Douglastown </td></tr>
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And here is a lovely old photo shared on Facebook today by Elizabeth and Glenda Girard (originally of Douglastown) of their father, Joe Girard, dancing at the annual St. Patrick's Day concert in Douglastown, probably in the 50s or 60s. In their heyday, the St Patrick's concerts attracted capacity audiences of over 400 people from near and far, including Quebec's senior Catholic clergy. Joe Girard is known to have been one of Douglastown's finest step dancers. I'm not certain who the musicians are but, based on the electric guitar, I think it's MaryEllen Drody-Savidant providing the accompaniment. Elizabeth thinks that it might be either Gérard Durette or Joe Howell playing fiddle; her father frequently enjoyed dancing to Joe Howell's fiddling while Gérard Durette is an excellent French-style fiddler who was a mainstay at the St. Patrick's concerts. Let me know if you know who the musicians are. Thank you Glenda and Elizabeth for the photo.Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2114857404107353640.post-24786882068088096052014-12-21T20:32:00.001-05:002014-12-21T20:33:01.655-05:00Pictures from the Prix Mnémo CeremonyHere are some pictures from last night's ceremony awarding the Doulgastown CD the 2014 Prix Mnémo. Merci Pierre Chartrand—gigeur et câlleur extrordinaire—et l'équipe au centre Mnémo pour la belle soirée inoubliable.<br />
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Chester Rooney and Pierre treated us to some fine stepdancing before Pierre taught about one hundred square dancers how to do the Figure 8 which he recently learned from a video taken at the Doulgastown Irish Week. It was beautiful to see a room full of people dancing from the stage where Laura Risk and I were joined by Brian Morris and Brigid Drody on guitar and Pierre calling the dance.<br />
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<br />Glennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02535511728728042908noreply@blogger.com1