This 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.
Last Tuesday, September 11, we lost another friend of Gaspesian music, the great fiddler and step-dancer, Hermas Réhel, of Bridgeville, Quebec. He was 92 and 7 months. Hermas was well-loved by many in the Gaspesian community both back-home and around Montréal. Many friends of the blog recall nights listening and dancing to Hermas' powerful fiddling, while accompanied with precise, penetrating foot stomping and his wife, Rita White's, solid guitar backing. Others will remember him as the kind man who ran the general store near Percé before it was expropriated to construct the highway 132.
Hermas avec sa fille, Élaine, et petite-fille au piano
His daughter, Élaine, has let me know that the viewing will continue tomorrow at La Maison funéraire Darche in Longueuil (505 rue Curé-Poirier). His ashes will then be brought back to his place of birth where the funeral will take place at the church in Barachois on October 20 at 10 a.m.
In the next week, all the details will be on the site of HG Division (Maison funéraire Harris Gleeton).
Aussi, notre ami, Marc Bolduc, a discuté les contributions de Hermas dans le folklore Québecois pendant son émission radio, Tradosphere. On peut l'écouter à le lien ci-dessous (voir l'émission pour le 11 septembre, c'est dans la deuxième partie de 30 minutes): http://www.cibl1015.com/tradosphere
To honour Hermas' contributions to Gaspesian music, I'd like to share with you a few recordings from an old cassette that was made back in the 1960s that Brian found last year.
First we have Hermas' version of the classic Irish reel, "Sheehan's Reel". This reel is played quite extensively in Canada and you see how Hermas transforms this reel into a great Gaspesian stepdance piece with his crisp, stacatto bowing and sharp footwork.
Second, we have Hermas' take on the classic old-time/Scots tune Big John MacNeil. Hermas gets wonderful cross-string syncopations on the low turn and provides some extended phrasing which give the turn some surprising twists. In the high turn, he again gets some more interesting cross-string syncopations. I feel the mark of a great player is when the ability make an well-worn tune new again by putting their own stamp on it.
Finally, here are some great videos from our friend, Jimmy Allen, who met Hermas at Pembroke and considered him one of the greatest fiddlers he ever heard. Here is Hermas at the top of his game, fiddling and step-dancing up a storm with friends Cyril Devouge, Gary and Mary Snowman, Gavin White, the Drodys, and others.
I realize the posting has been very slow of late. After another wonderful time in Gaspé in late July and early August, I returned to Montreal mid August and commenced sorting out the move to St. John's, Newfoundland at the end of the month. As mentioned in an earlier post, I am pursuing a masters degree in Ethnomusicology at Memorial University where I will be turning the work Brian and I have been doing on Gaspesian fiddle culture into a research project. After packing up most of what I own in my Subaru and spending 3 ten hour days driving along the Trans-Canada, I'm now living in St. John's and just getting my feet on the ground.
In light of the nautical twist of this latest adventure, here is a nice version of Erskine playing the Sailor's Hornpipe. This tune seems to have become regraded a little clichée, but Erskine really shows what a fine tune it is played in the old Gaspesian style. He adds some novel twists playing the second strain in both octaves, something I don't believe I've heard elsewhere with this tune.
Here are some pictures of the drive out here, across the island and around St. John's. Amazing scenery and friendly people. I'm looking forward to sharing Gaspesian fiddle music with the folks out here.
During this year's Irish Week, I was asked to do an interview on the Drody Family and the music of Douglastown with Jacquie Czernin at CBC in Quebec City. She asked great questions and it was a pleasure to do the interview and promote this music on the CBC. You can listen here:
At this year's Irish Week taking place next week in Douglastown, we are honouring the Drody family and their contribution to the musical heritage of the Gaspé coast. In particular, we will be paying homage to the life and music of Joe Drody (Sr.) on Wednesday, August 1st at 7:30 pm.
In light of the occasion, here is a lovely tune that Erskine learned from "Mr. Joe" that we have been calling "Joe Drody's Tune": Hear Joe Drody's Tune
This tune features a typical two phrase structure in the low part with some great, choppy phrasing and syncopation. The high part is twice as long and has a lovely rolling feel and seems to share some common ideas with other tunes from Quebec. Erskine is probably playing this tune with his bass G string raised to A (as evidenced by other D tunes from the same recording session which all used the ADAE tuning), but I'm not certain.
Joe Drody Sr. and his wife, Pearl Grant
Joseph Angus Drody was born in Douglastown, Gaspé, Quebec in 1885 and lived there his almost his entire life. He passed away after living briefly with Jimmy and Brigid in Murdochville in 1965. Joe Drody was the patriarch of one of Douglastown's most musical families, the Drodys. His sons Anthony, Joseph (Jr.), and Johnny all learned the fiddle as well as daughters Kathleen and Mary Ellen. Mr. Joe learned to play the fiddle from his maternal uncle, James Henry Walsh who was born in 1830 in Douglastown. Mr. Joe got his first fiddle when he was 17 years old for $4 from an Eaton's catalogue. He would travel four miles on foot to his uncle's place to learn the old tunes. Mr. Joe knew most, perhaps all, of the older tunes featured so far on this blog. Tunes like "The Drops of Brandy", "Fat Molasses", "The Queen's Reel", "The Cockawee", and "The Murphy Reel", among many others were in Mr. Joe's repertoire. Presumably, his uncle James Henry Walsh also knew most of these same tunes.
By all accounts, Mr. Joe was a quiet, gentle man with a caring disposition. He was well-loved among his neighbours in Douglastown and was given the nickname, "Saint Joe". In his life he was a fisherman, boat builder, and carpenter. When his neighbours from Douglastown could not afford coffins for deceased family members, Joe was always there for them to build a coffin. The Drodys (Brigid, Anthony, Joseph) recall therir father playing often in the evenings after supper. Frequently, neighbours like Garnett Rooney and Isidore LeRhe would drop by to stepdance to Mr. Joe's fiddling. He would edge closer to the edge of his chair and stamp his feet as he played for the step dancers. As well, people would drop by when returning from a square dance and wake Mr. Joe to have him come down and play a few sets for them to dance to.
Mr. Joe's front porch
Mr. Joe was an important fiddle mentor for young Erskine, who would walk from his home on the main road (then the Route 6, now the 132), on a path through the woods until he reached Joe Drody's homestead over on the 1st Range. Joe Drody was Erskine's primary fiddle influence and learned many of the great Douglastown tunes from him. Erskine also learned many tunes from Joe's brother, Charlie (Mr. Charlie, as he was affectionately called by Douglastowners). The tunes Erskine learned from Joe and Charlie, he kept close to his heart and played all his life, never giving them up in favour of more modern repertoire. In fact, in his later years Erskine would play the old Gaspé tunes of his youth alongside those he learned from modern fiddlers like Don Messer, Graham Townsend, Jean Carignan, and Ti-Blanc Richard.
This Wednesday, August 1st, I will be joined by Brigid, Joseph, and Anthony Drody along with Jimmy Miller, to pay tribute to Mr. Joe's contribution to Douglastown life. I hope to see you there for what promises to be a wonderful evening.
Our friend and occasional guest-blogger, Laura Risk, did a wonderful interview with CBC that was aired recently where she discusses her memories and impressions from the Douglastown Irish Week over the past three years. Specifically, she talks about meeting and getting to know our good friend, Norma McDonald, the first year she came to play at the festival. Laura speaks very eloquently about the musical culture around Douglastown and what a special time the festival is.
I just wanted to write a quick note before I leave for Gaspe today. Looking forward to seeing my friends from the coast during the Irish Week in Douglastown.
In this installment, we are going to venture further down the coast to the Chaleur Bay and feature the music of Romeo "Tunny" Hottot who lives near Shigawake, a village with population of about 350 people. This is the first time we have featured a Chaleur Bay fiddler and I look forward to meeting more of them and learning about their music.
I met Tunny last year while visiting friends during the Shigawake Fair and Music Festival. Carl Hayes had told me about Tunny when I was there in 2010 and arranged for us to go over and meet him last August. Tunny graciously invited us to his place on two afternoons to share his music with us.
Tunny comes from a long line of fiddle players who lived out on the Gaspé coast around Shigawake. Both Tunny's grandfather and father, Alfred, played the fiddle as did most of his uncles. Most of his family, including his father, also step-danced. Tunny learned much of his fiddling from his father. Tunny began playing when he was nine years old, which is the same age that both his father and son started learning. The Hottots were originally from Honfleur, France and arrived in Québec about 1755 and were possibly of Huguenot extraction. Around Shigawake, the Hottots eventually began speaking English as this was the more widely-spoken language in that area.
In addition to many great French-Canadian and Down-East tunes, Tunny also knows some really great old tunes that come from his part of the coast. He played two of these tunes for us, one which is called the "Sheep's Paw" which used to be played in AEAE tuning. Although Tunny only uses the standard violin tuning, he tells us that all the old fiddlers like his father and grandfather used to tune up their bass strings for many tunes. Fiddlers on the coast appreciate Tunny and his father's music because they can play many tunes they learned off recordings of Cape Breton fiddlers. In fact, Cape Breton fiddle music is Tunny's favourite music. He first remembers hearing Cape Breton fiddlers when he was fifteen and was immediately taken by their music which he calls, "the best in the world".
Tunny plays in a great, hard-driving style with an aggressive bow attack, inspired from his Cape Breton fiddle heroes. When he plays, you can hear all the sharp, staccato rhythms as his bow goes back and forth across the strings. He also clogs his feet in time which makes the rhythmic quality of his music even more powerful. As he put it, "years ago, playing for sets, you beat your feet". At some point in the Part 1 of the full video below (see bottom of article), Carl Hayes tells us a great story about when Tunny's father, Alfred, broke his leg and couldn't beat time anymore.
Tunny played for many years at hotels on the Gaspé coast, in particular at the Wawa Hotel in Port-Daniel where he used to play alternate sets with Country and Western bands. The Country band would play for half and hour, then Tunny would play a fifteen minute set of fiddle music for step-dancing and square-dancing. Tunny provided music there Thursday, Friday, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon and night for many years. Although he tells us fiddle music is still relatively popular on the coast, he thinks the fact that many of the hotels closed down or stopped having fiddle music has a large role in the music's decline in recent years and that today, there are hardly any young people becoming interested in this music.
Tunny left the coast for about 10 years working in gold mines and as a cement worker. His travels took him to such places as Virginiatown (Kerr Addison Gold Mine) and Elliot Lake, Ontario, northern Québec, and as far west as Edmonton, Alberta. In each of these places, Tunny would often play in the hotel bars.
Living on the coast, Tunny became good friends with Hermas Réhel and his wife, Rita White who lived in Bridgeville, near Barachois. They would come visit and play tunes together and Tunny would also have Hermas play sets at the hotel in Port-Daniel with him. Tunny learned several tunes from Hermas including Hermas' version of "La Grondeuse" (know in English as "the Grumbler" or "the Growling Old Man and Woman")
One of my favourite moments during our two visits with Tunny was when he played Saint Anne's Reel four different ways. First he showed us the "modern" way which is how he says people like Ivan Hicks will play the tune. He then demonstratesd the "English way", which he calls an older style featuring a paired-down melody with more drones and repeated notes. He says this style is typical of older English-speaking players in his area and that there are still some fiddlers around New Carlisle who play in this manner. In the "French way", he fills out the melody a lot more with wonderful left hand frills for some really captivating playing. Lastly, he described the "Gaspé way" as a mixture between the French and English styles and is how he normally plays the tune which features some excellent syncopated string crossing in the first part of the tune which gives the tune a lovely rolling swing, very unlike most versions of Saint Anne's Reel you will hear in other traditions. Here is a clip of him demonstrating the different versions:
It was a real pleasure to meet Tunny and his wife and I would like to thank them for inviting me into their home and allowing me to share his music with the readers on the blog. I'm looking forward to spending some more time with Tunny and learning more about his music. I will post teaching files of a few of his tunes in the coming weeks.
You can see Tunny at the Gaspesian British Heritage Museum on July 1st (Canada Day) in New Richmond. He will also be performing at the Douglastown Irish Days on Saturday, August 4th, with many other great local fiddlers and Ivan Hicks.
Here is the whole interview in two parts. I hope you enjoy Tunny's music.
