I got up a little past 8h30 to another nice day and had a repeat of yesterday’s breakfast at the Inn. After musing a bit about the music I’d heard so far this week-end, again in comparison to the years before Peter was lost, I found I had experienced a lot of wasted time; two-fifths of Friday night and half of each Saturday concert was not what I came to hear, though the other parts of the Friday cèilidh and the Saturday concerts, all of the Saturday cèilidh, and the dance Saturday night I would not have wanted to miss. Definitely more quality stuff than dross, but also a lot of irritating material too. The local PEI players got far less stage time than in previous years; I’d have loved to have heard more of the Chaissons playing traditional music than I had so far as well as other local players such as Buddy Longaphie, whom I always look forward to hearing. Still, totting up the plusses and minuses, I judged it overall a net positive and made reservations for next year, but with a note to myself to lower my expectations and be ready to accept the bad that would more than likely show up. I then went back to work on the post for Tuesday, 4 July, and finished half of it. I drove into Souris to find some sun screen, but nothing was open until 12h, so I drove back to the festival field, carried my field chair and cameras down to my usual spot in front of the main stage at the right, and got set up for the Sunday afternoon concert. The meat vendors (sausages, hamburgers, and hot dogs) were set up but not open, so I got an egg salad sandwich and a pasta salad and ate the latter, saving the sandwich for later.
JJ emceed the Sunday afternoon concert, opening with a nice tribute to Kathryn Dau-Schmidt, the teacher of the Rollo Bay Fiddle Group, whose lessons the festival ensures are provided without cost to any interested students. Accompanied by Kevin Chaisson on keyboard, they then demonstrated the fiddle skills they had mastered in some short sets; it is well worth recalling all the festival has done over the years and continues to do to keep traditional music vital and alive in PEI. Next, Peter’s Rollo Bay Monday Night Group, now under the direction of Darren Chaisson, gave us three fine sets, the last featuring the O’Regan girls accompanied by Kevin Chaisson. The Queens County Fiddlers, who range in age from 10 to the mid-80’s and who have just released a new CD, Ages, then gave us three sets: the first of reels including Dot MacKinnon’s (composed by Kevin) and finishing with Hulls Reel and McCarthys Road; the second which I failed to describe in my notes; and the third a march/strathspey/reel set. They have a nice, clean sound and are always a pleasure to hear. André Brunet on fiddle and Colin Savoie-Levac played four sets, including a square dance medley that gots lots of dancers up. Teresa Doyle and her son Patrick Bunston (I’m told the first time Teresa Doyle appeared at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival, Patrick was three years old) sang a cappella a song about an Irish mother saying good-bye to her son leaving for America; a ballad about a storm that pushed boats a mile inland; a Gaelic song from Ireland and a second waulking song from Scotland that Theresa accompanied on a box drone from India; and Jimmy’s Jig, jigged with guitar and drone box accompaniment; very interesting and well-done. Returning the concert to Scottish traditional music, Richard Wood on fiddle, accompanied by Darla MacPhee on keyboard and JJ on guitar played a set beginning with a Jerry Holland tune; a set with some Winston “Scotty” Fitzgerald tunes; a waltz dedicated to Peter with a fiddle cadenza near the end; and a final great blast o’ tunes; great tunes and great playing! Cynthia MacLeod on fiddle and Seán Grey on guitar gave us a set of jigs, another great blast of tunes including If Ever You Were Mine, and a final set of jigs and reels. Les poules à Colin finished out the afternoon, without my presence as I went up to the Cèilidh Barn to get a chair for the post-concert cèilidh and, before it started, had two sausages: the hot Italian sausage was good, but the hot sausage was even better. I had another dish of ice cream after the sausages.
taught by Kathryn Dau-Schmidt and accompanied by Kevin Chaisson, and supported by the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival,
at the Sunday afternoon concert at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
concert at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Sunday afternoon concert at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Sunday afternoon concert at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Sunday afternoon concert at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Sunday afternoon concert at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Sunday afternoon concert at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
Emceed by Ellen MacPhee, the afternoon cèilidh opened with Dara Smith-MacDonald on fiddle, Adam Young on keyboard, and Brent Chaisson playing three cuts from their excellent new CD, The Lake Sessions, even better live than on the CD! Allan MacDonald on fiddle, accompanied by Ward MacDonald on keyboard, gave us four fine sets; I was absolutely delighted to hear an older style local player this week-end and wished I had heard several more, as I had in years past. Next, Kyle Charron, Jake’s brother, and with Jake on keyboard, demonstrated his mastery of the fiddle in the general Canadian fiddle style, as typified by Graham Townsend and Calvin Volrath; when I first met him, he was so overly modest about his playing ability as to be downright misleading. Tonight, he stunned me with five amazing sets, mostly short, but leaving no question about his technical gifts whatsoever. If you like that fiddle style and you don’t know his playing, you should most definitely seek him out. Last up was Zoë Darrow (Western Massachusetts) on fiddle with JJ accompanying on guitar; she’s a very fine traditional fiddle player, but tonight she was mostly into avant-garde stuff, starting off with solo voice and fiddle and changing to solo fiddle, quasi-dirges not at all pleasant to hear. She did manage to fit a decent Scottish traditional tune or two into her sets, but I was some disappointed, especially knowing how good a traditional player she can be when she wants.
at the Sunday cèilidh in the Cèilidh Barn at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Sunday cèilidh in the Cèilidh Barn at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Sunday cèilidh in the Cèilidh Barn at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Sunday cèilidh in the Cèilidh Barn at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
I then moved back to my seat to the right of the main stage for the evening concert, emceed by Danny King. It began with six great sets by Andrea Beaton on fiddle and Jake Charron on guitar, who switched to keyboard for the middle two sets. A fine set of jigs was followed by a set of strathspeys and reels with lots of Andrea’s trade-mark cuts. I was so busy listening to Jake’s interesting chording style on keyboard I failed to note the genres of the tunes in the third set; the fourth began with a lovely slow air. The fifth included Potatoes and Herring (Buntata Sgathain) by Allan MacDonald of Scotland and the last was a march/strathspey/reel set of Cape Breton classics. Wonderful playing by both, a grand start to the concert! The Chaisson Trio, with Rannie MacLellan on fiddle, Kevin Chaisson on keyboard, and Louise MacKinnon on guitar were up next; they give us five selections, three of them songs Louise MacKinnon sang, one a Lemmy Chaisson song, the second Red Is the Rose, and the last a John Denver song, interspersed with a set of jigs and an air/strathspeys/reels set. Very nice. Emerald Rae (“Boston States”) sang, self-accompanied on fiddle, in yet another avant-garde performance that left me shaking my head; she can play a fine fiddle if she wants to. Seán Grey give us a song accompanying himself on guitar, a set of tunes on transverse flute accompanied by Jake on guitar, another song self-accompanied on guitar, a strathspey and two reels on flute accompanied by Jake, and a final set of jigs with Koady Chaisson joining the other two on banjo; it was fine, but very close to what I had heard on Friday night. Shelly Campbell on fiddle and Allan Dewar on keyboard played three fine sets, the first including a tune she wrote, Chauffe-les, Arthur, in honour of Arthur Muise; the second a set of jigs; and the third including a Rannie MacLellan tune. As always, Shelly and Allan played from the heart; they are such a joy to hear! The concert ended with several grand sets from JJ on fiddle, Darla on keyboard, and Brent on guitar. When they finished, a whole crew of fiddlers came up on stage and joined the others, Kevin replacing Darla on keyboard, for a rousing finale, during which a few of the Chaisson clan step danced, the traditional and fitting finish to another Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
and Louise MacKinnon on guitar and vocals) playing jigs at the Sunday evening concert
at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Sunday evening concert at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Sunday evening concert at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
The dance in the Cèilidh Barn ended after a single square set played by Tim Chaisson on fiddle and Kevin on keyboard; JJ came in on guitar a bit later into their set. Since it was still early, I walked over to the Tuning Barn, where Dara and Adam were leading a session with several other players, including Pepeto Pinto. I found it very hard to leave at 1h, but, with a long trip ahead of me tomorrow, I needed sleep, so I returned to the Inn and was in bed immediately thereafter.
playing for the Sunday night dance at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival.
Concluding the evaluation I began at the start of this post, Sunday was a considerable improvement over Saturday, with only a quarter of the afternoon concert a waste, a quarter of the cèilidh in the barn, and an eighth of the evening concert. The rest ranged from fine to superb, a pleasure to hear and to be present at. So, I will definitely be back and hoping for something more closely approaching the musical offerings of the past years, but also with somewhat lowered expectations and, hopefully, a greater supply of patience. Because it has been so consistently excellent over the years, it is painful to see it partially descending into a folk festival with imported “stars” (charitably, an attempt to broaden the festival’s appeal to the wider audience they attract), instead of remaining true to its original and unique focus on local traditional music and local musicians. Nevertheless, the Chaisson cousins who organize and manage the festival and the whole Chaisson clan are all to be thanked and congratulated for keeping the festival going into the future—its very existence was in serious question after Peter’s passing: they all work incredibly hard to put this festival on, preparing the buildings and the grounds and, during three very high-pressure days, going without sleep and ensuring things run smoothly both on stage and off. So, to you all, a hearty thank you.