Kimberley Fraser, Doug Lamey, and Friends
at the Canadian-American Club
(East Watertown)
Event Summary
- Date
- 2009 January 3 (Saturday)
- Time
- 20h-0h
- Venue
- Canadian-American Club, 202 Arlington Street, East Watertown, Massachusetts 02472-2004
- Description
- Canadian-American Club Dance with Doug Lamey, Kimberley Fraser, and Friends
- Admission
- $12 at the door
- Note
- This dance was originally scheduled for 2008 December 6, but due to a conflict, it had to be rescheduled for 2009 January 3.
Review for the Cape Breton Music List
(Posted 2009 January 5)
This past Saturday, Kimberley Fraser, Doug Lamey, and friends played a Cape Breton dance at the Canadian-American Club. This dance was the first of a series of Cape Breton dances to be held there in 2009; the remainder are tentatively scheduled for the second Saturday of each month through spring and the next one will definitely be on Valentine’s Day, 14 February.
The evening was filled with the fine Cape Breton music that brings joy to my heart; I counted thirty-two different sets of beautifully played tunes! Doug on fiddle and Kimberley on keyboards opened the evening with a fine jig set. A reel set followed and then another jig set. Cliff McGann on guitar then joined Doug and Kimberley for Jerry Holland’s beautiful waltz, In Memory of Herbie MacLeod. Two more jig sets followed, inspiring two youngsters to take the floor for an impromptu dance; the Judique Jig was played in the second of these sets. At last, several dancers took the floor for the first square set of the evening: starting off, one group did the first figure of the Inverness set while the other group did the first figure of the Boston set–no prompter was present this evening, so the Boston sets were danced without prompting; thereafter, both groups used the Boston figures. Another square set followed, this time with everyone using the Inverness figures. This was followed by a waltz and then a jigs and reels set. Niel Gow’s Lament for the Death of his Second Wife, played as a waltz, and a march closed off the first portion of the evening.
While the performers were enjoying a break, Gordon Aucoin on fiddle and Lloyd Carr on keyboards played for another square set and then gave us two more sets of tunes. It was the first time I had heard Gordon play for an extended period and I very much enjoyed it; in the past, he has studied with John Campbell and his style reflects that experience. Lloyd, who frequently plays for contra dances throughout New England, is a fine accompanist in the Cape Breton style—I often see him in Cape Breton soaking up the music when I am there. After Gordon left the stage, Kimberley returned, this time on fiddle with Lloyd still on keyboards, and played the three figures of an Inverness set and then gave us an additional set of slow airs and waltzes, including The Rosebud of Allendale[1].
Kimberley then moved back to the keyboards and Abbie MacQuarrie, a Cape Breton-style fiddler and step-dancer who has been studying modern Scottish style fiddle in Edinburgh, joined her on stage playing fiddle. Abbie gave us a technically demanding and finely played set in the contemporary Scottish style. Kimberley, who afterwards said she does not often accompany this style of music, played beautifully, giving a body and shape to music that would otherwise have sounded very thin to my ears.
Doug and Cliff then rejoined Abbie and Kimberley on stage and gave us an especially fine dual fiddle set, starting with jigs and ending with reels, including two of the Old Time Wedding Reels, Hamish the Carpenter and Put Me in the Big Chest. Another great blast of tunes followed this set. The fiddlers then started off with the King George strathspey, that universal call for step-dancers, and continued with several more step-dance tunes, sadly to no takers from this audience. Kimberley then switched to fiddle, making a triple fiddle section, while Peggy Morrison took over on the keyboards and all gave us three more great blasts of tunes to end the evening, during the second of which Abbie MacQuarrie left her fiddle for a time to show us some fine Cape Breton step-dancing.
Sadly, the audience for this fine evening of music was only between forty and sixty, rather smaller than one would have expected from Boston’s Cape Breton community. Hopefully, the next one will be better attended, as this is the closest one can get to a Cape Breton dance in New England without driving all the way to Cape Breton. My thanks to the organizers and to the several musicians who so ably supplied us great music all evening long.
[1] Thanks to Marcia Palmeter for this tune name and the others which follow.↩
Photos
Doug Lamey on fiddle
accompanied by Kimberley Fraser on keyboards and Cliff McGann on guitar
Doug Lamey on fiddle
accompanied by Kimberley Fraser on keyboards and Cliff McGann on guitar
Gordon Aucoin on fiddle accompanied by Lloyd Carr on keyboards
Kimberley Fraser on fiddle accompanied by Lloyd Carr on keyboards
Kimberley Fraser on fiddle
Abbie MacQuarrie on fiddle accompanied by Kimberley Fraser on keyboards
Abbie MacQuarrie and Doug Lamey on dual fiddles
accompanied by Kimberley Fraser on keyboards and Cliff McGann on guitar
Abbie MacQuarrie, Kimberley Fraser, and Doug Lamey on triple fiddles
accompanied by Peggy Morrison on keyboards and Cliff McGann on guitar
Peggy Morrison on keyboards
Abbie MacQuarrie, Kimberley Fraser, and Doug Lamey on triple fiddles
accompanied by Cliff McGann on guitar
Abbie MacQuarrie step-dancing
Abbie MacQuarrie step-dancing
to the music of Kimberley Fraser and Doug Lamey on dual fiddles
accompanied by Peggy Morrison on keyboards and Cliff McGann on guitar
Doug Lamey on fiddle
Abbie MacQuarrie, Kimberley Fraser, and Doug Lamey on triple fiddles
accompanied by Peggy Morrison on keyboards and Cliff McGann on guitar