GRACE NOTES

Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association concert set for Saturday at Louisbourg Playhouse

Fiddlers to play live for new recording.

Four decades after its last recording, the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association is aiming to make a new compact disc.

An estimated 50 to 60 members of the association will be performing at the Louisbourg Playhouse on Saturday for a 7 p.m. concert that also features singers and dancers. According to board member Betty Matheson, a sound engineer will be on site to capture some of the group’s tunes for the album the association hopes to release sometime in 2019.

“We formed in 1973 and we thought we should do something special for our 45th anniversary,” explained Matheson.

“We have great directors, we’ve had them all along, and with our fiddlers and piano players playing extremely well we thought this was the time to do a CD – we’ve been working on the tunes for over a year.”

Matheson said the association, which was formed as part of the effort to revive traditional Cape Breton music, now has more than 500 members. Most live locally, but some reside on the mainland, in other areas of Canada and abroad.

“You could be sitting next to a world-class fiddler on one side of you and a senior who just started playing on the other — we go from Natalie (MacMaster), Ashley (MacIsaac) and Howie (MacDonald) to fiddlers who just started to play three months ago,” she said.

“That’s what this is all about — no one is treated any differently than anyone else and I think that is why everyone is so comfortable there.”

The new album will not feature any individuals in particular although there is plenty of solo talent within the association. With that said, there will be some tunes performed by small groups, such as one featuring fiddlers who were with the association during its first five years back in the 1970s. That group has been practising a modified version of a 1979 recording with the goal of getting a live recording on the new album.

Tickets (cost is $17) for the CBFA’s Saturday show are available by contacting the Louisbourg Playhouse at 902733-3838.

The fiddlers’ association is based at the Gaelic College of Celtics Arts and Crafts in St. Ann’s.

DAVID JALA/CAPE BRETON POST Members of the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association, shown here performing at this year’s Scottish Concert in Broad Cove, will be back on stage for a Saturday evening concert at the Louisbourg Playhouse. The event will be recorded live with some of the tunes expected to end up on the association’s first collection of its music since 1979.