40 Showcase: Sharing Music Across the Generations

Valuable lessons in musicianship and in life were learned at an early age, as part of a travelling family band

Multi-talented musician Karrnnel Sawitsky learned valuable life lessons growing up as part of a travelling family band.

As a musician, I consider myself very lucky for all of the places I get to visit and all the people I get to meet around the world, and specifically here within Canada. These experiences and memories are the things that go beyond any measure of success for me.

Since the age of four, I grew up playing in a family band with my two sisters Kimberly and Kanndece, who are also fiddle players, with my dad Orest on accordion. From our hometown of Saskatoon, we travelled all across Canada playing at dances, jamborees, concerts, fiddle contests, weddings, and pretty much any and all kinds of events you can imagine, playing music under the name, The Sawitsky Family Fiddlers.

Two of the things that I treasure most about those years are the time with my family—including my mom who was the band’s de facto manager—

and the places and people I got to know while travelling to these Canadian destinations with the intent of sharing some music.

At some point in my teenage years, I realized that music was what I wanted to do for a career. I wasn’t sure what that meant or what that really entailed; all I knew was that I found extreme happiness and joy in playing and creating music and I wanted to find a way to do that for a living. It was my passion for creating new music that really fanned the flames of my musical aspirations.

I composed my first fiddle tune when I was ten years old, an oldtime waltz that I called

Sawitsky’s Waltz. Since that first composition, I have written well

over 300 pieces of music and have really focused a large portion of my time to honing my creative voice as an artist. The freedom associated with creating music, which is an outlet for anything and everything, is one of the most powerful and amazing things that I have ever experienced. Nowadays, I work mainly with three different musical projects: my solo project; my duo project with banjoist Daniel Koulack; and my folk string quartet, The Fretless. All three have elements in common that I value most in my musical endeavours—they are a creative outlet for me and my fellow musicians; they put creativity first; and, through the simple act of sharing music, they help people grasp wider and more unique experiences in life. My solo project is based around me as a fiddle player and singer. The release of my new double album, Crazy Old Man & SKMB, is the primary focus of my musical initiatives right now. Crazy Old Man is a split between instrumentals and vocal songs, and it really crosses many genres. SKMB is an album of songs I wrote for three guest singers— Joey Landreth, Amy Matysio and Ken Hamm. It also spans a wide range of genres, but my fiddle serves to bring it all together for a cohesive sound. Additionally, with this solo project, I am focused on playing my copper fiddle and singing to create a sound that is truly unique. My duo project, Fiddle and Banjo, is just what the name suggests—a fiddle and banjo coming together to make music,

creating intricate textures and melodies in the process, and I’ve added some old-time songs to the mix.

The Fretless is my string quartet; we’re set up in a classical quartet formation, but play various styles of music— Irish, Scottish, old-time favourites and so on.

Since my early times performing with our family band, I have gone on to record a total of nine studio albums, toured all around the world, and have been very fortunate to have amassed numerous nominations and awards on the local, regional, national and international stage, including the 2017 Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year with The Fretless. Looking back now at what I have done and experienced so far, I realize how much my early musical experiences shaped who I am, in terms of what I do as a professional musician, and what I strive to do in everyday life.

Touring around Canada and seeing the joy that music, performance and artistic creativity can bring to people was one of those magic things I was very lucky to experience at a young age. And further to that, the continuous and never-ending journey of finding my unique voice as an artist is something that I attribute to my early days of playing music with my family. My sisters and my dad were (and still are) my musical heroes and as much as I tried to do what they did as a kid, I realize now how that period of my life opened up my world of individual creativity.

It seems now that things are coming full circle. My wife Amy Matysio, an incredible singer and actor in her own right, and I welcomed our son Jagger to this beautiful world on December 28, 2017, and from the moment I saw him, the world instantly changed for me. That is a given, and a cliché, I know, but it is so true and everything actually did change for me— my view on music, how I listen to music, my definition of love…and all the rest.

Now that we have had the chance to take Jagger on the road with us on my double-album release tour for Crazy Old Man & SKMB, I reflect on how these days are the starting point for Jagger’s experience in our musical family. Amy and I really want to pass along to Jagger the family values and lessons that we both individually received within our musical families.

For me, it all started with the musical community that my parents were part of, and my musical family itself. No matter where I end up, my roots will always be there—and I will always be thankful for them! ■

Below: That’s Karrnnel with his son Jagger in his arms and wife Amy by his side, together with his current musical “family” on a recent tour.

Left: Karrnnel at four years of age, with his two sisters Kimberly (right) and Kanndece. Together with their dad Orest on accordion (shown above with Karrnnel in his pre-teens), the foursome performed under the name The Sawitsky Family Fiddlers.

Above: Karrnnel during a pensive moment while recording. Right: Young Jagger gets into the groove of things, carrying on the family’s appreciation of music.