Scott Woods bringing fiddling fun to Richmond
Scott Woods, the flipping fiddler, will be in Richmond this coming Thursday night for the only Quebec stop on a 34-day, 34-stop holiday tour across five different provinces. Woods and his band will be bringing their performance of old-time Christmas fun back to Richmond Regional High School for a one-night only show of carols and cartwheels that has become something of a tradition in recent years.
Woods, a sixth-generation, multiaward winning fiddler has become a well-known performer in the Townships, having previously played shows at both Richmond Regional and Alexander Galt Regional High School in the past. Speaking of the show he has been touring since mid-november, the fiddler said that the Richmond audience can expect all the classic Christmas songs with a little added fiddle-flair.
“There are three dozen or so Christmas songs that people hear and become sentimentally attached,” Woods said. “If you stray outside of those too far, it doesn’t give them the same nostalgic warm fuzzies that White Christmas, O Holy Night, Away in a Manger, or Silent Night would.”
The fiddler said that the band keeps things interesting by playing different arrangements of classic songs, but emphasized that they try to stick close to the familiar tunes so that people get to hear what they want.
“We have some fun with them, but
they’re still the songs people are familiar with,” Woods said, noting that all of the shows that he and his band play are fundraisers for a local charity. In this case that cause is the Melbourne Ridge Cemetery.
While sticking to the classics, the fiddler said that dedicated fans will note a number of new elements to this year’s show.
“We’ve got a couple of new faces up on the stage which really adds a lot,” Woods said, pointing out that the regular band will be joined by Pete Fisk, Bass player for the Good Brothers. “He’s well versed in country music and he’s a bit of a character on stage,” the fiddler said. “He puts a beard on and sings I’ve Been Everywhere as if he were Santa,”
Wood’s other guest, in keeping with his tradition of inviting up-and coming stars of the Canadian fiddling scene to join him on tour, is 13 year old Leo Stock from Stratford, Ontario.
“He is our guest on this tour,” the fiddler said. “He is step dancing, he’s playing his fiddle, he’s singing. He’s a bit of a card on the stage. He loves to act up a little bit.”
Woods called the young musician “a great entertainer,” explaining that he met Stock through old-time fiddling and step dancing competitions.
“There’s a very close knit circle of families that participate in those,” he said. “That’s where I’ve met pretty much all of the young fiddlers and dancers that I’ve had with us over the years.”
Richmond marks the 30th stop in as many days for the band on a tour that went as far west as Edmonton. Although looking forward to a chance to rest after the tour comes to an end in Ontario on the 17th, Woods said that everyone has kept the fun and festive spirit alive just through the silly, unscripted things that happen on stage on a nightly basis.
“We absolutely love to play,” Woods said. “It is a whole lot of fun.”
More information about the Richmond concert is available by calling 819-826-5883.