Meaningful music
P.E.I. folk artists turn personal and tragic stories into powerful songs
Whether it’s a loving tribute or cathartic confession, two P.E.I.. music award nominees are ready to share their gifts.
SUMMERSIDE – Whether it’s a loving tribute or cathartic confession, two P.E.I. music award nominees are ready to share their gifts.
For Blair Gaudet, his song, Guardian Angel, was revealed to him in a dream.
“I was hovering over my home, watching my wife and daughter. Then all of a sudden, I had a melancholy feeling brush over me. I wasn’t a part of their life anymore. After this realization, I suddenly woke up and couldn’t fall back to sleep,” explained Gaudet, who will perform for Music PEI’s event Diggin’ Deep Roots at the College of Piping this evening.
Gaudet continued, “Picking up a pen and pad, I went to a different room and started to put the story of my dream into a song.
The song is positive in the end because my wife moves on, but every time I sing this, it brings back that genuine emotion of love and loss."
When it comes to inspiration, Gaudet talked about his father, Arnie Gaudet.
“I always wanted to be like my father. He was a musician, fisherman, and very wellknown around Tignish. He started a benefit show with three friends in the 1970s. He was the first one to get me up on the stage and show me that passion for performing.”
Fisherman’s Son is another tribute to his father, with a poignant message in the lyrics on the industry.
“Generations of my family were fishermen, so the salt is in our blood. Fishing is what keeps our Island prosperous, but it’s a dying way of life. I often remember sailing out in the early morning with my dad, listening to him sing as we bounced over the waves.
They are good memories. He instilled the best in me.”
Gaudet married into a family of musicians and formed a country-rock band called 140 Smooth Bore. He described composing music as “a love of labour” that comes spontaneously to him, and often performances are accompanied by a guitar or harmonica.
Among the six acts on stage, Saturday, will be Maureen Trainor, a contemporary roots singer, and songwriter.
“I wrote a song about moving into a new house, and the first neighbour that knocked on my door asked, ‘Who’s your father?’ It’s something that often comes up around P.E.I. It just happened that 25-years ago this man worked with my father,” she said.
“My father died when I was 20, but his presence is always with me.”
Trainor recorded a CD album called Nothing But the Stars, with producer Jon Matthews at The Sound Mill recording studio in North Wiltshire.
Gaudet recorded a CD album called Storytime, with producer Kurk Bernard at Big Dogz Studio on the outskirts of Summerside.
To learn more about
Music P.E.I.’s Diggin’ Deep Roots event or book tickets, visit www.collegeofpiping. com.