Endearing collection of tunes
Queens County Fiddlers’ Ages now into a second run after selling out
The love of traditional music runs deep in Prince Edward Island.
It is a love that spans generations, geography and genetics.
Whether your ancestry is Scottish, Irish or Acadian, there is a good chance that someone in the family at some point in time played the fiddle, the guitar, the piano or perhaps even the pipes.
They used those musical gifts to keep alive the jigs, reels, airs, strathspeys and waltzes that had been lovingly passed down from generation to generation.
And they continue to be passed down today by the current generation.
Helping to keep that traditional music alive and to celebrate the artistry of more contemporary tunesmiths whose music is inspired by those who’ve gone before them are ensembles like The Queens County Fiddlers.
This multi-generational aggregation of some 30 players now ranging in age from pre-teens to mid-'80s has been making music together for decades, recording their first CD in 2004.
Some 13 years later they felt the time was right to record again, and after choosing the material they wanted to record and rehearsing each piece until they could play them in their sleep, they made their way to the sanctuary of Park Royal United Church.
There, under the watchful eye of director/producer Aaron Crane, the mastermind behind this project, they managed to record the entire album in a single day.
Ages, the recording that came out of that session, is now into its second production run, having completely sold out the first run, no small accomplishment for an ensemble like that.
It’s not hard to understand why Ages – a title that reflects both the age range of the players and the chronology of the material - has done so well.
Look at the material they chose.
Many of these tunes were penned by acclaimed Cape Breton fiddlers like John Morris Rankin, Natalie MacMaster, Jerry Holland, Brenda Stubbert, Andrea Beaton and Howie MacDonald, as well as by P.E.I.'s Kevin Chaisson.
Iconic American duo Jay Ungar and Molly Mason are represented as are John McCusker, formerly of The Battlefield Band, Dave Richardson from The Boys of the Lough and the late, great piper Gordon Duncan.
There are much older traditional tunes as well, tunes so old a spokeswoman said no one knows who actually composed them.
Some tunes even came from within the group, from QCF players like Marlene Gallant, Val Reddin and director Crane, who contributed a great set of jigs.
The fruits of their collective labours is an endearing collection that embraces all that we’ve come to love about traditional music, from the driving rhythms of the jigs and reels to the beautiful melodic flow of slower pieces like the Ungar/ Mason entry The Lovers Waltz, Tommy Walsh’s Inisheer or Jerry Holland’s Lonesome Eyes.
These pieces were played with great passion and commitment by a gathering of likeminded souls that included the late Father Charlie Cheverie in his last professional recording.
A really big nod goes to Crane who not only contributed material and oversaw the project’s direction but grouped the material into sets and composed the harmonies for various tunes.
Let’s hope they don’t wait another 13 years to do the next one. Doug Gallant is a freelance writer and
well-known connoisseur of a wide variety of music. His On Track column will appear in The Guardian every second Saturday. To comment on what he has to say or to offer suggestions for future reviews, email him at
dpagallant@gmail.com.