Hi Folks
As most of you know I had a computer melt down and although I have been able to recover most of my files I am missing a lot of email addresses. I gathered addresses from my other computer for this email, but these are not current.
Mainly I am missing addresses for people who joined the group in the last year, or folks who have changed their address in the last year. If you know any of these folks, have them send me a note so I can get them back on the list.
And just in case this works remember we are playing at the manor in Plaster Rock Sunday June 16 at 3:30 PM.
You are invited to our Spring Concert. Saturday, 1 June, 2013, 7pm at Perth-Andover United Church. Featuring our young fiddlers. We’ve been practicing all year for this concert. Please come. Here are some pictures from our last rehearsal.
We did our quilt draw on Wednesday, July 16, 2013, at the jam and Helena McCarthy was the winner. Helena lives just down the road from us and Kelly Morin sold the winning ticket. Crafted and donated by Cari Grierson.
I am sure you have all heard that Stompin Tom Connors passed away yesterday at age 77. I attended a show of his at the Aitkin Centre in F’ton back around the time he received his Honorary Doctorate. The place was full of university kids and he came out on stage carrying a piece of plywood, threw it down on the stage and then as if it were going to suddenly move he stomped on it. Well the place went wild and for the rest of the evening, as my mother would say, you could hardly hear your ears.
Graham Townsend was on the show with him and honestly, I went to see Graham but it was a great lesson in showmanship. Connors had his plywood and he made the most of it. He wore cowboy boots with a high heel and would stomp his foot in a kicking motion so it actually scuffed across the plywood tearing off slivers of wood and every time a piece of wood would go flying the kids would scream at the top of their lungs. It appeared the plywood had been scuffed up a bit prior to the performance because in the first song, Bud the Spud, I am sure he removed the first couple of layers of wood.
It was a great evening, they did the Good Old Hockey Game for our then Premier Frank McKenna who was in the audience.
The interesting thing about Stompin Tom, was his stomp was actually on the back beat instead of the down beat which certainly added to the effect. You will notice that Natalie McMaster often trots her foot to the back beat as well, maybe they are on to something.
Just got a call that Amos Kelly has passed away, he was 92. For those of you who may not have met Amos, he was one of the original Wednesday Evening Fiddlers, he played Fiddle and the Button Accordian. He liked the traditional Irish music and was a great story teller with an ever present twinkle in his eyes. He often told of his adventures while playing for dances with a local group called the Corn Huskers. One of the band members owned a truck and they travelled to their dances on the back of the truck, this was in the early 30’s when bad roads and flat tires were a common occurance.
He was a fan of the late Lee Cremo, and had all but one of his recordings. He composed the Perth-Andover clog a tune we have on file. Late years he made two recordings with Kathleen McCarthy.
He was a Welder and Blacksmith by trade working on many interesting projects over the years. The last few years he has had problems getting around and has been using a wheel chair.
We got word yesterday that the United Church Hall is ready, so we will be meeting there next Wednesday Oct 17. We will have the same schedule starting at 5PM for next week, after we get settled we can start looking at the one on one sessions again. If you need directions, let me know, or check out the map on our website. Continue reading →
