“The Images of Atlantic Canada Found in Recent Roots/Traditional Music: What is it like ‘down there’?”
By
Kelly Kathleen Miller
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in Atlantic Canada Studies at Saint Mary’s University Halifax, Nova Scotia July 23, 2004
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Canada The Images of Atlantic Canada Found in Recent Roots/Traditional Music:
What is it like “down there”?
By Kelly Kathleen Miller
Submitted July 2004
Abstract:
This thesis is a study of the images of Atlantic Canada found in 100 CD recordings of traditional Scottish and Irish music from the region (1986-2002). The first chapter contains definitions of terms used frequently within the thesis. The second chapter presents a general history of the music industry, the recording of traditional music, and the industry in Atlantic Canada. The third chapter outlines the methodology used for a survey of the 100 CDs, which includes questions on the use of traditional instrumentation, images of Atlantic Canada found in liner notes, translation of lyrics in the liner notes, and explanation of the music tradition in the liner notes. The third chapter concludes with a discussion of the survey results. Contents
Abstract ...... i Introduction ...... 1 Chapter One ...... 7 Immigration and “Celtic Music” ...... 7 Tradition and Traditional Music ...... 15 Scottish and Irish Traditional Music ...... 27 Who Owns or Who Controls the Tradition?...... 36 The Position of Musicians in the Community ...... 40 Conclusion ...... 46 Chapter Two ...... 49 Introduction ...... 49 The Beginning of Recorded Sound and Music ...... 50 The Structure of the Corporate Music Industry ...... 56 The Music Industry in Atlantic Canada ...... 60 Post World War II Music Industry in Atlantic Canada ...... 64 The Industry since 1990 ...... 67 Conclusion ...... 74 Chapter Three ...... 75 Methodology ...... 82 Conclusions...... 89 Appendices ...... 113 Appendix A; Recordings ...... 114 Appendix B: Instrumentation ...... 120 Appendix C: Liner Notes ...... 196 Appendix D: Theme Information ...... 203 Bibliography ...... 250
n The Images of Atlantic Canada Found in Recent
Roots/Traditional Music:
What is it like “down there”?
Introduction
In Atlantic Canada, the burgeoning interest in regional studies has uncovered a wealth of previously unrecorded stories about the region’s history and peoples. These discoveries challenge and compel the academic community to revisit and revise the standard historical narrative and to incorporate new fields of enquiry such as women’s studies and cultural studies into current research and writing. In turn, these new fields of study have the potential to dispel accepted stereotypes about this region.
One particular area of regional studies which has been under-explored to date is that of traditional music in the modem world. The work done in this field so far has emphasized conservation efforts, field recordings and documentation centred around elderly singers and musicians, and rapidly disappearing styles and techniques. The labours of Helen Creighton, Roy Mackenzie, Edith Fowke, and others to preserve and study the “folk” music of this region, and in Canada, are well documented.' Recently scholars such as John Shaw have continued to focus on projects of salvaging the remnants of the older tradition.^ This is a worthwhile and important pursuit, but it does not address the present musical culture of Atlantic Canada. Their work has informed and aided this thesis greatly but it has also made obvious that there is no sizeable research base on the intertwining of the music industry and traditional music in this region. James
Robbins, a current ethnomusicologist, makes the observation about the study of traditional music.
One of the most striking things about the history of traditional-music research in
Canada is that it is uneven: as a pattern, it is irregular.. .Embarking with
conventional notions both of scholarship and of traditional music, we generally
turned to other kinds of sources (novels, commercial publications and recording
and travel documents) only when ‘scholarly’ reports and collections were not
available.^
While acknowledging the valuable contribution of scholars to the study of aspects of traditional music in Atlantic Canada, this thesis, in examining the images of the region that are presented in 100 recent commercial traditional recordings, explores the portrayal
' Helen Creighton, Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia Collected by Helen Creighton (Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, Limited, 1932). William Roy Mackenzie,Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia (Hatboro, Pennsylvania: Folklore Associates, 1963). Edith Fowke, Lumbering Songs from the Northern Woods (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1970). ^ Lauchie MacLellan, Brigh an Orain: A Story in Every Song, trans. and ed. John Shaw (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000). ^ James Robbins, “Lessons Learned, Questions Raised: Writing a History of Ethnomusicology in Canada,”Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1992) http://www.cjtm.icaap.org/content/20/v20art2.html (accessed July 2004). of Atlantic Canada within the contemporary music industry. Thus, it seeks to open up another area of scholarly inquiry in the field of traditional music research.
The tourism industry includes music in its list of Atlantic Canada’s attractions.
The official government website for economic planning in Nova Scotia also mentions music as a rapidly growing portion of the tourism sector of the local economy.'* In 1999, the online newsletter Cooperation: Economic Diversification Agreement quoted Marcel
McKeough, the Chair of the East Coast Music Association at the time, as saying: “The music industry is an important part of Atlantic Canada’s economy and more importantly is emerging as one of the more promising and exciting sectors within our region.”^ The
East Coast Music Awards, established in 1989, are an indication of the ever increasing importance of the musical arts within Atlantic Canada. They are also a sign of another aspect of music in Atlantic Canada, namely the growing music industry. While there are some who lament the commercialization of the traditional music from this region, the music industry has brought the Atlantic Canada provinces a prestige that reaches beyond the borders of Canada. With the national and international coverage of the ECMA awards show, it is increasingly important to study the images of Atlantic Canada given to the rest of Canada and the world through its music.
The modem music industry is a global phenomenon, the size of which provides a wide range of types of music for the average consumer, creating audiences far outside the historical boundaries of musical styles. With the great diversity that greets most people
'* “Economic Development - Opportunities for Prosperity,” http://www.gov.ns.ca/econ/strategy/strategy_5.2. l.htm (accessed March 2003). ^ “Cooperation: Economic Diversification Agreement,” http://eda.gov.ns.ca/press/1999/1021_ecma-e.html (accessed March 2003). entering a music store today, it may be hard to remember that even these varied choices
do not free the listener from misinformation and stereotypes. Richard Middleton, an
ethnomusicologist, astutely points out that “the weakness of ‘consumptionism’ is its
assumption (at the extreme) that listeners are completely free to use and interpret music
as they wish.”®
The information provided through the images contained in the music is a powerful
tool to create or dispel stereotypes and therefore warrants close study. The listener who
is not from Atlantic Canada may or may not have the advantage of any direct personal
experience with the region and is therefore more susceptible to the images being
presented, for better or worse. An ethnomusicologist, A.L. Lloyd, while detailing the
current status of traditional music across the globe, made this statement:
From Natchez to New Guinea, all over the world, it seems to be the destiny of
folksong to be changing from a domestic and ceremonial music for insiders into
public performance music for an audience including outsiders, perhaps comprised
entirely of outsiders.^
Philip Bolhman, also an ethnomusicologist, concurs with this idea in his book.
The Study o f Folk Music in the Modem World. He states:
Popularization in a different sense is very important in the revival and invention
of folk music tradition, which require popular acceptance of sweeping
® Richard Middleton, “Introduction: Locating the Popular Music Text,” in Reading Pop: Approaches to Textual Analysis in Popular Music, ed. Richard Middleton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 9. ^ A. L. Lloyd, “Eleetric Folk Music in Britain,” in Folk Music and Modern Sound, ed. William Ferris and Mary L. Hart (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1982), 14. representations of musical types for which little or no firsthand knowledge is
available.*
It is not merely the musical types that are represented and which are generalized in the popularization of traditional music, but also the regions and cultures that they represent.
These generalizations and stereotypes are based on images contained in the music itself and the presentation of the albums.
The strength of the music industry in Atlantic Canada is well attested to by the ample sales figures of recording artists such as Natalie MacMaster or The Rankins.
These artists have enabled worldwide listeners to experience some of the culture of
Atlantic Canada. The music coming out of the region today is music about emigration, music from the “homeland,” and music telling the history and present life of Atlantic
Canada itself. From this standpoint, the musicians take on an inadvertent role as cultural disseminators and commentators for the region and the communities within it. They preserve the history and pass it on. Recording artists whose music travels far outside the bounds of the region itself are in a unique position to give the rest of the world a view of the past and present situation in Atlantic Canada through the music they play. But what are music listeners learning about Atlantic Canada through the music they hear? What images of Atlantic Canada are they given?
The term “image” has a host of different meanings but in this work the term will be used in three specific ways. Firstly, image as a visual component of the music industry. This will include all drawings and photographs contained in the liner notes of
* Philip V. Bohlman, The Study o f Folk Music in the Modern World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 134. the albums studied. Secondly, the term “image” will be used to discuss the verbal descriptions of the region in the lyrics of the songs and the written aspects of the liner notes. Traditional music also portrays an overall sense of the region through a third and more elusive definition of the term “image” which incorporates the rhythms, instrumentation, tempo, and special effects such as dubbed voices speaking over the music. Various personal reactions to these images are not addressed in this thesis.
Instead, charts and statistics will be employed to allow an objective analysis of these visual, verbal, and musical impressions of Atlantic Canada being presented to the world.
In the first chapter of this study important terms, such as traditional music, will be defined for the context of this thesis. Though many groups and cultures have influenced the music of Atlantic Canada — including the Mi’kmaq, the Acadians, the African Nova
Scotians, and the English — this study will limit itself to the Scottish and Irish heritage in the music of the region. The second chapter will present a short overview of the history of the recording industry and its growth in Atlantic Canada. The third chapter will draw together the two previous chapters with an analysis of 100 CDs by Atlantic Canadian musicians, in the traditional music genre, released fi'om 1986-2002. The detailed databases from which this analysis was made will be included in the Appendixes. The final discussion will be about the images of Atlantic Canada transmitted by these musicians to the world. These images are worthy of study as they frequently represent the first cultural contact point for those outside the region. For Atlantic Canada, the music becomes an ambassador — what will it convey? Chapter One Traditional Music: Definitions and Explanations — Ownership and Control
Immigration and "Celtic Music” The culture of Atlantic Canada has been greatly affected by certain groups of immigrants. Two of these groups are the Scots and the Irish. The numbers of immigrants and the specific years of greatest impact on the region varied between the Scots and the
Irish, but both groups’ peak influence on the culture occurred between the late 1700s and the 1880s.
Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling (c. 1577-1640), organized one of the original plans to help populate Nova Scotia, with Scots in 1624.' Unfortimately, his plan did not come to fruition under his leadership due to quarrels and political miscalculations.
However, a few Scots did immigrate to Atlantic Canada due to a system of granting titles as an inducement to encourage colonial settlement.^ Later, John MacDonald (1742-
1810), managed to create a sizable settlement of Scottish Catholics in what would become Prince Edward Island.^ The immigration of the Scots did not begin in earnest until after Britain had taken control of New France in 1760. From that time until the end of the nineteenth century thousands of Scots arrived in the New World. A large portion of the Scots who arrived in what would become the Atlantic Provinces came from the
' The plan was laid out after the success of the baronets of Ulster in Ireland. A similar land allotment was thought to be the perfect solution to settling the British Crown's land in North America. ^ J.M. Bumsted, Peoples o f Canada: A Pre-Confederation History (Toronto: Oxford University Press Canada, 1992), 55. ^ Ibid., 142-3. Highlands of Scotland. The majority arriving before 1860 would stay in the Maritime
Provinces since there were growing communities of Scots there.'* J.M. Bumsted, commenting on Highland migration, writes: “In this early period (as later) previous settlement and kinship ties were important factors in decisions to migrate and in choice of destination. The Scots immigrants particularly traveled in extended family groups...
Two of the more common reasons for later emigration were the clearances of the
Highlands in the 1830s and the Highland potato famine, 1846-1857.^ It was during this period, as R. Douglas Francis, Richard Jones and Donald B. Smith state in Origins:
Canadian History to Confederation that “about 40,000 Scots came to the colony, particularly to Cape Breton Island.”^ Although Scots continued to arrive in the Atlantic
Provinces after the 1860s the causes for their arrival were much more diverse and their numbers significantly smaller.
The Irish have a longer mythical presence in the Atlantic Provinces: tales abounded during the Middle Ages of the great Irish Saint Brendan traveling to find lands in the west, but no actual proof of this contact has been discovered.* The first record of
Irish inhabiting Atlantic Canada, for short periods of time, is in Newfoundland in 1594.^
Later the potato famines in the 1720s and 1730s drew numbers of Irish to Newfoundland,
'* Ibid., 181. ^ Ibid. ^ Marjory Harper and Michael E. Vance, “Myth, Migration and the Making of Memory: an Introduction,” in Myth, Migration and the Making o f Memory: Scotia and Nova Scotia c. 1700-1990, ed. Marjory Harper and Michael E. Vance (Halifax, Nova Scotia: Femwood Publishing, 1999), 22. ^ R. Douglas Francis, Richard Jones, and Donald B. Smith, Origins: Canadian History to Confederation (Toronto: Harcourt Canada, 2000), 390. * Ibid., 28. ^ Ibid., 391 because of the relatively low cost of passage from Ireland to St. John’s. Many Irish stayed in Newfoundland but others moved on to New Brunswick so that by 1815 the census recorded 60 percent of New Brunswick’s population as Irish.
The Scots and the Irish brought with them strong cultural traditions which included a vibrant musical heritage. To begin a study of the music of Atlantic Canada, a rudimentary understanding of the Scottish and Irish traditions is indispensable. While a comprehensive study of both of these large musical traditions is well beyond the scope of this thesis, it is important to highlight a number of issues.
The concept of “traditional music” as a definable entity is a complex issue. The ethnomusicologist John Blacking, writing in the 1970s and 1980s, concisely stated the problem of defining and labeling types of music. He wrote;
The central problem in musical theory is the problem of description. Neither
musicologists nor ethnomusicologists have yet devised a system of analysis which
is sufficiently powerful to explain what we can know intuitively as a result of
experience in culture, namely, the essential differences between the music of
Haydn and Mozart, or of the Flathead and Sioux Indians.’ ‘
Blacking clearly identifies the problem facing the study of a certain genre of music.
However, it seems that an attempt to work with the existing labels, rather than creating new ones, is still valid if some thought is given to the definition of terms. While an absolute definition of what constitutes “traditional music” is a challenging task, and is likely to generate as much censure as praise, a working definition is still necessary.
Ibid. " John Blacking, Music, Culture, and Experience: Selected Papers o f John Blacking, ed. Reginald Byron (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 54. 10
At the risk of tempting the gods of definitions before this study has progressed very far, a bit of clarification regarding a term which is often connected with traditional music is needed. When I began this study an unsuspecting individual remarked lightly that I was “studying Celtic music.” I was mildly appalled but could not properly explain why. This is just one of many examples of “Celtic music” being equated with traditional music. Therefore it makes sense to briefly discuss the “Celtic music” designation before any further confusion can ensure. A brief explanation of the debates surrounding the phrase is useful at this stage in the study of traditional music fi'om Atlantic Canada, since traditional Atlantic Canadian music is often deemed a member of the “Celtic music” family.
The first question is obvious. Who are the Celts from whom this designation
“Celtic music” ultimately derives? This question has provided the basis for many books and dissertations and undoubtedly will continue to concern scholars for some time. An important point to remember is that the term Celt is not a self-conscious name used by any ancient group. It was either given to them by outside contemporary observers or retrospectively imposed by historians and anthropologists.'^ That being stated, Barry
Cunliffe, in The Ancient Celts, makes a neat summation of the history of the group of people called the Celts. He writes:
For us the Celts comprise a large number of ethnic groups who occupied much of
central and western Europe in the first millennium BC and spoke a series of
related dialects which linguists define as ‘Celtic.’ Some of these groups moved
Malcom Chapman provides a more detailed discussion of this issue in his book The Celts, the Construction o f a Myth. Malcolm Chapman, The Celts: the Construction o f a Myth (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), 30. 11
into east Europe to settle. They were rapidly assimilated. Over much of the rest
of the continent ‘Celticness’ eventually disappeared in the turmoil and
reformation of the first half of the first millennium AD and only in the extreme
western fringes did the language, and with it the memory of the Celtic heritage,
survive.’^
Cunliffe’s statement would lead to the notion that there are still Celts who have kept their heritage alive but Bernhard Maier contends that any awareness of the ancient Celts and their lineage through language and tradition was lost and only regained by scholars in the sixteenth century.*"^ If the current people referring to themselves as “Celts” are Celts more by desire than by historical attributes, then is there any legitimate use for the title
“Celtic music”? It is presumable that the music of the many different tribes, which shared common linguistic and cultural aspects during the first millennium A.D., has certainly disappeared with time and there is little doubt that the label of “Celtic music” is a modem creation. It began appearing in record stores in the late 1980s and continues to grow today as a conscious marketing plan based on the renewed interest in “Celtic” cultures.
Yet it is not completely improbable that a category created mainly for commercial profit could have some legitimate base in a region’s historical culture and therefore the question arises is the term “Celtic” tmly appropriate to describe the music that is
Barry Cunliffe, The Ancient Celts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 268. Bernhard Maier, The Celts: A History From Earliest Times to the Present, trans. Kevin Windle (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Norte Dame Press, 2003), 4-5. Alan M. Kent, “Celtic Nirvanas: Construction of Celtic in Contemporary British Youth Culture,” in Celtic Geographies: Old Cultures New Times, ed. David C. Harvey, Rhys Jones, Neil Mclnroy, and Christine Milligan (London: Routledge, 2002), 216. 12
categorized as such? Based on the logic that there are no surviving direct links with the
Celts, the answer is that no music surviving to the present day could be aptly termed
“Celtic music.” However, if the theory that modem Celts have rediscovered their past
heritage and that the music which has been handed down in the various cultures has
unique Celtic aspects to it, then the music of the Celtic speaking countries could
justifiably be categorized as “Celtic music.”
Unfortunately, theoretically appropriate music is not always the reality in the
music stores. Sharron Thornton points out the first sophism with regards to what music is
actually found under the label Celtic. In her article, “Reading the Record Bins: The
Commercial Construction of Celtic Music,” she notes that currently: “Celtic music is
more about what sounds Celtic than what is Celtic.”*^ This abstract concept of a certain
sound is difficult to document and study since “sound” can be influenced by factors
ranging from instrumentation to tempo. This vapid notion of a “Celtic sound” gives
licenses for almost any music with one element of something passing for “Celtic” to be
placed in the category. The word “Celtic” in the title, or a performer/composer from one
of the “Celtic countries,” the use of one of the Celtic languages, or a synthesized set of
bagpipes, appears to be enough to warrant a place in the “Celtic music” category. The
musical forms, such as sets, reels, airs, and jigs, used in the traditional music of Ireland,
Scotland, Wales, Brittany and the Isle of Man are exceedingly rare in this type of music.
Tranquil lyrical lines sung in barely discernible whispered voices have replaced the sharp
dramatic rhythms, which give each of these regions distinction from each other. The
Sharron Thornton, “Reading the Record Bins: The Commercial Construction of Celtic Music,” in New Directions in Celtic Studies, ed. Amy Hale and Philip Payton (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000), 22-3. 13 music from the acclaimed show “Riverdance,” although a great business success, feeds into this category of vaguely “Celtic feeling” music due more to the presence of uilleann pipes, tin whistles, and an overall ambient misty sound than any solid lineage with traditional Irish music. The common use of synthesizers and electronic instruments in
“Celtic music” has led groups and performers such as Clannad and Enya to produce
“Celtic music.” This music is routinely sold next to a Chieftains’ album or in the case of
Nova Scotia, next to a Buddy MacMaster recording. Much of what is sold as “Celtic music” appeals to a mystical idea of the Celts, more than any reality that may have existed in the past or the present. Thornton comments that:
‘Celtic’ music then, perhaps with the exception of Gaelic Mods, sean-nos singers,
and male Welsh choirs, remains a popular notion with an increasingly popular
usage.
Musicians might argue that stylistic boundaries should be broken and blended, as artists deem necessary. However, the very lack of any boundary delineation as to what falls under the title of “Celtic music” makes the category all but useless even as a rule to be broken. Therefore, despite its popularity, the term “Celtic music” will not be used in this thesis as interchangeable with “traditional music.”
The multiplicity of different sounds that fall under the designation of “Celtic music” is continually frustrating for scholars and traditional music enthusiasts who must endure authentic traditional music being lumped with stacks of poorly played synthesized sound. In 1963, J.R.R. Tolkien presented a lecture in which he vented some of his
Ibid., 19. 14 frustration about the term “Celtic.” His comments aptly convey current irritation over the term “Celtic music.” He says:
To many, perhaps to most people outside the small company of the great scholars,
past and present, ‘Celtic’ of any sort is, none the less, a magic bag, into which
anything may be put, and out of which almost anything may come.... Anything is
possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight, which is not so much a twilight of the
gods as of the reason.’*
One of the items thrown into the bag of “Celtic music” is traditional music from Atlantic
Canada. True, there is a link of immigration between Atlantic Canada, Scotland, and
Ireland, plus Scottish Gaelic is still spoken by individuals in Nova Scotia, especially
Cape Breton. These two factors together with a stable traditional music scene, in the early 1990s, appear as an untapped business opportunity.’^ Images of misty coastlines, rustic living, and provincial manners were already part of an Atlantic Canada stereotype and the linkage of Scottish and Irish music from the region with the already coined term
“Celtic Music” only added to the idea that traditional musicians were tapping a much older spiritual way of life and music that had come dovm to them from the Celts of
Ireland and Scotland. Increased discontent with urbanization and a renewed social interest in Celtic cultures turned many of the once negative concepts of Atlantic Canada and the Celtic regions into positive selling points for traditional music. Less the result of a deliberate promotional strategy than the outcome of complex societal changes the music
’* J.R.R. Tolkien, “English and Welsh,” in Angles and Britons, O ’Donnell Lectures (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1963), 29-30 Sharron Thornton, “Reading the Record Bins: The Commercial Construction of Celtic Music,” in New Directions in Celtic Studies, ed. Amy Hale and Philip Payton (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000), 22. 15 that emerged from the region’s musie industry in the 1990s allowed much wider sales of traditional musie from the Atlantic Provinces. Whether this allowed the region to break free of negative images completely or if it more firmly confirmed them will be addressed in the third chapter of this thesis.
Tradition and Traditional Music (Working Definitions) Before the term “traditional music” is defined, the word “tradition” itself must be deconstructed briefly. An analysis of any subject and the words used to discuss the subject allows new perspectives and reveals societal conceptions about the subject. The
Webster’s Dictionary offers three different definitions of “tradition,” which neatly capture both the concise definition of the concept and some of its inherent conundrums.
“Tradition” is defined as:
1) The handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or
by example from one generation to another without written instruction 2) an
inherited pattern of thought or action 3) cultural continuity in social attitudes and
institutions.
If these definitions are taken as mutually exclusive, then contradictions begin to arise.
However, if the multiple definitions are viewed as spreading out to encompass more of the human experience, they allow for a wider definition which aids the process of understanding. For example, if the idea that tradition must be passed down by word of mouth is taken in an exclusive sense, then by studying and writing about tradition, it is destroyed in some small way and any person who leams all or a portion of the tradition
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (1976), s.v. “tradition.’ 16 through a written form has not learned the tradition at all. Yet, if the last two sections of the definition are considered, writing down a tradition may be a way of creating the cultural continuity and upholding the institutions the tradition represents. This is not to say that a focus on one portion of the definition cannot be useful. Diarmuid Ô Giollain in
Locating Irish Folklore: Tradition, Modernity, Identity chooses to analyze the idea of tradition and cultural continuity, which he sees as containing a power structure. The word tradition itself has a Latin origin and the meaning combines the ideas of handing down knowledge along with duty and respect with regards to that knowledge.^* While generally ignoring the oral nature of tradition, Ô Giollain is also not excluding it; he is merely working with a portion of the definition to allow a more detailed exploration. His work is still anchored in an understanding of the Webster’s definition.
David Gross, in his book. The Past in Ruins: Tradition and the Critique o f
Modernity, writes that: “The term ‘tradition’ refers to a set of practices, a constellation of belief, or a mode of thinking that exists in the present, but was inherited from the past.”^^
Gross’s idea focuses on the multi-generational aspect of tradition which he builds on from Edward Shils’s proposal. Edward Shils, in his book entitled Tradition, tentatively suggests that three generations are needed before a tradition is established.^^ While Gross follows Shils’s qualifications he does not believe that a tradition must only be passed down in an oral fashion. Although Gross understands that written transmission alters the tradition, he still believes that the changed tradition is valid. He writes:
Diarmuid 6 Giollâin, Locating Irish Folklore: Tradition, Modernity, Identity (Cork: Cork University Press, 2000), 8. ^ David Gross, The Past in Ruins: Tradition and the Critique o f Modernity (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1992), 8 ^ Edward Shils, Tradition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press), 15. 17
By being encoded in words, traditions get organized, structured, and passed down
differently, and this in turn affects their form and content. Although writing
makes transmission more precise, it does so at the expense of the immediacy and
intimacy that comes with oral tradition.^"^
These ideas all mesh together rather well. However, concrete declarations about a concept like “tradition” are never completely free of problems.
Much of the difficulty with the use of the term tradition occurs in conjunction with other terms such as music, custom, dance, and culture. In many cases the word
“folk” has been used to replace “tradition” in the title for these conglomerate ideas while also being used as part of the definition. Jan Harold Brunvand, in The Study o f American
Folklore, gives five components that make up the idea of folklore among which are qualifications of traditional form and transmission.^^ The words “tradition” and “folk” are used somewhat interchangeably and the way each author claims a slightly varied meaning for the two terms creates a large word game.
Since the early 1990s there has been a slow shift in academic writing away from the use of the term “folk.” A simple way to view this shift is a survey of the many music dictionaries. The 1954 edition ofGrove’s Dictionary o f Music and Musicians has no entry for “traditional music” but does have a lengthy discussion of “folk music” which is defined as:
David Gross, The Past in Ruins: Tradition and the Critique o f Modernity (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1992), 15. Jan Harold Brunvand, The Study o fAmerican Folklore: An Introduction (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986), 7. 18
any music, in fact, which has entered into the heritage of the people, but can be
assigned to no composer, it may be defined as a type of music which has been
submitted for many generations to the process of oral transmission.. .nowadays it
is generally conceded that the test of a folksong lies not in its origin or its
popularity, but in the manner of its evolution.... This is determined by the process
of oral transmission.
Fifteen years later, in 1969, the term “folk” is still being used. The Harvard Dictionary o f Music has no listing for the term “traditional music” but there is an entry for “folk music.”^^ The term “folk” was clearly not problematic for the creators ofThe Concise
Oxford Dictionary o f Music in 1980. Again, there is no entry for “traditional music” only for “folk music.” The consciousness around the geographic location of “folk music” was slowly shifting and this is clear in the definition of the term;
Term covering folk-songs and folk dances. Folk-songs are songs of unknown
authorship passed orally from generation to generation, sung without
acc.[accompaniment], and often found in variants (of words and tune) in different
parts of a country (or in different countries). Folk-songs were generally found
among the country-dwellers, but with the increase of urbanization and
industrialization they spread to the towns and factories.^*
In this entry there is another sign of an emerging discussion on the nature of “folk music.” The author comments, “Like every generic term, folk-song is susceptible to
Grove’s Dictionary o f Music and Musicians, s.v. “Folk Music. Harvard Dictionary o f Music, s.v. “Folk music, folksong.” ^ The Concise Oxford Dictionary o f Music, s.v. “Folk Music.” 19 many conflicting interpretations.. The question arises, why use a term piled high with connotations, now seen as derogatory? A possible explanation could be that most of the contributors to these dictionaries wrote from within the academic music studies community, a group of scholars interested mainly in the development of serious music versus popular music. While this explanation may answer the question of word choice in part, it should be noted that the term “folk music” was also used by those in academia who were consciously studying this music and attempting to give validity to their study.
In 1965, Bruno Nettl in his book. Folk and Traditional Music o f the Western
Continents, is regrettably unclear about the distinction between the two terms. He uses both in the title, as if to allude to separate definitions for the two terms but this never occurs in the book. He begins by stating, “Our interest in folk and traditional music revolves around the fact that here is music that is accepted by all or most of the people in a cultural group as their own.”^® Nettl seems to view the terms as synonymous, for he continues to refer to both of them equally throughout the text. The fog which seems to have surrounded these two terms was present in two areas in the academic community, within the classical music domain and the budding field of ethnomusicology.
The confusion around the terms “folk music” and “traditional music” is not merely an academic conundrum. Breandân Breathnach, the famous Irish musician, writing in 1977, seemed to be struggling with the terms as well. In his book, entitled
Folk Music and Dances o f Ireland, he uses the term “traditional” almost as synonymous with “folk.” He focuses on the heritage of the music and writes, “Folk music is a heritage
Ibid. Bruno Nettl, Folk and Traditional Music o f the Western Continents (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1965), 2. 20 which is passed on from one age to the next — hence the term ‘traditional’ which is usually applied to it in Ireland.”^* The lack of definition or examination of the idea of the term “folk” would seem to place Breathnach’s work well within his writing period, drawing a parallel between the music practitioner and the academic.
The quagmire of terms for vernacular music, based in a community of oral tradition bearers, is currently being addressed in the aeademic world. In 1999, Fintan
Vallely published The Companion to Irish Traditional Music. The title would suggest that the term “tradition” has taken the place of “folk.” However, there are entries for both terms. In the article on “Folk Music” there is an explanation of where the term “folk music” originates: “[it] derived from the term ‘folk lore’ first proposed by British antiquarian W. J. Thomas in 1846 to eover the culture and traditions of the common people.”^^ The entry then proeeeds to explain part of the confusion with the two terms.
“In Ireland the term ‘traditional’ is used in place of ‘folk’, the Irish Traditional Music
Archive considers, this to emphasize transmission, rather than origin and eireulation.”^^
The end of the short article directs the reader to the entry for “traditional music” where the explanation is continued. It states:
The term [traditional music] used to denote the older dance music and song in
Ireland, this distinct fi'om both modem ‘folk’ music, nineteenth-century ‘national’
and ‘popular’ national songs — although these have exerted influences on it.^"^
Breandân Breathnach, Folk Music and Dances o f Ireland (Dublin: Mercier Press Ltd., 1977), 2. Fintan Vallely, ed. The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (Cork: Cork University Press, 1999), 142. 33Ibid. 34Ibid., 401. 21
There is a brief discussion of the importance, within Ireland, that these other types of music have had, and then the entry returns to the clarification between “folk” and
“traditional.” “The term ‘folk’ may also have been considered trivializing, for instance, because of the prevailing academic attitudes to ‘folk’ music — that they are essentially
‘peasant’ music.”^^ Given the natures of the academic sources listed previously, this comment does not seem too far from the truth. The Irish Traditional Music Archive mentioned in Vallely’s The Companion to Irish Traditional Music has a slightly broader definition of “Irish traditional music” on their web site.
The Archive interprets ‘Irish traditional music’ in the broadest possible terms, and
always tried to include rather than exclude material. Items are collected if they
could be considered traditional in any way — in origin, or in idiom, or in
transmission or in style of performance, etc. — or they are relevant to an
understanding of traditional music. As well therefore as collecting music and
song that is known to be centuries old, the Archive also collects reels and jigs
lately composed and recent ballads in traditional style.^®
The Archive’s definition for the term ‘traditional’ has certain self-serving aspects since the Archive needs to encompass as wide a definition as possible to allow for many different types of research on traditional music.
Two recent publications. The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians
Ibid. “Irish Traditional Music Archive: Definitions,” http://www.itma.ie/home/itmeal/htm (accessed June 2003). 22
(2001)^^ and Irish Studies: The Essential Glossary (2003),^* have continued the struggle over these two terms and the definitions for them. Unfortunately, these two publications hardly present a cohesive answer to the problem. The New Grove Dictionary only contains an article under “folk music” and makes no reference to “traditional music.”
The editor does acknowledge the debate around the use of the term “folk music.The entry then follows the development of the term “folk music” and some of the important points in the progression of the study of folk music. It is not until the end of the article that a tentative definition is put forward, and this definition is almost immediately refuted.
For European countries, the dictionary distinguishes between ‘art’ music (i.e.
European classical and sacred music), ‘folk’ or ‘traditional’ music and ‘popular’
music. However, the perspectives of contributors express different national,
intellectual, and disciplinary traditions. ‘Folk music’ is sometimes used
interchangeably with ‘traditional’ music; to distinguish it from art or popular
music; to distinguish between indigenous rural and urban traditional; and to
distinguish ‘community music-making’ from ‘popular music’ intended for mass
dissemination or marketing...
The lack of a coherent definition for the term may be a symptom of the current discourse or a failing of the dictionary itself, but it does illustrate some of the confusion over the two terms. The editors and authors ofIrish Studies: The Essential Glossary were only
^^The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians, s.v. “Folk Music.” Alex Davis, John Goodby, Andrew Hadfield, and Eve Patten, Irish Studies: The Essential Glossary, ed. John Goodby (London: Arnold, 2003). The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians, s.v. “Folk Music.” Ibid., 67. 23 slightly more successful at dealing with this confusing issue. The entry is listed as
“traditional and folk musie” and begins in this way:
‘Traditional music’ is Irish folk music, and is defined by having evolved through
a process of oral (as opposed to written) transmission. It also overlaps with ‘folk’
music in its more common sense (that is, as contemporary songs, usually with
guitar aeeompaniment), although traditional music purists insist on distinguishing
between the two.'**
Although this definition is a bit simplistic it does at least venture a single qualification for what traditional music is rather than the vague multiple suggestions in The New Groves
Dictionary. The New Groves Dictionary attempts to deal with the word “folk,” which seems to be the critical issue; Irish Studies: The Essential Glossary does not.
To further muddy the murky waters of the current discourse, John Blacking, instead of using “traditional” to describe this particular genre of music, chose to give the older terms “folk” and “art” musie completely new definitions, working from drastically different vantage points.'*^ He defines the labels in this way:
Folk musie enhances a social situation, and its value lies chiefly in the situation
itself. Art music refers to social situations beyond those in which it is performed:
for example, a symphony concert has no value in itself... .it should, if it is to
qualify as art music according to my definition, express ideas that add to the
Alex Davis, John Goodby, Andrew Hadfield, and Eve Patten, Irish Studies: The Essential Glossary, ed. John Goodby (London: Arnold, 2003), 238. John Blacking, Music, Culture, and Experience: Selected Papers o f John Blacking, ed. Reginald Byron (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 31-2. 24
significance of the occasion. If it is simply occasional music, no matter how
complex in style, 1 would call it folk music.
Although Blacking’s definitions are intriguing, they are not conducive to this type of study since they create no room for recorded music in the definition of “folk” music.
This set of definitions does not allow for different genres of music once they are recorded, since after the music is recorded, it can be experienced outside the community.
Blacking’s definitions will not be used in this study, but they do offer yet another interpretation on this complex discourse, one which stands in stark contrast to the other suggested definitions.
The connotations contained within the word “folk” have been studied by many scholars in recent years, including Ian McKay in The Quest o f the F o lk^ McKay delves deeply into the term and the concept of “folk.” Part of his deconstruction includes the conclusion that:
Elitism — the supposed ability of middle-class and often academic men and
women to rule on the inherent worth or worthlessness of folk tradition on the
basis of their ‘authenticity’ within a closely defined canon and on an ‘objective’
evaluation of their aesthetic worth — was durably installed as a feature of
international discussion of the Folk."*^
McKay described one vision of the “folk,” perceived from the outside, as “That which is unchanging, the true, solid and possibly even providential core of a culture and
Ibid., 32. ^ Ian McKay, The Quest o f the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994). Ibid., 22. 25 society....”'*^ This vision, of “saving” traditions from those who held them but clearly did not recognize their value, was often incredibly damaging to the traditions that were
“saved.” Equally damaging was the idea that a tradition could be contained and should remain in a stationary preserved state.
Musicologists have also attempted to study how the term “folk” was created and given such heavy connotations, as well as the shift away from the use of the term. Philip
V. Bohlman writes about the creation of idea of “folk music” in Europe as a reaction by the upper class to a more liberated and upwardly mobile lower class during the sixteenth century. The lower class included marginalized ethnic groups whose cultural traits were beyond the scholarly comprehension of those in power.
While Bohlman’s explanation may seem a bit overtly Marxist, when viewed in conjunction with the work of Richard Middleton in “Musical Belongings: Western Music and Its Low-Other,” a slightly clearer explanation of the logical creation of the “folk” and
“folk music” begins to emerge. According to Middleton a great deal of Western music and its complex structures and theories were created to help define what it was not: it was not “folk music.”''^ “Folk music” was seen as crude in style, form, tone, and instrumentation and was viewed as haphazard, while the notion that mere peasant could leam this music without reading any music was solid proof of the lower nature of “folk
Ibid., 9. Philp V. Bohlman, “Composing the Cantorate: Westernizing Europe’s’ Other Within,” in Western Music and Its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music, ed. Georgina Bom and David Hesmondhalgh (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 189. Richard Middleton, “Musical Belongings: Western Music and its Low-Other,” in Western Music and Its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music, ed. Georgina Bom and David Hesmondhalgh (Berkeley: University of Califomia Press, 2000), 59-60. 26 music.” The irony in all of this, as Middleton points out, is that in order to make such detailed distinctions it was necessary for Western music to understand “folk music” in order to use it as an antithesis. This irony did not occur to the many creators and proponents of the notion of “the folk” either in Europe or in North America or, if it did occur to any of them, it does not appear to have halted the deluge of derogatory comments against both the “folk” and their music.
Given the negative aura around the word “folk,” it is little wonder that musicians, and advocates for music, would move away from the term. The end of the entry in
Vallely’s The Companion to Irish Traditional Music reminds the reader that, while the term “traditional music” is currently considered politically correct, no term is completely free from political and social implications. This comment is an attempt at keeping the present generation of scholars from becoming too self-righteous in their use of “clean” terms, free from any presumptions or stereotypes. Further, Gearoid Ô hAllmhurain inA
Pocket History o f Irish Traditional Music suggests that no definition is possible. He writes: “There is no iron-clad definition of Irish traditional music. It is best understood as a broad-based system which accommodates a complex process of musical convergence, coalescence and innovation over time.”"^^ Nonetheless, given the nature of this thesis, a definition, albeit general, is needed.
Since this study belongs firmly in a period where the term “folk” has too many negative implications to be deliberately used, the term “traditional music” will be used, except where the term “folk music” occurs in a direct quotation. The definition of
Gearoid 6 hAllmhurain, A Pocket History o f Irish Traditional Music (Dublin: The O’Brien Press, 1998), 5. 27 tradition for this study is a combination ofWebster’s definition and a definition suggested by ethnomusicologist Marcia Herndon which emphasizes the importance of the group in determining the parameters of a specific tradition/^ While these explanations of the term both have their limitations they seem to convey the meaning of the word better than any other definition which has been considered in this research. The working description of traditional music for this thesis is any music which is passed down orally (at least in the early generations of the tradition although not necessarily in its modem manifestations), that contains inherited ideas, attitudes, techniques, and beliefs, and helps support and create a sense of communal continuity. Ultimately, traditional music is what the group accepts as traditional. Armed with this definition, the exploration of writing on the subject of Irish and Scottish traditional music can be undertaken with seemingly less ambiguity.
Scottish and Irish Traditional Music Academia has often made the assumption that traditional music can only exist where the societies are conservative, even stagnant. David Johnson comments about
Scottish traditional music that “it has little inherent desire for change, and if the society where it flourishes remains stable, it will stay the same for an indefinite period of time.”^*
The idea of a static society to keep a tradition pure and unchanged can only really be
“If we view a musical system as equal to the outer limits of its aesthetic boundaries, since it is only within the culturally acceptable range that value judgments will be made at all, it would then seem that these aesthetic boundaries, or what is accepted by the group or in-group as music, canalize musical systems....” Marcia Herndon, “Analysis: Herding Sacred Cows,” Ethnomusicology 18, no.2 (1974): 248. David Johnson, Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the Eighteenth Century (London: Oxford University Press, 1972), 87. 28 espoused from those entering the tradition from the outside since within the tradition this idea would seem ludicrous. Tomas O Canainn, an expert musician on the uilleann pipes, dealt with this misconception when he wrote:
In many ways the Irish tradition might be regarded as a conservative one, since
the very idea of a tradition is unthinkable if one does not imply conservation of
certain features of the past. Yet it need not mean that there is the positive dislike
of innovation implied by the word conservative, for one finds a tendency among
traditional performers to alter the material they use. The change may take the
form of variation of a melody in successive verses of a song, or it may be a
permanent long-term change through the process of oral transmission. Both are
quite common in the Irish tradition and there is ample evidence to show that they
are an essential part of it.^^
Although Ô Canainn is discussing the Irish tradition specifically, his comments could be equally applied to the Scottish tradition. Willa Muir, while discussing ballads in
Scotland, notes that, while she and her peers did not actively question the oral tradition they were given, they were also not passive carriers of the tradition.M uir proceeds to discuss the ways in which she and her friends altered the tradition that was handed down to them through rhythm, changes in lyrics, and note variations.
While the nature of tradition infers some adherence to the past, a “conservative” label for either the music itself or the society it resides in can bring with it the connotation that the society is fearful of modernity and change. This associated meaning
Tomas Ô Canainn, Traditional Music in Ireland (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978), 3. Willa Muir, Living With Ballads (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 32. 29 links into the earlier discussion of the negative connotations sometimes attached to the term “folk.” The music and the musicians are easier to dismiss, or to control, if they are viewed as people who do not challenge or question. Musicians and scholars, like Ô
Canainn, are working to erase the misconception of the static nature of oral traditions.
Musicologist William Ferris, in his introduction toFolk Music and Modern Sound, states succinctly that “Folk music has a history of change based on technological, cultural, and social change.”^'^
Part of the strong argument against the static nature of tradition is the use of vocal and instrumental music variation in the Scottish and Irish traditions. A tradition can hardly be viewed as stagnant if it is constantly changing. Variation is discussed with regards to both vocal and instrumental music. Hugh Shields, working with old ballads sung in Irish, called sean-nos singing, writes:
Words, melody, and their interpretation vary from singer to singer and occasion to
occasion, and orally transmitted songs owe their reality to oral occasions more
than to any representation of the songs in media (including writing).... And
though ballad sheets, songbooks and manuscripts have long made a traditional
contribution to the learning of songs, few Irish narrative songs or songs ‘about’
things which have happened have been strongly influenced by ‘alphabetical’
support. We shall, to be sure, notice little evidence of the systemic use of
improvisatory or ‘re-creative’ techniques in Irish songmaking. But improvising
William Ferris, “Introduction,” in Folk Music and Modern Sound, ed. William Ferris and Mary L. Hart (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1982), x 30
takes place all the same. The whole process of variation depends upon it, both
musically and verbally.^^
Shields indicates the importance of variation in the vocal portion of the Irish tradition, but other scholars discuss variation in the perspective of the entire tradition.
Sean Ô Riada, one of the major figures in Irish traditional music in tfie middle part of the twentieth century, detailed the variations used for each instrument in the Irish tradition.
He went so far as to state that the correct use of variation was “— the underlying principle of all traditional Irish music.”^^
The use of variation is clearly present in the Scottish tradition, though it has not been studied as widely as in Ireland. George Emmerson, in his book Rantin ’ Pipe and
Tremblin ’ String: A History o f Scottish Dance Music, refers back to early documentation of the use of variation in the Scottish tradition. Emmerson cites in passing a work dated
1802 which notes that no two musicians play a tune in the same way.^^ Further, in her discussion of ballads in northern Scotland, Willa Muir writes about the singer’s use of variation: “The singer apparently keeps in mind the direction the flow of feeling should take; provided he makes it rise or fall in the appropriate places, he is fi-ee to improvise.”^*
The use of variation in the Scottish tradition can also be viewed from the angle of regional variations in style. Kathleen Dunlay mentions the difference between fiddle styles in Scotland: “It is significant that Scottish fiddle music of the country and Scottish
Hugh Shields, Narrative Singing in Ireland: Lays, Ballads, Come-All-Yes and Other Songs (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993), 8. Sean Ô Riada, Our Musical Heritage, ed. Thomas Kinsella and Tomas 6 Canainn (Portlaoise, Ireland: Funduireacht an Riadaigh, 1982), 50. ^ George S. Emmerson, Rantin ’ Pipe and Tremblin ’ String: A History o f Scottish Dance Music (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002), 57 Willa Muir, Living With Ballads (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 158. 31 fiddle music of the city were never one and the same style, although they were closely related and symbiotic.”^^ While Dunlay is not discussing the use of variation in the tradition, she is pointing to other related differences within the tradition.
Clearly the use of variation makes both Irish and Scottish musical traditions anything but static. If each time a piece is performed it is slightly altered, then each time it is learned by another generation the tradition has changed, if only slightly. The musicians are not merely peasants who blindly repeat what their ancestors taught them, but creators and interpreters in their own right. This has been noted not only by current scholars but by scholars in the past as well. Mary Anne Alburger, a current interpreter of
Scottish fiddle tradition, writes that it is completely impossible to repeat exactly a piece of violin music. Thus, every piece contains variations. She states:
Thankfully, it is almost — if not entirely — impossible to copy another person’s
playing slavishly. Nor, indeed, is it usual for most fiddlers even to be able to
repeat exactly what they have just played; unless the music is being played rigidly
and automatically, in intellectually or spiritually sterile condition, spontaneity is
always present.
Further she comments on the use of variation and personal style in this way, “Although each musician has in his background a family tradition of music which he is continuing
Kathleen E. Dunlay, “The Playing of Traditional Scottish Dance Music: Old and New World Styles and Practices,” in Celtic Languages and Celtic Peoples: Proceedings o f the Second North American Congress o f Celtic Studies, ed. Cyril J. Byrne, Margaret Harry, and Pâdraig Ô Siadhail (Halifax: D’Arcy McGee Chair of Irish Studies, 1992), 173. Mary Anne Alburger, Scottish Fiddlers and Their Music (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1983), 209. 32 the real store-house of style remains in each individual.”^* The music is altered slightly every time it is played making each musician a creator in some way.
As well as defending the creative nature of the musical traditions there is another common thread in the scholarship about Irish and Scottish traditional music. In both traditions there are references to hereditary musical families. Andrea Budgey, in her work on medieval Scottish and Irish music, makes the comment that a “study of the
Gaelic learned orders suggests close relations between the music families and those of the hereditary bards.”^^ John Gibson, writing about Scottish music in the 1600s, notes that as musical ideas moved from the Gaelic speaking aristocracy to the lower classes there was still a sense that being a musician was somewhat hereditary within the community. In another article Gibson gives an explicit example. He refers to a historian from the latter half of the 1800s named Alexander MacKenzie who was working on the history of the
Clan MacKenzie. Gibson writes:
MacKenzie visited Squire John MacKay, stipendiary magistrate in New Glasgow
in the late 1860s, to find out what had become of the family and the music of the
hereditary pipers to the MacKenzies of Gairloch, who had settled thereabouts in
1805/"
Ibid. Andrea Budgey, “Commeationis et Affmitatis Gratia: Medieval Musical Relations between Scotland and Ireland,” in History, Literature, and Music in Scotland, 700-1560, ed. R. Andrew McDonald (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 217. John G. Gibson, Old and New World Highland Bagpiping (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002),13. ^ John G. Gibson, “Traditional Piping in Nova Scotia, ” inCeltic Languages and Celtic Peoples: Proceedings o f the Second North American Congress o f Celtic Studies, ed. Cyril J. Byrne, Margaret Harry, and Pâdraig 6 Siadhail (Halifax: D’Arcy McGee Chair of Irish Studies, 1992), 160. 33
Although Gibson is discussing the existence or non-existence of hereditary pipers in
North America, he is also indirectly claiming the existence of a hereditary tradition in
Scotland. MacKenzie is here witnessing the decline of the hereditary piper. Gibson points out that Squire John himself would have learned to play the pipes as part of the tradition. However, “His older brother Angus, who had died two or three years before
MacKenzie’s visit, had stopped playing it [ceol mor] and had concentrated on ceol beag.. .Angus would have been next in line as hereditary Gairloch piper and presumably received most of his father’s musical attention.”®^ The hereditary tradition of piping was clearly on dangerous ground in the early 1800s and came to Atlantic Canada in a crippled form; it was no longer the healthy tradition that had existed under the Gaelic aristocracy in the 1600s.^^ There is little reference to whether this hereditary tradition existed for other instrumentalists besides pipers and harpists who worked directly for the clan chiefs.
However, the level of playing that these families were capable of was evidently quite high since later in the article Gibson refers to them as “the great pipers, the hereditary pipers.”^^ This high level of performance on the pipes would make good sense in light of the fact that pipers to the clan chief were full-time musicians and therefore had a great deal more opportunity to practice than the ordinary musician who worked at some other trade for a living and played music only recreationally.
The reference to hereditary playing in the Irish tradition originates from the time when professional musicians played for the Gaelic aristocracy before the 1600s. Many of
Ibid., 161. ^ Ibid., 161. John G. Gibson, Old and New World Highland Bagpiping (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002), 161. 34 the references in the Irish scholarship to performers from musical families, after 1600, are not to full time musicians. A wonderful example of this comes from the work of Muiris
Mac Conghail in his book. The Blaskets: A Kerry Island L ib r a r y .Mac Conghail is discussing the Islanders at large, not the specific musical tradition on the Island, but he makes this reference early in his book. “At Bun an Bhaile you had two Ô Suilleabhain households, the one further to the left towards an Gob being one of the musical families on the Island.”^^ Later he makes references to another musical family where both the father and the son “were traditional musicians” and this family, the Ô Cathain family, has continued to play music. Mac Conghail writes, “The musical tradition is continued by the present generation of the family.”^*^ As members of the Blasket Island community these musicians were hardly professional musicians, but were instead members of the community who played in their leisure time. In the latter half of his bookTraditional
Music in Ireland, Tomas Ô Canainn discusses several modem traditional musicians.
Most of these musicians note that they come from “musical families” and learned their instruments or at least developed their interest in the music from their parents. Since the music is to be passed down from generation to generation, in a predominately oral fashion, this seems to be a way to legitimize the authenticity of the music they have learned as “traditional.” Geoff Wallis and Sue Wilson mention this hereditary aspect of
Irish traditional music twice in their book. The Rough Guide to Irish Music. They write:
“There’s almost a stereotypical pattern to the careers of many Irish musicians which
^ Muiris Mac Conghail, The Blaskets: A Kerry Island Library (Dublin: Country House, 1987). Ibid., 37. Ibid. 35 begins in infancy — learning from parents or listening to music in the family home..
At the conclusion of this book Wallis and Wilson reiterate this point by writing:
As the saying goes, the family that plays together stays together and lineage plays
an integral role in the continuation of Ireland’s Musical tradition. Songs are
learned from the cradle onwards and instrumental skills are handed down the
moment a child reveals an aptitude. Certain families are revered for their abilities
and multifaceted skill of their members.
This hereditary aspect of traditional music did not disappear as the Irish and Scottish arrived on the shores of Atlantic Canada. Lauchie MacLellan, a Cape Bretoner and traditional singer raised during the early part of the 1900s, still felt the strong trends towards hereditary musicians. John Shaw wrote about MacLellan’s early training in this way:
It was during this time that Lauchie first raised the subject of his family tradition
and its transmission to him through his uncle Neil. He took pleasure in discussing
the traditions and the personalities that had been important formative and guiding
factors during his life.^^
The existence of hereditary pipers in Scotland and musical families in Ireland found a position in the newly forming traditions of Atlantic Canada as did other facets of both traditions, such as the use of variation. While the importance of musical families is not as
Geoff Wallis and Sue Wilson, The Rough Guide to Irish Music (London: Rough Guides, 2001), 6. Ibid., 244. Lauchie MacLellan, Brigh an Grain: A Story in Every Song the Songs and Tales o f Lauchie MacLellan, trans. and ed. John Shaw (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000), xx. 36 strong today, over the entire Atlantic Canada region, as it has been in the past, many of the musicians playing traditional music in Atlantic Canada today learned the music from their parents or relatives. This issue will be addressed further in the final chapter of this thesis.
Who owns or who controls the tradition? The issue of heritage leads directly to the idea of ownership. Who controls or who owns traditional music? Do the musicians themselves hold the music separate from the community, or does the community hold the tradition leaving the musicians as mere vessels? These questions are too large to answer definitively within this particular study.
However, they need to be voiced to give a broader picture of the current discourse on the subject of ownership and traditional music.
Scholars working in the area of Scottish and Irish traditional music have many varied opinions about who controls or owns the tradition. This question is important to address. If musicians are considered artists they must have creative freedom but if the music is to affirm the community and its heritage the community must have some control over the music. In a larger sense, are traditional musicians creators of culture or vessels to transfer a culture to another generation?
Hugh Shields, in his book on the narrative song tradition in Ireland, places most of the control with the community. “Songs to be listened to.. .are the choice of the community, and it is chiefly the community which by favour or neglect governs repertory, as it governs style by approval or disfavour.”’'^ Shields’s description does not
Hugh Shields, Narrative Singing in Ireland: Lays, Ballads, Come-All-Yes and Other Songs (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993), 141. 37
lend much to the idea of artistic freedom. Neither does Willa Muir’s description of a
ballad singer, who is, “the vehicle through which flows a remarkable sense of duration,
almost of inevitable ceremony and ritual.”^^ The reference to ceremony and ritual seems
to suggest that the musician has no artistic freedom over the tradition at all. Further,
Marcia Herndon and Norma McLeod seem to believe that creativity of any kind is not
possible in the genre of traditional music given their definition of creativity. The idea
must be completely original for it to be categorized as creative and is dubbed merely
innovative if the idea works within an already existing framework.W hile their
description of creativity may at first glance appear to be irrefutable, on closer inspection
it is nearly impossible in any genre and even more so within a traditional genre to be
creative given this definition. T.S. Eliot struggled with the idea of creativity in an essay
entitled, “Traditional and the Individual Talent.” In it he writes:
No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance,
his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists.
You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison,
among the dead.’^
Even in non-traditional music genres the past has to be absorbed and assimilated before a new artistic work is formed. Inside the traditional genre the past is learned in a certain way and the present is created in a particular way as well but this is true of any genre.
Traditional musicians are as personally creative as musicians in any genre.
Willa Muir, Living With Ballads (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 46. Marcia Herndon and Norma McLeod, Music as Culture (Norwood, Pa., Norwood Editions, 1979), 43. T.S. Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” in Selected Essays (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1932), 15. 38
Conversely, perhaps the creativity of the musicians is not an important issue.
Seamus Ceallaigh, writing about poets and musicians, writes that: “The Gaelic poet was an interactive component of society, not an inventor, but a voice speaking the emotions and visions of all people in the community.”^* There is, however, an inherent problem in
Ceallaigh’s logic since musicians in both the Scottish and Irish traditions depended heavily on personal variation as part of the music and in the Scottish tradition the composing of entirely new tunes was a well-accepted practice. George Emmerson comments on this aspect of the Scottish tradition with an almost cavalier attitude stating that almost every musician had written music.^^
This places Emmerson in direct opposition to those scholars who place all the ownership with the community and place little, if any, value on the creativity of the musicians. Breandân Breathnach, a traditional musician himself, would tend to coneur with Emmerson. Breathnach places the responsibility of saving Irish traditional music directly on the musicians: “Its continuity as a living thing depends on those of us who play it and upon those of us who leam it. Its future rests in our own hands.”*® By saying this, Breathnach is inferring that while the community is important to the music, ultimate responsibility and therefore control rests with the musicians. Tomas Ô Canainn sees a balance between the two viewpoints as well. In discussing one of his teachers, he says:
Seamus Ceallaigh, “The Gaelic Middle Passage to Canada,” in Cultural Identities in Canadian Literature, ed. Bénédicte Mauguière (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1998), 46. George S. Emmerson, Rantin ’ Pipe and Tremblin ’ String: A History o f Scottish Dance Music (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002), 57. *® Ibid., 127. 39
He had the ability to transform completely a well-known song into something
quite new.... One’s interest was held in every line as he applied his traditional
skill to the reshaping of the phrases, finding climaxes where one would hardly
have expected them and yet being at all times convincing.*’
When Ô Canainn discusses making a song “convincing,” he is referring to a sense of authenticity inside the tradition, the use of variation techniques considered standard amongst singers. This use of standard techniques in an innovative way allows Ô Canainn to conclude that, “The singer of tales is at once the traditional and an individual creator.”*^ Ô Canainn’s explanation of the ownership of the tradition is consistent with the findings of James R. Cowdery in his book The Melodic Tradition o f IreilandP
Cowdery discusses the idea that knowledge of history surrounding a song and the community’s culture are both necessary for the musician to be a genuinely traditional musician. The singer has control of how he or she interprets the song, but that happens within the context of the community, which therefore helps to shape or control the rules the singer uses to create the song.*'’
While it seems that neither the musician nor the community can claim sole ownership of the tradition, are both sides necessary to produce traditional music? Charles
Seeger answers this question by asserting that the only way to destroy a culture is to
*’ Tomas Ô Canainn, Traditional Music in Ireland (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978), 107. *2 Ibid., 4. *^ James R. Cowdery, The Melodic Tradition o f Ireland (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1990), x. *'* This dual role of individual creator and vessel for community heritage is also mentioned by Willa Muir. Willa Muir, Living With Ballads (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 35. 40 eliminate the bearers of its traditions. He maintains that “continuity and creativity” are essential to keep a tradition alive and for that you need people who live the culture and its traditions in close proximity to one another. If the community is scattered then the musicians have no context; conversely it is obvious that without the musicians the community would have no music and lose a large piece of its culture. The ownership of the tradition is a blending of the community and the individual musician. In a sense, it is a symbiotic relationship; one would have difficulty existing without the other, if they could exist at all. Blacking, in his discussion of music as art, presents the idea of a balance between the community and the individual quite clearly. He states.
The purpose of art is to capture force with form: the force of individual human
experience and the form of collective cultural experience, of certain given orders
of relationships, social, musical, and otherwise.*®
The Position of Musicians in the Community Traditional musicians are supported by the community, the community gives context to the music — the musicians in return give a sense of ethnic identity to the community, a sense of history and heritage, a sense of belonging both to the specific community and to the larger culture the community exists in. While discussing poets in
Cape Breton, Seamus Ceallaigh refers to John MacLean and Alexander McLachlan. He states that, “Both poets sought to be recorders of their communities’ experiences and the
Charles Seeger, Studies in Musicology 1935-1975 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 338. *® John Blacking, Music, Culture, and Experience: Selected Papers o f John Blacking, ed. Reginald Byron (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 52. 41 seers who helped renew their communities’ visions of self and context.”*^ In both Irish and Scottish society poets and musicians held similar positions and this attitude toward them was transferred into the community setting in the New World.^^ Without musicians a community would lose part of its sense of history and cohesion.
Breandân Breathnach makes a direct statement about the reason Irish people should understand Irish music. He writes: “There is a compelling reason why we should know our own music: it is our own.”^^ Implied in this statement is that part of being Irish is knowledge of the music, that somewhere in the music is part of the character of the
Irish. This sense that music contains and teaches something about the character of a people is also echoed in the scholarship about Scottish music.^° This places musicians in the position of forming, or at least informing, the character of the immediate community, the larger national community, and the dispersed community across the globe. If the music carries national or communal character, it is also by default a representative of national character to anyone who hears the music from outside the community. Gerald of
Wales visited Ireland in the late twelfth century and wrote extensively about his travels there. While he complained about many things in Ireland, he delighted in the music
Seamus Ceallaigh, “The Gaelic Middle Passage to Canada,” in Cultural Identities in Canadian Literature, ed. Bénédicte Mauguière (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1998), 46. George Sigerson uses the two terms almost interchangeably in his book,Bards o f the Gael and Gall. George Singerson,Bards o f the Gael and Gall (New York: Lemma Pub.Corp, 1974). Breandân Breathnach, Folk Music and Dances o f Ireland (Dublin: Mercier Press Ltd., 1977), 121. George S. Emmerson, Rantin'Pipe and Tremblin' String: A History o f Scottish Dance Music (Montreal: McGill Queen's University Press, 1971), v 42 which he seemed to find the one redeeming quality about the Irish people/' John Clark
Murray, writing in the early nineteenth century about Scotland, also found the more commendable portions of the nation’s character in its traditional music. His book.The
Ballads and Songs o f Scotland, In View o f Their Influence on the Character o f the
People, detailed how the different types of their traditional songs had given the Scottish people certain character traits.^^
The theory of music defining a nation's character is generally not accepted in the modem academic world, but the intertwining of the idea of character and music has continued to the present day.^^ Leaving the discussion of a national character aside, many scholars and musicians have commented on how traditional music provides a definable sense of heritage and history for the community. Alan Titley, an Irish writer and critic, while discussing music, culture, and language, explained it in this way:
Gaelic culture and the Irish language are both very real and very symbolic. And
the symbol is the compliment that the actual pays to the ideal. At a very deep
level the country knows where it has come from.^''
This statement by Titley is still rather abstract. Luckily, the reality of creating a sense of heritage and self, through the generations, does have concrete actions, events that make the passing down of a culture tangible. Desi Wilkinson, a musician, describes such a
Andrea Budgey, “Commeationis et Affinitatis Gratia: Medieval Musical Relations between Scotland and Ireland,” in History, Literature, and Music in Scotland, 700-1560, ed. R. Andrew McDonland (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 217. John Clark Murray, Ballads and Songs o f Scotland: in View o f Their Influence on the Character o f the People (London: Macmillan and Co., 1874). Nuala O’ Connor,Bringing it all Back Home: The Influence o f Irish Music (London: BBC Books, 1991), 2. Alan Titley, A Pocket History o f Gaelic Culture (Dublin: O'Brien Press, 2000), 108. 43
tangible point when he reealls his official introduction to traditional music. He says:
I was listening to pop music, rock musie; and suddenly down the street from me
there was a man playing musie, and it was great tun. He was playing musie 1
wasn’t too familiar with, but on hearing the odd wee bit from a song and a story
that my father would come out with subsequently, even though he wasn’t a
musician himself, I could identify with what I was learning from Tommy because
of what my father was doing, which was telling me a yam in a certain way and
singing a song.^^
Wilkinson points out an interesting facet of traditional music, in both the Scottish and
Irish traditions — the use of stories around the music. The practice of giving background to the time, where it was learned, the history behind it, etc., is not only a part of the tradition itself but fosters the sense of history conveyed through the music.®^
With this pattern of dissemination there are two ways to teach the history of a community tied up in the one event of music; first, there is the actual musie, the notes, rhythms, words, melody etc.; second, there is the narrative which helps place the piece in context and provides an additional way to foster a sense of community and teach the next generation about the community’s history.
Marie McCarthy has done an extensive study of the importance of learned identity and culture through traditional music. She believes that the musie is central to a person’s understanding of belonging. She discusses traditional music as a way of confirming a person’s identity within not just the immediate community but several other larger
Peter McNamee, ed. Traditional Music: Whose Music? (Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, 1991), 39. Ibid., 57. 44 communities.^^ While this set of inter-linking rings of membership could exist in any traditional community, it is especially powerful in the Irish and Scottish traditions.
McCarthy comments that these are “issues of Irish identity, since not only is the music itself (rhythms and tones, for example) transmitted but also as a set of values and beliefs that are inextricable linked to political, social, cultural or economic power structures and ideologies in the culture at large.”^^ If this line of reasoning is followed, then the musicians who dispense the music take on not merely an important role in the community but an essential role. McCarthy proceeds to break down the transmission of culture through music, into the following components:
music as culture (as foundation and motivation for transmission), music as canon
(a content and set of values that is transmitted), music as community (a context of
transmission) and music as communication (a system of methods, media and
technologies used in transmission).^^
While these categories are too detailed for the scope of this study, McCarthy clearly shows the complex and crucial position of musicians if the music itself contains such vast amounts of history and knowledge.
The essential role of musicians did not cease with the immigration of the Irish and
Scottish to North America. There are many aspects to the way these two traditions metamorphosed once they arrived in North America. However, the importance of musicians and community continued. In Old and New World Highland Bagpiping John
Marie McCarthy, Passing It On: The Transmission o f Music in Irish Culture (Cork, Ireland: Cork University Press, 1999), 2. Ibid, 3. Ibid., 9 45
Gibson refers to traditional musicians as “the great memory-cultivators.”‘°° This term is quite powerful and makes a very strong case for the essential position of musicians inside a community.
As communities have shifted and their group dynamics have changed, the position of musicians has been transformed in Ireland and Scotland and in North America. The role of community teacher has moved away from musicians and towards official teachers in classrooms. Oddly enough, many times these teachers have been the ones who continued the musical education as well.
In Ireland Hugh Shields comments that, “Teachers, for their parts.. .have continued to figure as sustainers and transmitters, not to mention makers, of traditional song.”*®* General musicologists, Marcia Herndon and Norma McLeod, studying modem traditional music, have agreed that, “While music learning involves enculturation, only some may involve schooling or education.”*®^ It should be noted here that while more academics are concerning themselves with traditional music and musicians, the music itself comes from outside academia and the communities and musicians should have a place in the scholarship.
In a 1992 conference in Belfast run by the Co-operation North to discuss the nature of traditional music, Sean Corcoran made the point that the discussions of traditional music belonged to everyone, not just academics: “Normally these topics are
*®® John Gibson, Old and New World Highland Bagpiping (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002), 6 *®* Hugh Shields, Narrative Singing in Ireland: Lays, Ballads, Come-All-Yes and Other Songs (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993), 161. *®^ Marcia Herndon and Norma McLeod, Music as Culture (Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1979), 32. 46 debated by musicians themselves in the back rooms of public houses, or sitting on a wall at a Fleadh, or places like that; or else they are debated by academics.”**^^ He then proceeds to point out that the discussion actually belongs to the public as well, a sentiment which seems to imply that the public has a shared interest in the music as a cultural identifier.
While June Skinner Sawyers is not precisely a scholar in the area of traditional music, she does choose to quote one, a historian named John O'Driscoll who wrote that the Irish and Scottish had “a belief in the aristocracy of the imagination and the honoured place of the poet. Given the fever over the debate over who should even discuss the music, the musicians are clearly still “honoured” in some way. Their role as cultural transmitters continues. But what are they teaching, what images are they projecting to the wider communities their music now reaches?
Conclusion Many of the traits of traditional music can be easily and succinctly seen in the liner notes and music of Atlantic Canada being recorded today. A detailed look at the contents of some of the recently released albums will occur in a later chapter of this study. However, one particular album sums up much of this discussion of the nature of tradition and its many facets. In the liner notes of their first album. Red is the Rose, the
Ennis Sisters make this statement:
Peter McNamee, ed., Traditional Music: Whose Music?: Proceedings o f a Co operation North Conference (Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, 1992), 2 June Skinner Sawyers, The Complete Guide to Celtic Music (London: Aurum Press, 2000), 5. 47
Thanks to everyone who bought our album and we truly hope you enjoy every
selection, as we try to preserve our wonderful Irish and Newfoundland musical
traditions while making our own contributions.
The Ennis Sisters are acting as active participants in their cultural heritage as
Newfoundlanders. The album contains a version — an arrangement, by the sisters — of
“Red is the Rose,” a song about lost love in Killamey, Ireland credited to the Irish tradition.The album also contains an arrangement of “Out from St. Leonard’s,” a piece written by Gary O’Driscoll about evacuation from a Newfoundland island in the
1960s. How the Ennis Sisters learned this tune, whether it was from a family member or through some written form, is not stated. Both of these songs reveal a portion of the
Ennis Sisters’ cultural traditions and in the case of “Out from St. Leonard’s” provide a way to remember the past of their province. The arrangements have allowed these musicians to be at once creators and transmitters of their musical tradition.
Out From St. Leonard’s
In the mid 1960s the news rang out clear.
Pack your bags and your nets you must get out of here
Take your picks and your shovels, your rakes and your hoes,
The government says you must pack up and go
105 The Ennis Sisters, Red is the Rose, Independent, 1997, CD. The exact origin of “Red is the Rose” is difficult to track. It may have been composed in North America by Irish immigrants or composed in Ireland itself. However, the feeling of an Irish connection, which is particularly strong in Newfoundland, is conveyed no matter where the song originated. 48
Well, the news it soon spread to the harbours and coves
That the young crowd were leavin’ in hordes and in droves
For to go to Toronto to follow their goals
For to go to Placentia to live off the dole
Chorus
And it’s out from St. Leonard’s and out from Toslow
they’d steam ’cross the bay with their houses in tow
With their beds in the bow and their stoves in the stem
bound away with their sons and their daughters.
107 Gary O’Driscoll, Out From St.Leonard’s on The Ennis Sisters, Red is the Rose, Independent, 1997, CD. 49
Chapter Two
The Music Industry and Atlantic Canada
“The single most important development in modern music is making a business out o f it. — Frank Zappa
Introduction Music has historically been a prominent part of Nova Scotian culture. Harry
Young Payzant, a Canadian historian, commented about early Nova Seotia social gatherings: “One fiddler beeomes exhausted only to have his place taken by another, and so the dance goes on.”^ This musical tradition has developed an industry around it sinee the late 1980s. The launehing of the East Coast Music Awards in 1989, a showcase of regional musical talent across Canada and part of the United States, is a sign of the ever- increasing importance of the musical arts as a business within Atlantic Canada. While there are many who lament the commercialization of local music, the music industry has brought the region a prestige that reaches beyond the borders of Canada. In David
Baskervilles’s Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, Riehard Flohil points out that “Canada has always been a weleome host for multinational recording firms, and all the major eompanies are active in Canada. These include Warner, EMI, PolyGram,
* * R.A. Berman and R. D’Amico, “Popular Music from Adorno to Zappa,”Telos 91, no. 125: 87. ^ Harry Young Payzant, People: A Story o f the People o f Nova Scotia (Bridgewater, Nova Scotia: 1935), 345. 50
Sony, MCA, and BMG.”^ Many of these companies have contracts with artists in
Atlantic Canada. With the large, global music industry involved, the musical culture of
Atlantic Canada has the potential to be heard far outside regional borders.
This musical culture is being spread via an industry that can trace its origins to the turn of the twentieth century. To understand how the music industry developed in
Atlantic Canada in particular, it is first necessary to look at the evolution of recorded music in general.
The Beginnings of Recorded Sound and Music Thomas Alva Edison is credited with creating the first recording device in 1877 in
New Jersey.”* Emile Berliner would gain the Canadian patent for the first flat disc-(strips of tinfoil and wax cylinders had been used previously) in 1887.^ Berliner’s flat disc recording method allowed easy duplication, making him a leader in the recording business.^ Although initially Berliner would take this technology back to Germany to start a company, which would eventually become known as Deutsche Grammophon, he returned to North America after a short time and began to consolidate his business in
Montreal.^ In 1904, Berliner took out a charter from the government of Canada, which allowed his recording company to be the first to press and distribute records in Canada.
^ Richard Flohil, “The Canadian Music Industry; A Quick Guide,” in Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, ed. David Baskerville (London: Sage Publications, 1995), 498. ”* Timothy Day, A Century o f Recorded Music: Listening to Musical History (London: Yale University Press, 2000), 1. ^ Ibid., 14. ® Ibid., 2. ^ Oliver Read and Walter L. Welch, From Tin Foil to Stereo: Evolution o f the Phonograph (Indianapolis, Indiana: Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc., 1976), 119. 51
Despite the arrival of other record companies, such as Columbia, Berliner’s company remained dominant in Canada for some time.*
As early companies grew they began to create lists of their available records for customer selection. These lists eventually became entire catalogs. A brief perusal of these early record catalogues reveals a great deal about the taste of the middle class that increasingly in the 1900-1914 era had the resources to purchase gramophones and records. It was the average middle class listener’s taste that was driving record sales.^
The music that was recorded as well as music that was not recorded help indicate middle class musical values.
Missing from the catalogues of early recordings is ethnic music. Although
Berliner had released a series of French Canadian records, they were actually recorded in
France, and were of songs popular in France at that time, rather than the ethnic folk music of the Québécois.
The absence of ethnic music may seem strange given that most traditional music is quite palatable to the ear and would have been familiar to at least some of the listeners who were recent immigrants. One answer to this enigma may lie in the taste of the middle class of the period, which tended to de-emphasize their ethnic origins. Ethnic heritage was often seen as a sign of the poverty that had forced their emigration and that they had endured after their arrival in North America before establishing themselves.
During the early twentieth century, the place of traditional music and tradition in general
* Edward B. Moogk, Roll Back the Years: History o f Canadian Recorded Sounds and Its Legacy, Genesis to 1930 (Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1975), 19-21. ^ Timothy Day,A Century o f Recorded Music: Listening to Musical History (London: Yale University Press, 2000), 6. Edward B. Moogk, Roll Back the Years: History o f Canadian Recorded Sounds and Its Legacy, Genesis to 1930 (Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1975), 20. 52 was in an uneasy and strange position, especially in the homes of the middle and upper classes. David Gross, in his book. The Past in Ruins: Tradition and the Critique o f
Modernity, makes the following statement, “By 1900...tradition seemed to have eroded beyond the point of recovery.”"
Another reason for the lack of ethnic recordings may be found in the movement of social classes in North America in the early twentieth century. The upper class, desperately seeking to find a definition for itself, looked increasingly to Europe as a model.The European definition of what constituted “high” artistic merit or “good” music included traditional music only as thematic fodder for classical composers. The music purchased and played in the home, therefore, had to adhere to the image of gentility which the upper class was trying to project and the middle class was attempting to mimic. The music industry catered to this desire with incredible ease.
Victor/Berliner’s red label records (Berliner purchased Victor Records and eventually was known only as Victor) carried names like Caruso, Antonio Scottie, Marcella
Sembrick, Nellie Melba, and Louise Homer, all of whom were well-known classical singers. The impeccable classical music performed by these artists, in the living rooms of the middle class, slowly replaced the traditional music of their parents and grandparents.
Despite this unpromising start, several important technological developments would eventually aid the recording of traditional music by expanding the audience for
" David Gross, The Past in Ruins: Tradition and the Critique o f Modernity (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1992), 50. *^Charles Seeger, Studies in Musicology: 1935-1975 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 227. Oliver Read and Walter L. Welch, From Tin Foil to Stereo'. Evolution o f the Phonograph (Indianapolis, Indiana: Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc., 1976), 182. 53 recorded music in general. One of these developments was the Victrola, the phonograph marketed by Berliner’s Victor Company. The Victrola was so popular that the Victor
Company had earned millions of dollars from its sales by the early 1900s and it had become a standard piece of household furniture for those with the means to purchase one/^
While the Victrola carried music into the homes of many families, increasing advancements with vacuum tubes would lead to another invention, radio. During the
First World War, large advancements were made in radio technology through military funding. Initially, the record companies paid little attention to the experiments or to the public introduction of radio, which they viewed as a fad. The first broadcasting station with regular scheduling began in 1920 in Montreal on station XWA (currently CFCF) which was owned by the Canadian Marconi Company. By 1924, the radio audiences were rapidly expanding. Radio provided virtually free entertainment and the feeling that the listener was present at the place of performance, however distant and exotic that place was.*^ It was possible to hear a radio program across the entire expanse of Canada by
1927. The owners of Columbia and Victor/ Berliner realized they were losing business to radio.*’ Victor made a deal with RCA (Radio Company of America) to create phonographs with radio sets in them.*^
The other important development in the first quarter of the twentieth century to
Ibid., 181. Encyclopedia o f Music in Canada, s.v. “Broadcasting,” http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com (accessed June 2004). Oliver Read and Walter L. Welch, From Tin Foil to Stereo: Evolution o f the Phonograph (Indianapolis, Indiana: Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc., 1976), 182. *’ Ibid., 237. ** Ibid., 144. 54 affect the record industry strongly and by extension the recording of traditional music was the development of the film industry. When sound began to be integrated into commercial films in 1926 movies became a wonderful marketing tool for new songs.
Audiences who viewed films left the theater having been exposed to the music and then could purchase recordings of those songs.^° As audiences grew through Victrolas, radio, and film, and recording technology improved, lowering the cost of records, traditional music began to make a significant appearance in the record catalogues.
Throughout the rest of the twentieth century, recording technology continued to develop and its effect on the recording of traditional music expanded. The quest for a cleaner recorded sound led to developments such as the cassette tape (first introduced to the public in the 1970s), DAT recording (introduced in the late 1970s), and the Compact
Disc (introduced in the early 1980s).^* These advances not only helped create clearer recordings but ones that would last longer. Traditional musicians made ample use of this technology in two important ways, to record live performances outside the studio and to produce commercial and non commercial tapes which circulated amongst the community and allowed fellow musicians to leam tunes. Other advancements included the introduction of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) to the public in 1983, which allowed musicians to create sounds in the studio that had never been possible before.^^
Musicians began experimenting with new combinations of sounds using electronic
Steve Schoenherr, “Motion Picture Sound 1910-1929,” http://history.acused.edu/gen/redording/motionpicturel.html (accessed June 2003). Andre Millard, America on Record: A History o f Recorded Sound (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 160. “Inventors,” http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm7site =http://ac.acusd.edu/Histoi'y/recording/notes.html_(accessed November 2002). ^ Jeffrey Rona, The MIDI Companion, ed. Ronny S. Schiff (Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1994), 7. 55 instruments and recordings of acoustic instruments. While this had little to do with traditional musicians at first, the level of experimentation in the studio began to rise and would eventually touch even the traditional music genre.
The advent of the Internet with capabilities to download and share music files currently plagues the music industry as well as artists in every musical genre. Napster, created in 1999, was a file-sharing program that could be accessed over the Internet and allowed millions of computers to share music files between themselves. This meant that potentially if just one person purchased a new album and downloaded the music onto his or her computer, thousands of people could also download those files and listen to the album without cost.^^ Some of the major record companies, including Sony, Universal,
Bertelsmann, EMI and Warner Music launched a lawsuit against Napster in 2000. The results of the trial were complex, but the overt outcome was that Napster was closed but, almost instantly, similar programs sprang into place. In 2004 programs like Morpheus,
Limewire, and KaZaA operate on much the same principle and allow music file sharing on an even larger scale than Napster. Recently, the growth of digital music and purchasing online to supply MP3 files for the iPods (portable digital music players) or for use on Apple’s iTunes has allowed some control over computer to computer file sharing.^'* If a song is purchased online it can be stored and played on that computer or sent to an iPod player, but the song can not be downloaded onto another computer using a file-sharing program such as KaZaA. However, the song can still be burned onto a CD, as with other file sharing programs, which creates tracking problems for researchers and
^ “A Brief History of the Internet,” http://www.isoc.org/intemet/history/brief.shtmI (accessed April 2003). MP3 files are a type of digital audio format. 56 royalty problems for record companies and musicians.
In spite of the negative applications of the Internet, all of the major record companies have recognized the business potential of advertising and selling over the
Internet, and now have websites with listening options to allow the buyer to hear the music before purchasing it. This is one further way of expanding the audience for traditional music. The Internet has also allowed an artistic freedom from record companies that had not existed in the past. Trevor Merridan points out that “The former
[artists] have become more aware of a possible direct connection with their fans through the Internet in a way which could ultimately cut out record companies altogether.”^^ The freedom that the Internet offers artists, not just to connect with their fans but to sell their own self-produced recordings and contact other artists across the world, has not yet been documented in depth, nor has the full weight of its impact on the music industry and traditional music been assessed.
The Structure of the Corporate Music Industry Just as technology has changed, so has the structure of the music industry itself.
By the end of the Second World War, the music industry had grown considerably from its humble origins and was predominately controlled by a few companies with hundreds of subsidiaries. This expansion continues today. In 2004 the five largest companies are
Universal, Sony, Bertelsmann, EMI, and Warner Music, which all own multiple labels and operate in multiple countries.^^ It is necessary to look at the structure of these
Trevor Merriden, Irresistible Forces: the Business Legacy o f Napster and the Growth o f the Underground Internet {Oxford: Capstone, 2001), 169. ^^Ibid., 33. 57 corporations to understand how they influence the music, in particular traditional music, that is recorded.
One way to negotiate the murky waters of the industry’s structure is to begin at the bottom level with the artist who is attempting to be recorded. The artist must in some way attract the attention of record producers. This can happen in a host of ways, and may or may not be aided by a demo record and/or an agent/manager. In his advice book to
“roots” performers, Keith Burgess spends an entire chapter on how to generate publicity and another entire chapter on finding performance opportunities that will give the most exposure.^’ In some communities there are local talent agencies that work as intermediaries between record companies and interested artists. When a contract is offered, the artist typically will work with a manager or attorney to ensure the best deal possible. Since each business relationship between an agent and an artist is different, the position of manager or agent is a complex one. Some managers have great artistic input and some deal more with the bookings and sales figures of an artist.^^
Many contracts include a clause that the record company will have final selection over which pieces are recorded. Clinton Heylin states that “The amount of control that the artist has over what the record company may choose, or more importantly choose not, to release is extremely limited....Each contract and each record company is slightly different as regards the exact amount of control they have over the album, so it is difficult to make definitive statements without studying each contract individually. Often the
Keith Burgess, Establishing Roots: a Beginner's Guide to Performing Roots Music in Canada (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Keith W. Burgess, 1995). David Baskerville, Music Business Handbook and Career Guide (London: Sage Publications, 1995), 165. ^ Clinton Heylin, Bootleg: The Secret History o f the Other Recording Industry (New York; St. Martin’s Press, 1994), 383. 58
companies, not the artist, design and produce the artwork, liner notes, etc., contained in
the album. The expertise used to design the liner notes and artwork is supposedly
gleaned from a keen knowledge of consumer trends and tastes which enables the albums
to sell at a higher rate. Artist control for liner notes and visual images used in packaging
varies considerably with each contract.
Consumer taste differs among different genres of music and between different
target audiences. Record companies use this knowledge not just in artwork and liner
notes but in the label actually listed on the album itself. Many large corporations keep
several smaller companies intact when they take them over, using them as specialty labels
focusing on a certain genre of music.^° At first glance this may appear to be an
unnecessary complication, but there is an interesting rationale for keeping multiple
smaller labels separate and somewhat independent under a large company’s umbrella of
control.^* This procedure allows the corporations, which are far too large to be attuned to
new developments and trends in the music world, to have a voice on the local level
without giving up the power and profit that comes from having the major artists already
signed to their company. The smaller companies/labels can take the economic risks with
new trends in music and artists. If these smaller companies uncover a trend which seems
to be growing, then the corporations can follow this trend. This means that when an artist
is signed to a smaller label, he or she may also be signing to a large corporation, which
owns the individual lahel.^^
Michael Chanan, Repeated Takes: a Short History o f Recording and Its Effects on Music (London: Verso, 1995), 153. ^'ibid., 155-6. Keith Negus, Music Genres and Corporate Cultures (London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 1999), 49. 59
There are advantages to large corporations controlling the music industry.
Corporations are able to spread the music out from a local area all over the world in a
way that was inconceivable thirty years ago. In today’s global economy, all of the large
music corporations are multinational, and inside these corporations, there is a reduced
distribution cost which further aids the spread of music to areas which might have been
previously overlooked. Traditional music from Atlantic Canada could conceivably be
sold in Asia.
The distribution process for recorded music is not nearly as complex as the
structure of the corporation itself. Although the distribution process has grown more
intricate over time, it is still in essence a chain from the record manufacturer through
several intermediaries to the consumer, as illustrated by Chart 1.
Chart 1 Record Distribution
Record Manufacturer
Recwd Distribute^ Online Record Sales Record Clubs
Leased Departments Record Retail Outlet
Consumer
The left side of the chart shows the movement of albums through leased departments. Leased departments are locations in non-music stores, for example, a small 60 rack in a grocery store or in a gift shop.^^ Recently, the use of the Internet to sell albums, as reflected in Online record sales in Chart 1, has allowed for higher sales from smaller companies and independent artists as well but the sales numbers have not begun to rival those of the large international music corporations.
The Music Industry In Atlantic Canada As mentioned earlier in this chapter, traditional music is found in very small quantities in the early record catalogues. Sinee these recordings represented a fraction of a company’s revenue they were the most likely to be cut in efforts to save money when the early companies, like Columbia, were experieneing difficulty. When the traditional pieces were first reeorded, many of the companies went to Europe to find the artists but, around the 1920s, the companies diseovered talent on this side of the Atlantic that would allow them to reeord at a much lower cost.
For this reason, some of the first recording companies to work in Atlantic Canada were American companies from New York City that came north to record fiddle players from Cape Breton. Ian McKinnon states that the earliest recordings of fiddle music from
Cape Breton were made by Angus Chisholm, Dan J. Campbell and Angus Allan Gillis in the 1920s.^'' Columbia was one of the larger eompanies that made recordings in Cape
Breton during that deeade. McKinnon notes the confusion about what to call music from
Cape Breton, particularly fiddle music.
Sidney Shemel and M. William Krasilovsky, This Business o f Music, ed. Paul Ackerman (New York: Billboard Publishing Company, 1964), xix-xvx. Ian Franeis MeKinnon, “Fiddling to Fortune: The Role of Commercial Recordings made by Cape Breton Fiddlers in the Fiddle Music Tradition of Cape Breton Island” (master’s thesis. Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1989), 49. 61
Cape Breton fiddle music was perceived, by the Columbia company at least, as
being Scottish music; it was produced for sale to the Scottish ethnic market in
North America. Interestingly, however, one Cape Breton fiddler, Colin Boyd,
was grouped in with the Irish series (33000 F-33562 F) when his three 78 rpm
discs were released on the Columbia label in the late 1920s. Colin Boyd also did
some recording for Brunswick Records in Montreal in 1932. Two of his 78 discs
(Brunswick 533 and 534) were released in the United States in Brunswick’s 100
‘Songs from Dixie’ series.^^
McKinnon continues on to report that Decca Records also placed the music under the Scottish category.
Fiddle music represents the majority of the music first recorded in Atlantic
Canada, because it fit the 1920s’ market for “old-time music” as well as answering an
“ethnic” demand. “Old-time music” appears as a term coined in the southern United
States to refer to the old traditional songs from the United Kingdom. A particular style of fiddle music was associated with this “old-time music” sound. Decca was the last of the major record companies to carry this type of music, which they continued to do until the
1940s. By the end of the 1920s three of the major Canadian record companies, Berliner
Victor, Columbia and Brunswick, were recording in Atlantic Canada. Columbia was an
American owned company that had set up a firm base in Canada, and Berliner, as mentioned earlier, was one of the original Canadian recording companies. Brunswick was the last to arrive and started business in 1917. By the mid 1920s, though, Brunswick
35Ibid.,53. 62 was growing rapidly and was taking its place as a serious eontender against Victor and
Columbia.^®
It would be a misrepresentation of the history of Atlantic Canadian recording to focus solely on the three giants in the field and to ignore small local labels. Ian
McKinnon spends a good deal of time discussing the role of commercial recordings and the different labels that played a role in Cape Breton fiddling. It would also be a mistake to make large generalizations about the industry in Atlantic Canada since each company has a different history. Therefore, McKinnon’s practice of addressing some of the more influential small labels individually will be followed here.
Celtic and Rodeo Records Bemie Maelsaac started Celtic Records from his music store in Antigonish in
1935, to answer a loeal demand for recordings of fiddlers. He worked with Compo
Studios in Montreal to find the recording equipment and then ordered and distributed all of the records himself. The advantage of this small-scale distribution was that Maelsaac could tell what people were buying and eould personally keep traek of the numbers and sales. The majority of the albums were sold in the northern regions of Nova Seotia and
Cape Breton. Maelsaac recalled that there was little demand for fiddle musie in Halifax and smaller metropolitan areas. The label and all the master eopies were sold to George
Taylor, who owned Rodeo Records, in 1960.^’
Taylor founded Rodeo Reeords in 1951 along with Don Johnson, a distributor for
Edward B. Moogk, Roll Back the Years: History o f Canadian Recorded Sounds and Its Legacy, Genesis to 1920 (Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1975), 102. ^^lan Francis McKinnon, “Fiddling to Fortune: The Role of Commereial Reeordings made by Cape Breton Fiddlers in the Fiddle Musie Tradition of Cape Breton Island” (master's thesis. Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1989), 56. 63
Quality Records in Quebec, who left the company shortly thereafter. In 1953, Taylor also began distributing Quality Records and running Rodeo Records at the same time out of Halifax. Interestingly, Taylor also worked with Compo Studios in Montreal, but only for the pressing of the records. During the 1950s Rodeo expanded to take in several other small labels besides Celtic, and one of these labels, Banff, had recorded some of the local traditional music. At least thirty four more recordings of traditional music were made while Taylor lived in Halifax. However, when he moved to Montreal in 1962, these recordings stopped.
The Rounder and Shanachie Labels In the 1940s the decision by major labels such as Decca to quit recording traditional “ethnic” music left a void in the industry. To some extent this was filled by the local labels whose distribution of these recordings was also primarily local. It was not until the 1970s that two folk labels would spring out of the anti-establishment movement in the United States and start to record traditional music in Nova Scotia on a large scale again. Rounder Records was founded in Massachusetts, in 1971, by a collective. Mac Wilson, one of the founding members of the company, had an interest in the music of Cape Breton, which led to the label’s presence in the area.^^
Shanachie is also an American company, which was founded in New York City by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins in 1975.^^ By 1979 they began looking beyond traditional Irish music, which they had previously been recording, and started recording
Cape Breton fiddlers. Both of these labels. Rounder and Shanachie, allowed greater artist
Ibid., 66-7. “Shanachie” http://www.shanachie.com/ (accessed February 2003). 64 control over liner notes and recording selections than other labels had before thern.'*'^
There were also many small independent labels in the Atlantic Provinces, which helped promote traditional music on a local scale although their output was low. These included: Audat, Big Harold, Banana, Cape Breton’s Magazine, Solar, Stepping Stone,
U.C.C.B. (University College of Cape Breton) and Brownrigg."**
Post World War Two Music Industry In Atlantic Canada Following the Second World War, when many of the larger companies had dropped their “ethnic” labels, there were some corporation changes that would ultimately affect Atlantic Canada when these companies did return to the area. These changes involved new companies taking up permanent residence in Canada. In 1949 the small US recording company Capitol started its Canadian division: Capitol Records of Canada. At this time Decca, RCA Victor (Victor purchased RCA in 1929), and Columbia had been dominating the Canadian market and Capitol was well aware of the potential of the northern market. One of the stars for Capitol Records of Canada was a Canadian trumpet player named Maynard Ferguson."*^ In 1955, the British Company EMI bought a share of
Capitol Records including part of Capitol Canada. The name changed to EMI Canada, and this company still holds an integral portion of the Canadian recording industry today."^^
Ian Francis McKinnon, “Fiddling to Fortune: The Role of Commercial Recordings made by Cape Breton Fiddlers in the Fiddle Music Tradition of Cape Breton Island” ^master's thesis. Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1989), 69. Ibid.,70. Nicholas Jennings, Fi/iy Fears o f Music: the Story ofEM I Canada (Toronto: Macmillan Canada, 2000),6. Ibid.,8. 65
During the late 1950s and 1960s a folk music revival occurred in both the United
States and Canada. Bruce Jackson, an ethnomusicologist, cites three major artists/groups as important contributors to the beginnings of the folksong revival: Harry Belafonte, the
Kingston Trio, and the Weavers. He also credits the folksong magazineSing Out!, which was founded in 1950, as a leading force in the movement. The magazine like the movement itself was very political and contained many songs about issues of the time, such as the Korean War, Civil Rights, the United States draft, as well as traditional songs.
Anne Lederman, a musician and ethnomusicologist, seconds this view. She notes, “Many participants in the folk revival, at least in Canada, have had little direct experience with older folk traditions — those community-based activities in which music passed on orally over generations.”"^^ Lederman’s statement does not take into account the many musicians who were conscious of their lack of understanding about traditional music, and sought to remedy that. The liner notes forWeather Out the Storm (1990), the
Newfoundland group Piggy Duffs album, states, “Over a decade ago, a group of young
Newfoundland musicians decided to explore their native heritage. They visited many coastal fishing villages and learned songs and dance tunes from the long-time residents.”"*^ One of the benefits of the revival was a renewed respect for traditional music, which encouraged young musicians to search out not only other traditions but their own as well.
Bruce Jackson, “The Folksong Revival” in Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined, ed. Neil V. Rosenberg (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), 75. Anne Lederman, “Barrett’s Privateers’: Performance and Participation in the Folk Revival,” in Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined, ed. Neil V. Rosenberg (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), 163. Piggy Duff, Weather Out the Storm, Hypnotic Records, 1990 CD. 66
The other benefit of the revival was the expansion of the market for traditional music. Kenneth S. Goldstein, a folklorist and former record producer, recalls the early part of the revival in this way: “I saw folk music as being a special thing at the time but that the revival singers.. .were important because they introduced people like me to folk music who could then listen to traditional singers....” However, when the traditional music was performed by revival musicians it was often significantly altered and it was easy to believe that this alteration of the music was damaging to the tradition rather than helping to conserve it."^* Despite the various opinions on the good or ill effects of the revival, it did produce an interest in traditional music that was transferred into both recordings of revival music and the source of the revival, traditional music.
In the 1960s new Canadian radio regulations also provided a larger venue for traditional music. The regulations are referred to collectively as the Canadian Content laws. These rules had their origin starting in 1936 with the Canadian Radio Broadcasting
Act, which allowed for the creation of a commission to study Canadian radio. In 1958, an act passed which directed the types of programming to be played on the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) stations. The CBC website notes the main goal of the act as, “for the purpose of ensuring the continued existence and efficient operation of a national broadcasting system and the provision of a varied and comprehensive broadcasting service of a high standard that is basically Canadian in content and
Kenneth S. Goldstein, “A Future Folklorist in the Record Business,” in Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined, ed. Neil V. Rosenberg (Urbana; University of Illinois Press, 1993), 115. Bruce Jackson, “The Folksong Revival,” in Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined, ed. Neil V. Rosenberg (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993),73-4. 67 character.”'*^ Again, in 1968, the issue of Canadian content was raised in “The Provisions of the Broadcasting Act,” which stated that the Canadian radio system should be,
“effectively owned and controlled by Canadians so as to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social, and economic fabric of Canada.”^® These directives would help encourage programs from the Halifax and Cape Breton studios of the CBC such as
“Island Echoes,” which began airing in 1971. This was a Gaelic language program which also broadcast traditional music to the Maritimes. Programs such as “Island Echoes” helped keep local interest in the music strong. However, the interest in the music remained predominately regional until the early 1990s.
The Industry Since 1990 The national and international companies that began to come to record Atlantic
Canadian traditional musicians in the 1990s were many of the same companies that are still a presence in the industry today. The following list outlines some of the companies which have recorded traditional artists who have been awarded the ECMA
Roots/Traditional Award from 1991 to 2002.
Current Recording Labels in Atlantic Canada (Traditional Genre)
An asterisk (*) before a label indicates that this label was the first to release the album.
The re-issue is the second company listed.
“A Brief History of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,” Public Relations CBC Head Office, Ottawa July 1976 http://www.radio.cbc.ca/facilities/cbc-history.html (accessed June 2003). Canadian Radio-Television Commission,Canadian Ownership in Broadcasting: A Report on the Foreign Divestiture Process (Ottawa; Information Canada, 1974), 7. 68
ECMA Winner and Year Year Album Titles Record Labels Relea
Rankin Family 1991 The Rankin Family Independent 1989 Fair Thee Well Love Independent 1990 The Rankin Family EMI Music Canada 1992 North Country EMI Music Canada 1992 Grey Dusk of Eve EMI Music Canada 1995 Endless Seasons EMI Music Canada 1995 The Collection EMI Music Canada 1997 Uprooted EMI Music Canada 1998
Natalie MacMaster 1992/1997 Four on the Floor Independent 1989 Road to the Isle Independent 1991 Fit as a Fiddle *Rounder/Wamer Music 1993 Canada/ MacMaster Music Inc. A Compilation *Rounder/ Warner Music 1996 Canada No Boundaries ♦Rounder/ Warner Music 1996 Canada My Roots are Showing Warner Music Canada 1998
The Irish Descendants 1994 Misty Morning Shore Independent 1991 Look to the Sea Independent/ Warner 1993 Music Canada Gypsies & Lovers Warner Music Canada 1994 Livin’ On the Edge Warner Music Canada 1996 Rollin’ Home Warner Music Canada 1998
Barra MacNeils 1995 The Barra MacNeils Barra Music 1986 Rock in the Stream Barra Music 1989 Timeframe Barra Music 1992 Closer To Paradise PolyGram Records 1993 The Traditional Album PolyGram Records 1994 The Question Mercury/Polydor 1995 69
Until Now Celtic Aire Records 1997 The Christmas Album Barratone Inc. 1998 Racket In the Attic Barratone Inc. 2001
Dave Maelsaac 1996 Celtic Guitar Pickin’ Productions 1989 The Guitar Souls, Live With Scott 1993 MacMillan Pickin’ Productions Nimble Fingers Pickin’ Productions 1995 From the Archives Pickin’ Productions 1999
Richard Wood 1998 Fire Dance Independent 1997 All Fired Up Independent 1994 The Celtic Tough Independent 1995 Come Dance With Me Independent 1999
J.P. Cormier 1998 Fiddle Album Independent 1990 Return to the Cape Borealis/Main Tripp 1995 Another Morning Iona/Borealis 1997 Heart & Soul Borealis 1998 Now that Work is Done Independent 2000 Primary Color Tidemark 2001
Rawlins Cross 1999 Turner of the Well Ground Swell/Wamer 1989 Music Canada Crossing the Border Ground Swell/ Warner 1992 Music Canada Reel ’n’ Roll Ground Swell/ Warner 1993 Music Canada Living River Ground Swell/Wamer 1996 Music Canada Celtic Instrumentals Warner Music Canada 1996 Make It on Time Warner Music Canada 1998
Barachois 2000 Barachois Party House Production 1996 Encore! Party House Production 1999 70
The Ennis Sisters 2001 Red is the Rose Independent 1997 Christmas on Ennis Road Independent 1998 Ennis Sisters 3 Warner Music Canada 2000 The Ennis Sisters Warner Music Canada 2001
Lennie Gallant 2001 Breakwater Revenant 1989 Believing in Better Sony Music Canada/Revenant Land of the Maya Oxfam 1992 The Open Window Sony Music Canada 1995 Lifeline Independent/Tidemark 1997 Lennie Gallant Live Revenant 2000 Le Vent Bohême Éditions Tocco Musique 2002
Sons of Maxwell 2002 The Neighborhood Sons of Maxwell 1998 Entertainment Sailor Story SOM Records 1999 Among the Living SOM Records 2000 Instant Christmas SOM Records 2001
Mary Jane Lamond 2002 Bho Thir Nan Craobh/From the B&R Heritage 1994 Land of the Trees Enterprises Suas e! turtlemusick/A&M 1997 Lan dùil turtlemusick 1999 Grain ghàidhlig Gaelic Songs turtlemusick 2000 from Cape Breton
This list shows the labels for some of the winners of the ECMA roots/ traditional award from 1989 to 2002. This is not a complete list of the recording artists from
Atlantic Canada working in the traditional music genre, but it does give a good indication of which companies are interested in this type of music coming from Atlantic Canada. 71
The list also shows, clearly, the years in which these artists began to earn recognition on a national scale. It appears that between 1991 and 1993 a majority of the artists began to release albums with major record companies including EMI Canada and Warner Music.
Many artists have first been recorded by a small independent or local label, sometimes even self-producing their albums, and then moved to larger labels. This trend is common in the industiy, since it is these early recordings that attract the attention of the larger labels. It is also consistent with the idea that large companies use smaller labels as their connection to the new trends in music. Many of the musicians on the list were recording albums several years before they received major contracts. Some of them even won their ECMA awards before being offered deals with the major record labels.
An example of this is The Rankin Family from Mabou, Cape Breton. They won the
ECMA award in 1991, at which point they had already released two albums independently. Their next release was with EMI Canada a year after they had won the award. They proceeded to release six more albums with EMI Canada. A few of the artists have either stayed with local labels, or created their own. The Barra MacNeils have created their own label called Barra Music. This choice is influenced greatly by the personal philosophies of the artists themselves about control of the product, the management, and the artists’ personal attitude towards the larger music industry.
The ECMAs have played an interesting role in the musical scene of the region.
Currently the ECMA Awards are a benchmark of success for some musicians, a form of local approval for other musicians and an entrance into the larger world of professional music for others. In 1989, Rob Cohn organized an awards show in Halifax and called it the Maritimes Music Awards. Cohn and others helping him with the project felt that East 72
Coast musicians did not get enough national recognition, and that an awards show might help bring in large companies to work with the artists in Atlantic Canada. The ECMA website states that in 1989 there were only six musicians from the East Coast with national recording contracts.^* At the second show in 1990, several recording representatives from Toronto came down to see the show. The following year the
Maritimes Music Awards became the ECMAs as a result of the new connection with the
East Coast Music Association. The awards show would eventually grow to encompass multiple stages, concerts, and a trades fair. The event began to draw more national attention, as it moved to different cities in the region and in 1994 it was aired on CBC, across Canada, from Saint John’s, Newfoundland. By 1997, the awards show and the several-day event put about three million dollars into the Moncton economy. In 2001, the ever-expanding awards added a Jazz/Classical concert stage to the program. In Saint
John’s, Newfoundland, the following year, the high level of corporate sponsorship allowed for many free concerts for the public that, in turn, increase the artists’ exposure.^^
There is little doubt that the ECMAs have helped bring Atlantic Canadian music to the attention of major record labels and, with the national broadcast, have given exposure to a wider audience as well. The many different categories of awards and the wide variety of talent showcased during the awards show itself have also worked to battle external stereotypes about Atlantic Canadian music; that it represents a region of people who are “backward” and “overly conservative.” However, once the major labels take over the recording process, how much control is left in the hands of the musicians from
^‘“ECMA History,” http://www.ecma.ca/english/ecmahistory.html (accessed December 2002). ^^Ibid. 73
Atlantic Canada? The answer to this question lies in the variance of individual contracts between the artists/groups and the recording companies. Still, the East Coast Music
Awards are not an example of outside companies coming into the region to take over the local industry. The ECMAs were created by people within Atlantic Canada to attract national attention.
Another venture which has helped a few Atlantic Canadian roots/traditional performers is the Juno Awards. The Juno Awards were started in 1971 to aid Canadian musicians in receiving recognition in the music industry that was mainly dominated by the United States.^^ Interestingly, it took the Juno Awards a while to recognize roots/traditional music from the Atlantic Canadian region. Credit should be given to the many performers from the Maritimes who gained recognition at the Juno Awards quite early on in other genres. At the first Juno Awards, Anne Murray, and Stompin’ Tom
Connors helped keep the Atlantic Provinces well represented as, respectively, top female vocalist and top country singer of the year.^'* The Nova Scotian country singer Carroll
Baker was nominated for Best Selling Album in 1979.^^ In 1987, Rita MacNeil received ' the Most Promising Female Vocalist award and started moving Atlantic Canada roots music into the spotlight. There was no separate roots/traditional category in 1990 and
MacNeil was therefore awarded the Country Female Vocalist award.^^ In 1994, The
There were a few musicians who had managed to receive recognition outside of Atlantic Canada prior to the Juno Awards and the ECMAs. These musicians include Hank Snow, Wilf Carter (Montana Slim), and Don Messer. Martin Melhuish, Oh What a Feeling: A Vital History o f Canadian Music (Kingston, Ontario, Quarry Press, Inc., 1996), 41-3. ^^Ibid., 92. “Juno Awards,” http://www.goldderby.eom/lostmind/year/l 979/1979juno.htm (accessed July 2004). Ibid., 167. 74
Rankin Family made an entrance at the Juno Awards winning Canadian Entertainer of the
Year, Group of the Year, and Country Group or Duo/^ In combination with the ECMA’s roots/traditional category, music from Atlantic Canada had started to earn a national reputation.
Conclusion The history of the music industry is as vast and complex as the structures of the current multinational organizations that run it, but some small awareness of it is an aid in interpreting the final section of this study. The early phases of the history of recorded music did not show deference to the recording of traditional music, but ironically, it was the demands of the market that stopped the music from this region from going completely unrecorded. There were periods when only local interest kept musicians in the studios, but the current interest from the larger national and global community forces the music companies to consider seriously the traditional music coming from Atlantic Canada.
Peter Martin argues that, “the unyielding logic of the market has meant that record companies have had to swallow and digest all sorts of material which they regarded as unpalatable, or subversive or both, and some of this — suitably repackaged — has achieved mass popularity.”^* How this mass popularity and renewed relationship with the larger music corporations will affect the music itself over time remains to be seen.
However, placing the current situation of the music industry in an historical context, and acknowledging that the industry currently does have a large presence in Atlantic Canada, can only aid future studies of the music of these provinces.
Ibid., 182. Peter J. Martin, Sounds and Society: Themes in the Sociology o f Music(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995), 270. 75
Chapter Three Albums and Images
And they came out o f the East Coast to capture Canada, and then the World, with their songs and music. God made them artists, but you have made them stars. These are the stories o f how some o f those that live beside you, with the means o f technology, now roam the globe, in spirit and in body. — ‘ Sam “the Record Man ” Sniderman C.M.
The two previous chapters have discussed the background of the musical traditions that are major influences on the music of Atlantic Canada, and the development and history of the recording industry in the region. This chapter will seek to bring these discussions together through a study of selected recordings of traditional music from
Atlantic Canada from the period 1986-2002. These recordings fit into a larger world wide “Celtic music” phenomenon.
The global popularity of “Celtic Music” has spread the music of Atlantic Canada far beyond the borders of the region. Listening to the albums gives many people their first cultural contact with the region; indeed, it may be their only contact. The images displayed through the music and liner notes help to confirm or challenge preconceived notions about the region. The famous ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax stated that “The first function of music, especially of folk music, is to produce a feeling of security for the
^Quoted by Lee Fleming, “Introduction,” in Lee Fleming, ed.. Rock, Rhythm and Reels: Canada’s East Coast Musicians on Stage (Charlottetown, PEI: Ragweed Press, 1997), introduction. 76 listener by voicing the particular quality of a land and the life of its people.”^ This function may prove harmless enough when the music is played for people who have the day-to-day experience of the land and culture that the music is seeking to invoke.
However, if the music is transported outside the region and the listeners do not have first hand experience of the region itself, then the music takes on the potential to convey powerful stereotypes. For an area like Atlantic Canada, which has a long history of battling external stereotypes, this issue becomes critical.
In The Image o f Confederation (1964) Frank Underhill makes the following unfortunate comment: “As for the Maritime provinces, nothing of course ever happened down there.”^ An entire generation of regional scholars has rallied in protest against his statement. They have been largely successful in their attempts to give the region a voice of its own in the national narrative, a voice that is accurate and which seeks to encompass many different types of people. However, these scholars have had to counter established stereotypes. Frank Underhill was merely voicing an opinion which was long-held about the region, and voiced elsewhere.
Miriam Chapin was just one of several authors whose views of Atlantic Canada mirrored Underhill’s comments. In Atlantic Canada (1956), Chapin had examined the region from several different vantage points. Her book is filled with comments about the region such as: “It has long been drained, impoverished, self-pitying.”'’ She also stated that: “It [Atlantic Canada] is parochial because it has been driven in on itself, neglected.
^ Philip V. Bohlman, The Study o f Folk Music in the Modern World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 52. ^ Frank Underhill, The Image o f Confederation (Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1964), 63. Miriam Chapin, Atlantic Canada (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), 1. 77
left slumping into a backwater.”^ According to Chapin, the economy can partially be
explained by the people: she writes that . .an excuse for sluggishness, makes them
ingrown and sullen.”^ Her assessment of the region is that it is: “Stagnant? Not
necessarily so, but such a society does tend to be self satisfied, content that those who
have long been poor and ignorant should remain so.”^
D. Campbell and R.A. MacLean outline but do not contradict these stereotypes in
their book. Beyond the Atlantic Roar: A Study o f the Nom Scotia Scots (1974). The two
authors make the astute observation that:
When they venture outside their natural habitat, Atlantic Canadians often find that
their ‘folk’ images work against them, the first impression being that they are
quaint rustics in a modem world of sophisticated go-getters.^
However, they proceed to describe the Nova Scotia Scots as a people with:
.. .sensitivities and deep-rooted prejudices.. .intense pride and craggy
individualism, [a] propensity for intemperate drinking and violence, thrift and
industry....^
While there are aspects of these stereotypes which are positive, they none the less
comprise an artificial and static image of the people of the Atlantic Canada region.
It was these types of “observations” about Atlantic Canada that led scholars such
as E.R. Forbes, among others, to begin a campaign to re-examine both the content and the
Ibid. ^ Ibid.Ibid., 4. ’ Ibid., 9. *D. CampbellCamp and R.A. MacLean, Beyond the Atlantic Roar: A Study o f the Nova Scotia ScotsSi (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1974), 4. ^ D. Campbell and R.A. MacLean, Beyond the Atlantic Roar:Roa) A Study o f the Nova Scotia Scots (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1974), 171. 78 presentation of the history of Atlantic Canada. In the 1978 (Autumn) issue of the journal
Acadiensis, an article entitled “In Search of a Post-Confederation Maritime
Historiography, 1900-1967,” Forbes expressed his deep concern over the amount of stereotypical writing about Atlantic Canada. He says: “Neglect and stereotyping left the
Maritime student with a version of Canadian history to which he was unable to relate and which seriously distorted the national picture.”*®
In the slowly emerging field of Atlantic Canada scholarship, authors like Forbes,
Campbell, and MacLean, among others, found that they were fighting the battle of stereotypes — images of Atlantic Canada and the people who lived there that were fostered both inside and outside the region. Forbes closed his 1978 article with the remark that “the effect of the long period of neglect and stereotyping will continue to be felt for years to come.”**
James Robbins, an ethnomusicologist, has observed that stereotypes of Atlantic
Canada were present almost from the conception of traditional music research in Canada.
In his article for the Canadian Journal o f Traditional Music he notes: “The pattern in
English folksong scholarship was virtually the reverse: it began in the place where, literally, the first collectors took vacations: the quaint, backward, romanticized
Maritimes.”*^ Robbins ends his article with a warning to scholars to learn from the past and continually evaluate what assumptions they are making about their subject matter.
*® E. R. Forbes, “In Search of a Post-Confederation Maritime Historiography, 1900- 1961 f Acadiensis 8, no. 1 (Autumn 1978): 3. ** Ibid., 21. *^ James Robbins, “Lessons Learned, Questions Raised: Writing a History of Ethnomusicology in Canada,”Canadian Journal o f Traditional Music (1992) http://www.cjtm.icaap.org/content/20/v20art2.html (accessed July 2004). 79
Do the images portrayed in the albums studied help to break the old regional stereotypes or do the old, “rustic” beliefs about the area still hold sway? To expect traditional music, created for pleasure, to cater to an academic agenda would be nonsense. However, music is a powerful form of expression and it would be equally nonsensical to believe that it does not help inform opinions about places and people.
Composer Chester Duncan wrote:
It may be true that without these songs everything would have turned out pretty
much as it did, but if they are not the ‘acknowledged legislators’ of Shelley’s
essay, folk artists certainly throw a memorable light on what has happened...
folksongs are a rather frank expression of the national character.
In this case it is a region’s musical character that is being expressed and it is worthwhile to study the contribution to the disseminated image of Atlantic Canada.
Merely studying the music or the instrumentation would not bring a complete understanding of all of the images that are presented to a listener when he or she comes in contact with one of these albums. This aspect of the survey was challenging, since the study of liner notes is still in a fledging state. In his survey of Jazz liner notes.Setting the
Tempo: Fifty Years o f Great Jazz Liner Notes (1996), Tom Piazza provides a strong rationale for his study:
At first glance, the text, the album’s back sleeves — or liner (hence the term liner
notes) appears to promise little more than glorified promotional copy for the
enclosed record. It is striking how often this writing contains much more:
Chester Duncan, “Folk Song as History,” review ofCanada's Story in Song, by Edith Fowke, Alan Mills and Helmut Blume, Canadian Literature (Spring 1961): 51. 80
background on the musicians and the recordings, historical context, musical
analysis, a window into the recording process, intimate anecdotes and personal
views of the musicians that have an immediacy and warmth rarely found in other
jazz writing — setting the tempo, in a sense, for the listener’s appreciation of the
music.• 14
Although Piazza is dealing solely with the written text in the liner notes, his feelings about the music are clearly stated and can be applied to both the written and the visual aspect of the liner notes. In the situation of traditional music coming from Atlantic
Canada, the liner notes have the potential to provide history, detail current situations facing the region, and portray a sense of the tradition itself that might not be clear to the uninformed listener.
Although the images and the text in the liner notes are a part of the overall portrayal of the region which the albums convey, the lyrics in the songs themselves likely carry even more importance for the potential listener. David Gross writes that: “Words are steeped in the past; they carry resonance that persist, and they have specific meanings which can be exactly designed.” Thus songs are powerful teaching tools for many types of education, including education about culture. Marie McCarthy studied the transmission of culture through song inPassing It On: The Transmission o f Music in
Irish Culture, and opens her book with the statement: “What is common across all time and cultures is the fact that the transmission of music is an integral part of the generation
Tom Piazza, Setting the Tempo: Fifty Years o f Great Jazz Liner Notes (New York: Anchor Books, 1996), 1. David Gross, The Past in Ruins: Tradition and the Critique o f Modernity (Amherst Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1992), 58. 81 and transmission of culture....”*^ The verbal messages carried in songs are important, since the cultural images that words portray are easy to recognize through the language, word choice, and thematic material. Songs also allow stories of a region’s past to be retold and spread far outside the area. They additionally provide a statement about the values of a region, both personal and economic, through the treatment of thematic material and the anecdotes told through the music. Words may also allow the listener to sing along with the music or leam to sing the songs by themselves. This facet of cultural diffusion is especially powerful since there is personal participation in the music and a close awareness of the images contained in the songs. Since the words are so important, many albums include full printed and/or translated lyrics within the liner notes so that the listener can fully understand the contents and themes of a song. By studying some of the predominant themes present in the traditional music of Atlantic Canada recorded from
1986-2002, a picture of both the history and current state of this geographic area can be gleaned.
To understand the images that are being presented through the albums, the musical aspect of each song should be studied as well. For this survey, musical aspects such as chord progression, dominant tonality, and composition styles were not evaluated.
Although important to the music and worthy of closer examination, the scope of this thesis does not allow for their scrutiny. The focus of this study is on the instrumentation used, origin of the composition, whether the piece was considered traditional (i.e., no known author), or whether it has an author listed.
Marie McCarthy, Passing It On: the Transmission o f Music in Irish Culture (Cork: Cork University Press, 1999), 2. 82
Methodology This section of the study involved two diverse stages of research and therefore two different methods of locating information. The first stage pertained to the selection of specific albums, 100 in total, to be analyzed. The second stage of research was the categorizing of the musical material. This process included labeling the separate types of pieces, traditional or modem, and examining various elements contained in liner notes, such as translated lyrics or pictures of the region, and then creating a survey to record each album’s content.
Given the sheer number of albums created in this genre and that no one source keeps complete records on the style, a baseline group of albums had to be used from which to draw the selection. The nominees and the recipients for the ECMA (East Coast
Music Association) awards for traditional performer and group were selected. The
ECMA website explains the process for nomination in this way:
Members of the ECMA may submit Atlantic Canadian recordings for
consideration. The submissions are then sent to committees of Atlantic Canadians
with a demonstrated expertise and knowledge of the overall industry or individual
categories. The committees forward their eight (8) suggestions in each category
to the accounting firm of Lyle Tilley Davidson and the top five (5) selections in
each category become the nominees.*^
The website further details the qualifications for the albums to be nominated. Besides having been created by Atlantic Canadians, the recordings must meet other qualifications, which include:
“East Coast Music Awards,” http://www.ecma.ca/english/awards_e/aprocess.html (accessed December 2002). 83
All Atlantic Canadian artists who are members in good standing of the East Coast
Music Association and who released recordings BETWEEN JULY 1, 2001 and
OCTOBER 15, 2002 are eligible to submit for the East Coast Music Awards.**
All submissions, except where indicated, require a full-length recording. A full-
length recording is defined as a recording that contains a minimum of six (6)
tracks, or a minimum of thirty (30) minutes long. At least 50% of the tracks on a
recording must be of previously unreleased cuts. (A “cut” is defined as material
previously released to radio or retail).
All manufactured products must meet industry standards and be sold through live
performances or retail stores, which sell sound recordings in the ordinary course
of business, Internet sales, or mail orders. A minimum of 300 units must be
manufactured to be eligible.*^
A list of the nominees in the roots/ traditional category was created from the results fi’om
1989 to 2002. There were some modifications necessary; although the list contained many exceptional Acadian albums, this study focuses on two specific ethnic varieties of music from the region, namely Irish and Scottish, Acadian albums therefore were not considered in the selection of the 100 albums. Given the nature of their thematic content, which typically moves away fi"om the genre itself, seasonal albums were also removed from the list. Although many seasonal tunes are considered traditional, their origins are not specific to the region or regions of ancestry. These songs have been spread through
'* Although this quotation references a certain date, these requirements have been the same for all ECMA awards since the creation of the awards. “East Coast Music Awards,” http://www.ecma.ca/english/awards_e/aprocess.html (accessed December 2002). 84 religion versus the ethnie background of the people. For example, “Silent Night”, or
“Stille Nacht” is a German Christmas song but has been frequently recorded by regional traditional artists from Atlantic Canada.
Sales figures for each of these albums were to be collected and analyzed.
Unfortunately, only a handful of record companies would disclose their sales figures and several other companies would only give the calculations in units, which was meaningless as a method of comparisons between artists/groups. Since most of this study was conducted through the music collection of the Halifax Regional Public Library system, their selection process for albums also became important in creating the list of
100 albums. The stated goals for the adult/young adult music collections are: “To build and maintain a wide ranging collection of recorded music to support cultural, recreational, and informational use by adults and young adults.”^® The “Collection
Development Policy” states further that the library will gather: “Music of Atlantic
Canada in all genres, including Mi’kmaq and Acadian music, with particular attention paid to East Coast Music Awards Nominees.”^* The library’s special deference to
ECMA nominees is another sign of the high respect given to both the awards themselves and the musicians who receive them.
The library’s materials are occasionally slightly damaged. Out of the 100 CDs analyzed, nine did not have the liner notes available for study. The nine albums with missing liner notes were:
Debbie LeBel, Halifax Public Library Collections Manager, e-mail message to author, July 8,2003. “Collection Development Policy,” http://www.halifax.library.ns.ca/policies/collection.html (accessed May 2003). 85
The Barra MacNeils, Traditional Album (1994)
The Barra MacNeils, The Barra MacNeils (1986)
The Irish Descendants, Blooming Bright Star (2001)
Dave Maclsaac, Nimble Fingers (1996)
Evans & Doherty, The World is What You Make It(1998)
Ashley Maclsaac, Close to the Floor (1992)
The Rankins, Uprooted (1998)
Rita MacNeil and The Men of the Deep, Mining the Soul (2000)
Rawlins Cross, Living River (1996)
These albums were still included in the study but due to resources and time restraints, the results of the liner note information were tabulated based on availability.
A rubric was created to aid in analyzing each album’s content based on certain categories: thematic material, instrumentation, and liner notes. Each track was placed into an instrumental or vocal category. The vocal category is broken into several sub categories, and songs are placed in one or more of these categories based on their overall thematic content. Many of the songs had to be placed into multiple categories. The thematic categories studied were: love, traveling/migration, sailing/ nautical, drinking/parties, Atlantic Canadian life, and miscellaneous. The love themes encompassed any aspect of love, including ballads detailing a failed romance and laments for a lover lost at sea. The traveling and migration theme contains songs pertaining to people who move within the region, enter, or leave it. The sailing and nautical category incorporates some songs from the traveling/migration category but also encompasses all songs discussing shipwrecks, whaling and fishing expeditions, and general commentary 86 on living by or on the sea. The drinking/ party category accommodates songs discussing kitchen parties and bar brawls, parties held on a return to port, and the gathering of the musicians for a night of song and dancing. While all of the previously stated categories could clearly fit under Atlantic Canadian life, this category is for songs which detail a specific part of life or history unique to Atlantic Canada, such as the evacuation of
Newfoundland outports in the 1960s. The miscellaneous category involves any songs that do not fit the other categories and primarily is filled with lullabies. All the tracks, whether vocal or purely instrumental, are broken down into traditional and non- traditional instrumentation. Traditional instrumentation includes: voice, fiddle, pipes
(uilleann, highland, lowland or small pipes), tin whistle, wooden whistle, bodhran, piano, guitar, harp, and accordion.
In 1963, Sean Ô Riada, a seminal figure in the recent history of Irish traditional music, gave a series of radio talks for Radio Éireann where he outlined the standard instruments commonly found in Irish traditional music. In these talks, he listed the voice, fiddle, uilleann pipes, tin whistle, bodhran, and harp, and dismissed the piano and accordion with a terseness that conveyed his dislike for these two instruments in traditional music settings. He said that: “The use of the piano to accompany traditional fiddle-playing is unfortunately prevalent. This is a scar, a blight, on the face of Irish music and displays ignorance on the part of those who allow or encourage it.”^^ George
Emmerson, in his discussion of Scottish traditional music, shares a similar attitude to Ô
Riada’s about the use of the accordion. Emmerson writes somewhat less abusively that
^ Sean 6 Riada, Our Musical Heritage, ed. Thomas Kinsella (Mountrath Portlaoise, Ireland: The Dolman Press, 1982), 58. 87
“It can probably be said that there is a growing tradition of playing Scottish — and Irish
— dance music on the accordion. Although an accordion performance can be exciting, I find it difficult to imagine one being moved by it."^ The guitar is mentioned by neither of these authors. Ô Riada was speaking before the use of acoustic guitar had become popular in traditional music circles, but Emmerson’s omission of the instrument may be caused by its contested position in traditional music in Scotland. While the piano, guitar, and accordion are disputed traditional instruments in Scotland and Ireland, they have found solid places within the traditional music from the various areas of Atlantic Canada and are therefore included in the traditional instrumentation category.^'* If, however, other instruments are added to the ensemble, they are placed in the non-traditional instrumentation category.
All tracks are also categorized into traditional music, original music, or a combination of the two. Traditional music for this study includes all tracks that were marked as “traditional” in the liner notes and/or listed no composer. Original music was any piece of music that had a known composer. This delineation, based on composers, is not completely true to the Irish and Scottish traditions. However, for the purposes of data entry, it was the only way to reach rough conclusions about the nature of the albums being created in this genre. The combination of traditional and original music was a category created mainly to answer the dilemma of fiddle sets where several of the pieces contained within the set have known composers and several are labeled “traditional.”
^ George Emmerson,Rantin ’ Pipe and Tremblin ’ String: A History o f Scottish Dance Music (Montreal; McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1971), 113. Guitars in the traditional category were acoustic. Music containing electric guitar was placed in the non-traditional instrumentation category. 88
Since the sets are played as continuous pieces of music with no space in between each jig or reel, and since the construction of a set is part of the craft of good fiddle playing, it was treated as one whole piece with a combination of parts, which led to the creation of the combination category.
The liner notes for each album were also analyzed, based on whether the musician’s home province was listed, whether there were lyrics printed in the liner notes, and whether these lyrics were translated where necessary. Any references made to where the musicians had learned each tune, the historical context of the tune, and whether the musicians had come from “musical families” were studied also. Given the earlier discussion on the importance of musical family lineage in both the Scottish and Irish traditions, this information was deemed important to this study, and was therefore included.
The pictures or drawings in the liner notes were grouped into two categories: modem pictures of Atlantic Canada and old pictures of Atlantic Canada. Any photographs that were taken prior to the dates being studied for the recordings (1986-
2002) were classified as old. This was clearly difficult to determine since dates are rarely attached to the photographs used in album artwork. The majority of the photographs that occurred in the liner notes for this survey were clearly from the early part of the 1900s if they were being placed in the old category. Pictures fi'om the 1970s and early 1980s did not appear. The information was then synthesized to allow the researcher to comment on the nature of these ambassadors of traditional music in Atlantic Canada through albums.
The conclusions are as follows. 89
Conclusions "... The past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past. — T. S. Eliot
It is inevitable when commencing research that one both speculates and hypothesizes about anticipated outcomes. I expected to find an extraneously controlled industry that was promoting a fictitious image of Atlantic Canada, created for tourists’ consumption. I anticipated studying an industry which, at least for the music from Cape
Breton, perpetuated the image of the kilted bagpiper standing atop a cliff which was predominant in my mind prior to my arrival in Nova Scotia. I arrived in Atlantic Canada without prior research on its musical traditions, with limited book knowledge of its history, and having only previously spent a short visit in one location, namely Cape
Breton. My musical training was almost exclusively classical in nature and my history training was less focused on Canadian history than I might have hoped. This inexperience was troublesome when I first began to conceptualize my thesis work. I had to expand my understanding of Atlantic Canada history and culture. Moreover, I had to come to terms with the fact that the region contains within it different sub-regions, such as the four individual provinces and also distinct ethnic and cultural divisions within each political unit (e.g., the Acadians and the Irish in Nova Scotia with their separate histories and musical traditions). However, I could use my untutored ears and eyes to survey the region as an outsider. Studying some of the recent Atlantic Canada scholarship, which rightly points out the many historical injustices and prejudices against the region.
^ T. S. Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent” in Selected Essays (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1963),!5. 90 bolstered my initial idea that studying the music just as it was when it arrived on the store shelf in the middle of Iowa, or wherever the listener happened to be, would be useful. I expected to find statements in the liner notes that played heavily on the “Celtic” connection with Ireland and Scotland. It seemed likely to me that there would be comments in the liner notes about playing the instruments exactly as they had been played for generations, and an idea that the tradition was sacred and unchanging. If there were any new compositions on these albums, I assumed that they would fall into the
“Celtic Music” category, accompanied by electronic drones and static breathy melodies.
The initial conception of the research was based both on an external view of the region (which both hindered and helped the process) and an appreciation of statistical research. Having previously conducted historical statistical research I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that similar strategies could be employed in the study of traditional music from Atlantic Canada. The resulting survey therefore represents an attempt to see empirically what images were given to the external world of Atlantic Canada through the recordings. Researching from an outsider’s viewpoint was an advantage to this research as I held no personal knowledge of performers, attachment to the region, etc., which might have affected my selection and interpretation of the music. This lack of knowledge about the eomplexity of the musical traditional also led to difficulties in the survey’s eonstruction and the creations of questions within the survey that were unhelpful and inconclusive. However, part of the goal of any research is to test the method as well as the subject matter and ultimately the survey did reveal useful information.
The test of any researcher comes when the results do not in any way support his or her assumptions. For the results reveal that the albums on this list did not perpetuate 91 any recognized regional stereotypes; rather, they represent a living tradition that is a meeting place for the past and present of the region. The survey also clearly highlighted the difficulties in studying a constantly evolving tradition in a multidimensional society that is far more complex that any statistical evidence could capture.
The first moment of surprise arrived with the results of the label survey. It seemed logical that one label would dominate the region and might determine how it was going to be depicted through the albums and music. However, although certain record labels have a significant presence in the genre of traditional music from the region, no one label completely dominates. Warner Music Canada and its subsidiaries produced
18% of the albums studied and Universal 13%, but these numbers hardly indicate control of the genre by one company. Thus, this is a study less of one company’s policies on album creation and more of an overall examination of the genre.
The next challenge to my expectations came with the thematic portion of my study. Given the stereotypical image of Atlantic Canada and its seafaring past brimming with sailing ships, I expected a large numbers of sea songs.^^ What the results showed was a healthy blend of heritage and current culture. While 19% of the songs surveyed had nautical thematic material, this was by no means the dominant theme present in the music. The ocean is a real part of Atlantic Canada. Not only would it be false to forgo all sea songs in order to avoid stereotypes, it would furthermore be a disservice to the rich narrative aspect of sea songs which is part of traditional music in the region.
^ While it could be rationalized that this is part of Atlantic Canada’s real and not imagined past it would be unrealistic to represent the region as being full of mariners who spent their time singing about the briny deep. 92
In 2000, McGinty recorded an entire album of music about the sea, entitled Sea
S o n g sOne of the pieces on this album is the “Banks of Newfoundland” which articulates both the dangers of travel on the ocean, historical reality for many people from the region, and identifies by name locations within Atlantic Canada. The reference to
America and New York also points out the seafaring connection that existed between the
Maritime Provinces and the east coast of the United States during the age of sail.
On St. Patrick’s Day, the seventeenth, from New York we set sail
Kind fortune did favour us wi’ a sweet and a pleasant gale
We bore away from Americay, the wind bein’ off the land
And wi’ courage brave we ploughed the wave bound down for Newfoundland
Our Captain’s name was Nelson just twenty years of age
As true and brave a sailor lad as ever ploughed the wave
The Eveline our brig was called belonging to McLean
And wi’ courage brave we ploughed the wave bound down for Newfoundland
When three days out to our surprise our Captain he fell sick
He shortly was not able to take his turn on deck
The fever raged which made us think that death was near at hand
So we bore away from Halifax bound down for Newfoundland^^
Many of the nautical songs are narratives such as “Banks of Newfoundland,” but others simply discuss the hazards of being a sailor and the ports of call frequented by
McGinty, Sea Songs, Rocky Coast, 2000 CD. Ibid. 93 ships from Atlantic Canada. For example, Great Big Sea recorded “Donkey Riding” on their album Play The term donkey refers to a wench that is used to move cargo on and off ships.
Way hey and away we go
Donkey riding, donkey riding
Way hey and away we go
Ridin’ on a donkey.
Was you ever in Quebec
Launchin’ timber on the deck?
Where ya break yer bleedin’ neck
Ridin’ on a donkey!
Was you ever ’round Cape Horn
Where the weather’s never warm?
Wished to God you’d never been bom
Ridin’ on a donkey.
Was you ever in Miramichi
Where ye tie up to a tree.
An’ the girls sit on yer knee?
Ridin’on a donkey.
Great Big Sea, Play, Polygram, 1997 CD. Ibid. 94
Although the instrumentation is not traditional on the Great Big Sea recording, it was a popular enough version to be featured on their live albums with hordes of fans singing and screaming along. The apparent popularity of the sea shanties on these and other albums in the survey showed a certain loyalty to this aspect of regional history which, given the rather gruesome details of many nautical songs, cannot be mistaken as nostalgia for a simpler time. However, the survey indicates that the music is not dominated with images of rowdy sailors and their exploits or dark tales of sunken vessels. Since there is in many local areas of the region a strong memory regarding the nautical portion of
Atlantic Canada’s history, it is legitimate to reflect this aspect of the culture in current music.
One disturbing feature of the themes section of the survey is the lack of music recorded dealing with other aspects of regional history besides the ocean. The survey contained a category for mining songs due to mining’s influential place in regional history. I anticipated that there would be music and songs dealing with the large logging and pulp industry in Newfoundland or New Brunswick which have greatly influenced the modem history of these two regions. However, only 3% of the songs contain a mining theme and there is only one song about logging.^* This does not mean that songs about logging or the mining strikes do not exist.^^ Their absence in this survey only shows that the recent winners of the ECMAs have not recorded them with any frequency. Whether this is due to artists’ taste in songs, record company decisions, a lack of large-scale interest, or an abundance of already existing recordings about these aspects of history are
“The Circle” Celtic Connection,Celtic Connection, Warner Music Canada, 1997 CD. The Men of the Deeps have recorded over 22 mining songs and there are several printed collections as well. 95 questions that should be asked. Unfortunately, the scope of this study does not allow for any conclusive answers at this point.
The majority of the mining songs that did appear in the survey came from Men of the Deeps, a group which specializes in such songs. One of the few other mining songs is the Barra MacNeils’ “Coaltown Road” from theirRock in the Stream (1989) album.^^
While you wake up in the black
Down the coal town road
And you hike along the track
Where the coal trains load
And you make the ponies pull
Till the almost break their backs
And they’ll never see again
Down the coal town road
We hear the whistle call
Down the coal town road
And we take out towels and all
Where the coal trains load
In the cages then we drop
Till there’s nowhere else to fall
And we leave the world behind us
33Barra MacNeils, Rock in the Stream, PolyGram, 1989 CD. 96
Down the coal town road
We never see the sun
Down the coal town road
At a penny for the ton
Where the coal trains load
When the shift comes up on top
We’re so thankful to be done
We head home to sleep and dream
About the coal town roads load/"*
While this song deals with the difficulties of life in and around the mines, neither this song nor any of the other mining songs on the 100 CDs deals with strikes and unrest in the Nova Scotia mines.^^ If this absence continued with another analyses of an addition
100 CDs then the matter could be commented on further.
One topic that helps to create a sense of universality among people is love, which is the topic best represented in the survey. 37% of the songs address some aspect of love: lost love, everlasting love, love forgotten, or discovered romance. These results might not seem noteworthy since love is a powerful theme in most musical genres. Through these songs, whose topic is universal, Atlantic Canadian traditional music is able to have relevancy not only in the modem world but also outside the region. The emotion portrays
Ibid. The Barra MacNeils re-released this song on their 1997 album Until Now with the following note: “Cape Breton is situated on top of one of the richest coal fields in the world. The coal industry has played an important role in economic and cultural life in Cape Breton. Here is a song depicting the early days of coal mining.” 97 a commonality between the musicians from Atlantic Canada and the listener from another area.
Patricia Murray arranged the traditional tune, “I Courted a Wee Girl,” and recorded it on her album Primrose (2001).^^ The tune does not contain any specific reference to Atlantic Canada although Patricia Murray does mention in the liner notes that she learned the piece from Kim Vincent of Prince Edward Island. The tale of betrayed love and the despair which follows is not only universal across time, but across geographic space as well, and breaks down stereotypes.
I courted a wee girl, for many long days
And slighted all others, that came by my way
And now she’s rewarded me, ’til the last day
She’s gone to be wed to another
The bride and the bride’s party in the church, they did stand
Gold rings on her fingers, a-loved by the hand
The man that’s wed to, has houses and land
He may have her, since I could not gain her^^
Albums like The Celtic Connection’s Higher (2000)^^ contain both traditional songs dealing with love, such as “The Nite Visit” and “Why Didn’t You Say So Before,” and also feature new music dealing with similar subject-matter. “Apologies,” by A.
Patricia Murray, Primrose, Tidemark Music, 2001 CD. Ibid. The Celtic Connection,Higher, Actual Music, 2000 CD. 98
Freake, deals with a lover’s quarrel in modem terminology but with no less depth of emotion than the traditional tracks on the album. Lennie Gallant also provides an excellent example of newly written music dealing with a timeless theme. In his album,
Breakwater (1993),^^ there is a dark tune about love and murder entitled “Marie and He.’
Marie and He, they lived down by the shore,
I lived alone in a house they called next door,
A quarter mile farther down the road from there.
But it was close enough that I could always hear.
Marie was only twenty-two with three kids
Big sea green eyes but they were mostly hid
Dark glasses covering all the damage he’d done
After his nights on the rum.
In the nearby town, everyone knew the score
From whispered stories traded down at the store
They could pretend they’d never see beneath the shades
But every night I’d hear her meet his rage
.. .But then the sands all washed away leaving rocks
And he would beat her and blamed her for his lousy job on the docks
39Lennie Gallant, Breakwater, Revenant Records, 1993 CD. 99
No friends or money, He’d just rave about the sea
And tell his lies of how she wouldn’t set him ffee.'^'^
Although the song in its entirety contains specific references to life near the sea and the docks, the overall theme of the story is not specific to Atlantic Canada and therefore cannot stereotype Atlantic Canada. Unfortunately, the darker aspects of love and the reality of abuse are not unique to any region. However, the implicit location of Atlantic
Canada through the composer’s home in P.E.I. and the traditional images used in the song of the small community by the sea and unrequited love are clear. This song also highlights a mixing of modem and traditional aspects in the lyrics of the song. The discussion of abuse is modem in it explicitness but the unrequited love and the ballad nature of the lyrics are traditional.
Songs in Scottish Gaelic are one feature of music from Atlantic Canada that is particular to the region and which has greatly added to its sales potential in recent years.
Songs in Scottish Gaelic can easily fit into the “Celtic Music” category that has such a powerful selling point. Part of the sale of “Celtic Music” as discussed earlier is an image of mystery. Therefore this is one area I suspeeted would be fraught with images of mist- eovered rocky costs, and I was fearful that there would be very little traditional music and a predominance of “Celtie Music.” One way to use the Scottish Gaelic language to aid the mysterious and otherworldly images associated with the Celtic phenomenon is to leave the lyries without translation in the liner notes or not to print the lyrics at all. If the lyrics are not printed or if they are printed but no translation is given, this conveys the idea that these words are from another place and time, beyond modem understanding. If
Ibid. 100 the lyrics are translated, then the element of pre-Christian occult is avoided, since what could have been imagined as a song about practically anything is now revealed as a tune about buying a cow. 40% of the lyrics studied were printed and translated. The amount of translated lyrics seems rather high, since the number of Gaelic speakers in the region has shrunk to a low number and therefore the number of people who are able to translate the lyrics is shrinking in proportion."^^ The relatively high number of translated lyrics is encouraging, since it aids the amount of understanding a non-Gaelic speaker can have with a given piece.'^^ For this survey, any attempt to print the lyrics, partial or complete, and offer an explanation about their meaning was noted under the translation category.
Mary Jane Lamond uses two different methods of dealing with Scottish Gaelic songs in her liner notes. In her album Làn Dùil (1999) only a portion of the lyrics for each song is translated, but each song is followed by an English synopsis. For the song
“Mo Mhaili Bheag Og” a portion of the song is translated as:
Do you not pity me, as F m in prison
My little young Molly?
Your friends are condemning me.
You, my whole world,
O Woman of the smooth eyebrows.
Exact figures for the number of Gaelic speakers is difficult to establish. Jonathan Dembling in his 1997 thesis states the number at roughly 1000. Jonathan Dembling, “Joe Jimmy Alec Visits the Gaelic Mod and Escapes Unscathed: The Nova Scotia Gaelic Revivals,” (master’s thesis. Saint Mary’s University, 1997), 64. It should be noted that printing and translating lyrics is also more expensive for record companies and is another reason for leaving the Scottish Gaelic lyrics without translation. 101
And kisses as sweet as figs,
You would not degrade me
With malice from your mouth."*^
There follows a brief explanation of the rest of the song:
The story goes that Maili bheag og was the daughter of a Perthshire laird. She
and a young officer eloped on a Saturday night and were passed by her father and
his house guards. The couple was overtaken on Sunday in a remote glen. During
the ensuing skirmish the officer accidentally killed his sweetheart with a sword
blow. Waiting in prison for his execution, he made this song for her.'*'*
In this case the translation of the song, while powerful, is greatly enhanced by the explanation of the story connected with the song. Aspects of the story place the song in an older time and place but the grief is intense and manages to find resonance in modem society. Parts of the story still occur today, such as elopement, and estrangement from friends but more than that the song appeals to a universal theme, tragic love, which is a vital part of the song tradition that came from both Scotland and Ireland into the Atlantic
Provinces.
In Mary Jane Lamond’s album Bho Thir nan Craobh: From the Land o f Trees
(1996)/^ full translations for every song are provided. Track number 11 on this album contains several different short songs. The first of these is a march entitled “A Sheana- bhean Bhochd.” The lyrics are printed first in Gaelic and then in English.
Mary Jane Lamond, Làn DM, turtlemusick/Tidemark, 1999 CD. Ibid. Mary Jane Lamond, Bho Thir Nan Craobh, Independent, 1996 CD. 102
A sheana-bhean bhochd, cha’n fhalbh thu an nochd (3)
Neo idir moch a maireach.
Thig am fidhleir an nochd, ’s bheir i sgriob air a’ phort (3)
’S ged a dh’fhalbhadh e an diugh, thig e maireach.
Translation
Poor old woman, you won’t go away to-night (3)
Or even early tomorrow.
The fiddler will eome to-night, and she’ll try out the tune (3)
And though he’ll go to-day, he’ll return to-morrow."^^
The role of cultural ambassador, which these albums play, necessitates as much clarity in the meaning of songs as possible. These songs earry part of the tradition with them as they are reeorded and sent out of the region. Printed lyrics and translated lyrics where possible aid the ability of the region to be represented thoroughly and fairly through music. The high cost of printing all of the song lyrics as well as translations are understandable reasons for not listing the full lyrics of all songs in the liner notes. The added mystery of Scottish Gaelic singing, when left without translation and its place within the world of “Celtie Musie” is another reason for this omission. However, the survey indieates that a very large percentage of the musie did have printed and translated lyrics, an important step to fighting stereotypes by aiding understanding.
The printed lyrics were not the only text in the liner notes 1 was concerned about when beginning this research. The social context for music is very important for any type of musie, but is especially important for traditional music. When dealing with recorded
46Ibid. 103 music there is always a danger that the social context in which the music was created will be lost or misconstrued when the music is heard outside the place and time where it was produced. Sometimes the only aid the listener has in explaining the basics of the music he or she is hearing is the liner notes. These notes can provide explanations about musical traditions, regional history, and origins of tunes, etc. Liner notes may also explain the unique facets of the community’s treatment of musicians and music and how those musicians in turn feel about their home. The capacity that these notes have to explain the region can also work in reverse through incorrect information or statements which play on regional stereotypes.
There is evident pride in Atlantic Canada and musicians show this in the liner notes. 78% of the albums liner notes listed either a hometown or province for the musicians. J. P. Cormier writes in Heart & Soul (1998): “It was the feeling of loss of that special fellowship that violin music brings to people that called me back to my native soil of Cape Breton, and it is here that I intend to breath my last and to be laid to rest with my fathers that came before me.”'^^ Patricia Murray makes a somewhat less emotional dedication in the notes for her album Primrose, but identifies her home none the less.
She writes:
Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts & the Department of Culture, Heritage
and Recreation — both of these organizations have been tremendous supporters
over the years. Thank you for your generous support of this project. Tidemark
Music & Distribution — Thanks to Shelley Nordstrom at Tidemark for her
47 John Paul Cormier,Heart & Soul, Borealis, 1998 CD. 104
tireless contribution to promoting East Coast Music. I appreciate all her input and
support during the making of this recording.'**
The mention of specific places and people within Atlantic Canada is also helpful, since it helps dispel possible generalizations.
The liner notes also help educate the listener about the nature of the musical tradition in Atlantic Canada. 48% of the albums contain information about where and how each piece had been learned, following the oral nature of the tradition and also supporting the multi-generational aspect of the music. In Natalie MacMaster’sMy Roots
Are Showing (1998), each of the tracks has a little information about where each piece was learned. For “The Shakin’s o’ The Pocky,” Paul S. Cranford, who wrote the notes, states: “This slow air, which was composed by James Scott Skinner, has been a longtime favorite of Natalie’s Uncle Buddy MacMaster. It is found as a slow strathspey in The
Skye Collection.”'*^ Later in the notes Natalie’s musical family tree is listed in this way:
Natalie’s Family Tree:
l.Big Donald Cameron, great grandfather 2.Catherine & Allan Ian MacDonald,
great grandparents 3.John Beaton, grandfather 4.Margaret Anne (Cameron)
Beaton, grandmother 5.Sarah Agnes (MacDonald) MacMaster, grandmother
6.John Duncan MacMaster, grandfather 7.Buddy MacMaster, uncle 8. Minnie
MacMaster, mother 9.Alex MacMaster, father.^**
This explanation about where and how music is learned in Atlantic Canada is an important part of the social context needed to help dispel stereotypes. It conveys the idea
^** Patricia Murray, Primrose, Tidemark, 2001 CD. '*^ Natalie MacMaster, My Roots Are Showing, Warner Music Canada, 1998 CD. Ibid. 105 that the musicians are conscious of the tradition they are receiving. It helps to portray them as active participants in the culture.
Andy Nercession in his book Postmodernism and Globalization in
Ethnomusicology: An Epistemological Problem (2002) contests that the visual aspects are integral to the overall impression given by the CD.
Most musical experiences are dependent not only on an acoustic dimension, but
on a visual aspect as well.... But the visual side is far from a universal dimension
to music. The size of my friend’s CD collections should suffice to demonstrate
that. If the visual dimension were as important to music as certain objectors to
our definition claim, then music stores would have a giant video section and a
small CD section, rather than vice-versa.^*
Nercession’s argument that the visual is not the most important aspect of music is accurate. However, he does concede that the study of the visuals surrounding a musical performance is important and that the album’s liner notes help to create that portion of a musical experience when dealing with recorded music. The importance of the visual in the modem world is supported by David Gross, who places a greater importance on it than Nercession does. Gross writes; “With the ascendancy of a visual culture has naturally come the ascendancy of the image as a primary mode of communication.”^^
The potential for using images of historic Atlantic Canada or only rural modem landscapes was enormous and a feature 1 expected to find in great abundance. What I
Andy Nercession, Postmodernism and Globalization in Ethnomusicology: an Epistemological Problem (London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2002), 128. ^ David Gross, The Past in Ruins: Tradition and the Critique o f Modernity (Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1992), 58. 106 discovered was that there is less representation of Atlantic Canada through pictures or drawings than might have been expected; only 20% of the liner notes contained pictures and 6% contained pictures of historic Atlantic Canada. Anita Best's Crosshanded (1997) contains pictures of the various people from whom she learned the songs that are featured on the album.^^ Some of the photographs appear to have been taken recently given clothing styles etc., but several, such as the pictures of Kate Wilson who was bom in
1895 are much older. This use of older images from the region does much to inform the listener about the aural nature of the tradition and the actual people who have handed it to the current generation. In this instance the images do not promote a stereotype of the region but a clearer understanding. The majority of the 6% of the albums that have historic images are images of people and are frequently used to show the ancestors of the performer or the people who taught the performer.
Some albums make use of humorous photographs. Kilt’sFour in the Crib (1997) carries the cribbage pun throughout the entire liner notes, placing the members of the band on a huge cribbage board in one photograph and also shows them playing in a cozy family room inanother.The majority of the liner notes contained only photographs of the performers themselves and made more use of colors and patterns than images of the region to enhance the artistic feel of the album. The lack of photographs of historic
Canada should be viewed as a positive sign, since it avoids the “backward” stereotype of the region. Atlantic Canada is revealed as striving to be seen as a modem place whose
Anita Best, Crosshanded, Amber Music, 1997 CD. Kilt, Four in the Crib, Oh Ha Music, 1997 CD. 107 residents are educated and competent but the lack of pictures may miss an opportunity to give a visual and geographic context to the music.
Clearly, the greatest asset on an album in dispelling preconceived notions about the region is the music itself. The results from the survey, detailed thus far, attest to a balanced representation of the region through the music and albums. No theme is dwelt upon in great abundance, except perhaps love, which can hardly be credited with creating regional stereotypes. However, there might be some cause for alarm when the nature of the traditional music itself is analyzed. The number of pieces that used non-traditional instrumentation was 66%; over half of the tracks on these traditional albums used a more modem form of instrumentation. Further, the number of tracks that were marked as containing only traditional music was only 33%. Based on these figures, can the music on these albums as a whole be termed traditional music? The group McKeel regularly uses electric bass, electric fiddles, electric guitar, and drums throughout their alhum Plaid
(1997).^^ Even Natalie MacMaster on Fit As A Fiddle (1993) makes use of both acoustic bass and drums on a few tracks.^^ Is the authentic tradition dying, or it is being reinterpreted by the next generation of artists the way a living tradition should be?
In the first chapter of this thesis there was a brief discussion on the nature of both tradition itself and traditional music. Although these are highly contested issues, many scholars believe that the very nature of tradition, in specific the Irish and Scottish traditions which contributed so greatly to Atlantic Canadian music is constantly changing.
MacKeel, Plaid, PolyGram, 1997 CD. Natalie MacMaster, Fit as a Fiddle, Canadian Broadcast Corporation, 1993 CD. 108
David Gross, in a discussion of the nature of tradition, states that: “Once traditions are established they themselves change in the process of being handed down.
Nothing historically engendered ever remains fixed or static.”^^ If this logic is to be followed, than the addition of new instruments and new recording techniques is merely an extension of the natural metamorphosis of traditional music. Sean 6 Riada detailed every nuance of the use of variation in the traditional singing in Ireland, and John Gibson and George Emmerson made excellent statements concerning the use of variation as an integral part of Scottish piping. If this use of variation already exists in traditional music, then it is possible to view the use of different types of instruments or new recording techniques, such as laying several fiddle tracks over each other, as extensions of this use of variation. The place of variation makes each performer simultaneously a creator and part of the musical heritage of the tradition. The use of different instruments makes a piece that has been heard many times before distinctive to the performer, and creates a place for the musician inside the tradition. The use of recording techniques also allows for experimentation and variation. Not only does this use of other instruments fit within the definition of a living tradition, it also produces an image of Atlantic Canada for the outside listener. The artists can be seen as creative and progressive, and this view can be extended to the region they come from as well. If artists are using new techniques and experimenting with the music through whatever means — instrumentation, recording, variation of playing techniques — then they are creators, and therefore harder to dismiss
David Gross, The Past in Ruins: Tradition and the Critique o f Modernity (Amherst Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1992), 13. 109 as “backward” or “conservative.” Consequently, a region that has fostered these musicians is also not as easy to dismiss.
Furthermore, the presence of original music shows that artists are allowed not only to participate in recreating the tradition, but also in contributing to the canon already in existence. In her album Fit As A F iddle, Natalie MacMaster performs some pieces by
Jerry Holland. In turn, on his album Crystal Clear (2000),^^ Jerry Holland performs compositions by Howie MacDonald, who plays compositions of his own as well as a piece by Joey Beaton on his album The Dance Last Night (1997).^*^ All of these pieces are surrounded in the sets by pieces marked as traditional. 14% of the tracks mixed traditional music and original music. These artists feel equally comfortable creating new works and playing new music written by other people as well as working with music that has been handed down to them through the tradition. 48% of the tracks recorded were original, meaning that they had a known composer who was listed in the liner notes. 33% of the tunes were traditional, meaning only that they had no known author. The musicians clearly show the ever-expanding nature of traditional music in Atlantic Canada through this practice of continual writing and incorporating new material into the community repertoire.
In 1961, while reviewing a book for the Canadian Literature journal, the composer Chester Duncan wrote that: “One thing our social history proves is that folksongs cannot be expected to improve as a country grows older. Perhaps at the
Natalie MacMaster, Fit as a Fiddle, Canadian Broadcast Corporation, 1993 CD. Jerry Holland, Crystal Clear, Odyssey Records, 2000 CD. Howie MacDonald, The Dance Last Night, Howie MacDonald, 1997 CD. Chester Duncan, “Folk Song as History,” review ofCanada's Story in Song, by Edith Fowke, Alan Mills and Helmut Blume, Canadian Literature (Spring 1961): 52. 110 time this was a valid observation but the current music being written in Atlantic Canada proves this is not the situation today. Not only is there is great deal of activity composing new music, but also if popularity is any indication, this music has a strong resonance with audiences. While public approval is not the only measure of song quality for traditional music which takes its identity from a group of people, their appreciation of a tune is a strong indicator that Atlantic Canada is continuing the strong lyrical tradition of past generations.
If the music is to he both alive and traditional it must be a blend of where the musicians have come from historically and where they are now. The influences that surround artists at present allow groups such as Rawlins Cross and MacKeel to use electric guitar and bagpipes. The current musical climate also allows experimentation with recording techniques such as sound effects and layers of recording tracks laid over each other as in the Fables album Tear the House Down (1998).^^ In his book Locating
Irish Folklore, Diarmuid Ô Giollain attempts to grapple with this issue of modernity and tradition. He concludes his argument by stating: “The point is that the continuity of traditional cultural elements is not necessarily compromised by embracing, rather than resisting, modernity, even if the resulting ‘second life’ may not satisfy the purist.”^^
Gearoid 6 hAllmhurain discusses the issue of traditional musicians in modem society dealing with multiple musical influences in A Pocket History o f Irish Traditional Music.
While he is discussing the situation in Ireland specifically, his answer to the concern over
The Fables, Tear the House Down, Tidemark, 1998 CD. Diarmuid Ô Giollain, Locating Irish Folklore: Tradition, Modernity, Identity (Cork: Cork University Press, 2000), 4. I l l experimentation in traditional music is applicable to the situation in Atlantic Canada as well. He writes:
The present purism of some traditional players reflects the strained interface
between popular culture, which is absorbing their music, and traditional culture,
whence it came. Above all, their purism has grown out of a sincere concern for
the regional and traditional aspect of Irish culture. As long as these guardians of
Irish traditional music are duly revered by their heirs, and the integrity of their
oral tradition respected by all of its recipients, there is no reason why circumspect
purism and perceptive innovation cannot co-exist in the new millennium.^
It is the “perceptive innovation” that is portrayed most clearly in the albums studied here.
The Atlantic Provinces region can be seen as a place that nurtures musicians who can simultaneously remember and honor their musical history and also discuss their present situation while looking to the future. Traditional music is not dying, it is very much alive in the healthiest way, since it is being re-created by a whole new generation of musicians and through their efforts, and those of the recording industry, the tradition is presented to the world outside Atlantic Canada. This is no surprise to the members of the musical traditional itself, but happily this is also the view that is being disseminated through the albums studied here. The possibility of doing research on traditional music in this way, by studying recordings produced not for study but for sales purposes underscores the importance of traditional music in modem Atlantic Canadian life. If it was not profitable
^ Gearoid Ô hAllmhurain, A Pocket History o f Irish Traditional Music (Dublin: O’Brien Press, 1998), 156. 112 to make these recordings many of them would not be produced. However, there is obviously an audience for this constantly evolving tradition.
And what exactly is it like “down there?” The people who purchase these albums are not shown a static tradition that has no place in the modem world. Instead they are treated to a rich view of the current musical tradition as well as the historical tradition. 113
Appendices
The four appendices that follow give the results of the survey carried out for this study. Appendix A: “Recordings” lists all the CD albums used in the study, with recording details. Appendix B: “Instrumentation” categorises the kind of instrumentation used in each track. Appendix C: “Liner Notes” lists the information included in the CD liners. Appendix D: “Theme Information” lists the principal themes of the lyrics of the songs performed on the albums. Appendices B and D do not include all albums and/or all tracks. In some cases, the appendix categories were not relevant to the particular albums or tracks. Also, for various reasons, some albums were not accessible for categorisation. 114
Appendix A Recordings Recording Recording Recording Recording Released Number of Number of ID Number Title Artist Label Tracks Vocal Tracks
1 Until Now The Barra Tidemark 1997 14 10 MacNeils
2 Closer to The Barra PolyGram 1993 12 10 Paradise MacNeils Records
3 Forever Celtic Quality Music 1995 11 11 Connection
4 Return to the John Paul Main Tripp 1995 12 0 Cape Cormier Records
5 Crosshanded Anita Best Amber Music 1997 12 12
6 Ancestral The College Attic Records 1994 11 6 Voices across of Piping and the Sea Performing Arts
7 Mist Covered Denis Ryan Tony Quinn 1991 11 9 Mountains
8 Celtic Celtic Warner Musie 1997 14 14 Connection Connection Canada
9 Primary Color J.P. Cormier Tidemark 2001 16 0
10 Rock in the The Barra PolyGram 1989 11 6 Stream MacNeils Records
11 The Fiddle J.P. Cormier Unity Grain 1991 13 0 Album Records
12 Timeframe The Barra Barra 1990 10 9 MacNeils MacNeils Co.
13 A Time Fables Tidemark 2000 13 11
14 Sailors on the Evans & Modtrad 1994 13 13 Asphalt Doherty Musie
15 The Colour of Anita Best Amber Music 1991 11 11 Amber and Pamela Morgan
16 The Traditional The Barra PolyGram 1994 13 0 Album MacNeils
17 The Barra The Barra PolyGram 1986 9 3 MacNeils MacNeils 115
Recording Recording Recording Recording Released Number of Number of ID Number Title Artist Label Tracks Vocal Tracks
18 Higher Celtic Actual Music 1999 12 13 Connection
19 The Question The Barra PolyGram 1995 13 13 MacNeils
20 Ennis Sisters Ennis Sisters Warner Music 2001 11 Canada
21 Dance to Your Teresa Doyle Bedlam 1996 14 13 Daddy Records
22 Breakwater Lennie Sony 1991 13 13 Gallant
23 Lifeline Lennie Sony 1997 11 11 Gallant
24 A Retrospective Piggy Duff EMI 1995 19 1974-1993
25 Road Not Evans & 1991 11 11 Taken Doherty
26 Red is the Rose Ennis Sisters Cabot 1997 12 0
27 Heart and Soul JP Cormier Borealis 1998 16 0 Recording
28 Weather Out Piggy D uff Hypnotic 1990 10 10 the Storm Records
29 Great Big Sea Great Big Sea Independent 1993 11 10
30 The Ennis The Ennis Tidemark 2000 15 14 Sisters 3 Sisters
31 Cradle on the Teresa Doyle Bedlam 2000 11 11 Waves Records
32 If Pish Could Teresa Doyle Bedlam 1999 14 14 Sing and Sheep Records Could Dance
33 Sailing Ships Evans & Tall Ships 2000 20 20 and Sailing Doherty Men
34 Piggy Duff Piggy Duff A& M 1991 13 Records
35 Porerunner Teresa Doyle Bedlam 1991 12 12 Records 116
Recording Recording Recording Recording Released Number of Number of ID Number Title Artist Label Tracks Vocal Tracks
36 Play Great Big Sea Warner Music 1997 15 15
37 Kilt Kilt Oh Ha Music 1997 12 8
38 Look to the Sea The Irish Derek 1993 12 10 Descendants Harrington
39 Four in the Crib Kilt Oh Ha Music 1999 14 9
40 Crystal Clear Jerry Holland Odyssey 2000 20 0
41 Road Rage Great Big Sea Warner Music 2000 19 19
42 Up Great Big Sea Warner Music 1995 15 14
43 Rant and Roar Great Big Sea Warner Music 1998 13 12
44 Fiddler’s Jerry Holland Odyssey 1998 15 0 Choice Records
45 Ballads and Bar MacGinty Rocky Coast 1995 12 11 Tunes
46 Suas e! Mary Jane Turtlemusik 1997 11 11 Lamond (A&M)
47 Blooming Irish Sextant 2001 12 10 Bright Star Descendants Records Inc.
48 Nimble Fingers Dave Pickin’ 1996 19 0 Maclsaac Productions
49 The World Is Evans & Self Produced 1998 15 15 What You Doherty Make It
50 Bho Thir Nan Mary Jane 1989 14 14 Craobh Lamond B&R Heritage
51 Tear the House Fables 1998 14 10 Down Actual Music
52 So Far So Irish Warner Music 1999 19 19 Good; The Best Descendants of the Irish Descendants
53 Crossing the Rawlins Ground Swell 1991 12 7 Border Cross Records
54 Make It on Rawlins Warner Music 1998 14 11 Time Cross 117
Recording Recording Recording Recording Released Number of Number of ID Number Title Artist Label Tracks Vocal Tracks
55 Why2 Keilidh Howie self produced 1999 16 0 MacDonald
56 Wind Willow John Allan Margaree 1997 10 Cameron Sound
57 We Remember Buddy Budmac 2000 12 12 You Well MacMaster Music
58 Glencoe Station John Allan All Hands 1996 Cameron Music
59 The Judique Buddy Gordie 2000 14 Flyer MacMaster
60 Sea Songs MacGinty Rocky Coast 2000 13 13
61 Said She The Punters Factor 1997 15 11 Couldn’t Dance
62 Grain Mary Jane Turtlemusik 2000 12 11 Ghàidhlig: Lamond Gaelic Song of Cape Breton
63 Atlantic MacGinty Rocky Coast 1998 14 13 Favorites 11
64 The Dance Last Howie self produced 1998 16 Night MacDonald
65 Another J.P. Cormier Borealis 1996 14 12 Morning
66 Close to the Ashley ancient music 1992 11 Floor Maclsaac
67 Hi How Are Ashley A&M Music 1995 12 You Today Maclsaac
68 Làn Dùil Maty Jane Turtlemusik 1999 11 Lamond
69 Guitar Souls Dave Atlantic 1995 12 Maclsaac/ (EMI) Scott Macmillan
70 Helter’s Celtic Ashley Loggerhead 1999 13 Maclsaac Records
71 From the David Pickin’ 1999 15 Archives Maclsaac Productions 118
Recording Recording Recording Recording Released Number of Number of ID Number Title Artist Label Tracks Vocal Tracks
72 Tried and Trio MacGinty Rocky Coast 1990 10 10 Music
73 Sweet Is the Aselin Odyssey 2002 14 14 Melody Debison
74 Plaid Mackeel PolyGram 1997 11
75 Fit as Fiddle Natalie CBC 1993 13 MacMaster
76 Uprooted The Rankin EMI Music 1998 14 13 Family Canada
77 Portraits Patricia Tidemark 1998 11 Murray
78 Atlantic MacGinty Rocky Coast 1993 12 12 Favorites
79 Fare Thee Well The Rankin EMI Music 1990 11 Love Family Canada
80 Fiddle Music Maclsaac & Maclsaac & 2000 10 101 Maclsaac Maclsaac
81 Coal Fire in Men of the Atlantic 1992 14 14 Winter Deeps (EMI)
82 My Roots Are Natalie Warner Music 1998 13 Showing MacMaster Canada
83 In My Hands Natalie Warner Music 1999 14 MacMaster Canada
84 Primrose Patricia Tidemark 2001 11 11 Murray
85 A Compilation Natalie Warner Music 1996 16 MacMaster
86 Diamonds in Men of the Waterloo 1997 16 16 the Rough deeps
87 Mining the Soul Rita MacNeil, All Hands 2000 11 11 Men of the Music Deeps
88 North Country The Rankin EMI Music 1993 13 12 Family Canada
89 Will You Wait The Punters Loggerhead 2000 11 10 Records
90 No Boundaries Natalie Warner Music 1996 13 MacMaster Canada 119
Recording Recording Recording Recording Released Number of Number of ID Number Title Artist Label Tracks Vocal Tracks
91 Celtic Rawlins Warner Music 1997 II 0 Instrumentals Cross Canada
92 The Celtic Richard Atlantic 1995 12 0 Touch Wood Music
93 Early Spring Jean Hewson A Pigeon 1992 II II Inlet
94 A Turn of the Rawlins Warner Music 1989 10 6 Wheel Cross Canada
95 Living River Rawlins Warner Music 1996 13 II Cross Canada
96 Fire Dance Richard Self Produced 1997 II 0 Wood
97 Battery Tickle Singsong Inc. 1998 12 5 Included Harbour
98 Reel ’n’ Roll Rawlins Warner Music 1993 12 10 Cross Canada
99 Sailors Story Sons of 1999 10 10 Maxwell
100 The Brule Boys Tickle A Pigeon I99I 12 I in Paris Harbour Inlet Production 120
Appendix B Instrumentation
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen- and tation Original M usic
The Broum Set yes yes
Banks of the yes yes unknown Roses
The Marquis of yes yes Huntly’s Snuff Mill
The Island yes yes
Song for Peaee yes yes
Going Down yes yes the Road
Coaltown Road yes yes
My Heart’s in yes yes unknown the Highlands
Ian Hardie Set yes yes
Mouth Musie yes yes unknown ‘97
Darling Be yes yes Home Soon
Clumsy Lover yes yes unknown Set
Row Row Row yes yes
Frostbite yes yes
In the Wink o f yes yes an Eye 121
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen- and tation Original M usic
Am Pige Ruadh yes yes unknown
Mo Nighean yes yes unknown Dubh
Caledonia yes yes
Chase the Man yes yes
We Celebrate yes yes
Closer to yes yes Paradise
When I’m yes yes Away from You
Darling Be yes yes Home
Jigs yes yes
Dancing We yes yes Would Go
Heart of Gold yes yes unknown
The Eviction yes yes unknown
Last Thing on yes yes unknown My Mind
Brigid Flynn yes yes unknown
Newfound-land yes yes Forever
Brand New yes yes unknown Song
Fogarty’s Cove yes yes unknown 122
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal Music
Alone by Your yes yes Side
Seasons of a yes yes unknown Sailor
Right All Right yes yes unknown
Our Station yes yes unknown
Hilda yes yes unknown Chiasson- Cormier’s Reel, Temperance Reel
Cowie’s Clog, yes yes Scotland Winston Tune
Reel Made with yes yes Hilda, Miss W atson’s Return
Highland yes yes unknown Dream
Niel Gow’s yes yes unknown Lament
Shetland yes yes unknown Hornpipe, the E flat Tune
Slow Air, yes yes Moving Cloud
The Haggis, yes yes Scotland Caber Feidth
Jerry Sullivan’s yes yes Strathspey, Tammy Sullivan’s Reel 123
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional M ixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen and tation O riginal M usic
Flannigan’s yes yes unknown Favorite Ole French Reel, Kelly’s- Reel
Horseshoe yes yes unknown Reel, Winter Carnival Reel, Pigeon on the
The Water yes yes unknown Witch
The Spanish yes yes unknown Captain
The Liverpool yes yes unknown Pilot
Me Old yes yes unknown Ragadoo
Le Jeune yes yes unknown Militaire
Gull Cove yes yes unknown
Driharin o Mo yes yes unknown Croi
The Soup yes yes unknown Supper in Clattice Harbour
Blanche yes yes unknown comme la Neige
Tobacco yes yes unknown
Lord Bateman yes yes unknown
Hush o Bye yes yes unknown Baby 124
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional M usic Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal Music
Medley— yes yes unknown Guitars, Fiddle, Flute
If Ever You yes yes Were Mine
Amazing Grace yes yes unknown
Flowers of the yes yes unknown Forest
Fair and Tender yes yes unknown Ladies
The Water Is yes yes unknown Wide
My Ain yes yes unknown Country
Solo Piping yes yes unknown Medley
Song for yes yes Ireland
My Youngest yes yes Son Came Home Today
Reel Medley yes yes
Newport Town yes yes
Mist Covered yes yes unknown Mountains of Home
Dark Island yes yes unknown
ril Take You yes yes unknown Home Again, Kathleen/Isle 125
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional M ixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
For Now I’m yes yes unknown Sixty-Four
Will You Go yes yes unknown Lassie Go
Paddy’s Green yes yes unknown Shamrock Shore
Sweet Forget yes yes unknown Me Not
Cape Breton yes yes Sunrise
Tiree Love yes yes unknown Song
Let Me Fish off yes yes Cape St. Mary’s
The Circle
Raise the Roof
Time Stands Still
How Come
Greenland Whale Fishery
Badger Drive
Tim Finnegan’s Wake
Not Too Good with Names
Sixteen for Awhile 126
Recording Track Title Traditionai Non Originai Traditionai Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditionai Musie Music Traditional Musie Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginai M usic
Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor
Tyree Love Song
South Australia
Stay
The Piccadilly Sand Farewell
Cape Breton yes yes unknown Guitar Set
Doc Tribute #1 yes yes
The Rollo yes yes Boy’s Reel
Irish Guitar yes yes Ireland
Jerry’s yes yes Breakdown
Cape Breton yes yes Set #2
Limerick yes yes unknown
Dixie yes yes Breakdown
Doc Tribute #2 yes yes unknown
The Claw yes yes
The Mathema- yes yes tician/Sleepy Bach
Lonesome yes yes Twelve 127
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional M usic Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal Music
Hawaiian Slack yes yes
Blue Angel yes yes
Whispers of the yes yes North
Haslem’s yes yes unknown Castle
10 Coaltown Road yes yes
10 Standing by the yes yes Subway
10 Beautiful Point yes yes Aconi
10 Kitty Bawn yes yes O ’Brien
10 Highland yes yes unknown Exchange Medley
10 Red Ice yes yes
10 The Lone yes yes Ireland Harper
10 The Island yes yes
10 Rattlin, Roarin yes yes unknown Willie
10 Glenpark yes yes unknown Medley
10 High Bass yes yes Tunes
11 The Wizard yes yes unknown
11 Sheila yes yes unknown Donovan 128
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
11 Robert yes yes Joudrey’s Reel
11 Murray’s Reel yes yes unknown Medley
11 Soppin’ the yes yes Gravy
11 Trip to yes yes Bridgewater
11 Levy’s yes yes Hornpipes
11 Rosebud o f yes yes Avonmore Waltz
11 Temperance yes yes Ireland Reel Medley
11 Banks and The yes yes unknown E flat Tune
11 Daley’s Reel yes yes Medley
11 Tribute to yes yes Joseph Cormier
11 The Merry yes yes MacRae
12 Flower Basket yes yes unknown Medley
12 An Irish Drink/ yes yes Ireland John McKenna’s
12 Flow Time yes yes
12 Didn’t Hear the yes yes Train 129
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Mnsic Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen- and tation Original M usic
12 Song for Peace yes yes
12 Isle of My yes yes Dreams
12 Looking Back yes yes
12 Row Row Row yes yes
12 Ian Hardie Set yes yes unknown
12 My Heart’s in yes yes Scotland the Highlands
12 Banks of the yes yes unknown Roses
13 Mauzy, yes yes Monday
13 O ’Brien yes yes
13 Miss yes yes unknown Monahan’s/ Pigeon on the Gate
13 There yes yes
13 Buy Us a Drink yes yes
13 As I Roved Out yes yes unknown
13 Buried in the yes yes Sand
13 Dance, Dance, yes yes Dance
13 Ramblin’ yes yes Rover
13 Sure It’s All yes yes the Same 130
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
13 Down East Day yes yes
13 The Rocky yes yes Ireland Road to Dublin
14 Oh No More yes yes
14 Brennan on the yes yes Moor
14 The Galway yes yes Ireland Races
14 The Man with yes yes the Cap
14 Whiskey in the yes yes Ireland Jar
14 Winds of yes yes Morning
14 The Second yes yes Week of Deer Camp
yes 14 Hi for the yes unknown Beggarman
yes 14 My Baby and yes M yD -18
14 Sailin’ around yes yes
14 Acadian yes yes Saturday Night
14 The Chemical yes yes Workers Song
14 Galway to yes yes Graceland 131
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Musie Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
15 A Sailor’s yes yes unknown Trade is a Weary Life
15 Lowlands yes yes unknown
15 The Maid on yes yes unknown the Shore
15 John Barbour yes yes unknown
15 The Two yes yes Sisters
15 The Lowlands yes yes unknown o f Holland
15 She’s like the yes yes unknown Swallow
15 Suil A Gra yes yes unknown
15 The Green yes yes unknown Mossy Banks o f the Lee
16 Twice a Year yes yes
16 Toonik Tyme yes yes
16 Twin Fiddles yes yes unknown
16 Wedding Party yes yes unknown Medley
16 Memories of yes yes Mary and Mackenzie
16 March- yes yes unknown Strathspeys- Reels
16 The Maid of yes yes unknown Arrochar 132
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
16 The Visit yes yes unknown Medley
16 Tribute to yes yes unknown Robert Stubbert
16 The Clumsy yes yes unknown Lover Set
16 Celtic Harp yes yes unknown
16 Neil Gow’s yes yes Lament for the Death of His Second Wife
16 The Brolum Set yes yes unknown
18 Freedom yes
18 A W oman’s yes yes Heart
18 The Sociable yes yes Song
18 Leaving yes yes Tomorrow
18 Marigold Smile yes yes
18 The yes yes unknown Kelligrew’s Soirée
18 Apologies yes yes
18 The Last yes yes Shanty
18 My Angel yes yes
18 Why Didn’t yes yes You Say So Before
18 Flowers yes yes 133
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic Music Traditionai Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
18 The Nite Visit yes yes unknown
19 She the Ocean yes yes
19 All or Nothing yes yes
19 Part o f Me yes yes
19 Falling yes yes
19 The Question yes yes
19 Goin’ Back yes yes
19 Oh My yes yes
19 Going down yes yes the Road
19 The Ballad of yes yes Lucy Jordan
19 Seallaibh yes yes unknown Curaidh Eoghainn
19 Myopic yes yes
19 Turquoise yes yes Shoes
19 17 yes yes
20 I’d Never Walk yes yes Away
20 October Wind yes yes
20 Leaving on My yes yes Mind
20 Without You yes yes
20 If Only yes yes 134
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional M usic Musie Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
20 All Over Again yes yes
20 It’s Not about yes yes You
20 Somebody yes yes Somewhere
20 Knocks Me ofF yes yes My Feet
20 Turn Up the yes yes Radio
20 Kiss Him yes yes
21 Stormy yes yes New Weather Boys
21 Lukey’s Boat yes yes unknown
21 Rose, Rose, yes yes unknown Rose, Red
21 Mist Covered yes yes Scotland Mountains
21 Colcannon yes yes Ireland
21 Home by Bama yes yes Ireland
21 Sean Vhan yes yes PEI Voght
21 Canoe Round yes yes unknown
21 Carrion Crow yes yes unknown
21 Le Talon de yes yes Acadian Marguerite
21 False Knight on yes yes unknown the Road
21 Sarah yes yes Newfound land 135
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
21 A Tall Tale NA
21 Dance to Your yes yes unknown Daddy
22 From a yes yes Distance
22 Down on the yes yes Promenade
22 La Tempete yes yes
22 The yes yes Reconciliation Two-Step
22 Big City yes yes
22 Breakwater yes yes
22 Marie and He yes yes
22 Destination yes yes
22 Back to Rustico yes yes
22 Raise the Dead yes yes of Wintertime
22 Island Clay yes yes
22 Tales of the yes yes Phantom Ship
22 The Hope for yes yes Next Year
23 More than yes yes Likely
23 Without Love yes yes
23 Something yes yes Unspoken 136
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed O rigin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic Music Traditional M usic Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
23 16 Angels yes yes
23 Smoke and yes yes Mirrors
23 Meet Me at the yes yes Oasis
23 The Band’s yes yes Still Playing
23 Titanic Band yes yes Intro
23 Fisher King yes yes
23 Slow Boat yes yes
23 Lifeline yes yes
24 Freedom yes yes
24 Thomas and yes yes unknown Nancy
24 Auntie Mary/ yes yes unknown Brother’s Jig
24 Snowy Night yes yes
24 4-stop Jigs yes yes unknown
24 The Fisher yes yes unknown Who Died in His Bed
24 Allanadh yes yes unknown
24 Downstream yes yes
24 Captain and yes yes unknown His Whiskers/ Fisherman’s Favorite 137
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
24 Gees in the yes yes unknown Bog
24 Weather Out yes yes the Storm
24 True or False yes yes unknown
24 Breakwater yes yes unknown Boys Breakdown
24 Woman of yes yes Labrador
24 A Sailor yes yes unknown Courted a Farmer’s Daughter
24 Emile’s Reel yes yes unknown
24 Henry Martin yes yes unknown
24 Rumbolt yes yes unknown
24 Tarry Trousers yes yes unknown
25 The Mermaid yes yes unknown
25 Wild Mountain yes yes unknown Thyme
25 Dungarvan My yes yes unknown Hometown
25 Wave to the yes yes unknown Water/The Day the Tall Ships Came
25 Carrickfergus yes yes unknown
25 Lady in yes yes Montana 138
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
25 Save the yes yes Whales
25 Christmas in yes yes the Trenches
25 A Drink for My yes yes Father
25 Road Not yes yes Taken
25 Streets of yes yes unknown London
26 Right Here yes yes with Me
26 You’ll Live yes yes Forever
26 Breath of yes yes Angels
26 The Leaving of yes yes unknown Liverpool
26 No Change in yes yes Me
26 Red Is the Rose yes yes unknown
26 Out from St. yes yes Leonard’s
26 If Anything yes yes Happened to You
26 Somewhere in yes yes America
26 The Traveler yes yes
26 An Irish yes yes unknown Lullaby 139
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional Musie Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
27 Me and Gelas yes yes
27 Scotty Meets yes yes unknown Rene
27 Banjomusik yes yes
27 The B Minor yes yes Set
27 Here’s to You yes yes unknown Scotty!
27 May I Have yes yes This Dance?
27 My Bach Is yes yes unknown Worse than My Bite
27 Pop Goes the yes yes unknown Weasel
27 Alan’s Set yes yes unknown
27 Aren’t We yes yes unknown Feeling “Jiggy” Today
27 Rawhide (Bill yes yes Monroe BMI)
27 Fleetwood yes yes unknown
27 Christie yes yes unknown Married a Frenchman
27 Kenny Baker yes yes Live
27 Martin’s Set yes yes
27 Tulloch Gorum yes yes unknown (aka Broken Fingers) 140
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional M usic Mnsic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M nsic
28 Bad Blood yes yes
28 Henry Martin yes yes Scotland
28 Rumbolt yes yes
28 Yankee yes yes unknown Skipper
28 Inside a Circle yes yes
28 Snowy Night yes yes
28 Jealous Lover/ yes yes unknown Wedding Waltz
28 Weather Out yes yes the Storm
28 Heart of a yes yes Gypsy
28 Woman o f yes yes unknown Labrador
29 I’se the B’y yes yes unknown
29 Berry Picking yes yes unknown Time
29 Jigs; Eaves yes yes Newfound dropper’s/ Both land Meat and Drink/ Off We Go
29 Time Brings yes yes
29 Great Big Sea/ yes yes unknown Gone by the Board
29 Drunken Sailor yes yes unknown
29 The yes yes Fisherman’s lament 141
Recording Track Title Traditionai Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal Music
29 What Are Ya’ yes yes At
29 Excursion yes yes Newfound around the Bay land
29 Someday Soon yes yes
29 Irish Paddy/ yes yes St. Festival Reel M ary’s
30 Lies yes yes
30 Islander/ yes yes Connaught- m an’s Rambles
30 Can’t Stop the yes yes Dance
30 If I Should yes yes Leave You
30 Sorry yes yes
30 When yes yes Tomorrow Comes
30 Accordion yes yes unknown Intro/ Rocking Chair Jig
30 Never Puts His yes yes Fiddle Down
30 Lord of the yes yes unknown Dance
30 Forever Love yes yes
30 Live Not yes yes unknown Where I Love
30 Haul Her yes yes unknown Along 142
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usie
30 Rainy Day yes yes
30 Work to Be yes yes Done
30 Lullaby yes yes
31 Dream Angus yes yes Scotland
31 A Lullaby yes yes Scotland
31 Lagan Love yes yes Ireland
31 And Summer yes yes Faire
31 Maid of yes yes Ireland Coolmore
31 La Nourrice du yes yes PEI Roi
31 The Old Turf yes yes Ireland Fire
31 A Chuachag yes yes Scotland Nam Beann
31 Green Grow yes yes the Rushes
31 Cradle on the yes yes Waves
31 Sleep Song yes yes Ireland
32 Ca’ the Ewes yes yes unknown
32 The Country yes yes unknown Life
32 Mairi’s yes yes Ireland Wedding
32 Molly and yes yes unknown Johnny 143
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Originai Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
32 Garten yes yes unknown M other’s Lullaby
32 A Sailor’s yes yes unknown Alphabet
32 A Leg of yes yes unknown Mutton
32 Johnny’s Gone yes yes unknown a Sailing
32 A Rovin’ yes yes unknown
32 I Dyed My yes yes unknown Petticoats Red
32 Tell My Ma yes yes Irish
32 The Shearing yes yes unknown
32 Si J’avais les yes yes unknown Beaux Souliers
32 Lots o f Fish in yes yes unknown Bonavista Harbour
33 Tiger Bay yes yes unknown
33 Bound for the yes yes unknown Rio Grande
33 Clear the Track yes yes unknown
33 The Drunken yes yes unknown Sailor
33 Essiquibo yes y es unknown River
33 Maggie May yes yes unknown
33 Blood Red yes yes unknown Roses 144
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginai Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional M usic M usie Traditional Musie Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
33 Leave Her yes yes unknown Johnny
33 Santianna yes yes unknown
33 Rolling Home yes yes unknown to Nova Scotia
33 The Leaving of yes yes unknown Liverpool
33 Old Moke yes yes unknown Pickin’ on a Banjo
33 Oh California yes yes
33 All for Me yes yes unknown Grog
33 Bonnie Hieland yes yes unknown Laddie
33 Haul Away Joe yes yes unknown
33 Pay Me My yes yes unknown Money Down
33 Paddy Lay yes yes unknown Back
33 John Kanaka yes yes unknown
33 The Rosabella yes yes unknown
34 Geese in the yes yes unknown Bog
34 4-stop Jig yes yes unknown
34 Matt Eiley yes yes unknown
34 Rosy Banks of yes yes unknown Green 145
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional Music M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
34 Kissing Dance yes yes unknown Medley
34 Quand J’étais yes yes unknown Fille à l’Age Quinze Ans
34 Tinker behind yes yes unknown the Door
34 The Greenland yes yes unknown Disaster
34 Now I’s 64 yes yes unknown
34 Half Dorr. yes yes unknown Larry’s Lancer/ Mother on the Doorstep
34 Rabbits in a yes yes unknown Basket
34 Emile’s Reels yes yes unknown
34 Fisher Who yes yes unknown Died in His Bed
35 The S laugh yes yes ‘Swoogh’
35 Cape Breton yes yes unknown Lullaby
35 The Giant yes yes
35 Blue’s Hollow yes yes
35 Haul the Jib yes yes unknown
35 Agincourt yes yes unknown Carol
35 The Shearing yes yes unknown 146
Recording Track Title Traditionai Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditionai Music Number tation Instrumen- and tation Original M usic
35 She’s like the yes yes unknown Swallow
35 Salisbury Plain yes yes unknown
35 Maggie Daly yes yes
35 Iridescent Blue yes yes
35 If I Was a yes yes unknown Blackbird
36 Seagulls yes yes
36 Jolly Roving yes yes unknown Tar
36 Something I yes yes Should Know
36 Jakey’s Gin yes yes
36 My Apology yes yes unknown
36 Recruiting yes yes unknown Sergeant
36 How Did We yes yes Get from Saying I Love You
36 End of the yes yes World
36 Donkey Riding yes yes unknown
36 Haven’t Seen yes yes You in a Long Time
36 The Night Pat yes yes unknown Murphy Died
36 When I’m Up yes yes 147
Recording Track Title Traditionai Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation instru m en and tation O riginal Music
36 Ordinary Day yes yes
36 General Taylor yes yes unknown
37 Dylan’s Ghost yes yes
37 Last Call yes yes
37 The Keeper yes yes
37 The Drunken yes yes unknown Dancer
37 Come On yes yes Eileen
37 South Australia yes yes unknown
37 Dream of yes yes unknown Death
37 Fisherman’s yes yes Blues
37 Johnny Bean yes yes unknown Set
37 Honest yes yes unknown Gamble/ Tripping up the Stairs
37 Wrecker’s Den yes yes
37 I Was Made for yes yes Loving You
38 Peter Street yes yes unknow n
38 Fisherman’s yes yes Song
38 Lark in the yes yes unknown Morning 148
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal T raditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal Music
38 Oh No Not I yes yes Newfound land
38 Thousand Tall yes yes Ships
38 Rollin’ of the yes yes Sea
38 Go to Sea No yes yes More
38 Dancin’ Dick yes yes unknown
38 Days of Yore yes yes
38 Rocky Road to yes yes Ireland Dublin
38 Useta Love Her yes yes
38 Last of the yes Great Whales
39 Shift yes yes
39 Lift Up Your yes yes unknown Glass
39 Snappy Jack yes yes unknown
39 De Jigs yes yes unknown
39 Everything’ll yes yes Be Alright
39 Dirty Dinky yes yes Dorrian’s Reel
39 Dylan’s Ghost yes yes
39 Instead yes yes
39 Hold You So yes yes
39 Reels yes yes unknown 149
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic Music Traditional Music Number tation In strum en and tation O riginal M usic
39 Sight yes yes
39 Island Kitchen yes yes
39 Rubber Boots yes yes
40 Moladh yes yes Maureen nic Coinnich
40 A J. and yes yes Jeanette Beaton’s
40 Margaret and yes yes Archie Neil
40 O.J. Forbes of yes yes Course...
40 Falcon yes yes Scottish Bigney...
40 Larry yes yes Scotland Reynold’s
40 Meeting Gigi... yes yes
40 The Laird of yes yes Scotland Bemerside
40 Marry Miss yes yes Mary
40 The First of yes yes Spring
40 The Dandy... yes y es unknow n
40 Dr. Shaw... yes yes
40 Glasgow yes yes unknown Strathspey
40 January 16th yes yes 150
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed O rigin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic Music Traditional M usic Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
40 Katie Anne yes yes Cameron ...
40 A Walk yes yes through the Ruins ...
40 Christie yes yes Cape Campbell’s Breton
40 The Blackthorn yes yes unknown Strathspey
40 Sean Maguire’s yes yes
40 Killravock’s... yes yes unknown
41 General Taylor yes yes
41 Excursion yes yes around the Bay
41 Ordinary Day yes yes
41 Mari Mac yes yes
41 I’m a Rover yes yes
41 Fast as I Can yes yes
41 Feel It turn yes yes
41 Lukey yes yes
41 Hangin’ yes yes Johnny
41 Everything yes yes Shines
41 The Old Black yes yes Rum
41 Jack Hinks yes yes
41 When I’m Up yes yes 151
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
41 C oin’ Up yes yes
41 Boston and St. yes yes John’s
41 The Night Pat yes yes Murphy Died
41 Consequence yes yes Free
41 Captain yes yes
41 Donkey Riding yes yes
42 Billy Peddle yes yes unknown
42 Rant and Roar yes yes Newfound land
42 Lukey yes yes unknown
42 Nothing out of yes yes Nothing
42 Wave over yes yes Wave
42 The Chemical yes yes Worker’s Song
42 The Old Black yes yes unknown Rum
42 Something to It yes yes
42 Dancing with yes yes unknown Mrs. White
42 Mari Mac yes yes Scotland
42 Fast as I Can yes yes
42 Goin’ Up yes yes
42 Run Run Away yes yes 152
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
42 The Jolly yes yes unknown Butcher
42 Buying Time yes yes
43 The Night Pat yes yes unknown Murphy Died
43 Rant and Roar yes yes Newfound land
43 The Old Black yes yes unknown Rum
43 Lukey yes yes unknown
43 Something to It yes yes
43 Dancing with yes yes unknown Mrs. White
43 Goin’ Up yes yes
43 Fast as I Can yes yes
43 End of the yes yes World
43 Mari-Mac yes yes unknown
43 When I’m Up yes yes
43 Ordinary Day yes yes
43 General Taylor yes yes unknown
44 Paul Cranford’s yes yes Medley
44 Roderick yes yes Cameron’s Set
44 Dance Your yes yes Heart Away 153
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed O rigin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional M usic Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
44 Dave yes yes ‘Normaway’ Macdonald’s Wedding
44 Glenn and yes yes Karl’s Set
44 For My Dear yes yes Mother
44 Paddy’s Trip to yes yes Irish Scotland
44 Ashley yes yes Maclsaac’s Request
44 Alexander yes yes William MacDonnell
44 Boo Baby’s yes yes Lullaby
44 Miss Hutton’s yes yes Scotland Medley
44 Everyone’s yes yes Fancy
44 Wake Up to yes yes Cape Breton Medley
44 Thelma yes yes Irish MacPherson’s Raised Basset
44 Fiddling yes yes Friends
45 Dirty Old yes yes Town
45 Nancy yes yes unknown Whiskey 154
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen and tation O riginal M usic
45 Brennan on the yes yes unknown Moor
45 Willie McBride yes yes
45 Swallow’s Tail/ yes yes unknown Kesh/ Tripping
45 Santano/ Sally yes yes unknown Brown
45 Mary Mack yes yes unknown
45 Danny Boy yes yes unknown
45 Roseville Fair yes yes
45 Fiddler’s Green yes yes
45 Streets of yes yes London
45 Ballads and Bar yes yes Tunes/ Ashokan Farewell
46 E Horo yes yes unknown
46 Oran do Ghille yes yes unknown a Chaidh a Bhàthadh
46 Tha Mo Run yes yes unknown air a’Ghille (I Love the Lad)
46 Horo Ghoid yes yes unknown The Nighean (Stepping Song)
46 IÙ 6 ra hiù ô yes yes unknown (Margaret’s Song) 155
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
46 Horo Mo yes yes unknown Nighean Donn Bhôidheach nan Gormshuil
46 Hi ri him bo yes yes unknown
46 Domhnail mac yes yes unknown ‘ic Iain
46 Seinn o yes yes unknown
46 Oran Snlomh yes yes unknown (Spinning Song)
46 Bog a’ Lochain yes yes unknown
47 Blooming yes yes Bright Star of Belle Isle
47 King of the yes yes unknown Pipers/ Up the Southern Shores
47 The Rose of yes yes unknown Allendale
47 The Black and yes yes Ireland Tans
47 She Moved yes yes Ireland through the Fair
47 The Island yes yes
47 Her Father yes yes Didn’t Like Me Anyway
47 City of Chicago yes yes
47 Step it Out yes yes unknown Maty 156
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
47 Caledonia yes yes unknown
47 My Irish Molly yes yes O
47 Emile’s Irish yes yes unknown Reels
48 The Big yes Medley
48 DGA yes
48 The Water in yes the Sea
48 Compliments yes to Jerry Holland
48 Currie’s yes Rambles
48 Nimble Fingers yes
48 The Muddy yes Road to Glencoe
48 Dan Hugh and yes Dan Rory
48 Salute to yes 79 Cheticamp
48 Smith’s yes
48 C If You Like yes This
48 Garthland’s yes
48 Acoustic Irish yes Reels 157
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional IMusic Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
48 Gaelectric yes Blues
48 Mrs. Garden of yes Troup
48 Donald John yes the Tailor
48 Angus yes Chisholm’s
48 The Blue yes Cuckoo
48 Neil Gow’s yes Dobro
49 Late Starters in yes Love
49 Fallen from yes Heaven
49 Sam Hall yes
49 The Swimmin’ yes Song
49 The Lowlands yes Low
49 Together yes
49 Rollin’ in the yes Clover
49 Madeline yes
49 My Only Girl yes
49 I Saw Her in a yes Music Shop
49 The Ballad of yes John Williams 158
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
49 The World Is yes What You Make It
49 The Haying yes Song
49 Mormand yes Breas
49 The Silly Slang yes
50 A Chuachag yes yes Cape nam Beann Breton
50 O, Tha Mise fo yes yes unknown Grummean
50 Air Fàilirinn iù yes yes Cape Breton
50 Cagaran yes yes Cape Gaolach Breton
50 He mo Leannan yes yes Scotland
50 Oran Gillean yes yes Cape Alasdair Mhoir Breton
50 Dan So Shean yes yes Ford
50 Dh’ Olainn yes yes Scotland Deoch a Làimh mo Ruin
50 Piuirt-a-beuI yes yes Scotland
50 O Ba Ba Mo yes yes Scotland leanabh
50 Cha bhi mi yes yes Buan
50 Ho ro ‘s Toigh yes yes Cape Team (bin thu Breton 159
Recording T rack Title Traditionai Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditionai Music Number tation Instrumen and tation O riginal M usic
50 Bodach Beag a yes yes unknown Lonean
50 Dhomhnaill yes yes Scotland Antaidh
51 Cock of the yes yes unknown North
51 Dancin’ round yes yes the Kitchen
51 Lilly yes yes
51 Heave Away yes yes unknown
51 Joe yes yes Fitzpatrick’s Reel
51 Spanish Lady yes yes unknown
51 Peter Street yes yes unknown
51 Lazy Tom yes yes
51 Tear the House yes -yes Down
51 Sam Hall yes yes unknown
51 The Rose in the yes yes unknown Heather
51 Fish Out of yes yes Water
51 The Old yes yes Ireland Woman from Wexford
51 Frog in the yes yes unknown Well
52 Barrett’s yes Privateers 160
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
52 The Two yes Ronnies/ Broderick’s Reel
52 Uncle Dan yes
52 Put Out from yes St. Leonard’s
52 Sam Hall yes
52 Never Been yes There Before
52 Rollin’ Home yes
52 Let Me Fish off yes Cape St. Mary’s
52 Last of the yes Great Whales
52 Rocky Road to yes Dublin
52 A Walk in the yes Irish Rain
52 Catch the Wind yes
52 Peter Street yes
52 Raggle Taggle yes Gypsy
52 The Dublin yes Reel
52 Days of Yore yes
52 Rattlin’ Bog yes
52 So to Sea No yes More 161
Recording Track Title Traditionai Non O riginai Traditional M ixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditionai M usic M usic Traditionai Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginai M usic
52 Shamrock City yes
53 Israel Got a yes yes unknown Rabbit
53 Blues For you yes yes
53 Sound of yes yes unknown Sleat/Ale Is Dear
53 Memory Waltz yes yes
53 Peace on the yes yes Inside
53 O ’Neil’s yes yes unknown March/ Haugbs
53 Eleventh Hour yes yes
53 Open Road yes yes
53 Nightfall yes yes
53 Chessboard yes yes Dancer
53 Legendary yes yes
53 Stray Cat yes yes
54 The French yes yes Painter/ Drive ’Er Down
54 The Navvy on yes yes unknown the Line/ Jim Hodder’s Reel
54 A Winter’s yes yes Tale
54 The Deep Blue yes yes
54 Two Islands yes yes 162
Recording T rack Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen and tation O riginal Music
54 Rockaway yes yes
54 Don’t Wait on yes yes Me
54 Where Would I yes yes Be
54 Some People yes yes
54 Make It on yes yes Time
54 You Will yes yes Always Have My Love
54 The Near yes yes Dearly Departed
54 Boogieland yes yes
54 Crossroad yes yes
55 Ten-Pound yes yes Tumour
55 Vem’s Jigs yes yes unknown
55 Kilts on Fire yes yes
55 Kitchen NA Bitchin’
55 Hillbilly’s yes yes Theme
55 1 Know! yes yes
55 Freddie’s yes yes unknown March
55 M att’s Real? yes yes
55 Mini-Finale yes yes unknown 163
Recording Track Title Traditionai Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Musie Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
55 Phone Home NA yes
55 Old Scotty yes yes unknown Stuff
55 John Paul i yes yes Guit...
55 Stiffen ’m yes yes Brenda
55 Smooth Eddy yes yes
55 Scotch Music yes yes
55 Gordie at the yes yes Citadel
56 Molly Bond yes yes unknown
56 Liberty yes yes
56 Sit Down yes yes Young Stranger
56 Maiy Ellen yes yes Carter
56 Flower of yes yes Scotland
56 Calin’ mo yes yes Ruinsa
56 The Four yes yes unknown Marys
56 The Ballad of y es y es St. Anne’s Reel
56 Wind Willow yes yes
56 Banks of Sicily yes yes
57 Lunenburg yes yes Pride 164
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumcn- and tation Original M usic
57 Tha mo Ghaol yes yes unknown air Aird a’ Chuain
57 Fisherman’s yes yes Token
57 Getting Dark yes yes Again
57 Song Not a yes yes Rifle
57 Peace in Time yes yes
57 We Remember yes yes You Well
57 Tarsands yes yes Lament
57 No Small Boats yes yes
57 Play It Again yes yes
57 Eight More yes yes Hours
57 Sunny Old St. yes yes
58 Islanders yes yes
58 Evangeline yes yes unknown
58 The M iner’s yes yes Song
58 Roving Gypsy yes yes Boy
58 My Cape yes yes Breton Shore
58 Heading for yes yes Halifax 165
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditionai Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditionai Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginai M usic
58 Saban the yes yes Woodfitter
58 The Parlour yes yes
58 Getting Dark yes yes Again
58 Emigrant Eyes yes yes
59 The Lockerbie yes yes Lament
59 Dunean yes yes unknown Johnstone Set
59 The Second yes yes Star Hornpipe Set
59 Mrs. Ferguson yes yes unknown ofReaths
59 Father John yes yes Angus Rankin Set
59 E Minor Jigs yes yes unknown
59 Trip to Mabou yes yes unknown Ridge
59 Paulette yes yes unknown Bissonnette Set
59 Memories of yes yes unknown Father Charles
59 St. Elmo Clog yes yes unknown Set
59 Captain yes yes unknown O ’Kane
59 Alex yes yes MacDonell’s 166
Recording T raek T itle Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrum en Traditional M usic Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
59 Donald Angus yes yes Beaton Set
59 The Kitchen Session
59 The Little yes yes Pickle
60 Farewell to yes yes Carlingford
60 Barrett’s yes yes Privateers
60 Banks of yes yes Newfound-land
60 Bay o f St. yes yes Newfound Ann’s land
60 Rollin’ on the yes yes Sea
60 Fisherman’s yes yes Farewell
60 New York yes yes unknown Girls/Bill Sullivan’s
60 Let Them Build yes yes Ships
60 Fisherman’s yes yes Son
60 Days of the yes yes Clipper
60 The Nellie J. yes yes Banks
60 Home Boys yes yes unknown Home
61 Go to It yes yes 167
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional M usic Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
61 Well You yes yes Know
61 Rufus & Emile yes yes Ride On
61 She Said No yes yes
61 Come Get Your yes yes unknown Duds in Order (Heave Away)
61 The Dancing yes yes unknown
61 Jim Harris yes yes
61 Prohibition yes yes Way
61 Conscience yes yes Calling
61 Polka! Polka! yes yes unknown
61 Spanner in the yes yes Works
61 Brunswick yes yes Street
61 The Electric yes yes unknown Jigs
61 Reena yes yes
61 Jolly Jack yes yes unknown
62 Cead yes yes Deireannach Nam Beann
62 Am Bràighe yes yes
62 Oran a’ yes yes Phiognaig 168
Recording Track Title Traditionai Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditionai Music Number tation In strum en and tation O riginai M usic
62 Gun Chrodh yes yes unknown Gun Aighean
62 Ho ro Mo yes yes unknown Chuid Chuideach Thu
62 A Fhleasgaich yes yes unknown Uasail
62 Nighean Dubh, yes yes unknown Nighean Donn
62 Illean Aigh yes yes unknown
62 A Mhnathan a’ yes yes unknown Ghlinne Seo
62 An Cluinn The yes yes Leannan?
62 Dh’fhalbh Mo yes yes unknown Nighean Chruinn, Donn
62 Ô Puirt Eos yes yes unknown
63 Girls of NeiTs yes yes Harbour
63 American Pie yes yes
63 Immigrant yes yes Shore
63 Waltzing yes yes Matilda
63 Getting Dark yes yes unknown
63 Northwest yes yes Passage
63 Life o f a yes yes unknown Country Boy 169
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Musie Musie Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
63 Sleepy Maggie yes yes unknown Fiddle
63 Lord of the yes yes Dance
63 The Unicom yes yes
63 Headin’ for yes yes Halifax
63 Marching yes yes Inland
63 Lukey’s Boat yes yes New foundland
63 Don’t Go Out yes yes unknown
64 M om’s Waltz yes yes
64 A Winston yes yes unknown Remake
64 Jerry and Joey yes yes unknown Jig
64 Winston at yes yes unknown Billy the Hook’s
64 David Rankin yes yes unknown Medley
64 From an Arthur yes yes unknown and Dave Medley
64 Natalie... Here yes yes unknown I am!
64 Some Winston yes yes unknown & Angus Tunes
64 A Salute to yes yes unknown Cameron and Arthur Medley 170
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation In stru m en and tation O riginal M usic
64 Lament for yes yes Glencoe
64 Square Set 2nd yes yes unknown Figure
64 Square Set 1st yes yes unknown Figure
64 Thanks Donnie yes yes unknown
65 The yes yes unknown Mathematician/ Sleepy Maggie
65 Long for the yes yes Sea
65 My Life Is yes yes Over... Again
65 Molly May yes yes
65 Blackbird yes yes
65 Hell Freezin’ yes yes Over
65 Fiddle Set yes yes unknown
65 The Island yes yes
65 Gone yes yes
65 Highland yes yes Dream
65 Kelly’s yes yes M ountain
65 Another yes yes Morning
65 You Saw Me yes yes
65 Gilgarry’s Glen yes yes 171
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation In strum en and tation O riginal Music
66 The New yes yes unknown Fiddle...
66 Bonnie Anne yes yes unknown Anderson
66 Irish Lasses... yes yes unknown
66 Blue Bonnets yes yes unknown over the Border
66 Miss Eleanor yes yes unknown Stewart
66 Lament for yes yes unknown Prophet...
66 Miss Lyall’s. yes yes unknown
66 Hills of yes yes unknown Home...
66 74th yes yes unknown Highlanders.
66 The Little yes yes unknown House
66 Livingstone yes yes unknown
67 Wing-Stock yes yes unknown
67 Hills of yes yes Glenorchy
67 What an Idiot yes yes unknown He Is
67 Sad Wedding yes yes unknown Day
67 Sophia’s Pipes yes yes unknown
67 MacDougall’s yes yes Pride 172
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional M ixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
67 The Devil in yes yes the Kitchen
67 Rusty D-Con- yes yes unknown Struck-Tion
67 Sleepy Maggie yes yes unknown
67 Breton’s yes yes Delight
67 Brenda yes yes Stubbert
67 Spoonboy yes yes unknown
68 An Nochd Is yes yes unknown Trom Tha Mo Cheum
68 111 Ù ill Ô yes yes unknown illean’s ô
68 Crodh air a’ yes yes Bhruaich
68 Seallaibh yes yes unknown Curraigh Eoghainn
68 Nach Till Thu yes yes unknown Dhomhnaill?
68 A Mhôrag’s na yes yes unknown Horo Gheallaid
68 Cha Tig Mor yes yes unknown Mo Bhean Dhachaidh
Mo Mhaili yes yes unknown Bheag Ôg
68 Fàill ill Ô ro yes
68 A Mhàiri yes yes Bhôidheac 173
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen and tation O riginal M usic
68 Mo Ghille Mor yes yes Gofhain’ Each
69 Mayaii Bag yes yes
69 Halifax Shuffle yes yes
69 Hometown yes yes Polka
69 Blue Bag yes yes
69 The Stumble yes yes
69 Countiy yes yes Crunch
69 Jig Medley yes yes
69 Lament for yes yes Albert King
69 Hydrostone yes yes Rock
69 Sad Night Owl yes yes
69 All Blues yes yes
69 March, yes yes unknown Strathspey, and 3 Reels
70 The F Clogs yes yes unknown
70 May Renwick’s yes yes Ferret
70 I’m Movin’ On yes yes
70 Oh Yes I Yes I -yes yes Am
70 New Orleans yes yes
70 Gravel walk yes yes unknown 174
Recording Track Title Traditionai Non Originai Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginai M usic
70 The B Flat yes yes unknown Clogs
70 The John yes yes Morrison
70 Belle Côte yes yes
70 The Green yes yes Fields of Glentown
70 Fairy yes yes
70 Johnny Cope yes yes unknown
70 Whiz Kids yes yes
71 King George yes yes unknown V ’s Welcome
71 Mrs. yes yes unknown MacDowal Grant
71 Ronald yes yes unknown Kennedy’s
71 My Wife’s a yes yes unknown Wanton Wee
71 Mary yes yes unknown MacDonald
71 Johnny yes yes unknown Galbraith
71 Winston and yes yes unknown Joe’s
71 Old Square Set yes yes unknown Tunes
71 Henry Ford’s yes yes unknown Old Bam Dance 175
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
71 Cluny Castle yes yes
71 Logan’s Pipe yes yes unknown
71 Tribute to Cape yes yes unknown Breton Violin Duo
71 Captain Ron’s yes yes unknown Hornpipes
71 The Green yes yes unknown Mountain Boys
71 The Hon. Lady yes yes unknown Fraser
72 Reels; Andy yes yes unknown Renwick’s Ferret
72 Last Shanty yes yes
72 You Ain’t yes yes Coin’ Nowhere
72 The Rock of yes yes Merasheen
72 The Fields of yes yes Athenry
72 The Island yes yes
72 Tiree Love yes yes unknown Song
72 The Star of the yes yes Ireland County Down
72 Sonny’s Dream yes yes
72 As Long as yes yes There Is Sail
73 Somedays yes yes 176
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional M ixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditionai Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginai M usic
73 The Island yes yes
73 The Gift yes yes
73 To Say yes yes Goodbye to You
73 Getting Dark yes yes
73 Love so Rare yes yes
73 Once in Every yes yes Life
73 Driftwood yes yes
73 Out of the yes yes Woods
73 Somewhere yes yes over the Rainbow/ What a Wonderful World
73 Moonlight yes yes Shadow
73 Rise Again yes yes
73 Sweet Is the yes yes Melody
73 The Dance You yes yes Choose
74 Fisherman’s yes yes Brew
74 Nova Scotia’s yes yes Hands
74 Thainig I Anall yes yes unknown
74 Heave Away yes yes 177
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginai Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditionai Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
74 Drunken Sailor yes yes unknown
74 Haul Away Joe yes yes unknown
74 On That Day yes yes
74 Beer Goggles yes yes
74 Cranntara yes yes unknown
74 Star of the yes yes Ireland County Down
74 In and out o f yes yes unknown the Harbour
75 Jean’s Reel yes yes
75 If Ever You yes yes Ireland Were Mine
75 The Lass of yes yes Scotland Carrie Mills.
75 Counselor’s... yes yes Ireland
75 I’ll Always yes yes Remember You
75 The MacNeils yes yes Cape of Ugadale... Breton
75 O ’er the Moor yes yes Scotland amoung the Heather...
75 Compliments yes yes unknown to Sean M aguire...
75 Nancy’s Waltz yes yes
75 Carnival yes yes Shetland March... 178
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
75 My Dungannon yes yes Sweetheart...
75 John yes yes Scotland Campbell’s..
75 The Girls at yes yes Ireland Martinfield..
76 One Day I yes yes Walk
76 Farewell to yes yes Lochaber
76 Greenberg yes yes unknown Medley
76 An Innis Àigh yes yes unknown
76 Tailor’s yes yes unknown Daughter
76 Otha mo Dhuil yes yes unknown Ruit
76 Parlour yes yes unknown Medley
76 Wedding/ yes yes unknown Wake and Funerals
76 Cold Winds yes yes
76 Long Way to yes yes Go
76 Maybe You’re yes yes Right
76 Bells yes yes
76 M ovin’ On yes yes
76 Let It Go yes yes 179
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen and tation O riginal M usic
77 Filly up my yes yes Heart
77 Lovely Joan yes yes Ireland
77 The Call yes yes
77 Turn Ye to Me yes yes Scotland
77 Lakes of yes yes Ireland Ponchetrian
77 M a Theid yes yes Isle o f Skye
77 Come Follow yes yes Me
77 Hometown yes yes
77 My Johnny yes yes Ireland
77 In My Skiff yes yes Orkney
77 Lament for Iain yes yes Isle o f Ruaidh Skye
78 Home in my yes yes Harbour
78 Farewell to yes yes unknown Nova Scotia
78 As Long as yes yes There Is Sail
78 Song for the yes yes Mira
78 The Legend o f yes yes Kelly’s Mountain
78 Barrett’s yes yes Privateers 180
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Originai Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditionai Music Music Traditionai Music Number tation Instrumen- and tation Original M usic
78 Sonny’s Dream yes yes
78 Inverness yes yes Ceilidh
78 Last Shanty yes yes
78 The Bluenose yes yes Song
78 The Ballad of yes yes St. Anne’s Reel
78 The Island yes yes
79 Fiddle Medley yes yes unknown
79 Gaelic Medley yes yes unknown
79 Gillis Mountain yes yes
79 Fare Thee Well yes yes Love
79 Tripper’s Jig yes yes unknown
79 You Left a yes yes Flower
79 Fair and Tender yes yes unknown Ladies
79 An T-each yes yes unknown Ruadh
79 Orangedale yes yes Whistle
79 Tell Me Ma yes yes Ireland
79 Fisherman’s yes yes Son
80 Tunes in F yes yes unknown 181
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Originai Traditionai Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
80 Reels yes yes unknown
80 Jigs 2 yes yes unknown
80 Jigs 1 yes yes unknown
80 Maxim’s Waltz yes yes unknown
80 Big John yes yes unknown MacNeil
80 The Beauties of yes yes unknown the Ballroom
80 The Christmas yes yes unknown Carousing
80 McKinnon’s yes yes unknown Marching Tunes
80 Tunes in A yes yes unknown
81 The Banks of yes yes Newfoundland
81 Sweet yes yes Guinevere
81 Working Man yes yes
81 Coal Town yes yes Road
81 Ifl Can’t Take yes yes the Island with Me
81 Rolling down yes yes the Old Maui
81 Tramp Miner yes yes
81 You’ll Be yes yes Home Again 182
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
81 She Loves Her yes yes Miner Lad
81 Dad’s Old yes yes Dinner Pail
81 Billy, Come yes yes with Me
81 Coal, Not Dole yes yes
81 M iner’s Life yes yes
82 A’Chuthag yes yes unknown (The Cuckoo)
82 A Glencoe yes yes Dance Set (Live)
82 Queen of the yes yes Ireland West
82 Close to the yes yes Ireland Floor
82 Glad You yes yes Made It, Howie
82 E flat Set yes yes
82 The Shakin’ o’ yes yes the Pocky
82 Balmoral yes yes Highlanders
82 The Wildcat yes yes unknown
82 The Boys of yes yes the Lake
82 Hey Johnny yes yes Scotland Cope!
82 Willie Fraser yes yes Skye 183
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
82 Captain Keeler yes yes
83 Flamenco Fling yes yes
83 Flora yes yes unknown MacDonald
83 Mom’s Jig yes yes unknown
83 Moxham Castle yes yes unknown
83 The Farewell yes yes
83 Get Me through yes yes December
83 Father John yes yes MacLeod’s Jig
83 In My Hands yes yes
83 Space Ceilidh yes yes unknown
83 New York Jig yes yes unknown
83 Blue Bonnets yes yes unknown over the Border
83 Gramma yes yes
83 Welcome to the yes yes unknown Trossachs
83 Olympic Reel yes yes
84 Fear a’ Bhàta yes yes Scotland
84 Hag at the yes yes unknown Chum
84 My Johnny yes yes Ireland
84 I Courted a yes yes Ireland Wee Girl 184
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional M ixed O rigin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional M usic Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
84 Auld Lang yes yes unknown Syne
84 Schoolday’s yes yes Over
84 Caledonia yes yes Scotland
84 A Bheairt yes yes Hebrides Fhiodha
84 Yonec yes yes
84 The Lake yes yes
84 The Lowlands yes yes o f Holland
85 Newcastle yes yes unknown Hornpipes
85 Glen of the yes yes unknown
85 A Buddy Jig yes yes • unknown
85 Black Berry yes yes unknown Blossom
85 Capers Jigs yes yes unknown
85 One for the yes yes unknown Record
85 Johnny yes yes unknown W ilmot’s Fiddles
85 Mountain Road yes yes unknown
85 Road to the Isle yes yes unknown
85 Spey in Spate yes yes unknown
85 The King’s Set yes yes unknown 185
Recording Track Title Traditionai Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditionai Music Number tation Instrumen and tation O riginal M usic
85 Mahone Bay yes yes unknown Jig
85 Amelia’s Waltz yes yes unknown
85 Happy Go yes yes unknown Lucky
85 King o f the yes yes unknown Clans
85 Buttermilk yes yes unknown Maty Jigs
86 Coal by the Sea yes yes
86 Rise Again yes yes
No. 26 Mine yes yes Disaster
86 Plain Ole yes yes Miner Boy
86 Dust in the Air yes yes unknown
86 Are You from yes yes unknown
86 Mary Ann yes yes unknown
86 Farewell to the yes yes Rhondda
86 Working Man yes yes
86 Coal Is King yes yes Again
86 Man with a yes yes Torch in His Cap
86 I Went to yes yes Cape Norman’s Breton
86 Sixteen Tons yes yes 186
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
86 Coal Tattoo yes yes
86 Thirty-Inch yes yes Coal
86 Dark as a yes yes Dungeon
87 Working Man yes yes
87 Working in a yes yes Coal Mine
87 Home I’ll Be yes yes
87 I Shall Not yes yes Walk Alone
87 Dark as a yes yes Dungeon
87 Sweet Jesus yes yes
87 In a Town This yes yes Size
87 We Rise Again yes yes
87 Plain Ole yes yes Miner
87 Emigrant Eyes yes yes
87 Farewell to yes yes Nova Nova Scotia Scotia
88 Tramp Miner yes yes
88 Johnny Tulloch yes yes
88 Saved in the yes yes Arms
Christy yes yes unknown Campbell Medley 187
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
88 Rise Again yes yes
Turn That Boat yes yes Around
Ho Ro Mo yes yes Scotland Nighean Donn Bhôidheach
Lisa Brown yes yes
88 Mull River yes yes ShufPle
88 Borders and yes yes Time
88 Oich u agus h-1 yes yes Scotland ùraibh Éile
88 North Country yes yes
88 Leis an yes yes unknown Lurgainn
Come Dancing yes yes
89 Here’s to Life yes yes
89 Golden Green yes yes
89 Candlelight yes yes
89 Will You Wait yes yes
89 Never Been yes yes There Before
89 Uneasy yes yes
89 Wonder What yes yes
89 Getting Baek yes yes
89 Seotty yes yes 188
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumcn- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal Music
89 Rise with the yes yes Sun
89 P Stands for yes yes unknown Paddy
90 The Drunken yes yes Ireland Piper
90 The Beaumont yes yes Texas Rag
90 The Autograph yes yes Ireland
90 Bill Crawford’s yes yes unknown Set
90 Where’s yes yes Cape Howie? Breton
90 Catharsis yes yes
90 Paddy yes yes unknown LeBlanc’s
90 Reel Beatrice yes yes unknown
90 Fiddle & Bow yes yes
90 The yes yes unknown Honeysuckle Set
90 My Friend yes yes Buddy
90 Silverwells yes yes unknown
90 Rev. Archie yes yes Beaton
91 Mae’s Fancy/ yes yes Ireland Give Me a Drink of Water
91 Mairi Nighean yes yes Scotland Alasdair 189
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic Music Traditional Music Number tation In strum en and tation O riginal M usic
91 The Little yes yes unknown Beggarman
91 The Rollicking yes yes New Skipper B./ The foundland Shimmy
91 Back Down yes yes Scotland Home Medley
91 Israel Got a yes yes unknown Rabbit
91 The Wedding yes yes Gift
91 O'Neil's yes yes Scotland March/ The Haughs o f Cromdale
91 Little yes yes Sara/Jessie’s Jig
91 Macpherson’s yes yes Scotland Lament
91 The Memory yes yes Waltz
92 Plains of Boyle yes yes unknown
92 Our Highland yes yes Queen
92 Dainty Davie yes yes unknown
92 Clog yes yes unknow n
92 Mem. of Dot yes yes MacKinnon
92 Paresis yes yes unknown
92 Jig yes yes unknown 190
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginal Traditionai Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditionai M usic M usic Traditionai Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginai M usic
92 The Celtic yes yes Touch
92 The Bell Plano yes yes unknown
92 Trip to the yes yes unknown Dorymand
92 Fisherman’s yes yes
92 Struan yes yes unknown Robertson’s Rant
93 Pat Murphy’s yes yes Meadow
93 The Gallant yes yes unknown Ship
93 Sweet Forget yes yes unknown Me Not
93 Oh No Not I yes yes New foundland
93 Wexford City yes yes Ireland
93 The Jolly yes yes unknown Butcher
93 The Green yes yes unknown Shores of Fogo
93 The Straits of yes yes unknown Belle Isle/ M ate’s Reel
93 Early Spring yes yes unknown
93 The Bonny yes yes unknown Banks of Virgio-o
93 Where Once yes yes Stood a House 191
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen- and tation Originai M usic
94 M ac’s Fancy/ yes yes unknown Give Me a Drink of Water
94 Wild Rose yes yes
94 Ghost of Love yes yes
94 Sleepy Maggie/ yes yes unknown Grave Walk/ Little Beggarman
94 Shaken Up yes yes
94 MacPherson’s yes yes unknown Lament
94 Mountainside yes yes
94 Farmer’s yes yes unknown Daughter/ High Reel
94 Colleen yes yes
94 A Turn of the yes yes Wheel
95 Baby-oh yes yes unknown
95 Mairi Nighean yes yes unknown Alasdair
95 The Long Way yes yes Home
95 Through It All yes yes
95 A Little of yes yes Your Lovin’
95 Little yes yes Sara/Jessie’s Jig
95 A Sad Story yes yes 192
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen- and tation Original Music
95 When My Ship yes yes Comes In
95 Wild Rose yes yes
95 The Morning yes yes After
95 Forever yes yes Dancing
95 A Matter of the yes yes Heart
95 Open Road yes yes
96 My Ain Kind yes yes unknown Dearie...
96 The Fire Dance yes yes (Club Mix)
96 Cameron yes yes Chisholms
96 Fiddle Fever yes yes
96 Kimura yes yes
96 Cape Wrath... yes yes unknown
96 Reel... yes yes unknown
96 Fire Dance yes yes
96 My Tune for yes yes Darla...
96 Olde Dublin yes yes Jig...
96 Hiawatha... yes yes unknown
97 The Warlike yes yes unknown Lads of Russia 193
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen and tation O riginal Music
97 The Valley of yes yes New Kilbride foundland
97 Water Street yes unknown Jigs
97 The Pretty yes yes New Ploughboy foundland
97 Julia Delaney/ yes yes unknown Farewell to Erin
97 The Banks of yes yes New Newfoundland foundland
97 I Didn’t Dimk yes yes unknown the Rum/ Jim Keefe’s Gortnatubrid
97 The Reunion yes yes
97 Maurice Kelly yes yes Ireland
97 Teetotalers/ yes yes New The Ships Are foundland Sailing
97 Prince Rupert’s yes yes English March/ Trippin’ in Samaria
97 Paddy Fahey’s/ yes yes unknown The White Petticoat
98 The Wedding yes yes Gift
98 MacPherson’s yes yes unknown Lament
98 Colleen yes yes
98 Turn of the yes yes Wheel 194
Recording Track Title Traditional Non O riginai Traditionai Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional M usic M usic Traditional Music Number tation Instrum en and tation O riginal M usic
98 Ghost of Love yes yes
98 Dance Hall yes yes
98 Pedestrian yes yes Again
98 Long Night yes yes
98 It’ll Have to yes yes Wait
98 Don’t You Be yes yes the One
98 Reel ’n’ Roll yes yes
98 Mystery yes yes Tonight
99 Barretts’ yes yes Privateers
99 Farewell to yes yes Nova Nova Scotia Scotia
99 Last Shanty yes yes
99 The Leaving of yes yes Ireland Liverpool
99 The Mermaid yes yes unknown
99 Yellow yes yes Submarine
99 Peter Street yes yes unknown
99 Mary Mac yes yes Ireland
99 Irish Rover yes yes unknown
99 Sonny’s Dream yes yes 195
Recording Track Title Traditional Non Original Traditional Mixed Origin of ID Instrumen- Traditional Music Music Traditional Music Number tation Instrumen- and tation Originai M usic
100 O ’Connell’s yes yes unknown Trip to Parliament
100 Polkas yes yes unknown
100 Memory Waltz yes yes
100 The Dionne yes yes unknown Reel
100 St. John’s yes yes M azurka...
100 The Rising yes yes unknown Sun...
100 Flatbrush yes yes Waltz
100 The Waterford yes unknown Boys in Paris
100 Eavesdropper yes yes unknown J i g - 100 Paddy Gavin’s yes yes unknown
100 Kitty Yates yes yes unknown Turn...
100 The Night yes yes unknown before Larry G ot... 196
Appendix C Liner Notes
Recor- Record Title Origin of Lyrics Translated Where Musical Pictures of Picture ding ID Artist Lyrics Obtained Familes/ AC s of AC N um ber Heritage (modern) (old)
0 Breakwater yes yes no NA no no no
1 Until Now vague/Cape no no yes no yes no Breton
2 Closer to no reference yes no yes no no no Paradise
Forever vague/ New- yes NA no no yes no foundland
Return to the yes/ Cape NA NA yes no yes no Cape Breton
Crosshanded yes/ New no NA yes yes no yes foundland
Ancestral yes/ PEI no NA no no yes no Voices
Mist Covered Ireland/ yes NA no no no no Mountains Nova Scotia
Celtic yes no NA no no no no Connection
9 Primaiy Colors yes no NA yes no no no
10 Rock in the no yes NA yes no no no Stream
II The Fiddle yes NA NA yes yes no no Album
12 Timeframe no no NA no no no no 197
Recor- Record Title Origin of Lyrics Translated Where Musical Pictures of Picture ding ID Artist Lyrics Obtained Famlles/ AC sofAC Number Heritage (modern) (old)
13 A Time no yes NA no no no no
14 Sailors on the no no NA yes no no no Asphalt
15 The Colour of yes no no yes no no no Amber
16 The Traditional yes yes Album
17 The Barra yes yes MacNeils
18 Higher no yes NA no no no no
19 The Question no yes yes no no no no
20 Ennis Sisters no yes NA NA no no no
21 Dance to Your yes yes NA yes yes no no Daddy
22 Breakwater no yes no no no no no
23 Lifeline no no no no no no no
24 A Retrospective yes no no yes yes no no 1974-
25 Road Not Taken no no NA yes no no no
26 Red Is the Rose yes yes NA no yes no no
27 Heart and Soul yes NA NA yes yes no no
28 Weather Out the yes yes NA yes no no no Storm 198
Recor- Record Title Origin of Lyrics Translated Where Musical Pictures of Picture ding ID Artist Lyrics Obtained Familes/ AC sofAC Number Heritage (modern) (old)
29 Great Big Sea yes no NA yes no no no
30 The Ennis yes yes NA no no no no Sisters 3
31 Cradle on the yes no no yes no no no Waves
32 If Fish Could yes yes no no yes yes no Sing
33 Sailing Ships yes no NA no no no no
34 Figgy Duff no no NA no no no no
35 Forerunner yes no NA no no no no
36 Play yes no NA yes yes no no
37 Kilt no no NA no no no no
38 Look to the Sea no no NA no no no no
39 Four in the Crib yes no NA yes no yes no
40 Crystal Clear yes NA NA yes yes yes no
41 Road Rage yes no NA no no yes no
42 Up yes no NA yes yes yes no
43 Rant and Roar yes no NA yes yes yes no
44 Fiddler’s Choice yes NA NA yes yes no no
45 Ballads and Bar yes no NA no no yes yes Tunes 199
Recor- Record Title Origin of Lyrics Translated Where Musical Pictures of Picture ding ID Artist Lyrics Obtained Familes/ AC sofAC Number Heritage (modern) (old)
46 Suas e! yes yes no yes yes no no
47 Bright Blooming Star
48 Nimble Fingers NA NA
yes 49 The World is ? What no
50 Bho Thir Nan yes yes yes yes no Craodh
51 Tear the House yes yes NA no no yes no Down
52 So Far So Good yes no NA no yes yes no
53 Crossing the yes yes NA no no no no Border
54 Make It on Time no yes NA yes no no no
55 Why 2 Keilidh no NA NA no no no no
56 Wind Willow no no no no no no no
57 We Remember yes no NA yes yes no no You Well
58 Glencoe Station yes no NA yes yes no yes
59 The Judique yes NA NA yes yes no yes Flyer
60 Sea Songs yes no NA yes no yes no 2 0 0
Recor- Record Title Origin of Lyrics Translated Where Musical Pictures of Picture ding ID Artist Lyrics Obtained Familes/ AC sofAC Number Heritage (modern) (old)
61 Said She yes yes NA no no yes no Couldn’t Dance
62 Orain yes yes no yes no no no Ghàidlhig;
63 Atlantic yes no NA yes yes yes no Favourites II
64 The Dance Last yes NA NA no yes yes no Night
65 Another yes yes NA yes yes no no Morning
66 Close to the ? 9 9 Floor
67 Hi How Are no yes no no no no no You Today?
68 Lan Dùil yes yes yes yes no no no
69 Guitar Souls yes no NA no yes no no
70 Helter’s Celtic no NA NA no no yes no
71 From the yes NA NA yes yes no yes Archives
72 Tried and Trio yes no NA yes no no no
73 Sweet Is the yes yes NA no no yes no Melody
74 Plaid yes yes no no no no no
75 Fit as a Fiddle yes NA NA yes no no no 2 0 1
Recor- Record Title Origin of Lyrics Translated Where Musical Pictures of Picture ding ID Artist Lyrics Obtained Familes/ AC s of AC Number Heritage (modern) (old)
76 Uprooted
77 Portraits yes yes yes yes yes no no
78 Atlantic yes no NA no no yes no Favorites
79 Fare Thee Well no no no no no yes no Love
80 Fiddle Music no NA NA no no no no 101
81 Coal Firs in yes no NA no no yes yes Winter
82 My Roots Are yes NA NA yes yes no no Showing
83 In My hands yes yes NA no yes no no
84 Primrose yes yes yes yes no no no
85 A Compilation yes NA NA no no no no
86 Diamonds yes no NA no no no no
87 Mining the Soul ?
88 North Country yes yes yes yes no yes no
89 Will You Wait yes yes NA no no no no
90 No Boundaries yes NA NA yes no no no
91 Celtic yes NA NA yes no no no Instrumentals 2 0 2
Recor- Record Title Origin of Lyrics Translated Where Musical Pictures of Picture ding ID Artist Lyrics Obtained Familes/ AC s of AC Number Heritage (modern) (old)
92 The Celtic yes NA NA no no yes no Touch
93 Early Spring yes no NA no no no no
94 A Turn of the yes no NA no no no no Wheel
95 Living River
96 Fire Dance yes NA NA no no no no
97 Battery Included yes yes NA no no yes no
98 Reel ’n’ Roll yes yes no no no no yes
99 Sailors Story yes no NA no yes no no
100 The Brule Boys yes no NA no yes no no 203
Appendix D Theme Information
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in M isc. ID Title Migration Nautical M ining A tlantic N um ber ______C anada
Banks of yes yes the Roses
Darling Be yes yes Home Soon
Mouth Scottish Music ‘ 97 Gaelic
My Heart’s yes in the Highlands
Coaltown yes Road
Going Cape Down The Breton - Road hard life
Song for Peace Peace anthem Life-Jesus Row Row represen Row tation
The Island yes
We celebratio Celebrate n
Darling Be yes Home Soon
When Tm yes Away from You
Closer to yes Paradise
Chase the yes Man
Dancing Dancing We Would Go
In the Wink youth of an Eye 204
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
Caledonia yes
Mo Scottish Nighean Gaelic Dubh
Aim Pige Scottish Ruadh Gaelic
Right All yes Right
Seasons of yes a Sailor
Alone by yes Your Side
Fogarty’s yes yes Cove
Heart of yes Gold
Brand New singing/ Song party
Our Station yes party
Newfound yes land Forever
Brigid yes Flynn
Last Thing yes on My Mind
The Evictions Eviction from NF
Lord yes Bateman
Tobacco tobacco
Blanche in French comme la Neige
The Soup kitchen Supper in party Clattiee Harbour 205
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nantirai Mining Atiantic Number Canada
Driharin o yes mo eroi
The Water yes Witch
Le Jeune in French Militaire
Hush-0- love bye Baby
Me Old yes fishing in Ragadoo NF
The yes yes Liverpool Piiot
The yes Spanish Captain
Gull Cove yes
My son,dead Youngest in battle Son Came Home Today
Song for yes Ireland
My Ain yes Country
The Water yes yes is Wide
Fair and yes Tender Ladies
If Ever You yes Were Mine
Paddy’s yes Green Shamrock Shore
Tiree Love yes Song
Newport yes Town 206
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
Sweet yes Forget Me Not
Let Me yes yes Fish off Cape St. Mary’s
Mist yes Covered Mountains of Home
Will You yes Go Lassie Go
For Now aging I’m Sixty- Four
Dark Island yes
Sixteen for yes Awhile
Tim yes Finnegan’s Wake
Tyree Love yes Song
South yes Australia
Stay losing friends
The yes Piccadilly Sand Farewell
Jack Was yes Every Inch a Sailor
The Circle yes logging
Badger Drive
Not Too yes Good with Names 207
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
Greenland yes yes Whale Fishery
How Come super stitions
Time yes Stands Still
Raise the yes kitchen Roof parties
Whispers yes living in of the the north North
10 Rattlin, music/ Roarin selling a Willie fiddle
10 The Island yes yes
10 Red Ice seasons changing
10 Coaltown yes Road
10 Kitty Bawn yes yes O’Brien
10 Standing by yes the Subway
12 Banks of yes the Roses
12 Flow Time yes
12 Didn’t Hear yes yes the Train
12 Flower mouth Basket music Medley
12 Song for peace Peace
12 Isle of My war (soldier Dreams gone from home)
12 Looking yes growing Back old 208
Recording Track Love Traveiing/ Saiiing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
12 Row Row analogy Row with Christ
12 My Heart’s yes yes in the Highlands
13 Down East yes music and Day ocean work
13 Sure It’s yes All the Same
13 Dance, dancing Dance, party Dance
13 Mauzy yes Monday
13 O’Brien yes
13 There yes
13 Buy Us a yes Drink
13 As I Roved yes Out
13 Buried in Ignoring the Sand pain
13 Ramblin’ yes yes Rover
13 The Rocky yes yes Road to Dublin
14 The Second deer Week o f hunting Deer Camp season
14 Acadian fishing, Saturday Acadian Night party
14 Sailing’ yes guitars Around
14 My Baby and My D- 18
14 Hi for the yes Beggarman 209
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
14 Galway to yes yes Graceland
14 Brennan on highway the Moor man
14 Oh, No yes fishing More
14 Winds o f yes Morning
14 The chemical Chemical workers Workers Song
14 Whiskey in yes yes the Jar
14 The Man yes story o f an with the odd fellow Cap
14 The yes Galway Races
15 Suil a Gra Scottish Gaelic
15 She’s like yes the Swallow
15 The yes Lowlands o f Holland
15 Le Vingt- French Cinq de Juillet
15 A Sailor’s yes Trade Is a Weary Life
15 The Two yes Sisters
15 The Green yes Mossy Banks of the Lee
15 John yes yes Barbour 2 1 0
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coai Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nauticai Mining Atlantic Number Canada
15 Brave French Marine
15 The Maid yes on the Shore
15 Lowlands yes yes Low
17 No More yes Good Times
17 Willie C yes yes
17 Proud house Spirit parties
18 Flowers yes
18 Why Didn’t yes You Say So Before
18 My Angel yes
18 The Last yes Shanty
18 Freedom yes
18 Apologies yes
18 The Nite yes Visit
18 The yes Kelligrew’s Soiree
18 Marigold yes Smile
18 Leaving yes Tomorrow
18 The yes kitchen Sociable party Song
18 A yes Woman’s Heart
19 Myopic self 2 1 1
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
19 Sealliabh yes in Scottish Curaidh Gaelic Eoghainn
19 The Ballad yes yes o f Lucy Jordan
19 Going yes Cape Down the Breton Road
19 Oh My yes yes
19 She The yes yes Ocean
19 17 growing up
19 Turquoise yes Shoes
19 The yes Question
19 Falling seasons
19 Part o f Me yes
19 All or yes Nothing
19 Goin’ Back growing older
20 Turn Up yes the Radio
20 Knocks Me yes off My Feet
20 Somebody yes Somewhere
20 It’s Not yes about You
20 I’d Never yes Walk Away
20 All Over yes Again
20 Kiss Him yes
20 If Only growing up 212
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Saiiing/ Drinking Coai Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nantirai Mining Atlantic Number Canada
20 Without yes You
20 Leaving on yes yes My Mind
20 October growing Wind up/ seasons
21 Lukey’s yes yes Boat
21 Sarah yes
21 Dance to lullaby Your Daddy
21 False going to Knight on school the Road adventures
21 Le Talon de Acadian Marguerite children’s song
21 Carrion nonsense, Crow crows
21 Canoe yes Round
21 Stormy yes Weather Boys
21 Sean Vhan trading for Voght food (PEI)
21 Home By yes Bama
21 Colcannon cooking
21 Rose, Rose, yes Rose, Red
21 Mist yes Covered Mountains
22 Tales o f the yes Phantom Ship 213
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coai Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
22 Island Clay selling land on the island
22 Raise the cutting Dead of winter Wintertime wood
22 Back To yes Rustico- Rustieo home
22 From a yes yes Distance
22 Marie and yes abuse He
22 The Hope hard life, for Next poverty Year
22 Breakwater yes yes
22 Big City city life
22 The yes Reconcilia tion 2-Step
22 Down on yes the Promenade
22 Destination yes yes
23 Fisher King yes
23 Lifeline yes
23 The Band’s yes Titanic Still Playing
23 Meet me at yes the Oasis
23 Slow Boat yes
23 More Than yes yes Likely
23 Smoke and yes Mirrors
23 16 Angels yes
23 Something yes Unspoken 214
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
23 Without yes Love
24 Henry yes yes Martin
24 A Sailor yes Courted a Farmer’s Daughter
24 Woman o f trapping in Labrador Labrador
24 True or yes False
24 Weather serving Out the life, Storm growing up
24 Tarry yes Trousers
24 Thomas yes and Nancy
24 Snowy winter Night night
24 The Fisher yes Who Died in His Bed
24 Allanadh in Irish
24 Freedom Newfound land Inde pendence
24 Down eviction stream from New foundland
25 Road Not yes Taken
25 A Drink for yes my Father
25 Christmas WWI in the Christmas Trenches
25 Save the yes Whales 215
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nauticai Mining Atiantic Number Canada
25 Lady in yes Montana
25 Streets o f yes London
25 Carrick- yes fergus
25 Wave to the yes Water
25 Dungarvan yes My Hometown
25 The yes Mermaid
25 Wild yes Mountain Thyme
26 No Change yes leaving in Me Newfound land
26 The yes Traveler
26 Somewhere yes in America
26 If Anything yes yes Happened to You
26 Out from eviction St. from New Leonard’s foundland
26 Right Here yes yes yes With Me
26 Red is the yes Rose
26 Seasons yes
26 An Irish lullaby Lullaby
26 The yes yes Leaving o f Liverpool
26 Breath Of yes leaving Angels home 216
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
26 You’ll Live yes death Forever
28 Weather yes Out the Storm
28 Heart o f a yes Gypsy
28 Jealous yes yes Lover/ Wedding Waltz
28 Snowy yes Night
28 Woman o f yes life in early Labrador Labrador
28 Inside a yes Circle
28 Yankee yes yes Skipper
28 Bad Blood friendship
28 Henry yes Martin
29 Great Big yes Sea
29 Someday politics Soon
29 Excursion yes around the Bay
29 What Are yes Newfound Ya’ At? land greetings
29 The Fisher yes Newfound man’s land fishing Lament industry
29 I’se the B ’y yes
29 Drunken yes Sailor 217
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coai Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
29 Irish yes yes Paddy/ Festival Reel/ Roger’s Reel
29 Time yes Brings
29 Berry yes picking Picking blueberries Time
30 Lord o f the life o f Dance Christ
30 Work to Be yes yes Done
30 Rainy Days yes
30 Haul Her yes working the Along docks
30 Forever yes Love
30 Never Puts fiddle His Fiddle playing Down
30 Lullaby yes
30 Lies yes
30 Islanders yes migration away from the sea
30 When yes Tomorrow Comes
30 Live Not yes yes Where I Love
30 Sorry yes
30 If I Should yes yes Leave You
30 Can’t Stop kitchen the Dance party
31 Cradle on yes lullaby the Waves 218
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
31 Green life Grow the passing Rushes
31 A chuachag yes dead nam beann mother singing to her children
31 The Old yes lullaby Turf Fire
31 Dream lullaby Angus
31 La yes old Nourrice du nursemaid Roi tale
31 Sleep Song lullaby
31 Maid of yes Coolmore
31 And yes Summer Faire
31 Logan yes yes Love
31 A Lullaby lullaby
32 The shearing Shearing the sheep
32 The fanning Country Life
32 Tell My Ma yes
32 Lots of Fish yes in Bonavista Harbour
32 I Dyed My yes Petticoats Red
32 A - Rovin’ yes PEI
32 Johnny’s yes yes Gone a Sailing 219
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coai Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nauticai Mining Atiantic Number Canada
32 Si J’Avais les Beaux Souliers
32 Ca’ the moving Ewes the goats
32 A Leg o f nonsense Mutton
32 A Sailor’s yes Alphabet
32 Molly and yes Johnny
32 Mairi’s yes Wedding
32 Garten lullaby Mother’s Lullaby
33 Paddy Lay yes Back
33 The yes Rosabella
33 Oh yes California
33 The yes Leaving o f Liverpool
33 All for Me yes Grog
33 Bonnie yes Hieland Laddie
33 Haul Away yes Joe
33 Pay Me My yes Money Down
33 Tiger Bay yes
33 John yes Kanaka
33 Old Moke yes Pickin’ on a Banjo 220
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nauticai Mining Atiantic Number Canada
33 Santianna yes
33 Bound for yes the Rio Grande
33 Clear the laying ties Track
33 The yes Drunken Sailor
33 Essiquibo yes River
33 Maggie yes yes May
33 Blood Red yes whaling Roses
33 Roiling yes Home to Nova Scotia
33 Leave Her yes Johnny
34 Rabbits in a yes Basket
34 The yes sealing Greenland Disaster
34 Tinker yes Behind the Door
34 Fisher Who yes Died in His Bed
34 Rosy Banks yes yes o f Green
34 Matt Eiley yes
36 Ordinary optimistic Day view on life
36 When I’m yes Up 2 2 1
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical M ining Atlantic Number Canada
36 The Night yes Pat Murphy Died
36 How Did yes We Get from Saying I Love You
36 Donkey yes Riding
36 Haven’t yes Seen You in a Long Time
36 End o f the changing World times
36 General yes Taylor
36 Seagulls leaving Newfoun- land (and returning))
36 Recruiting recruiting Sergeant Newfound landers for WWI
36 My yes Apology
36 Jakey’s Gin yes bootlegging
36 Something yes I Should Know
36 Jolly yes Roving Tar
37 Wrecker’s yes Den
37 Fisher yes man’s Blues
37 I Was yes Made for Loving You 222
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
37 South yes Australia
37 Corne On yes Eileen
37 The Keeper yes
37 Dylan’s yes Ghost
37 Last Call yes
38 Rollin’ of yes the Sea
38 Useta Love yes Her
38 Rocky yes Road to Dublin
38 Days of yes Yore
38 Peter Street yes yes
38 Go to Sea yes No More
38 Last o f the yes Great Whales
38 Oh No Not yes Newfound I lander sailor
38 Lark in the yes Morning
38 Fisher yes man’s Song
39 Island yes kitchen Kitchen party
39 Sight wishing for some thing more
39 Hold You yes So
39 Instead yes 223
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
39 Dylan’s yes Ghost
39 Shift human nature
39 Every- yes thing’ll Be Alright
39 Rubber family Boots
39 Lift Up yes Your Glass
41 Donkey yes Riding
41 When I’m yes Up
41 Everything better luck Shines
4f Going Up yes
41 Boston and yes yes St, John’s
41 The Night yes Pat Murphy Died
41 Conse a what if quence song Free
41 Captain yes
41 The Old yes Black Rum
41 General yes Taylor
41 Lukey yes
41 Feel it Turn better luck tomorrow
41 I’m a Rover yes
41 Fast as 1 yes Can
41 Jack Hinks yes yes 224
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
41 Mari Mac yes
41 Ordinary optimistic Day song
41 Excursion yes around the Bay
41 Bangin' yes Johnny
42 Run alternating Runaway human nature
42 Going Up yes
42 Fast as 1 yes Can
42 Mari-Mac yes
42 Something yes yes to It
42 Buying yes Time
42 Lukey yes
42 The Old yes Black Rum
42 The factory Chemical jobs Worker’s Song
42 Wave over yes Wave
42 Nothing out yes o f Nothing
42 The Jolly yes Butcher
42 Rant and Newfound Roar lander’s Song
43 Ordinary optimistic Day song
43 When I’m yes Up 225
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nantieal Mining Atlantic Number Canada
43 Mari-Mac yes
43 End of the changing World times
43 Fast as I yes Can
43 The Night yes Pat Murphy Died
43 Going Up yes
43 General yes Taylor
43 Something yes to It
43 Lukey yes
43 The Old yes Black Rum
43 Rant and Newfound Roar lander’s song
45 Roseville yes yes Fair
45 Fiddler’s yes Green
45 Danny Boy yes yes
45 Mary Mack yes
45 Santiano/ yes yes Sally Brown
45 Streets of poverty London
45 Willie yes McBride
45 Brennan on highway the Moor man
45 Dirty Old yes Town
45 Nancy yes Whisky 226
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
45 Ballads and yes Bar Tunes/ Ashokan Farewell
46 Oran spinning Sniomh (Spinning Song)
46 Seinn o milling
46 D6mhnall mouth mac ‘ic lain music
46 E H oro yes
46 Hi ri him yes bô
46 Bog a ’ yes Lochain
46 Horo Mo yes Nighean Donn Bhôidheach nan Oormshuil
46 IÙ o ra hiCi milling 6 (Marga ret’s Song)
46 Horo Ghoid reel song Nighean (Stepping Song)
46 Tha Mo yes Run air a’Ghille (I Love the Lad)
46 Oran do yes milling Ghille a Chaidh a Bhàthadh
47 City o f yes Chicago
47 Step It Out yes yes Mary
47 Caledonia yes 227
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
47 My Irish yes yes Molly O
47 Her Father yes Didn’t Like Me Anyway
47 Blooming yes Bright Star o f Belle Isle
47 She Moved yes through the Fair
47 The Black British and Tans control o f Ireland
47 The Rose yes of Allendale
47 The Island yes hard life
49 Mormand yes Breas
49 The Haying haying Song
49 The World making Is What your own You Make fortune It
49 The Ballad yes o f John Williams
49 Rollin’ in yes the Clover
49 I Saw Her yes in a Music Shop
49 The Silly Slang
49 My Only yes Girl
49 The yes Lowlands Low 228
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
49 Late yes Starters in Love
49 Fallen from yes Heaven
49 Sam Hall chimney sweep story
49 The Swimmin’ Song
49 Madeline yes
49 Together compani onship
50 O, Tha yes mise fo Gruaimean
50 Air yes yes Fàilirinn iù
50 Cagaran lullaby gaolach
50 Dhomhnaill yes yes Antaidh
50 A chuachag mother’s nam beann love
50 He mo yes leannan
50 Bodach children’s beag a song lonean
50 Ho ro ‘s yes toigh leam fhin thu
50 Cha bhi mi yes yes buan
50 O Ba Ba lullaby Mo leanabh and lament
50 Piuirt-a- mouth beul music 229
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coai Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
50 Dh’ olainn yes deoch a làimh mo ruin
50 Oran yes Gillean Alasdair Mhoir
50 Dan So Shean Ford
51 Lazy Tom yes
51 The Old yes Woman from Wexford
51 Fish Out of yes Water
51 Sam Hall chimney sweep
51 Tear the yes leaving House Newfound Down land
51 Dancin’ yes Newfound Round the land parties Kitchen
51 Frog in the nonsense Well
51 Peter Street yes
51 Spanish yes Lady
51 Heave yes Away
51 Lilly yes yes
52 Haggle yes yes Taggle Gypsy
52 Shamrock yes City
52 Catch the yes Wind
52 Peter Street yes 230
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
52 Days of changing Yore times
52 Rattlin’ yes
52 So to Sea yes No More
52 A Walk in yes the Irish Rain
52 Let Me yes Fish off Cape St. Mary’s
52 Barrett’s yes Privateers
52 Uncle Dan yes yes
52 Put Out eviction from St. from New Leonard’s foundland
52 Rollin’ yes Home
52 Sam Hall chimney sweep
52 Rocky yes Road to Dublin
52 Last of the yes Great Whales
52 Never Been There Before
53 Legendary yes
53 Chessboard yes dancing Dancer
53 Nightfall nighttime
53 Stray Cat yes
53 Blues for yes You 231
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
53 Peace on yes yes the Inside
53 Open Road yes yes
54 Boogieland yes
54 Crossroad choices
54 The Near death Dearly Departed
54 You Will yes Always Have My Love
54 Make It on pressure Time
54 Some living life People
54 Where yes Would I Be
54 Don’t Wait yes on Me
54 Rockaway yes
54 Two yes Islands
54 The Deep yes Blue
55 Phone yes Home
55 Scotch yes Music
55 Kitchen yes Bitchin’
56 The Ballad yes Acadians of St. Anne’s Reel
56 Wind yes Willow
56 The Four yes death Mary’s 232
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
56 Calin’ Mo yes Scottish Ruinsa Gaelic
56 Banks of going to Sicily war
56 Flower of yes Scotland
56 Mary Ellen yes Carter
56 Sit Down yes Young Stranger
56 Molly yes yes Bond
56 Liberty highland wars
57 We remem Remember bering the You Well dead
57 Eight More musicians Hours life
57 Play It Again
57 No Sinall yes Boats
57 Lunenburg yes boat from Pride Lunenburg
57 Tarsands yes leaving AC Lament
57 Sunny Old yes Newfound St. land
57 Peace in nostalgia Time
57 Song Not a Northern Rifle Ireland
57 Getting yes Dark Again
57 Fisher yes man’s Token 233
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Saiiing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautieai Mining Atlantic Number Canada
57 Tha Mo yes Ghaol air’ Aird a’ Chuain
58 Getting yes Dark Again
58 Saban the yes Woodfitter
58 My Cape yes yes leaving Breton Cape Shore Breton
58 Emigrant yes come to Eyes Inverness County
58 Islanders yes from an island
58 The mining Miner’s Song
58 Roving yes Gypsy Boy
58 Heading for yes coming Halifax home
58 Evangeline yes
60 New York yes yes Girls/ Bill Sullivan’s
60 The Nellie yes Rum J. Banks running in AC
60 Days of the yes Clipper
60 Fisher yes man’s Son
60 Farewell to yes going to Carlingford Ireland
60 Let Them yes ship Build Ships building in 'AC
60 Home Boys yes yes Home 234
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautieai Mining Atlantic Number Canada
60 Fisher yes yes man’s Farewell
60 Rollin’ on yes the Sea
60 Bay of St. yes Ann’s
60 Banks of yes coming Newfound back to land Newfound land
60 Fisher yes man’s Token
60 Barrett’s yes Coming to Privateers Halifax
61 Reena yes yes
61 Brunswick yes Street
61 Spanner in yes the Works
61 Conscience yes Calling
61 Prohibition yes yes rum Way running
61 Jolly Jack yes
61 Go To It yes
61 Jim Harris yes yes
61 Come Get yes Your Duds in Order (Heave Away)
61 She Said yes No
61 Well You yes Know 235
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
62 Dh’fhalbh yes Mo Nighean Chruinn Donn
62 An Cluinn yes The Leannan?
62 A piping Mhnathan song A’ Ghiinne Sec
62 Illean Aigh milling song
62 Ceah lament Deirean- nach Nam Beann
62 A lament Fhleasgaich Uasail
62 Ho ro Mo yes leaving Chuid Cape Chuideachd Breton for Thu work
62 Gun yes yes Chrodh Gun Aighean
62 Oran picnics and a’Phiognaig marriage
62 Am in praise of Bràighe a good storyteller
62 Nighean milling Dubh, song Nighean Donn
63 Lukey’s yes yes Boat
63 Don’t Go yes Out
63 Marching yes Inland
63 Headin’ for yes eoming Halifax home 236
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
63 The unicorn Unicom
63 Lord of the enjoying Dance life- Jesus
63 Girls of yes coming Neil's back Harbour
63 Life of a living in the Country country Boy
63 Northwest Canadian Passage theme
63 Getting yes Dark Again
63 Waltzing Australian Matilda adventure
63 Immigrant yes coming Shore from Ireland
63 American death of 3 Pie rock’n roll stars
65 Another growing Morning old
65 Kelly’s yes yes longing for Mountain Cape Breton
65 Highland homesick Dream for Cape Breton
65 Gone yes passing of old traditions
65 The Island yes missing the island
65 You Saw yes Me
65 Hell yes fishing Freezing’ laws Over
65 The yes Blackbird 237
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
65 The Molly yes May
65 My Life Is yes Over.., Again
65 Long for yes the Sea
65 Gilgarry’s yes immigra Glen tion to Cape Breton
68 A Mhàiri yes Bhôidheach
68 Fàill ill 0 or honor to the Lord
68 Mo Mhaili yes Bheag Ôg
68 An Nochd yes Is Trom Tha Mo Cheum
68 Cha Tig yes MorMo Bhean Dhachaidh
68 Mo Ghille yes yes Mor Gothain’ each
68 A yes Mhorag’s na Horo Gheallaidh
68 Naeh Till yes Thu Dhomhnaill
68 Seallaibh yes Curraigh Eoghainn
68 Crodh air a’ yes Bhruaich
68 111 Ù ill 6 yes mean’s 6 238
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
69 Blue Bag yes
72 Sonny’s yes yes Newfound Dream land families
72 The Star of yes County Down
72 Tiree Love yes Song
72 The Fields troubles in o f Athenry Ireland
72 As Long as yes There Is Sail
72 The Rocks yes of Merasheen
72 You A in’t thoughts G oin’ on being Nowhere bedridden
72 Last Shanty Irish roots
72 The Island living and loving islands
73 Sweet is singing Melody
73 The Dance yes You Choose
73 Rise Again children
73 Moonlight yes Shadow
73 Somewhere dreaming over the Rainbow/ What a Wonderful World
73 Out of the yes Woods
73 Driftwood yes yes 239
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Saiiing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
73 Some Days yes
73 Once in yes Every Life
73 Love So yes Rare
73 Getting yes Dark Again
73 To Say yes yes Goodbye to You
73 The Island coming to Cape Breton
73 The Gift Christmas gift to Jesus
74 Star of the County Down
74 On That childhood Day in Cape Breton
74 Haul Away yes yes Joe
74 Fisher yes yes m an’s Brew
74 Drunken yes Sailor
74 Heaved yes yes Away
74 Nova coming Scotia’s home to Hands Nova Scotia
74 Thainig 1 Scottish Anail Gaelic
75 M ovin’ On yes
75 Let It Go yes
75 Bells yes 240
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
76 Maybe yes You’re Right
76 Long Way fame to Go
76 Cold Winds yes
76 Weddings, patterns of Wakes and life Funerals
76 One Day I yes hard Walk points o f life
76 O tha mo yes dhuil mit
76 Tailor’s yes Daughter
76 An innis Scottish àigh Gaelic
76 Farewell to yes yes Lochaber
Come yes call to Follow Me death
In My Skiff yes
Hometown hometown on PEI
M a Theid yes yes
My Johnny yes yes
Fill Up My yes Heart
Lakes o f yes Ponchetrian
Lovely yes Joan
Turn Ye to yes Me
Lament o f yes lain Ruaidh
The Call yes social conscience 241
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
78 The Ballad yes coming o f St. home to Anne’s PEI Reel
78 The yes Bluenose Song
78 Last Shanty yes
78 Inverness yes Ceilidh
78 Sonny’s leaving Dream Cape Breton
78 Home in yes yes My Harbour
78 Barrett’s yes Privateers
78 The Island coming to Cape Breton
78 The Legend Cape o f Kelly ’s Breton tale Mountain
78 Song for yes the M ira
78 As Long as yes fishing There Is restrictions Sail
78 Farewell to yes saying Nova goodbye Scotia
79 Oangedale decay Whistle
79 An t-each horses Ruadh
79 Fair and yes Tender Ladies
79 Fisher yes m an’s Son
79 Tell Me Ma yes 242
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
79 You Left a yes Flower
79 Fare Thee yes yes Well Love
79 Gillis sense o f Mountain history
79 Gaelic Scottish Medley Gaelic
81 Tramp yes Miner
81 Coal, not yes coal fields Dole in Cape Breton
81 Billy, yes Come with Me
81 Dad’s Old yes Dinner Pail
81 She Loves yes yes Her Miner Lad
81 Sweet yes yes Guinevere
81 You’ll be homesick Home Again
81 Miner’s yes Life
81 The Banks yes cold ofN ew - weather foundland
81 Rolling yes cold down the weather Old Maui
81 If 1 Can’t yes loving Take the Cape Island with Breton Me
81 Coal Town yes Road
81 Working yes Man 243
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautieai Mining Atiantie Number Canada
83 In My yes yes Hands
83 Get Me yes through December
84 Yonec yes
84 A ’Bheairt- yes fhiodha
84 Caledonia yes
84 Schooldays yes Over
84 The yes Lowlands o f Holland
84 Fear a ’ yes bhàta
84 My Johnny yes yes
84 I Courted a yes Wee Girl
84 The Lake growing old
84 Hag at the fairies chum
84 Auld Lang friendship/ Syne passing time
86 Thirty- yes Inch Coal
86 Dark as a yes Dungeon
86 Coal Tattoo yes
86 Sixteen yes Tons
86 I Went to yes Norm an’s
86 Man with a yes Torch in His Cap 244
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life In Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
86 Coal is yes yes King Again
86 Working yes Man
86 Coal by the yes yes Sea
86 Mary Ann yes yes
86 Are You yes from
86 Dust in the yes Air
86 Plain Ole yes Miner
86 No. 26 yes Mine Disaster
Farewell to yes yes the Rhondda
86 Rise Again yes yes
87 Working yes Man
87 Plain Ole yes Miner Boy
87 Emigrant coming to Eyes Nova Scotia
87 We Rise aging Again
87 In a Town small town This Size
87 Farewell to leaving NS Nova Scotia
87 Working in yes a Coal Mine
87 Sweet Jesus trust in Jesus 245
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Saiiing/ Drinking Coai Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atiantie Number Canada
87 Dark as a yes Dungeon
87 Home ril coming Be home to Cape Breton
87 I Shall not trust Walk Aione
North yes returning to Country Cape Breton
Oich U yes Agus h-1 iiraibh Éile
Borders yes yes and Time
Muli River yes Shuffle
Lisa Brown yes yes returning to east coast
Ho Ro Mo yes Nighean Donn Bhôidheach
88 Tramp yes Miner
Rise Again aging
Leis an yes yes Lurgainn
Saved in yes death the Arms
Johnny yes Tulioch
Turn that yes yes Boat Around
89 Rise with yes the Sun
89 P Stands yes for Paddy 246
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautieai Mining Atlantic Number Canada
89 Scotty friendship
89 Getting yes Back
89 Wonder yes What It’s
89 Uneasy yes yes
89 Never Been yes younger There sister Before growing up
89 Will You yes yes Wait
89 Candlelight yes yes
Golden yes Green
89 Here’s to yes yes Life
93 The Bonny murders of Banks of a family Virgio-o
93 Early yes yes Spring
93 The Straits yes o f Belle Isle/ M ate’s Reel
93 The Green yes Shores o f Fogo
93 Pat M urphy’s Meadow
93 The Jolly yes Butcher
93 Where yes Once Stood a House
93 Wexford yes City 247
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
93 Oh No Not yes yes Newfound I lander looking for a wife
93 Sweet yes Forget Me Not
93 The Gallant yes Ship
94 Wild Rose yes yes
94 Turn of the passing of Wheel life
94 Mountain yes side
94 Colleen yes
94 Shaken Up rough times
94 Ghost of yes Love
95 Forever yes yes Dancing
95 A Matter of yes the Heart
95 The yes Morning After
95 Wild Rose yes
95 When my hope Ship Comes In
95 A Sad yes yes Story
95 Open Road yes
95 A Little of yes Your Lovin’
95 Through It yes All
95 The Long yes Way Home 248
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coal Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining Atlantic Number Canada
95 Baby Oh yes
97 Maurice yes fighting a Kelly ghost
97 The Banks yes Newfound o f New land life foundland
97 The Napo Warlike leon’s war Lads o f with Russia Russia
97 The Pretty yes Ploughboy
97 The Valley Newfound of Kilbride landers in World War II
98 Reel ’n ’ yes Roll
98 D on’t You yes Have to Be the One
98 It’ll Have yes to Wait
98 Long Night death of lament for musicians Newfound -land musicians
98 Pedestrian living in a Again city
98 Mystery creepy Tonight night feeling
98 Dance Hall yes
98 Ghost of yes Love
98 The Turn of passing of the Wheel life
98 Colleen yes
99 Farewell to yes yes leaving Nova Nova Scotia Scotia
99 Mary Mac yes 249
Recording Track Love Traveling/ Sailing/ Drinking Coai Life in Misc. ID Title Migration Nautical Mining A tlantic N um ber C anada
99 Sonny’s yes yes Dream
99 Peter Street yes yes
99 Yellow Submarine
99 Irish Rover yes
99 Barrett’s yes Privateers
99 The yes Mermaid
99 Last Shanty yes
99 The yes yes Leaving of Liverpool
100 The yes adventures Waterford in lower Boys in level Paris establish ment 250
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Discography
The Barra MacNeils. Closer to Paradise. PolyGram, 1993 CD.
Cameron, John Allen Cameron. Glencoe Station. All Hands Music, 1996 CD.
The Celtic Connection. Higher. Actual Music, 2000 CD.
Cormier, John Paul. Heart & Soul. Borealis, 1998 CD.
Debison, Aselin. Sweet is the Melody. Odyssey, 2002 CD.
The Ennis Sisters. Red is the Rose. Cabot, 1997 CD.
Evans and Doherty. Sailing Ships and Sailing Men. Tall Ships, 2000 CD.
The Fables. Tear the House Down. Tidemark, 1998 CD.
Figgy Duff. Weather Out the Storm. Hypnotic Records, 1990 CD.
Holland, Jerry. Crystal Clear. Odyssey Records, 2000 CD.
Lamond, Mary Jane. Bho Thir Nan Craobh. Independent, 1996 CD.
Lamond, Mary Jane. Lan Dull. turtlemusick/Tidemark, 1999 CD.
MacDonald, Howie. The Dance Last Night. Independent, 1997 CD.
MacKeel. Plaid. PolyGram, 1997 CD.
MacMaster, Buddy. We Remember You Well. Budmac Music, 2000 CD.
MacMaster, Natalie. Fit as a Fiddle. Canadian Broadcast Company, 1993 CD.
MacMaster, Natalie. My Roots are Showing. Warner Music Canada, 1998 CD.
McGinty. Atlantic Favourites. Rocky Coast, 1996 CD.
McGinty. Sea Songs. Rocky Coast, 1990 CD.
Murray, Patricia. Primrose. Tidemark Music Ltd., 2001 CD.
The Rankin Family. Fare The Well Love. Chris Irschick, 1990 CD.
The Rankin Family. North Country. EMI Music Canada, 1993 CD. 259
Rawlins Cross. Reel ‘n’ Roll. Warner Music Canada, 1993 CD.
The Sons of Maxwell. Sailors Story. Sons of Maxwell Entertainment, 2000 CD.
Wood, Richard. The Celtic Touch. Atlantic Music, 1995 CD.