Fidel Martin

We just an email from David Caron, journalist at Acadie Nouvelle about a great old Acadian fiddler, Fidel Martin. We don’t have any photos of him, but David has managed to find some audio files and a picture of his tombstone. Most of what is known about Fidel was thanks to the research of Art Rosenbaum, the American folklorist. Hopefully, someone reading this post might remember more and come up with more recordings and photos.

Fidel Martin

Né dans la région de Rogersville, au Nouveau-Brunswick en 1891, Fidel Martin a été «découvert» par le folkloriste américain, Art Rosenbaum, lors d’une visite à Berlin, au New Hampshire, en 1967. À la recherche de musiciens traditionnels dans cette ville qui comprenait une forte proportion de Franco-Américains, M. Rosenbaum est tombé sur Fidel Martin grâce à des résidents locaux dans un quartier ouvrier de Berlin. Il a aussi rencontré durant ce séjour des membres de la famille Riendeau, qui ont enregistré quelques années plus tard un album avec County Records.

Il n’est pas clair à quel moment Fidel a appris à jouer le violon, mais son répertoire est un mélange de pièces acadiennes, irlandaises, canadienne-françaises et américaines. Un ancien combattant de la Première Guerre mondiale, il était aussi impliqué dans sa communauté, notamment dans la fondation de la section locale du VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), à Berlin.

Selon Art Rosenbaum, Fidel Martin était un homme accueillant et il semblait apprécier jouer du violon pour des inconnus.

Après des pièces particulièrement énergiques, il s’exclamait en disant «Jesus Christ, that’s a hot one!»

Il est décédé le 7 février 1976 à l’âge de 84 à Colebrook au New Hampshire.

Born in the Rogersville, New Brunswick, area in 1891, Fidel Martin was ‘discovered’ by Art Rosenbaum, a well known american folkorist, during a field recording trip in Berlin, New Hampshire, in 1976.

He met him through some casual inquiries in a working class neighborhood in Berlin, where many people of french-canadian origin were living and working. During this trip, Rosenbaum also met the Riendeau family who released an album with County Records a few years later.

It’s not clear when exactly Fidel Martin learned to play the fiddle, but his repertoire is a mix of Acadian, Irish, French-Canadian and American tunes. A World War I veteran, he was heavily involved in his community, most notably as a charter member of the local VFW.

According to Rosenbaum, Fidel Martin was friendly and seemed to enjoy getting out his fiddle and being recorded by interested strangers.

One of his favorite exclamations after playing a vigorous tune was ‘Jesus Christ, that’s a hot one!’

He passed away on february 7th 1976 in Colebrook, NH.  

Commercial recordings on which he can be heard - https://dusttodigital.bandcamp.com/album/art-of-field-recording-volume-i

https://dusttodigital.bandcamp.com/album/art-of-field-recording-volume-ii

Field Recordings

https://bmac.libs.uga.edu/pawtucket2/index.php/Detail/objects/331630

https://bmac.libs.uga.edu/pawtucket2/index.php/Detail/objects/331506

https://bmac.libs.uga.edu/pawtucket2/index.php/Detail/objects/331538 (A Side)

Adam LeBlanc

Adam LeBlanc is a young fiddler and step dancer from Memramcook, New Brunswick. He started playing fiddle at 10 years of age and took lessons from Jocelyne Bourque, Christine Cormier and Samantha Robichaud. He has also been step dancing since he was 10 and has won numerous awards

Raymond Brideau

Roland Robichaud

Jam Pointe A Tom N.B: David Greely, Roland Robichaud, Gilles Losier, Sébastien Leblanc fiddles and Charlie Roby guitar. 

Guy-Paul Larocque

Guy-Paul Larocque from Lamèque, New Brunswick, winner of the Maritime Old Time Fiddle contest in Dartmouth in 1993. Then 21 years later his wins the same contest again in the age 19 to 59 division! 

 See both videos below:

Corporal Guy-Paul Larocque at the studios of Radio Canada 

Amazing interview with Corporal Guy-Paul Larocque of the Gendarmerie Royale du Canada at Radio Canada (RCMP-Royal Canadian Mounted Police) following the deaths of three of his colleagues during a shooting in Moncton. At the regimental funeral, he played three fiddle pieces including one of his own compositions. Click on the link below to hear the interview (in French). At the beginning of the interview, he plays Ashoken Farewell and at the end Amazing Grace.

La Touche Particulière du Caporal Guy-Paul Larocque

Denise Daigle Bourgeois

Bourre d'joie

André à Toto Savoie

André à Toto Savoie is a fiddler from Shippagan who gained fame and notoriety from his appearance in the 1972 film by André Gladu called "Reel du Pendu". He still lives in a small housing unit in Shippagan and still plays for concerts, festivals and dances.  When asked where he got the moniker "Toto" he told the story that his father would help out the grandfather who was a carpenter. When the grandfather asked for a hammer, André's dad as a little kid would run to fetch it and cry out "toto, toto, toto" which was his way of saying the french word for hammer: "marteau". Since there are many families with the same last names in Acadie, the father is often given a nickname and the son is always associated with the father with the word "à" which means "of". It's much like the O'Leary's and MacLeans of Irish and Scottish families. 

André graciously allowed us to make a video of his playing during our visit:

One of the most popular of André's tune is simply called "Reel à Toto" and has been performed by many great fiddlers, including André Brunet who plays the tune in the video below. One of the reasons for our visit to André Savoie in Shippagan was find out from him if the tune had a real name, and sure enough he called it "Reel à Belzebuth" and he got it from his father. So here is "Reel à Belzebuth" aka "Reel à Toto" played by André Brunet.

Another tune that we wanted to track down was "Reel du Coqueron". We first heard the tune on a field recording that Robert Richard found for us in the archives of the Unversity of Moncton. It was recorded at a festival in Shippagan that André Savoie attended every year and he gave the name "Coqueron" to the festival and the tune. We tried to find out what the word "coqueron" meant but came up empty each time. Finally, André told us that in the early days, the festival was held right next to the "cook room". 

Eloi LeBlanc

Eloi LeBlanc was born in College Bridge, New Brunswick on November 26, 1909, died June 21, 1978 in Beaumont and was buried in Pré d’en Haut. He started playing fiddle at an early age, inspired by his fiddling maternal grandfather and uncle. Throughout his lifetime played for local dances and weddings, getting the nickname “The Fiddler of Memramcook Valley”. He had a phenomenal memory for tunes as well as a great knack for composition. Many of his tunes live on thanks to other fiddlers such as Den Messer who made them even more popular. He performed with Bob White’s Moncton Ploughboys, then on the Maritime Farmer’s radio show, and finally joined up with Kidd Baker and the Pine Ridge Mountain Boys in Ontario. He stayed with this band for 12 years and spent the final years of his life living with his sister Laura who was also his piano accompanist. Eloi recorded only one record album, “Eloi and his Fiddle” (Eloi et son Violon) on Les Productions Acadiennes  LPA-1001-1977. Some of his tunes include: Le Reel de l’Hiver, Anne Marie Reel, Reel des Maritime Farmers, Narcisse à John (named after his maternal grandfather),  and  Eric à Théotime à Six Pouces (named after his uncle).

Mack à John 🎼

We found this great field recording of Eloi Leblanc playing "Mack à John" thanks to Robert Richard, the archivist at the Centre D'Etudes Acadiennes Anselme Chiasson at the University of Moncton. Towards the end of the recording, Eloi explains that he got the tune from Mack, John's son and John was his great grandfather ("le père à mon grand père). Many of his tunes are named after family members. He also calls this tune a "double temps" a double time or in other words a jig (6/8 time). 

Robin LeBlanc

“Robin is a marvelous fiddler from a long line of Acadian fiddlers from Memramcook. He learned from his uncle, Ira, and his grandfather, Fériol, but also learned by traveling all over North America searching out old tunes and ancient Acadian routes. We visited with him at his farmhouse outside Bathurst, New Brunswick, where he grows most of his own food and grinds his own wheat for bread”

— Liner notes from La Famille Léger cd "L'étoile du Nord"

Robin Leblanc and Jeannot Savoie play Quadrille de Montcalm and Reel de la Tuque Blue/

Toune à Ira 🎼

 Toune à Emma 🎼

Air à Bonaparte 🎼 

Here's the link to Robin LeBlanc's new CD: "SUR L'AN PREMIER pour danser". Lots of great "tounes" from the old French Acadian fiddling tradition.

Voici le lien pour le nouveau disque compact de Robin LeBlanc avec plein de vielles "tounes" dans la tradition des violoneux Acadiens d'antan.

I took the liberty of transcribing one of the "tounes" on the CD: "Sarazine" for those who like to decipher the squigglies. Once again this is just a static rendition and needs to be reference back to original audio recording.

Robert Lavoie

Robert Lavoie was born in Tracadie in 1953. He started playing at the age of 22 and played at the Historic Acadian Village for seven years. He formed and led a band called Monvertou and has composed tunes such as Yellow Glove, Reel Benoit and Uncle Ernest's Jig.

From left to right: Robin Leblanc, Martin Aucoin, and Robert Lavoie

Reel à Nazaire

Interprété par Robert Lavoie de Pont-Lafrance, NB

Vieux reel provenant du village de Leech, interprété par Robert Lavoie de Pont-Lafrance, péninsule acadienne, Nouveau Brunswick.

Uploaded by Robert Lavoie on 2011-02-13.

J'ai appris ces deux gigues d'une vieille cassette. J'pense que c'était Théodore à Sandy Fournier qui les jouait.

Une très vieille gigue Acadienne. Il y a seulement Catherine et moi qui la joue ast'heurre. Je l'ai joué en toute simplicité, comme ça doit. La musique Acadienne c'est ça. Ce n'est pas le Bluegrass, ce n'est pas une jeune fille qui court sur scène avec son violon, ce n'est pas de la musique jouée à 128, ni la musique traditionnelle commerciale que certains vont jouer en France non plus.

Reel appris de Pat Gauvin. Pat est un des meilleur pour faire dancer.

Uploaded by Robert Lavoie on 2011-05-04.

Très ancienne gigue Acadienne que l'on entend plus du tout.