Cape Breton's Magazine

r Johnny Wilmot: p Talk and Tunes Joe.Confiant came from Centreville down there, between North Sydney and Sydney Mines. He was way older than me. He was an uncle of mine. When I was a kid--you know, crawling around the floor--he was playing. That's when he was home. There was so much demand for him, he was very seldom home. Everybody looking for him--playing every? where. He was quite a guy, you know. (Did he make his living from the fiddle?) No. Worked in the pit. He'd be at parties or dances or something. They'd be looking for him all the time to play. He was a good player. He was very good to play. There was something about his playing, you see. He had a style of his own. I just can? not explain it. He could do anything with the bow. Great fingers, you know. Better fingers than anybody I ever saw. And bow? ing- -everyone would come along and watch that fellow bowing. You'd be noticing it going up, and the next thing it'd be com? ing down--big long ones, you know. Not those little short (ones). And he took a wonderful tone out of the violin. I was reared with him. No one would have to show you how to play. You'd just pick it up, 'cause you'd be watching all the time. The music was there all the time. Joe was a steady player, very steady. He'd never vary. Slow down or go ahead--he'd never speed it up, in his timing. There seemed to be so much life to his music. He Joe Confiant, with Joe Bona, piano was playing slow all right, but he was put? ting more life in it than the other fellow, and che other fellow was going like hell. You watch those fiddlers today. Generally when they try to speed her up, they're go? ing like blazes, putting the bow to them. Joe didn't do that. He's playing just the same as some of the others, and he's only going, taking his time. That's one thing about him, he always took his time. He nev? er ran away with a tune, with the time.