Cape Breton's Magazine

so, I got the courage to try a tune with Duncan MacQuarrie. I was shivering in my pants, I was so scared! And when I was 13, I did my first radio program with Johnny Wilmot, on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, on CJCB. And it wasn't taped in those days, it was live. So there were no second chances. When I was about 15, I played with Bill Lamey and Joe MacLean up in Princeville. And we started at--oh, I think maybe 11 o'clock in the morning. And we had two breaks. We stopped for an hour at noon, and we stopped for an hour for supper, and we played right through till 1 o'clock. I was 15. (Did you have a lot of school chums who were also interested in traditional music?) Not too many. I know, during high school, occasionally we'd be called into the gym, and maybe we were going to hear a lecture. They'd have all the high school grades in there. There would be a couple of hundred or 300 kids there. And I remember the prin? cipal of the school, up and down the aisle, looking for "Douglas MacPhee--is he here?" And I'd get up, and I'd be scarlet--embar- rassed. Which was a wrong attitude, you know. And she'd get me up to play the pi? ano in the front, at the foot of the stage, while we were waiting for the lecturer to come. Now, you imagine me getting up and playing jigs and reels and strathspeys for 300 teenagers that were all Elvis Presley fans, and Pat Boone, you know! An5rway, I was very embarrassed about it. But I wouldn't refuse, you know. (But it never stopped you.) Oh no, no. There was too much of the love for it in me. It didn't matter. Once I got outside of school--I mean, you have your own cir? cle, of musicians. And I knew I was ac? cepted in the circle of musicians. And I made dam sure I travelled in that circle. Always have. But it's so funny, you know. Occasionally there'll be a dance here at the French Club or at one of the other halls in town. And I'll see many of my school chums-- they're great square dancers today! They're there, boy, and they love it! Doug MacPhee's latest album, "The Reel of Tulloch," is available on LP record or cassette tape for $10.95. Write; Doug MacPhee, 681 Sharpes' Lane, New Waterford, N. S. BIH 4H1. Morrison' Stores Ltd Home Hardware Hardware General Merchants Celebrating over 100 Years of Service StPeters Richmond County, Nova Scotia BOE 3B0 (.38) RENT ME THIS SUMMER CRUISE THE BRAS d'OR LAKES BADDECK MARINE Water St., Box 420, Baddeck, N. S. BOE IBO Phone: 902-295-2434