Page 62 - Johnny Wilmot: Talk and Tunes
ISSUE : Issue 40
Published by Ronald Caplan on 1985/8/1
up one night. He said, "How's she going, Wilmot?" I said, "Not bad." He said, "You're not too bad of a player." "Oh," I said, "I can't play." "Oh, yes," he said, "you can play all right, but," he said, "you're not as good as your uncle." Tell you right to your face! "You know," he said, "your uncle was playing up here one time in Frenchvale, And they had an out? side toilet at that time. The music was so good," he said, "since he was playing, they were stepdancing back and forth to the toilet!" (What about records? Were you listening at home?) I listened to that Michael Coleman. (That's Irish music.) I slowed that fellow down, many's the time, and I played him, too, to see if I could learn his tunes. Play and play and play and play. Every time I put him on, he'd be doing something' else. You'd think you'd have the tune--no. There's some of him I never got. (Who else were you listening to, 15 years old?) Oh yes, there was Jimmy Morrison. There was Paddy Killoran. There was a Hugh Gillespie. Oh, there was a lot of Pad'dy Sweeney. There were a lot of those fellows. We had them all. (Did you keep a collec? tion of Scottish fiddle tunes?) Those things didn't come out, see. (So most of your tunes are Irish tunes.) Yes. They were mostly Irish. Then they had a run of tunes they played here. I wouldn't say they were Scotch tunes. I don't know where they came from. There were a lot of tunes like "Haste to the Wed? ding" and "Smash the Window" and that-- they get them in Kerr's books, you know. The ones that could read them. But the ones that couldn't read it would have to wait for the one fellow to learn them. (Did you ever have it as your goal that you were going to make your living with your fiddle?) No, I didn't. You know, I al? ways said, the money you'd get for playing was no good. I could earn $5 a night. Some? times, if we wouldn't get the crowd--I've seen me coming home with nothing. I wouldn't have a cent, for myself, by the time I paid the others. Well, we didn't care, anyway--that's the way she went. It's not like the money you work for. I wouldn't depend on it. You'd have to have a job with it.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 65 Some Traditional Tunes from the Northside Paul Cranford; This group of dances are of a character unfamiliar to modem Cape Breton fiddlers. The first came from the playing of Joe Confiant and is of unknovm origin. I learned the second from Johnny Wilmot, who learned it listening to Henry Fortune. It is likely Irish in origin, and was played in the early part of this century on the Northside (i.e., Sydney Mines, Bras d'Or, Florence, George's River, North Sydney, and area). Traditional Dance ir PIPER'S TRAILER COURT Featuring; Fully Licensed Dining Room * Guest House * Swimming Pool Ocean-Side Campsites * Laundromat * Mini-Mart QpQ-ppQQ Indian Brook on the Cabot Trail ''' '''' Halfway Between Baddeck and Ingonish (62)
CONTINUED ON PAGE 65 Some Traditional Tunes from the Northside Paul Cranford; This group of dances are of a character unfamiliar to modem Cape Breton fiddlers. The first came from the playing of Joe Confiant and is of unknovm origin. I learned the second from Johnny Wilmot, who learned it listening to Henry Fortune. It is likely Irish in origin, and was played in the early part of this century on the Northside (i.e., Sydney Mines, Bras d'Or, Florence, George's River, North Sydney, and area). Traditional Dance ir PIPER'S TRAILER COURT Featuring; Fully Licensed Dining Room * Guest House * Swimming Pool Ocean-Side Campsites * Laundromat * Mini-Mart QpQ-ppQQ Indian Brook on the Cabot Trail ''' '''' Halfway Between Baddeck and Ingonish (62)
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