Page 15 - With Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald

ISSUE : Issue 46

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/8/1

Good piano player. And that's it. Play at least an hour. Give you an hour. Maybe I played for two hours without ever putting the bow down. But that is your really best. Although at a concert--! love very much playing at concerts, because I had no wor? ry about a limit. Time wasn't on your mind. And you picked out the tunes you wanted. And you had whoever was playing, 1 or 2 or 3: banjo, guitar, piano, or whatever you had. And they knew the pieces I was play? ing. So all I had to think about was my? self. And I could play--oh, I always could perform. I could make a better recording now--clear of my sickness--I could make a better re? cording than I ever made in my life. (And in the house parties, you feel you were better than ever on record.) Yes, def? initely. I started going to Boston around sometime in the '50s. Bill Lamey had moved up there. He got me to go up there and play for dances for him once in awhile. Then John Campbell moved up there. There's different ones, you know. I played for the Irish-and- Canadian-and-Americah Club, and the Ameri? can-Canadian Club. (Would you be brought up for just that reason?) Oh yes, definite? ly. Go up there and play on Saturday nights and fly back home on Sunday. (Would I they get you Ve got to nelp me! "Sandy, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" "No, Dad, I'm fine." "Where are you?" "At Pat's. We all came over here to celebrate after the game." "It's almost 12:30. Isn't it time you called it a night?" "That's just it. Remember you always told me if I was out never to drive with anyone who's had too much to drink? And not to be afraid to call you if I had no other way of getting home? Well, tonight Fm taking you at your word." "Stay right there. I'm coming to pick you up." "Thanks, Dad. Oh, and something else." "Shoot." "Are you angry with me?" "Angry? No, Sandy. Not on your life." Seagram For a free chart on responsible drinking limits, i f. P.O. Box 847, Station H, Montreal. Quebec. H3G 2M8 . • big crowd?) Oh, good Lord, yes! 40% of them Cape Breton peo? ple, and people you met in Boston. Peo? ple who were inter? ested in music would come and introduce themselves. In the last of it, you'd get to know enough to pack the hall. That's the whole size of it. You were sure you would sure? ly get that same bunch, you know. And then Toronto. Played an awful lot in Toronto, once a month. Sandy Macln? tyre- -Sandy has re? cordings out. I played for Sandy. He had a St. Mary's Hall--it should have been called the Cape Breton Hall, I guess. And that place packed, you know, you jammed that place. Upstairs- there was a balcony in it--up and down. You just jammed that. Played in Detroit. (Did you spend any time with Little Jack MacDonald there?) No. I did down here. (A sensi? tive player.) Very. But I met him down here. Little Jack. I remember the first time I met him, at Buddy MacMaster's. Had a party up there at Buddy's. And of course it was an all- night party. And they found somewhere for us to sleep. Bil? ly MacLeod was with me that night, and (15)

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