Page 81 - Estwood Davidson: Travels with Beattie and Winston

ISSUE : Issue 54

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1990/6/1

Estwood Davidson: Travels with Beattie and Winston For 26 years, Estwood Davidson travelled with Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald and Beattie Wallace, making the musto that has established the classic in the Cape Breton dance worid. We visited him at his home, South Side River Bourgeois. I shouldn't say this, probably--but we were the king of the square dancers for 25 years. I don't know why, but--we just had a group that seemed to suit what we were doing. (Let's see if you really don't know why. I mean, called the "king of the square danc? ers"- -what does that mean?) Well, we were more in demand for one thing. Well, proba? bly it was talent. 'Cause Fitzgerald (Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald) was--oh, he was something in himself, that was it. There doesn't seem to be anybody--there's an awful lot of good players--I'm not try? ing to buck the good players--but Winston more or less stood out. (But why?) Oh, his style and.... He had a gift. There was no two ways about it. Nobody could play a violin like he did, you know, without being a gift from God or somebody. 'Cause we used to drink a lot in those days. And I've seen him so full, that there was one time we played for a picnic in Judique. And I could see him, you know, starting to nod off to sleep. And he wasn't missing a note. And I figured that STORY CONTINUES ON NEXT PAGE Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald with vtolin, Beattie Wallace at the piano, and Estwood Davidson on guitar

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