Elmo LeBlanc

Elmo LeBlanc was born at Saint-Anne-de-Kent on June 17, 1954. He started playing fiddle at the age of 7 and was inspired by his father, Johnny LeBlanc, as well as both his grandfathers, Tuis LeBlanc and Stanley Chiasson who were Acadian fiddlers. He formed a band called "Elmo LeBlanc and His Musicians" and they performed for 16 years. He has played for kitchen parties and dances, as well as radio and television. He has also performed at Le Pays de la Sagouine. He composed the tune "The Arcadian Reel". When not busy fiddling, he works for B.A.Richards Fish Plant where he has been employed for 20 years.

Discography: 1. "Fiddler Elmo LeBlanc - Son of Acadian Pioneer". Recorded at Rite Track Productions, Leominister, Ma. LP and cassette. (1984) 2. "Elmo LeBlanc-Acadian Fiddler" produced by Raymond Legere, cassette (1994)

Zélie-Anne Poirier

Zélie-Anne Poirier, also known as Zélianna à Jos Bibienne. She was born September 2, 1922 in St. Nicholas, PEI the second youngest daughter and one of 14 children of Joseph B. Arsenault and Julie-Anne LeClair of Egmont Bay. Joseph B had been previously married to Bibienne Arsenault. Joseph was a fiddler and Julie played pump organ and step-danced. They were poor but there was always music. Zélie said that “I was so dang poor I was born bare naked, and you can’t get any poorer than that.” She learned to step dance and play the fiddle when she was 7 or 8 years old, as well as playing the mouth organ, the piano, the pump organ as well as some guitar and accordion. Zélia and her sisters were the first women on PEI to perform in public. 

Amand Arsenault kick up his heels while Zélie-Anne fiddles and Georges Arsenault looks on.

Thérèse Albert

"La musique, c'est toute my vie": that pretty much sums up Thérèse (Landry) Albert's love of music and life. She was born April 24, 1926 in St. Anne de Bocage, New Brunswick. Her family was musical and her father played the fiddle at musical events and weddings to supplement the family income. When she was 13, Thérèse borrowed her father's fiddle and learned to play a few tunes. When her father found out, he was overjoyed and Thérèse went on to celebrate a lifetime of music. She married Gilles Albert  in 1947 and put away the fiddle for almost 30 years while her kids were growing up. In 1979 under the encouragement of her husband (who played harmonica) and with the fiddle her father had left her when he died, she entered a fiddle competition in Lamèque. Despite the fact that it was mostly men who played fiddle publicly, she won the competition and went on to play concerts and festivals all over the Acadian peninsula, where she was often the only female fiddler. In 1991 she took part in a television program "Le Temps de Vivre" that was recorded at the Le Village Acadien. She continued to perform at the Acadian village for a number of years.

Abel Cormier

Abel Cormier was born 1954 in Cap Pelé, New Bruswick. His father, Nazaire Cormier was also an Acadian fiddler and fiddle maker. Abel started playing fiddle when he was 9 years old and quickly became part of various musical groups that promoted Acadian music. In 1997 he played with Broucayen and Les Inconnus. He joined up with Richard Bourque in 1981 to from the Abel and Richard duo then in 1986 joined the group Déja Vu and they released an albu called Le Chemin du Reveil. In 1994 Abel started performing at Le Pays de la Sagouine in Bouctouche  and also played with two popular groups: Bois France (1995) and Les Turluteux (1997). 

Dominic Cyr

Sébastien Leblanc

Sébastien Leblanc, one of the up and coming young fiddlers from Acadia, was born in Néguac, New Brunswick. He  studied Celtic as well as Classical violin and plays with the group La Virée. He also played fiddle on the CD of the publication Parlures d'Acadie.

For some samples of the tunes on this cd, go to: http://www.albumtrad.com/fr/la-viree/00946-1-2-3-go.xhtml

Joe Cormier

Joe Cormier was born March 19th, 1927 in Chéticamp, an Acadian settlement in Cape Breton Nova Scotia. He grew up speaking French and was from a musical family, but the musical tradition around him was mostly Scottish. His father played Irish and Scottish tunes and Joe started performing as early as 9 years old and by age 14 was playing for dances at the parish halls. He was a protégé of Angus Chisolm and Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald, adopting the Cape Breton repertoire. Another import an influence was Placide Odo. who played more the French style of fiddling. According to Joe Cormier "French fiddling is more free-flowing and Scottish fiddling is more pronounced and better for step dancing". He later moved to Waltham, Massachusetts in the 1960's to work as an electrical engineer and played often for the dances at the French American Victory club. There is a brief appearance of Joe Cormier playing at the club on the 1989 John Bishop documentary called New England Dances.  Joe recorded two albums for Rounder records in the 1970's. These early recordings have been remastered and re-released in a compilation CD from Rounder called The Dances Down Home. 

Sources:

http://www.backtothesugarcamp.com/C2.htm#cormier

http://arts.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/joseph-cormier

Robert Deveaux

Acadian fiddler, pianist, and singer Robert Deveau grew up in St-Joseph-du-Moine, just south of Chéticamp on Cape Breton Island. His influences as a fiddler include Arthur Muise and Donnie LeBlanc. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in French from St. Francis Xavier University and worked as a fiddler and guide at the Fortress of Louisbourg Historical Site. He has revived the unique style of playing fiddle and singing of Joseph Athanase Larade and is a respected researcher and collector of Acadian songs. He can be heard playing fiddle on the album Pure Celtic Hearts Volume 2 by Cape Breton pianist Maybelle Chisholm McQueen. Click on the link for a great review of Robert's playing on the CD https://www.mail-archive.com/scots-l@argyll.wisemagic.com/msg03938.html

Emile Bénoit

Emile Josheph Bénoit was born March 24th, 1913 at Black Duck Rock, Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and died September 3rd, 1992. He was a fiddler, composer and storyteller, as well as a fisherman, logger, carpenter and blacksmith. He described his fiddle style as: "a little bit of Scots, a little bit of Irish, a little bit of Québécois, a little bit of French - all mixed together". He was a prolific composer of tunes, almost two hundred composed around dreams or things that he had seen. He made appearances at festivals throughout Canada, the USA, and Europe and there are three albums of his tunes: Emile's Dream (1979), It Comes From the Heart (1982) and Vive la Rose (1992). Emile's version of the song Viva la Rose was the basis of an animated short by Bruse Alcock from the National Film Board of Canada.

“« Oui, je suis fier d’aider les Français à survivre
ici. Je n’ai pas d’ennemis, pas de mauvais amis,
je suis juste un homme libre. »
Émile Benoît”

Émile Bénoît, conteur, folkloriste et violoneux est né la 24 mars 1913 à l'Anse-à-Canards, Terre-Neuve. Son père était d'origine française et sa mère était d'origine acadienne de Chéticamp. Il devint pêcheur à 12 ans et continua le métier de pêcheur le rest de sa vie. Il était également charpentier et forgeron et avait des connaissances en médecine. Ce n'est qu'à l'age de 60 ans qu'il se consacra entièrement à la musique et remporta de nombreux prix et participa à de nombreux festivals. Il était également compositeur avec plus de 200 mélodies à son compte. Il enregistra trois disques: Émile's Drean en 1979, Ça vient du Tchoeur en1982 et Vive la Rose en 1992.

For the notation for almost all of the tunes he wrote, the best source is the Kelly Russell collection. Another source of information is the  article by Getty Nygaard King in the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Sources:

http://www.backtothesugarcamp.com/B.htm#benoit

Rufus Guinchard

Rufus Guinchard was born September 6th, 1899 in Daniel's Harbour Newfoundland. He started learning to play when he was 11 years old and would hold the bow in the middle with the fiddle against his chest and over the right shoulder. He stayed with this style throughout his life (see photo above). Here's a quote from the liner notes of his first album: "He began on an old fiddle his father had and though it was broken he managed, ingeniously, to repair the holds with birch-bark and glue from boiled caribou skins; his second and third strings he made from lobster twine, his fine string from the strong thread used to sew skin boots and the bow he made by tightly running sewing cotton (#38) from top to bottom. For rosin he used a knob of frankum. Perked up on the kitchen table with his feet on the chair he began his career as a fiddler. Not wishing to be caught in the act of learning he tucked the base of the fiddle under his unbuttoned shirt under his right shoulder so that he could lean forward to look out the window and spot anyone who might be approaching. From this furtive activity grew a musical style that would charm the country". Besides playing fiddle and accordion, he worked as a fisherman, logger, trapper, seaman. laborer, and carpenter. He played for dances first around Daniel's Harbour then around Port Saunders, Newfoundland. 

His first LP was Rufus Guinchard - Newfoundland Fiddler, followed by Step Dances & Tunes. A third album Humouring the Tunes was published after his death and includes two of his accordion pieces. There is also a book about him with notations of his tunes by Kelly Russell. 

Rufus Guinchard - Fathers of the Newfoundland Fiddle Volume 1

For more information on Rufus Guinchard, here are some links:

http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/nflds/article/view/10100/10357

http://www.pigeoninlet.com/collect.htm

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/arts/rufus_video.html