Canadian Fiddlers

Neil V. Rosenberg is a professor of Folklore and Director of the
Folklore and Language Archive at the Memorial University of
Newfoundland.

Author Guest, an accomplished professional fiddler and the compiler of several fiddle tune books, here presents brief biographical sketches of 157 Canadian fiddlers. The book’s great value lies in its identification of a national community of musicians. Guest compiled the book by sending questionnaires to those who he knew were fiddlers (only those who replied are included). Because of the questionnaire format there is a certain sameness to the biographies — virtually every one includes the names of early influences, favorite fiddlers, favorite tunes, favorite keys, lists of contests won or records made. Of course, these are important facts in the domain of old-time fiddling. But because of such repetition the book is best used as a reference tool rather than a history or ethnography. Given this fact, it seems unfortunate that the editorial direction was not stronger. Not only are there too many typos and grammatical problems, there are not enough indexes. The many fiddle tune titles mentioned in the text should have been indexed, as should the names of the many favorite and influential fiddlers who are mentioned in the text. It is also regrettable that the volume does not clearly specify the present home location for most of the individuals listed; this makes the work of future researchers more difficult. These cavils aside, this is a most welcome volume. It should take its place on the bookshelves of those interested in Canadian fiddling along with Allister MacGillivray’s The Cape Breton Fiddler (Sydney: College of Cape Breton, 1981) and Harold J. Newlove’s Fiddlers of the Canadian West (Swift Current: the author, 1976).