Canada’s varying styles of fiddle music will come together under one roof in a toe-tapping performance this weekend.
The Prairie Mountain Fiddlers are performing one of their two spring concerts at the Okotoks United Church March 30 at 7:30 p.m., featuring different styles of music that’s influenced the Canadian fiddle scene.
This includes, but isn’t limited to, Scottish, European, Scandinavian, Ukrainian, Norwegian, French Canadian, Irish and Métis.
There will also be Métis and Highland dancers performing at the concert.
“We’ve chosen the theme to be different styles of fiddling influenced by all the nationalities that came to settle in Canada,” said musical director Randy Jones, who lives in High River.
“There’s definitely the heritage aspect of it.”
Jones will serve as conductor for the fiddlers during the concert, but his role is different than what people would typically envision.
“I’m not like a typical conductor, that is conducting all the way through the songs,” he said.
“I get them started and make sure it ends nicely and I sit down and play songs with them. I just count them in and I basically go sit down. I’m not up front at all conducting through the selection.”
Jones said he’s been playing the fiddle since he was nine years old and now enjoys playing with a few different groups.
“This is my passion,” he said. “I’m a dance fiddler. I play for old-time dances. I’ll play jigs, Ukrainian tunes and then real classics that people know. Most of the time we get a senior audience because they’re the ones that grew up with country dances and old time dance bands.”
Audiences love The Prairie Mountain Fiddles for their upbeat, traditional toe tapping tunes, said Jones.
In addition to the fiddle, other instruments in the group include banjo, guitar and even the piano, he said.
“It’s happy music that’s for sure,” he said.
One of the founding members, Gary Giesbrecht, the group’s president, said The Prairie Mountain Fiddlers have been playing since 1986 and draw fiddle players from Calgary and surrounding areas.
“We started meeting once or twice a month with about 25 people,” he said. “Then we started performing for birthday parties and anniversaries in the early 1990s.”
Giesbrecht’s first instrument wasn’t the fiddle, it was the horn.
“My brother and I were raised by our grandparents and my grandfather had been in both wars and played in the band in the army,” he said.
“When they came back they formed a little community band and he became the band master. Naturally, my brother and I grew up playing the horn, but I always wanted to play the fiddle or violin.”
His hopes were dashed slightly when he was told his fingers were too stubby to play, but when a neighbour offered to teach him years later he was game. The neighbour also taught him to play the mandolin and guitar.
“I grew up on old-time fiddle music, what Don Messer would have played,” he said. “I have a passion for music.”
Tickets to see The Prairie Mountain Fiddlers are $15 and can be purchased by calling 403-281-4863, emailing [email protected] or going to brownpapertickets.com/event/4089543 or at the door.
To learn more about the band go to pmfiddlers.ca
