Fiddler on the Rock
By Dr Kevin McCann
In 1975, Toronto native Paul Crawford aged 21 hitch-hiked to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Little did he know that at the end of his journey there was a career as a light house keeper waiting for him! While camping in Northern Cape Breton Paul struck up a conversation with a mailman Lantz Cook who spoke to him of a possible lighthouse keeping lob on St PauIs, a remote island located in the Gulf of St Lawrence about 140 miles from Cape Breton. After a haircut he got the job! The first year Paul spent 11 months in isolation on the rock. The following year his position changed to a 28 day rotation programme.
When Paul first set out on his journey he also didn’t know that there was a rich Cape Breton musical tradition and a unique career in music publishing ahead of him. A Banjo player, Paul had never heard Cape Breton fiddle music. However he began to meet local players and embarked on the ideal musical lifestyle … a month of travelling and visiting fiddlers, followed by a month of lighthouse isolation spent digesting music and practising. This lifestyle has brought Paul into musical households throughout Cape Breton and after twenty years and thousands of cups of tea his repertoire and knowledge of traditional music, Irish and Scottish has expanded far beyond local boundaries. Today Paul is equally versed in Cape Breton, Scottish and Irish fiddle traditions.
Paul began his career in music publishing with the 1979 reissue of ‘THE SKYE COLLECTION’, the classic 18th century Scottish tune book. An early ‘Bible for Cape Breton fiddlers it had been out of print for 50 years. Heralded by fiddlers everywhere, Crawfords edition of the Skye Collection has been sold throughout the world since that time.
Like many of his 18th & 19th century counterparts, Paul has rounded out his understanding of the fiddle tradition through an extensive study of the earlier printed collections and through a combination of collecting, arranging and learning music from local musicians. Since the Skye Collections, Crawford Publications has published several titles including reissues of the ‘SIMON FRASER’ and ‘ALEXANDER WALKER COLLECTIONS’ as well as the highly successful CAPE BRETON MUSICAL HERITAGE SERIES.
The first two books in that series are ‘JERRY HOLLAND’S COLLECTION OF FIDDLE TUNES’ (1988), and ‘BRENDA STUBBERT’S COLLECTIONOF FIDDLE TUNES (1994). Still in demand, Jerry’s book is well on its way to being one of the most popular fiddle books of this century! I can personally attest to this as I use it extensively, learned many great tunes from it and send tunes from it to fiddling friends Brendan McGlinchy, Sean McGoire, John Gordon and others.
THE LIGHTHOUSE COLLECTION is the third book in THE CAPE BRETON MUSICAL HERITAGE SERIES. It features Paul Crawfords compositions combined with a selection of a dozen other Cape Breton composers. In passing I would emphatically state here that there are more composers of fiddle tunes in Cape Breton than anywhere else I know.
A unique feature which will be of help to players who rely more on ear learning is the 69 minute CD included with this book. Fiddler Paul Crawford performs 57 melodies from the book with piano and guitar accompaniment.
There are other guest appearances too…. from fiddler Otis Thomas, guitarist Sonny Slade and Siobhán O’Keeffe, flute. I would mention here that Paul plays a lot of music with Máire, Siobhán and Gráinne O’Keeffe from Tralee who play extensively in Cape Breton and bring a strong Irish influence to Cape Breton fiddle music!
A book for musicians, THE LIGHTHOUSE COLLECTION is available in book/CD (or cassette) set for $27.95 (CANADA), and is available in most popular music outlets, eg WALTONS, DUBLIN or through MAIL ORDER. Listeners can choose to buy the cassette separately for $11.95.
Today, Paul is still a lighthouse keeper, one of the very last! Most other stations have been now automated. His free time on the rock is dedicated to practising, learning and of course, composing new fiddle tunes.
