Post by SherbrookeJacobite on Apr 5, 2010 10:59:27 GMT -6
From the Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald newspaper.
Bow genius
15-year-old fiddling prodigy from Cape Breton releases CD
By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE Truro Bureau
Mon. Apr 5 - 4:53 AM
CHETICAMP — Close to 200 fans, friends and musicians crammed into the famed Doryman Beverage Room on Sunday because every once in a while Cape Breton Island breeds a fiddler with a spark of pure genius.
The spark seemed more like a raging bonfire at the launch of teenager Douglas Cameron’s debut CD.
"Oh, Douglas is a prodigy — there’s no doubt of that," proclaimed famed multi-instrumentalist J.P. Cormier, who makes his home along these rugged shores.
"He’s only 15 years old and his expertise is way past what any 15-year-old should ever even think about," Cormier said.
"By the time he’s 20, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a fiddler fit to carry his case."
The CD was recorded in Cormier’s studio in Cap Le Moine, just up the road from Belle Cote where Douglas lives with his parents, Jeanette and Lawrence Cameron, and sister Rose.
It has been said the quiet teenager plays fiddle like he’s channelling the great Winston (Scotty) Fitzgerald.
"I call him Little Scotty," Cormier laughed.
No greater compliment can be given to a Cape Breton fiddler — at least around these parts, known as a hotbed of Celtic music.
But people have been saying these kinds of things about Douglas since he first took up the fiddle at age nine. It would seem to be an overstatement — until he picks up the instrument and begins to play.
For when he tucks the fiddle under his chin and takes bow in hand, he drives those tunes from the instrument with a fierce, unexpected power and beauty.
There is technical mastery of the instrument and then there is just plain magic. He has an exquisite use of musical embellishments — not too much, never forced — and an incredible lift to his playing that sends even the fussiest step dancers to the floor.
The light-haired, blue-eyed Douglas is a serious young man who tends to blush when people gather around to sing his praises.
"Every fiddler has his own style and there’s a lot of good fiddlers around here," he said. "I have a lot of room to improve."
Not that you could tell.
From infancy, this lad has been steeped in both the culture and the music.
Maybe his ability stems from growing up with the dark, brooding Highlands in his backyard and blue ocean waters at his doorstep.
All along the rugged coastline of Cape Breton, tiny communities with names like Troy and Creignish have given birth to fiddlers such as the golden-locked Natalie MacMaster and the so-called Celtic bad boy, Ashley MacIsaac, a virtual fiddling wizard.
But if you go into the coves and inlets, the interior towns and villages, you’ll also find the likes of Allie Bennett and Howie MacDonald.
There are plenty of fiddlers in Cape Breton and arguably some of the finest musicians in the world.
That still doesn’t account for Douglas’s talent.
"Probably nothing does, but he does take the music seriously and he studies the masters," Cormier said.
Some of the musicians featured on Douglas’s CD include fiddlers such as Marc Boudreau, Colin Grant and Cormier himself. The CD also features piano accompanists Hilda Chiasson, Joey Beaton and Douglas’s father Lawrence and grandmother Catherine Cameron.
Lawrence Cameron recalls when his son first picked up the fiddle.
"Well, he started piano when he was five, but he switched over to the fiddle when he was nine years old," he said.
Cameron, a music teacher at Cape Breton Highlands Academy, where his son is in Grade 10, said he remembers hearing Douglas play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the fiddle.
"I heard him playing in his room one day and I thought, ‘He’s doing pretty well,’ " he recalled.
"Then he started to play it faster, and then he slowed it down, and then he started to add some things, and gosh, I thought, ‘He’s really got something.’ "
Six years later, Cormier says that "something" is what will catapult the teenager to be counted among the greats.
But there’s no stardust in Douglas’s eyes and no strut in his walk. His feet are planted firmly on the ground.
"Douglas has just got an immense gift, and he’s so unassuming, polite and respectful — he’s a special, special kid," Cormier said.
"One of the things he’s also got is two of the finest parents you could find.
"They’re smart, wary, and they look out for him without getting in the way."
The proud parents have backed the CD themselves.
"I’m going to pay them back, though," the young fiddler said.
The CD will be available at many stores in Cape Breton or by mail, c/o Douglas Cameron, 11068 Cabot Trail Rd., Belle Cote, N.S., B0E 1C0.
( mmacintyre@herald.ca)
Bow genius
15-year-old fiddling prodigy from Cape Breton releases CD
By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE Truro Bureau
Mon. Apr 5 - 4:53 AM
CHETICAMP — Close to 200 fans, friends and musicians crammed into the famed Doryman Beverage Room on Sunday because every once in a while Cape Breton Island breeds a fiddler with a spark of pure genius.
The spark seemed more like a raging bonfire at the launch of teenager Douglas Cameron’s debut CD.
"Oh, Douglas is a prodigy — there’s no doubt of that," proclaimed famed multi-instrumentalist J.P. Cormier, who makes his home along these rugged shores.
"He’s only 15 years old and his expertise is way past what any 15-year-old should ever even think about," Cormier said.
"By the time he’s 20, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a fiddler fit to carry his case."
The CD was recorded in Cormier’s studio in Cap Le Moine, just up the road from Belle Cote where Douglas lives with his parents, Jeanette and Lawrence Cameron, and sister Rose.
It has been said the quiet teenager plays fiddle like he’s channelling the great Winston (Scotty) Fitzgerald.
"I call him Little Scotty," Cormier laughed.
No greater compliment can be given to a Cape Breton fiddler — at least around these parts, known as a hotbed of Celtic music.
But people have been saying these kinds of things about Douglas since he first took up the fiddle at age nine. It would seem to be an overstatement — until he picks up the instrument and begins to play.
For when he tucks the fiddle under his chin and takes bow in hand, he drives those tunes from the instrument with a fierce, unexpected power and beauty.
There is technical mastery of the instrument and then there is just plain magic. He has an exquisite use of musical embellishments — not too much, never forced — and an incredible lift to his playing that sends even the fussiest step dancers to the floor.
The light-haired, blue-eyed Douglas is a serious young man who tends to blush when people gather around to sing his praises.
"Every fiddler has his own style and there’s a lot of good fiddlers around here," he said. "I have a lot of room to improve."
Not that you could tell.
From infancy, this lad has been steeped in both the culture and the music.
Maybe his ability stems from growing up with the dark, brooding Highlands in his backyard and blue ocean waters at his doorstep.
All along the rugged coastline of Cape Breton, tiny communities with names like Troy and Creignish have given birth to fiddlers such as the golden-locked Natalie MacMaster and the so-called Celtic bad boy, Ashley MacIsaac, a virtual fiddling wizard.
But if you go into the coves and inlets, the interior towns and villages, you’ll also find the likes of Allie Bennett and Howie MacDonald.
There are plenty of fiddlers in Cape Breton and arguably some of the finest musicians in the world.
That still doesn’t account for Douglas’s talent.
"Probably nothing does, but he does take the music seriously and he studies the masters," Cormier said.
Some of the musicians featured on Douglas’s CD include fiddlers such as Marc Boudreau, Colin Grant and Cormier himself. The CD also features piano accompanists Hilda Chiasson, Joey Beaton and Douglas’s father Lawrence and grandmother Catherine Cameron.
Lawrence Cameron recalls when his son first picked up the fiddle.
"Well, he started piano when he was five, but he switched over to the fiddle when he was nine years old," he said.
Cameron, a music teacher at Cape Breton Highlands Academy, where his son is in Grade 10, said he remembers hearing Douglas play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the fiddle.
"I heard him playing in his room one day and I thought, ‘He’s doing pretty well,’ " he recalled.
"Then he started to play it faster, and then he slowed it down, and then he started to add some things, and gosh, I thought, ‘He’s really got something.’ "
Six years later, Cormier says that "something" is what will catapult the teenager to be counted among the greats.
But there’s no stardust in Douglas’s eyes and no strut in his walk. His feet are planted firmly on the ground.
"Douglas has just got an immense gift, and he’s so unassuming, polite and respectful — he’s a special, special kid," Cormier said.
"One of the things he’s also got is two of the finest parents you could find.
"They’re smart, wary, and they look out for him without getting in the way."
The proud parents have backed the CD themselves.
"I’m going to pay them back, though," the young fiddler said.
The CD will be available at many stores in Cape Breton or by mail, c/o Douglas Cameron, 11068 Cabot Trail Rd., Belle Cote, N.S., B0E 1C0.
( mmacintyre@herald.ca)