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When you see us performing, you’re hearing not just the music but the stories behind the instruments we play. Every instrument carries its own history — and sometimes, they need a little expert care to keep making music. Last week I visited Tracy Cox’s studio in Parishville to pick up three instruments he’d been working…
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A friend recently asked me whether the North Country—northern New York State, where I grew up—has its own distinctive fiddle style. My immediate answer was: No—at least, not in the way Cape Breton or Quebecois styles are recognized as distinct musical dialects. Even if I don’t have the authority to declare that definitively, the conclusion still holds…
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Since Jeremy moved to the North Country from Winnipeg in 2019, we’ve found ourselves playing more and more with Don Woodcock. A couple of years ago, he invited us to join him for a set at the North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame picnic in Osceola. We started rehearsing for that show at our house and we…
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I have two favourite violins—both 19th-century Bohemian instruments—and each found its way to me in an unexpected way. The first came from a violin shop in Ottawa in 2019. We were staying in Gatineau for a week while the kids attended summer camps, and I spent my days happily fiddling in the little house we’d…
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What do we pack for a beach vacation? Instruments, of course. When my mom invited us to join her for two weeks in Aruba, one of our first thoughts was: we’re going to get bored sitting on a beach for that long—we need to bring instruments. It’s impossible for us to be bored if there’s music to play.…
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When the pandemic hit, Jeremy’s work as a full-time musician came to a sudden stop. Like many performers, his gigs disappeared overnight. While he continued to do remote recording work from the studio in our attic—something he regularly does for musicians across Canada—there was a moment of collective uncertainty. People weren’t ready to move forward with projects.…
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A few years ago, we were invited to play for a Robbie Burns Supper at the beautiful Brigadoon Restaurant in Oxford Mills, Ontario. Such an honour—but there was just one problem: I didn’t have two hours’ worth of Scottish tunes. Could we pull it off anyway? Worth a try! The event didn’t require us to stick to Scottish material…