PEI Fiddling
Ken’s Work in Folklore on Prince Edward Island
Ken has spent over twenty-five years studying the fiddle music and folklore of Prince Edward Island (PEI). According toFiddler Magazine, his tune-book The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island: Celtic and Acadian Tunes in Living Tradition (Mel Bay Publications), “rates as the most important published contribution to the study of a Canadian Maritime fiddle tradition.” He has also served as producer for three field-recording projects involving PEI. fiddlers: The Old Time Fiddlers of Prince Edward Island (Marimac), The Fiddle Music of PEI companion CD , and a two-CD set called The Prince Edward Island Style of Fiddling (Rounder).
New Developments
Ken’s book on the history and cultural background of traditional Prince Edward Island fiddling – based on oral histories collected from over 150 fiddlers and other “Islanders” – has been published recently by University of Tennessee Press. The title is Couldn’t Have a Wedding Without the Fiddler: the Story of Traditional Fiddling on Prince Edward Island.
Ken is now curator of a new website devoted to PEI fiddling called Bowing Down Home (bowingdownhome.ca), based on his writing and field recordings.
Click here for some press coverage of Ken’s original P.E.I. fiddling project