Transcript

File Name: albertjoe06-oh-gettingstarted_stepdancing_M.mp3

Speakers:
JA: Joe Albert

IA: Ivan Albert

KP: Ken Perlman

KP: Joe, how old were you when you started to play the fiddle?

JA: How old? I wasn’t too very old. And I learned to hold the fiddle up. At 13 I was playing for dances, anyway.

KP: How did you learn to play?

JA: I just learned by myself.

KP:Did you watch people?

JA: Well my grandfather used to play a little bit and I watched him, and then there was a fellow right across from me playin’ the fiddle for a long while…

KP: What was his name?

JA: Arthur Arsenault, he was an Arsenault.

IA: Then our other grandfather used to play the fiddle, Peter Albert. He was a champion step-dancer from pretty near all over the world, that’s all, when he was young.

KP: Where did he got to compete?

IA: He went up even to the States to compete.

KP: When was that?

IA: Oh, before my time. The time he took the prize, I heard them talk, now this is just rumors, I don’t know. Where he beat the other fellow, he danced upstairs, goin’ up the stairs and the other fellow didn't do it. That's the only way he beat him. The other fellow had him, or I guess they were pretty even. But when he was done he went down the stairs step-dancing, he went up it; [and] he took the prize.