Transcript

File: morrisseyjohnny-oh-gettingstarted_M.mp3

Speakers:

JM – Johnny Morrissey

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

KP: How old were you when you took up the fiddle?

JM Oh I guess I was about 15 or 16. I've been playing that long and [inaudible]. I played for the first dance in Iona, that's the next settlement to our place, on Easter Monday night. I played for one set, they asked me to play, they heard about me playing the fiddle or trying to play it, and got me to play for a set. I played for a set: a square dance.

KP What made you want to take up the fiddle?

JM I always had kind of a liking for the music of a fiddle. There's nothing any better. You can play the bagpipes all day but I'd sooner the violin.

KP Where did you hear the fiddle?

JM There was a neighbor that was next door, and me grandfather lived up in the next house over, and this neighbor used to play the violin; he was my godfather to begin with.

KP What was he name?

JM Peckingham was his name, he was from the States, but he was married to a girl from down Newtown there, and they lived there on her mother's place there. They lived there for a while, and he used to play the violin a bit. And I'd be walking up to me grandfather's, and I'd be passin’ the house and I'd hear the violin going. I'd stand, I'd listen. I wouldn't go in, but I'd just stand out in the yard and listen to the music. It sounded good to me. So that's how I got to be kind of interested in the violin.

KP Did you learn any tunes that way, just by walking by his house?

JM Oh, I had tunes in me head at the time when I was quite young.

KP How did they get there?

JM I don't know, just listening people singin’ and jiggin’, or whatever.

KP Who used to jig around your house?

JM Me mother used to jig a bit. That used to be all the music they had at one time. At dances, they'd just - An old fellow would sit down and jig away there all night.

KP Was this in your time?

JM No, before – I used to hear them talkin’ about it. No.