The Métis (“mixed”) people of the Canadian prairies have created a rich “creole” culture formed by the intermarriage of First Nations women and Scottish and French-Canadian fur traders. Musician and ethnomusicologist Anne Lederman did invaluable field work in Manitoba in the 1980s, collecting hundreds of tunes from a now nearly deceased generation of brilliant and little-known Métis fiddlers. This energetic, often “crooked” music has been compared to Picasso’s cubism!
Jig in G from Ebb and Flow
One of the most popular jigs among the Métis fiddlers of the Ebb and Flow area, from the playing of Laurence “Teddy Boy” Houle (1938-2020). The Ebb and Flow reserve is on the west side of Lake Manitoba near the Narrows.
Bacon Ridge Jig
This tune also comes from Teddy Boy Houle and is named for the community of Bacon Ridge, near Ebb and Flow, where he and his family lived.
Grandy Jig in D
Anne Lederman writes that in 1985 Grandy was “the oldest living representative in [western] Manitoba of an entire musical culture that had dominated his part of the prairies since the early 1800s”. Nearly 100 recordings of Grandy are on a special website created by Anne.
