A duck's tale…

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More about Christina | The scoop on Jean
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This is us, Christina and Jean, fooling around. We play traditional Newfoundland music that we’ve learned along the way from older friends (like Rufus Guinchard and Emile Benoît) along with a few originals and some contemporary songs from Newfoundland songwriters such as Ron Hynes.

Ancient history: Since 1985 we’ve been playing music with each other for fun, and with others for money. But it wasn’t until 1996 that we decided to concentrate our performing energies on our duo. So we applied for a showcase at the North American Folk Music & Dance Alliance conference in Toronto. "Nothing like starting at the top" we said, privately thinking that we had a better chance of getting our bums into beer bottles. Contrary to expectations, we won the showcase. Well, sink or swim! Off we went, quacking (whoops, sorry, meant ‘quaking’) in our boots to play our very first gig on the mainland! It was a tremendous experience, and we got to meet some wonderful people who have been our friends ever since. And we got a few gigs to boot.

The merry dancers: Did you know that in Newfoundland the Northern Lights are referred to as the Merry Dancers? In ‘97, FACTOR gave us some money to record an album. We were just finishing up when we met the inimitable Grit Laskin at the Lunenburg Folk Festival. Grit had just gotten together with the cream of the Canadian folk scene (Bill Garret, Ken Whiteley and Paul Mills) to found Canadian folk music label, Borealis. The Lunenburg audience had just given us our very first standing ovation. Anyway, Grit came up to us after our set, and asked if we had an album. We told him we’d just finished Like Ducks! He asked if we would join the label. We said we’d thought about going with a label and decided "Nah, forget that! Not for us." Luckily for us, Grit wouldn’t take no for an answer! We signed with Borealis in 1998 and we can without hestitation say that they are the best label in the universe. We’re still merrily dancing together.

The great adventure: We’ve been touring all over since then, twice to Britain, down to the "Boston States" and across Canada collecting friends and performing. Some of the highlights were sharing a show with Waterson:Carthy in Vancouver, performing at the Button Factory in Waterloo and staying with our Ontario "Mom and Dad" Robin and Pat Jones, playing with Cherish the Ladies, and staying up all night at Celtic Colours with the Moose brigade, trying to keep up with Danu on our tour of Vancouver, Winnipeg and Calgary folk festivals with the Maher’s Bahers, Folk Alliance mainstage showcases in Toronto and Nashville, performing with Jane and Amanda Threlfall and Dave Fletcher and Bill Whalley at the Four Fools Festival in Chorley, playing the Warwick Folk Festival along with Sarah Grey, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, and Waterson:Carthy, our tour in October 2003 with Anne Hills and Aoife Clancy, and every summer that we’ve spent with our wonderful friends at the Celtic College in Goderich. I know I’m forgetting to mention all kinds of stuff--but if you’d like to share in some of the fun, check out the scrapbook pages!

We’re both passionate about passing along the traditions. Jean, who decided that teaching fifty students, chairing the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival programming committee and touring three months a year with the duo wasn’t enough work to do, is now organizing the Newfoundland and Labrador 30th anniversary Folk Festival Come Home Year as head of the St. John's Folk Arts Council Past Presidents Committtee.  Christina also is a board member of the SJFAC. We both teach at workshops and folk music camps, and Christina directs the STEP fiddlers, a subgroup of the Suzuki Talent Education Programme of St. John’s. They learn Mussels in the Corner along with their Twinkles and perform at festivals, benefits and functions in St. John’s. They’ve even got a CD of Newfoundland tunes (coming soon to this website)!

What’s new? Many thanks to the Canada Council for helping us make August Gale! Our album was released in July at a wonderful party at the Masonic Temple in St. John's. Bill and Grit came down along with Sue and Judith, and a great time was had by all (see photos)! Thanks to Erin and Mike for organizing and catering to our fellow Mahershuns Frank and Rick and to everybody who came, listened, ate, danced, and partied! We are thrilled and pleased that August Gale has been nominated for an ECMA. Jean was also honoured with nomination from the Canadian Folk Music Awards for Best Traditional Singer. We were in on the organization of the Accordion Revolution; the largest-ever-recorded-gathering-of accordionists at the 29th annual Festival and then we missed it! We were onstage at the Edmonton Folk Festival when it happened! We're headed across the pond this spring to see all our friends in Britain (see here). Then there's a busy summer with a week of festivities before the Newfoundland and Labrador 30th annual Folk Festival! August will be full of what we enjoy the most--sharing traditional music with others who love it too. We'll be teaching at both the Celtic College in Goderich and Vinland Music Camp, in beautiful Bonne Bay. We'll also be performing at the Celtic Roots Festival in Goderich, and, with Mahers Bahers, at the Woody Point Writers Festival and the Montmagny accordion festival in Quebec.