Skipper

She's a dory, not a taxi.

Where do you want to go.

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A shared trip

Games

Come in. Pull up a chair.

Trivia

The Board

Them days you sent a youngster up the road to say there was a game on. Now you send the code, and if a chair's still empty when you deal, one of the regulars takes it.

Advertise here

Down the road

Well, Sunday after Mass we'd walk it. Start at the gate and go down, and every house along here I'll tell you who's in it.

Newfoundland Fiddle Music Tradition

Newfoundland has one of the most vibrant and distinctive fiddle music traditions in North America, shaped by centuries of Irish, Scottish, English, and French immigration. The Irish influence is dominant — particularly in the Avalon Peninsula where Irish settlers concentrated from the late eighteenth century onward — but Newfoundland fiddle music developed its own regional character, distinct from

Newfoundland has one of the most vibrant and distinctive fiddle music traditions in North America, shaped by centuries of Irish, Scottish, English, and French immigration. The Irish influence is dominant — particularly in the Avalon Peninsula where Irish settlers concentrated from the late eighteenth century onward — but Newfoundland fiddle music developed its own regional character, distinct from mainland Irish or Cape Breton styles. Newfoundland fiddle tunes are often lively reels, jigs, and hornpipes, but also include slower airs and distinctive local compositions. The tradition was maintained through oral transmission at kitchen parties, dances, and community gatherings rather than through formal instruction. Key figures in the tradition include Émile Benoit, a Franco-Newfoundland fiddler from the Port au Port Peninsula whose style blended French Acadian and Irish influences, and Rufus Guinchard, an outport fiddler from the Northern Peninsula who became a beloved national figure late in his life. The Great Big Sea, the Newfoundland folk-rock band that achieved major commercial success in the 1990s and 2000s, drew extensively on the fiddle tradition and introduced Newfoundland music to international audiences. Organizations like the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Arts Society have worked to document and promote the tradition. Fiddle music remains central to Newfoundland identity — at any kitchen party, festival, or community event, a fiddler is likely at the heart of it.

Fact

On the go

Them days the garden party was the whole summer. Here's what's on the go now, and when.

The kitchen

Well, Sunday the pot was on before Mass and the smell of it met you at the gate. Here's what was in it, and how it's done.

The hall

Them days the hall had a dance Saturday and the kitchen had music the rest of the week. It's still playing. Come in and listen.

The yarns

He said, you know the one about the light on the water. I said, I do. That's a story, mind, and I'll tell you which parts.

Not the house

No, I said, that's not the house. It was down just below there. Go back up the road.

Back up the road