Graham Townsend (Fiddler)

Graham Townsend ( Craig Townsend ; born June 16, 1942 in Toronto , † December 3, 1998 in Barrie ) was a Canadian folk musician ( fiddle , mandolin , piano, composition).

Career

Graham Townsend was the son of Fred Townsend , longtime square dance caller for Don Messer and His Islanders . He has played the violin since childhood and won the fiddle competition 30 and under at the annual music day of the Canadian National Exhibition when he was nine . Soon he learned repertoire and playing technique from Tom McQuestion and Billy Crawford and began touring with Don Messer and performing at the CBC . At the age of eleven he took third place at the Canadian Open Old Time Fiddlers Contest , the winner of which he was in 1963 and annually from 1968 to 1970.

From 1963 Townsend went on tours sponsored by the CBC and the Ministry of Defense or Foreign Affairs to Germany, France and Italy (1963, 1964), Cyprus (1967), England and Jersey (1981), Australia (1982, 1983 and 1988) to the GDR and Scotland (1984). Since 1973 he was often accompanied by his second wife, Eleanor Townsend . From 1985 to 1991 he performed annually at the Shetland Folk Festival .

In 1964, Townsend starred on the Star Route show in Toronto for 36 weeks . He then took over the radio and television show Happy Wanderers from Ward Allen in Ottawa . He also appeared on television with Don Messer and was a guest on shows by Tommy Hunter , Ronnie Prophet and the Family Brown, as well as the show Up Home Tonight by CBC Halifax TV and, from 1991, That Country Feeling by mC TV.

Townsend has recorded more than forty albums and recorded around two hundred of his four hundred original tracks, including Royal Princess Two Step , Rocking Chair Jake , Debbie's Waltz , Maytime Swing , Black Jack Whiskey , My Dungannon Sweetheart , Swinging in the 80s and Ice on the Road . As a fiddler, he accompanied musicians such as Carroll Baker , Stompin ' Tom Conners , Dolly Parton , Fred Penner , Raffi , Sharon , Lois & Bram and Sneezy Waters and also made recordings as a mandolinist and pianist (with Fiddler Joe Loutchan ). He is a founding member of the Ontario Old Time Fiddlers Association . He was inducted into the Fiddlers Hall of Fame in Oceola in 1982, the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990, and the Canadian National Fiddling Hall of Fame in 1998. In 1991 he was nominated for a Juno Award , in 1993 he and his wife received the Porcupine Award and at the Canadian Grandmasters Fiddling Championships in 1998 the Lifetime Achievement Award . Townsend died of cancer in December 1998, and his wife Eleanor was killed in a fire on New Year's Eve of the same year.

Web links

• Dorothy Hogan, "The Fiddlers will play on three strings for quite a while," Canadian Folk Music Bulletin
• Al Yetman: A Tribute to Graham Townsend , Canadian Folk Music Bulletin
• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Graham Townsend