Interview excerpt (AU1998-1072-013)

Interview excerpt (AU1998-1072-013)

Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1072-013) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.

VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1072 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center

Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1072

deu

vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1072-001b-005

sound cassette (analog)

AG: That's a song I learned when I was quite young.  My mother's song.

 

MP: You learned that one from your mother?

 

AG: Ya.

 

MP:  What is for a special occasion.

 

AG: Non, she sang it and I wanted to learn it.

 

MP:  Your mother sang a lot too?

 

AG: Ya, she knew a lot of songs. She didn't sing as much as l do. .... Once in a while she sing a song but... she used to sing those songs, at home.

 

MP:  You were one of twelve kids? Do you all sing, everybody?

 

AG: Most of us, most of us knew how to sing you know. We enjoyed singing a lot and my brothers and sisters. They all could sing.

 

MP:  Did any of them played instruments?

 

AG: No,...

 

MP:  All singers.

 

AG: Ya.

 

MP:  Did your father sing?

 

AG: My father could sing too.

 

MP:  Ya?

 

AG: There was one of my brothers that ... he had a fiddle, he started to learn but he never played too much. I played, I played then an old organ. When we moved to

Vermont there was an old organ, it wasn't playing at all, my brother, he fixed it, he cleaned it all up and put it back, all the notes; after that, it was playing pretty

good...

 

MP:  Wow.

 

AG: ... and I learned some, some cord myself, you know, I used to try to sit and play some song, you know. I managed to play a little bit, not that much. I learned some cords and my husband, he used to play fiddle and I played cords. We always had a piano; after we were married we always had a piano at home and he played the fiddle and I played the piano. I never could play very very very good. I didn't

practice enough.

 

MP:  How many children, did you and your husband have?

 

AG: Fifteen.

 

MP:  Fifteen? you had fifteen children? ... and do they sing?

 

AG: Most of them like to sing. They're not all living, four, lost four, I lost three when they were young, you know and my oldest daughter died, died of cancer. The others are

all in good health. They like to sing.

 

MP:  Did any of your children picked up the fiddle like their

dad?

 

AG: One of my boys, Eddie, he plays the fiddle, he plays the guitar, he plays the piano. He was only three years old, he used to want to play the piano. I let him play along,

he could play some cord. At about six years old, he could accompany his father at the piano.

 

MP:  Wow!

 

AG: lt was so cute. His father knew a lot of tune, he changed the tune... Y changeait sa tune et puis, y ayait des accords et y changeait les accords. Y avait une bonne oreille. He still plays, he earns his living playing.

 

MP:  oh he does. Where does he live?

 

AG: He lives in Florida.

 

MP:  Florida?

 

AG: Ya. He has a piano and all kind of music. He is a one man band. He plays alone but it sounds like a lot of people playing...

 

MP:  Right.

 

AG: ...he makes pretty good money.