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 Allagash Batteau Crew.–Photo: Darlene Coltart  Don Roy  Greg Boardman explains his teaching methods. PDF of this Article (2.5MB)
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BOATBUILDERS, FIDDLERS, AND A NATIVE AMERICAN SINGER make up
the 2008 class of Traditional Arts Masters who will train apprentices to continue their work. Boat builder John Connors was born in the Depression in Allagash, Maine, during a time when the log drives were a major occupation on the
St. John River. He learned the art of making river Batteaux from his grandfather in the 1940s, and joined the family boat shop in St. Francis, ME. Batteaux were long, shallow boats used by river drivers to guide the logs and break apart logjams on the river. In the early 19th century, the Connors family built various types of boats in Pictou, Nova Scotia, where John's great-great grandfather built dories for the Atlantic fishing trade. Before the logging companies stopped transporting logs on the Allagash and St. John Rivers, John worked seven successive river drives in Batteaux and wooden motorboats.
With his wealth of knowledge, John is known in the Allagash region as a raconteur and storyteller, with a repertoire of tales about the river drives. John will be assisted by Dave Wylie, who operates a boat shop in St. David, Maine. Together they will train 16-year-old Chace Jackson in the art of making a river Batteau. Connors and Wylie built a Batteau for the 2006 Acadian Festival, and Connors credits that Batteau with generating some interest in the history of the area.
"It keeps the tradition alive. The boat that we built for Madawaska seems to have awakened people about what really did happen. It was an important
log-driving town. "It was a ride in that boat that piqued Jackson's interest in the Batteau", said Connors. Jackson's father was a logger, and Jackson recently got valuable experience working as a curator for the Allagash historical society. Now he'll get a chance for some hands-on experience building a Batteau. "He's not going to watch me do that," says Connors. "He's going to have to do most of the work, and he's eager to work at it."
Our next grant recipient is Don Roy, who at the age of 15 was allowed to take one of his uncle's fiddles home with him to practice. Don's uncle is Lucien Mattheiu, a master fiddler. Roy visited his uncle frequently, each time, learning a tune or two from him, and on weekends he would sit in on the music sessions at family gatherings. Roy learns most of his tunes by ear, though he can occasionally be found thumbing though written collections of fiddle tunes. He currently commands a large repertoire of Franco and Celtic tunes. He won his first fiddle contest at the age of 16, and has claimed other awards since, including the Maine State Champion Fiddler in 1990, the Massachusetts State Champion in 1986, and the second and third place winner at the Northeast Fiddlers in Barre, Vermont in 1980 and 1982 respectively. He has performed at numerous festivals including the Folk Masters series at Wolf Trap, and the American Folk Festival in Bangor. Roy is also a teacher; he holds monthly "Fiddle-icious gatherings, teaching traditional tunes to as many as 50 people who turn up for the workshops. Roy credits the influence of his teachers for his mastery of the fiddle.
Don explains, "I've played a lot of Irish tunes, played quite a bit of Cape Breton stuff, but when I go back to the French Canadian stuff, the tunes that I learned as a kid, and play my favorite tunes, you can hear reflections of Lucien's playing in there, and you can hear reflections of the people I learned the tunes from, Ben Guillemette, or Bill Darrah, or Gerry Robichaud. If I learned a tune from those people, you can hear the reflections."
Now Roy has his own opportunity to teach an apprentice, 15-year-old Matthew Lamare, who comes from a family of Franco musicians.
The third Traditional Arts Master is also a fiddler. Greg Boardman began his musical life as a rock n' roll artist, but he soon found himself under the spell of the fiddle in 1970, and now teaches orchestra at Lewiston Public Schools. He learned many of his traditional tunes from master fiddlers Otto Soper of Orland and Simon St. Pierre of Smyrna Mills, as well as Ben Guillemette and Lucien Mattheiu. Greg has performed extensively with the Northern Valley Boys, the Moosetones, the Ben Guillemette Ensemble and the Canterbury Dance Orchestra. He frequently performs in a quartet with his three sons. Boardman's apprentice, Jasmine Chick is a high school junior who plays and writes traditional fiddle tunes. Boardman says, "It's a pleasure to work with an apprentice so motivated. The apprenticeship award allows him to 'really hunker down' and work with the apprentice on a one-to-one basis." Performing together at a recent coffee house, they made sure the audience members appreciated the grant made by the Maine Arts Commission.
The last of the 2008 Traditional Arts Masters is none other than Watie Akins, a Penobscot elder, drummer and singer who makes his living as a civil engineer. His father was a musician and his mother, Little Elk, performed as a dancer and singer on stages in the United State and Europe. Watie has performed in pageants and stage performances as a drummer and singer since grammar school. He retired in 1997 and throughout his retirement has devoted his time to researching Penobscot culture. He is particularly interested in recovering and preserving detailed aspects of Penobscot music and drumming that have been obscured by influences from Native American tribes farther west. Guided by the work of Natalie Curtis Burlin, who documented Native American music in the 19th century, and his own singing and drumming experience, Akins is teaching Penobscot music to his apprentice, James Neptune. Neptune works at the Penobscot Nation museum as museum coordinator. Neptune is learning the pageant songs that Akins first heard 65 years ago. "I'm getting a big kick out of it," says Akins, and even though they are using the work of Curtis Burlin as a reference, he is not adopting a museum approach to the music. "I don't consider my culture dead. I'm still using my culture." In fact, Akins is now thinking about going into the schools to sing with some of the younger children. "It seems like such a small thing, but it still strengthens the culture."
 Apprentice Chace Jackson stands with Dave Wylie and John Connors as they receive recognition from Maine Arts Commission Chair, John Rohman. |
 Watie Akins left demonstrates traditional songs to his apprentice James E. Neptune. |
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