A lively selection of Scottish & Irish folk songs with just a few of Jim's own compositions.

14 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Celtic Folk, FOLK: Irish Traditional

Details:
I began playing folk music publicly in a tiny hall on Domano Boulevard in Prince George, BC back in 1979. PG was and still is a mill town, population then about 70.000 residents and a fair number of them had Celtic roots. The winters were long and hard and we were a long way from any major city. So we made our own fun. Before long I was playing the various coffee houses and small festivals throughout the interior until one day I discovered that music had completely taken over. In 1989, with a very promising music career ahead of me, I simply stopped taking bookings altogether in order to devote more time to my family.


It would be another five years before I started up again. Thatâs the difference, I suppose, between myself and those who have climbed to the top. Itâs a choice that I will never regret however. Thereâs a clever little line in a song that John Denver sung âThank God Iâm a Country Boyâ that goes âStill I fiddle when I can, Work when I shouldâ and that says something to me. I play when I can and although itâs a precious pastime, there are other things to be done.

Iâve squeezed a number of years in there where I played full time, travelled a whole lot and met and played for many, many, fine people. I look at my sons, grown now, and Iâm glad of the time we had when they were young.

When they were old enough. I took to the road again. On many occasions one or both would show up at one of my gigs , their friends in tow! I always get a thrill out of that.

They are young men now and I have a daughter not yet old enough for school. So I've taken a few more years off just to be with her and am now starting my musical career for the third time in my life.

Iâm still playing but closer to home where I can spend the time with my family.

If I had to come up with the most memorable gig of my career, I'd be hard pushed to remember anything that surpassed the four summer seasons I spent playing at the "Yellow Cello" in Baddeck, Cape Breton. Just a sixty seat restaurant which pushed two hundred & fifty customers through each night and every night, a different crowd. If you look through my guest book, you will find many visitors whom I met and played for at that marvellous little venue. I miss Cape Breton in the way that I miss my true home. I love her people and the whole way of life there. Maybe some day, I'll go back to stay.

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