One of the things I was curious about when I was researching what life would have been like on Manitoulin Island in the late 19th century was what their relationship with music would have been.

The availability of music in the 1877 was very different than it is today. There were no radios or digital downloads. The phonograph -- the precursor to the record player -- had only just been invented and wouldn't have been available. In a remote location like Tehkummah, they wouldn't have had access to live converts or touring musicians. They really had to make their own music -- and frequently did.

Music was central to social gatherings and religious services where hymns would have been sung. There were pianos and fiddles. Harmonicas were fairly common and there was always something kicking around that could be used for percussion. Household items like jugs, spoons or washboards were often pressed into service.

The instruments that play pivotal roles in The Haweaters include a melodion and a fiddle. I wrote about melodions in a previous post and would like to focus on fiddles here.

In the historical novel, Charlie Bryan plays one. We know he had one in his possession because it came up in court testimony when a neighbour was explaining how he know the Bryan's no longer had a shotgun. It turns out that the one they'd owned just a few months earlier had been traded away by Charlie in exchange for brass caps for their oxen's horns and a fiddle.

It seemed odd that a family as poor as the Bryans would see fit to trade away a valuable tool like a shotgun for something as seemingly frivolous as a fiddle. No matter how poor the family was, hunting would have been a vital way to obtain for food and, even if they couldn't afford ammunition, they wouldn't have been the first family to use gravel in lieu of shot.

Music was important form that trading a gun for a fiddle may have raised an eyebrow, but not too high. Fiddles were particularly popular with Irish immigrants as were tunes from the old country. The one I had Charlie play in the book is an Irish traditional called Whiskey in a Jar. That song seemed appropriate since it tells the tales of a highwayman with big dreams who steals money from a military officer then meeting his fate.

That tune has been covered many times and you can find plenty of examples online. There's the Thin Lizzy version and others by Metallica and Bryan Adams. More traditional renderings have been performed by The Dubliners and The Irish Rovers.

I had someone produce a simple version of this song on a lone fiddle so that I could hear what it would sound like without a whole lot of modern production. I wanted to get an idea of what that song played on that instrument in an isolated cabin on a remote island would have sounded like. It struck the right chord.

Photo by Dušan Pantelić on Unsplash