![]() It was 1928 and this small community was nearing the end of an era. When Buddy turned four, his family returned to Cape Breton, settling on a farm in Judique. For the young Buddy MacMaster, this gift was the foundation of his future style and repertoire. A gift of music! Innocent oral transmissions become powerful musical impressions. As a small boy, Buddy started making music using two sticks of kindling and, like his mother, would mimic the fiddle tunes using mouth music (jigging the tunes). In those days people often used lilting to calm a crying child, to distract the child from fears or just to help pass the time while walking down the road or working. Although Buddy's father played the fiddle, it is his mother, Sarah Agnes, Buddy credits with awakening his interest in music and passing it on to him. There, in a Gaelic speaking home, he was introduced to the sounds of the old music through the lilting (mouth music) of his mother. Hugh Allan 'Buddy' MacMaster was born Octoin Timmins, Ontario to John Duncan MacMaster and Sarah Agnes (MacDonald). Joining him on this recording are many of the fine accompanists he has played with throughout his sixty-year career as a master of the fiddle. For the next forty years the railroad would nurture his reputation as a generous fiddler and today he is recognized as the world's leading exponent of the Cape Breton fiddle style. In 1943, Buddy took a job as a telegrapher and traveling station agent with the CNR (Canadian National Railroad) working in stations from Truro to Inverness. From that time Buddy's reputation as a fiddler spread up and down the Judique line. In 1938, fiddler Buddy MacMaster boarded The Judique Flyer to return home from Troy after playing his first dance. Description The Judique Flyer was a steam driven passenger train that replaced the old stagecoach line running between Inverness and Point Tupper on Cape Breton's west coast.
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