Rollie’s Wharf Thursday Night Session
Happy New Year everyone! I’ve been enjoying a very lovely time at home in Cape Breton over the holidays with lots of great music. One great night of music was at Rollie’s Wharf, a pub in North Sydney that hosts a session every Thursday night. It struck me at this session how truely diverse the Cape Breton repertoire is, especially on the Northside. The session is hosted by David Pappazian, a fiddler player from Montreal who has been living in Cape Breton for quite some time. The Northside area, as I’ve written in a previous post, has been very influenced by Irish music. So of course, there were lots of Irish tunes but also a great variety of tunes in the Scottish Cape Breton tradition including a beautiful air by JS Skinner and great set of tunes in B flat to which the listening crowd cheered and whistled. Many of these tunes I haven’t heard in ages.
It was a great night for me to hear great tunes with the wonderful local musicians I grew up learning from. I walked away very much appreciating the wonderful music tradition that exists throughout Cape Breton. Not that I didn’t appreciate this before, but after being away from it for extended periods of time, I don’t take it for granted!
If you ever visit Cape Breton and are looking to play some tunes and hear great music, I highly recommend taking a trip to Rollie’s Wharf in North Sydney.