Don Messer

The parents of this Canadian country music icon had musical talent, but it took 11 tries to produce an offspring interested in carrying on in that tradition. Don Messer's interest in music was so great as a child that by the age of seven he was already playing his fiddle for square dances, although part of the incentive might have been to get out of such a crowded family house. Some biographies of this artist claim he was already performing professionally at five. By the time he got to be a young man he had amassed a repertoire of literally hundreds of reels, jigs, breakdowns, and other pieces for fiddle, old and new, from playing endless square dances, country dances, weddings, and other parties. At the age of 16 he headed to the U.S.A., specifically Boston, but only stayed a few years. He was back in New Brunswick in March of 1929 in what is acknowledged to be the first of what would turn out to be a multitude of radio broadcasts for Messer and his groups. By 1934, he had formed his first band under his own leadership, named the New Brunswick Lumberjacks. This group toured not only in the Maritime provinces but south of the border in the states of New York and Maine. Personnel were added as the group's success grew until Messer felt things had gotten out of hand. He started all over with a smaller group in 1938, dubbing the new combo Don Messer and the Backwoods Breakdown. This new band and all their families relocated to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, which became their base for the next 27 years. Another name change came along with the change in locale; since they were on an island, it was natural that the group became Don Messer and His Islanders, the name under which most fans of old-time country music in Canada know his band by. Messer recalls that as...