Welcome. I’m using this blog to share archival recordings that I’ve accumulated working with the anglophone communities in the Gaspé area of eastern Quebec since 2010. My name is Glenn Patterson and I’m doing my PhD in ethnomusicology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. I’m currently in Gaspé doing fieldwork for my dissertation and collaborating with a local anglophone health and social services organisation, Vision Gaspé-Percé Now, to make these recordings available to the community.

I have another blog about music from this part of the world, mostly on the fiddling of Erskine Morris. I will occasionally copy posts from here over to there and vice versa. This blog will be a bit more inclusive and feature a range of local sounds, including including country singers, fiddle players, guitar pickers, oral history interviews and more.

Here’s Gaspé if you’ve never heard of it before. It hangs out over New Brunswick.

The Gaspé Peninsula

Here’s the area where I do most of my work, at the eastern-most edge of the peninsula:

The Gaspé Area

For those unfamiliar with the area, Gaspé means many things to many people: “lands end” to the indigenous Mi’kmaq people, a peninsula, a major town at the eastern edge of the peninsula, a 10, 552 square kilometre regional municipality, and home for people living all over North America who might speak English, French, or Mi’kmaq.

Here’s my home for the time being:

The Camp – Mrs. Edgar’s Summer Kitchen