Arrived in Baddeck and spent a couple of hours at the Alexander Graham Bell museum. Although the phone was his first invention, we were surprised to learn that it certainly wasn't his last. Among other things, he invented tetrahedral kites, photo phones, hydrofoils and collaborated with others interested in inventing things that could fly. Although he was born in Edinborough he lived here for many years, as this place reminded his family of Scotland. They moved to Canada because his two brothers became sick and died of TB, so they wanted somewhere healthier to live.
Baddeck is a pretty town along the water, and since we couldn't do a hike to a waterfall that we had planned on doing (because the bridge leading to it was washed out), we wandered about the town. We found about a half dozen CD's of Cape Breton music that we know we can't get at home (or on iTunes).
After dinner we went to the Gathering Ceilidh. Tonight's performers were Melody and Derrick Cameron (on fiddle and guitar) and Lisa Cameron (vocals and guitar). She has a sweet voice and performs much of her own material. Melody didn't play many ornaments but she had a great bowing technique, so her playing was enjoyable to listen to. When they saw we had instruments with us they invited us to join them on stage! That's not quite what we had in mind when we brought our instruments, but Derrick said he'd accompany us while Melody changed into her dancing shoes, so we played two tunes which actually went quite well. The second one (Brenda Stubbard's) is apparently the most recorded tune in Cape Breton, according to Derrick. We were lucky enough to find two of her CD's here. Anyway, after we were done our tunes someone in the audience actually called out for us to play more, but we didn't, as they didn't pay to hear us play! Melody invited us to play at an open session with them next Monday in Mabou, so since we'll be there then we might just do that!
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