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| Neil Matthews at work at Confederation Landing |
It's great to see that one of PEI's country music pioneers has been recognized for his many years in the music industry both locally and nationally, with a Stompin' Tom Award at the 2007 ECMAs.
Neil Matthews was born in Seaview, PEI, in 1939. After 18 years on the family farm, he relocated to Oshawa, Ontario in the late 1950s to work in the automotive industry, but the music that was a large part of his life through his childhood years soon won out. He began touring the country with the likes of Wilf Carter and Shirley Eikhart. Neil recorded his first solo album in 1967, and has since released five full-length recordings and many singles of original material. He was one of the first from PEI to travel in a country band and to record his music.
In the late 1980s Neil returned to PEI and made his living in several ventures from barbering to selling musical instruments but, again, never straying too far from the stage that he loved.
Neil is still active in performing and recording and has recently been more into songwriting than ever before. You can see him entertain each summer at Avonlea Village as well as other venues throughout the Island. His songwriting these days is more slanted toward children's songs and songs about his native PEI but the old country fire still burns and I'm sure he will be able to find an honored spot for his brand new shiny Stompin' Tom Award presented to him in Halifax. Neil is definitely classic country.
Speaking of classic country I was able to find my way out to the Florida State Fair the other day to see the Country Gold Tour hosted by, The Auctioneer, LeRoy VanDyke. This was a three-hour show that featured some of the best country performers from years past. Each performer did a three song set in a Grand Ole Opry type setting with VanDyke's band, The Auctioneers, providing the backup.
Van Dyke opened the show with three of his hits and from there on the hits kept rolling from Jimmy Fortune (Statler Brothers), Jeannie Seely, Lacy J Dalton, The Gatlin Brothers, T Graham Brown, TG Shepherd, Jim Ed Brown, Helen Cornelius, Rex`Allen Jr., and Charlie Rich Jr. A packed house really appreciated the efforts of these people who have been just a little out of the spotlight for a while but appear on a regular basis at fairs and package shows just like they did back when those types of things were popular with the masses. This type of country music is a niche genre now but is still widely appreciated by the baby boomers.
This month I'm off to see a couple of different kinds of music. One will be the crawfish festival at Vinoy Park in St. Pete which features Cajun music and we'll also make a stop at the seafood and blues festival which features legendary bluesman Johnny Winter as well as Coco Montoya and a long list of others that don't come to mind immediately but it'll be two full days of great music and seafood and all for the very reasonable price of $0.00. We'll also make a stop at Islander Day and maybe the Pasco County Fair for some bluegrass.
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