“That’s what Joe Pete might have said…”

The Chaissons—seemingly all of them—are holding a monthly concert at The Pourhouse in Charlottetown to raise money to build new washrooms at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival grounds.

Lisa and I went yesterday, to a session featuring Dara Smith Macdonald and Adam Young. It was rollicking in the way that such things are. There were many impossibly adorable kids rambling around; step dancers were called up, some enthusiastically and some feigning reluctance; there was lyrically beautiful music, and scads of jigs and reels (we admitted to each other, later that night, that we didn’t know the difference).

The collective power of the Chaissonery had been mustered to form an impressive raffle prize that included everything just short of an guest spot on an East Pointers album: running with Stan, studio time with Brent, a fiddle lesson with Tim. Tickets were $40, and we convinced each other to invest. Our number was 836022; the winning number was 836020. So close.

On the way down the stairs at the end of the night, I overheard a couple coming down behind us: “That’s what Joe Pete might have said…,” one said to the other. If there had been any doubt, I knew then exactly where we were.