Celebrated Mi'kmaq fiddler Lee Cremo dies
THE ARTS REPORT (email)
SYDNEY, N.S. - Lee Cremo, the famous Cape Breton fiddler, has died at his home in Eskasoni, Nova Scotia. He was 60.
Cremo could play a number of instruments but it was fiddling that made him known around the world. He won the Maritime Fiddling Championship six times and captured the Canadian title at the Alberta Tar Sands Competition.
Lee Cremo played at numerous national and international events and shared the stage with many of country music's biggest names including Johnny Cash,
Merle Haggard, and Dolly Parton.
He was the subject of the movie, Arm of Gold and was highlighted in a Smithsonian Institute production called, Creation's Journey.
Howie McDonald is an award-winning Canadian fiddler who played with Cremo. He says Cremo was known to have one of the best bow arms in the world:
"He had a great bow-arm and he had the ability to play more than one note, more than one string at one time. He could really sort of bounce across the strings and that added to the lively playing that attracted many listeners who loved to get up and dance."
In recent years, Cremo was forced to cut back his playing schedule after breaking his collar bone in a car accident. Even so, Cremo, who was a Mi'kmaq, was able to perform at the launch of the Aboriginal People's Television Network earlier this fall. Cremo was also part of the Mi'kmaq Entertainers Cultural Showcase during Treaty Day Celebrations in Halifax.