Al Cherny (1932 to 1989) was the fiddler Canadians saw on television every week. He won the open class at the Canadian Open Old Time Fiddlers’ Contest in Shelburne, Ontario, in 1960 and 1961. He then spent about 25 years as the featured fiddler on CBC’s The Tommy Hunter Show. He made more than ten albums and entered the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989.
Why Cherny matters
For a generation of Canadian pickers, Cherny was the sound of a fiddle. He took contest tunes from the Shelburne stage and played them into living rooms across the country every Friday night. His run at Shelburne set a mark no one else matched in the contest’s first 14 years. He then became one of the busiest session fiddlers in Toronto. If you learned Orange Blossom Special from Canadian television, you learned it from him.
Life and career
Alexander Peter Chernywech was born on November 1, 1932, in Medicine Hat, Alberta. He studied fiddle with Frank Nowak and played country music on CHAT radio in Medicine Hat. He recorded under the name Al Cherny, and the spelling Cherney also appears on records and in credits.
Cherny made his name at the Canadian Open Old Time Fiddlers’ Contest in Shelburne, Ontario. He won the novelty class three years in a row, from 1959 to 1961. He won the open class in both 1960 and 1961. The Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame calls him the only Canadian in the contest’s first 14 years to hold both titles at once.
Television came next. He met Tommy Hunter while working at CKNX in Wingham, Ontario. He played on CBC’s Country Hoedown from 1963 to 1965, then moved to The Tommy Hunter Show and stayed until his death. Two of his singles reached the RPM country chart in 1972: Shannon Waltz and Mr. Bojangles.
By the early 1970s Cherny was a leading studio musician. He recorded with Gary Buck, Dick Damron, Tommy Hunter, and Sylvia Tyson. He released more than ten albums under his own name, including a set of Ukrainian dance tunes. In 1978 he received the RPM Big Country Award for Top Country Instrumentalist. He also appeared as a guest artist at the Grand North American Old Time Fiddle Championship in Alberta.
Cherny died of lung cancer on August 23, 1989, in Mississauga, Ontario, at age 56. The Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inducted him that same year.
Playing style
Cherny was a contest fiddler first. The Shelburne open class rewards clean tone, steady dance tempo, and the standard Canadian set of a waltz, a jig, and a reel. The novelty class rewards showpieces. He won both, so his playing had two gears: a smooth, danceable old-time style and a flashy trick-tune style built for a crowd.
Television shaped the rest. On The Tommy Hunter Show he had a few minutes to land a tune, so his arrangements were tight and his intonation was clean. His 1987 broadcasts of Orange Blossom Special show the showman side: train effects, double stops, and a fast shuffle that never loses the beat. His Ukrainian heritage also shows up in his repertoire, and he recorded an album of Ukrainian dance favorites in 1974.
Influences and legacy
Cherny learned from Frank Nowak in Medicine Hat and came up in the Alberta country scene. He shared stages and studios with Graham Townsend, who was also a guest artist at the Grand North American, and with the Ontario fiddlers who filled the Shelburne contest in the 1960s. His television run put him in the same national role that Don Messer had held on CBC a decade earlier. Later Canadian television fiddlers, and the Shelburne champions who followed him, worked in his shadow.
Signature tunes and songs
Orange Blossom Special Golden Slippers Big John McNeil Shannon Waltz Mr. Bojangles Snowflake Breakdown.
Essential recordings
Plays Old Tyme Fiddle (1965) On Stage With Al Cherny (1967) Golden Slippers (1968) Fiddle Magic (1972) Rural Roots (1974)
Awards and honors
Canadian Open Old Time Fiddlers’ Contest, novelty class (1959, 1960, 1961) Canadian Open Old Time Fiddlers’ Contest, open class (1960, 1961) RPM Big Country Award, Top Country Instrumentalist (1978) Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame (1989)
Watch and listen
Cherny plays a fiddle feature on The Tommy Hunter Show in 1987. Watch how little his bow arm moves for the amount of sound he gets.
Cherny plays Orange Blossom Special on the same show. Listen for the train effects and the double-stop shuffle.
What to learn from Cherny
Learn Golden Slippers from his 1968 record of the same name. It is a simple tune, and he plays it the way a dance fiddler should: on the beat, with a clear melody and no wasted notes. The technique to steal is his contest discipline. Pick a waltz, a jig, and a reel. Play each one at a steady dance tempo with clean intonation and a full tone. That set won him Shelburne twice, and it still wins Canadian contests today.
Sources
Al Cherny, Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inductee profile Hall of Fame, Canadian Country Music Association Al Cherney, Wikipedia Al Cherny, Discogs Grand North American Old Time Fiddle Championship, Wikipedia
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more Canadian fiddlers. Don Messer held the CBC fiddle chair before him. Graham Townsend and Ned Landry won the same Canadian contests in the same era. King Ganam was another western-born star of Canadian television.