Graham Townsend (1942 to 1998) was one of the most recorded fiddlers in Canadian history. He won the Canadian Open Old Time Fiddle Championship in Shelburne, Ontario, four times, in 1963 and from 1968 to 1970. He wrote more than 400 tunes, carried a repertoire of close to 4,000, and made about 40 albums.
Why Townsend matters
Townsend was the fiddler other Canadian fiddlers measured themselves against. He won Shelburne at 21 and kept winning into his late twenties. He then spent thirty years putting every regional style in the country on record, from Ottawa Valley reels to Scottish strathspeys to Quebec tunes. Many Canadian tunes reached jam circles through his records.
Life and career
Graham Craig Townsend was born on June 16, 1942, in Toronto, to Fred and Enid Townsend. His eyesight was poor from an early age, and he left school at 14. He grew up in Buckingham, Quebec, where he heard the Irish, French, and Scottish music of the Ottawa Valley. His father called square dances for Don Messer, who became a close friend in the early 1950s.
His first teacher was Toronto Irish fiddler Tom McQuestion. At age nine he won the CBC talent contest Now’s Your Chance. He won the Canadian National Exhibition fiddle championship in 1951, 1952, and 1953, and placed third at the Canadian Open at age 11. He then won the Canadian Open in 1963, 1968, 1969, and 1970.
Townsend toured and broadcast with Messer as a teenager. In 1964 a Hollywood producer signed him to a 36-week run on the television show Star Route, filmed in North Hollywood and Toronto. He gave two command performances for Queen Elizabeth II, at Expo 67 on Parliament Hill and at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane.
He married fiddler Eleanor Townsend in 1973, and the two toured as North America’s only championship fiddling team. Rounder released The Fiddle in 1975 and Classics of Irish, Scottish, and French Canadian Fiddling in 1976. His first CD, 100 Fiddle Hits, came out in 1990. Townsend died of cancer on December 3, 1998, in Barrie, Ontario, at age 56.
Playing style
Townsend played with a clean, driving Ottawa Valley bow and a tone built for dancers. He kept the beat square and the notes crisp, then added the ornaments of the style at hand: Scottish snaps on a strathspey, rolls on an Irish reel, and the crooked timing of a Quebec tune.
He also played piano and mandolin, and he thought like an arranger. On his contest tunes he added variations on the repeat, but he never let a variation hide the melody. That balance is why judges and dancers both liked him.
Influences and legacy
Townsend’s first models were Tom McQuestion and Billy Crawford in Toronto, then his uncle Sam Rainey and the Buckingham fiddlers Billy Smith, Lorne Smith, and Dan LaSalle. He studied records by Quebec fiddler Joseph Allard, Irish fiddler Michael Coleman, and Scottish fiddler James Scott Skinner. Don Messer was his friend and champion, and Townsend cut the tribute album I Like Don Messer in 1969.
He played beside Wilf Carter, Tommy Hunter, and Stan Rogers, and he helped found the Ontario Old Time Fiddlers Association. His wife Eleanor Townsend became the first woman to win the Canadian Open in 1979, and the two recorded together. The Canadian Grand Masters gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, months before his death.
Signature tunes and songs
Graham’s Hornpipe Arkansas Traveler Bill Cheatham Mike MacNeil Hornpipe Rippling Water Jig Sidewalk Waltz.
Essential recordings
The Fiddle (Rounder, 1975) Classics of Irish, Scottish, and French Canadian Fiddling (Rounder, 1976) I Like Don Messer (1969) Graham Townsend’s 100 Fiddle Hits: 35th Anniversary Collection (1990) Canadian Country Classics: Graham Townsend’s Fiddle (Rodeo International, 1997)
Awards and honors
Canadian National Exhibition Fiddle Championship (1951, 1952, 1953) Simcoe, Southern Ontario, Kitchener, Peterborough, and Northern Ontario championships (1957 to 1960) Canadian Open Old Time Fiddle Championship, Shelburne (1963, 1968, 1969, 1970) Pembroke International Championship (1965) North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame, Osceola, New York (1982) Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame (1990) Juno Award nomination, Instrumental Artist of the Year (1991) Canadian Fiddle Hall of Honour (1998) Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Association Lifetime Achievement Award (1998)
Watch and listen
Townsend plays Arkansas Traveler, Bill Cheatham, and Turkey in the Straw as a set. Listen to how he keeps the dance pulse while changing tunes.
In a 1978 television clip he runs through several fiddle styles in a row. Watch his bow arm change with each one.
What to learn from Townsend
Learn Graham’s Hornpipe, his own tune, which Don Messer and His Islanders recorded on an Apex single in 1957, when Townsend was 15. It teaches the Ottawa Valley hornpipe feel, a little swung and never rushed. The technique to steal is his style switching. Take Arkansas Traveler and play it three ways: square and clean like a Messer record, with Scottish snaps and drones, then with Irish rolls. Townsend built his career on that skill.
Sources
Graham Townsend, The Canadian Encyclopedia Graham Townsend, Wikipedia Eleanor Townsend, The Canadian Encyclopedia Hall of Honour, Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Association Graham Townsend, Discogs Graham Townsend, The Fiddle, Discogs Don Messer and His Islanders, Graham’s Hornpipe / The Red River Jig, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more players. Townsend learned beside Don Messer and married Eleanor Townsend. Ned Landry was another Canadian champion of the same era, and Calvin Vollrath and April Verch carry his approach forward.