ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — What music would you bring with you to a desert island? If you’re 92-year-old Ruth Grierson and it’s Mount Desert Island, Maine, that would be some Newfoundland and Labrador tunes.
Grierson doesn’t have any ancestral connection to this province, other than travelling here several years ago with her daughter, a trip they have repeated a number of times since.
On that first journey, Grierson, a classically trained musician and longtime music teacher originally from the New York area, took in a show at Rocky Harbour’s Ocean View Hotel, got out her violin and joined Dave Shears onstage.
She returns annually to play and visit the province she loves.
Grierson also brings Newfoundland and Labrador music to her corner of Maine — an island mostly comprised of the U.S.’s Acadia National Park — where she performs at public shows, including The First Friday Coffeehouse at the Northeast Harbor Library this week.
There, as part of the Unique Duo, she and ukulele player Debbie Krysak will play golden oldies, popular tunes of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, and some Newfoundland music.
“They love it,” Grierson said during a phone interview from her community, where she writes a nature column for the local paper, The Mount Desert Islander.
“I love it. … Newfoundland music, it’s different. It has more heart in it. It just appealed to me right off the bat.”
Grierson explained that when Shears agreed with her request to let her play with him at his variety show, she developed an appetite for songs like “Saltwater Joys,” “Grey Foggy Day” and “Jack is Every Inch a Sailor.” And when she performs in Maine, she even uses some ugly sticks.
Grierson said she found out about Newfoundland and Labrador at a lecture, and immediately wanted to visit. When she did, she fell in love with the beautiful country, which keeps bringing her back. She has a trip planned for this year.
Shears said Grierson and her daughter were among travellers who he connected with, including some from Scotland and Germany.
“They all started learning Newfoundland music and the things we knew about it,” said Shears, who performs his variety show from May to October.
“Everybody knows her as the ancient fiddler. … She’s good at it.”
Shears said when Grierson plays classical music for the crowd, you can hear a pin drop, and she has done a good job of picking up the traditional songs.
“Most of the songs we do, she got no problem getting up — ‘Sonny’s Dream’ and ‘I’se the B’y.’ She can jump in with any of that.”
And Grierson has become friends with the family, attending his mom, Bessie Critch’s, annual birthday parties. Critch is 91.
Mount Desert Island is known for its beauty as well — a Vogue magazine article in the summer of 2018 noted the island, with 18 mountains, might be the most beautiful spot in New England.
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