Biography:Arthur Joseph Boulay

Arthur Joseph (A.J.) Boulay. Boulay was born in New Hampshire in 1883 and lived there for some thirty years before moving in 1913 to Saint-Stanislas (near Beauharnois, Province of Quebec). He learned to fiddle at age ten and took formal lessons, and joined a dance band in the years prior to emigrating. As was the case with many early 78 RPM Quebecois fiddlers, music was not his main occupation, and Boulay found work in a cheese factory and a bakery. He is credited with having been the first Quebec fiddler to record, in 1923 (by RCA Victor), when he waxed a quadrille in three parts and a medley of Gigues. Boulay also played the accordion and was a member of several musical groups, and, for a time, was the leader of the orchestra at Malone (north of New York). In 1924 he removed to Cornwall, Ontario, but visited Quebec regularly, recording some sixty tunes. He died in Cornwall, December, 1948.