Biography:Tom Doucet
Tom Doucet
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|---|---|
| Given name: | Thomas "Tom" |
| Middle name: | |
| Family name: | Doucet |
| Place of birth: | Concession, Nova Scotia |
| Place of death: | Boston, Mass. |
| Year of birth: | 1902 |
| Year of death: | 1992 |
| Profile: | Composer, Musician |
| Source of information: | "Tom Doucet, Interviewed by Frank Ferrel", Old Time Music, No. 26, Autumn 1976, pp. 19-20. |
Biographical notes
TOM DOUCET (1902-) was born in Concession, Nova Scotia, one of ten children. He learned to play the fiddle by laying his father's instrument on th ebed and bowing across it, and later made his first fiddle from a cigar box, with the bow 'haired' with thread. Shortly after World War I he moved to Vanceboro, Maine, to work in the woods trades, and thence to Boston, Massachusetts. There, he was active in the club and dance hall music scene. During the Depression took up the banjo and formed a banjo band, playing the popular music of the time. Following the Depression he partnered with Emile Molanson, a blind accordion player who was able to accompany Tom on any kind of music. At Dudley Street in Roxbury, Mass., in the mid-20th century he played with well-known fiddlers from the Canadian Maritimes and Ireland, and although he never commercially recorded until later in life, he was regarded in the top tear of fiddlers in eastern Canada and New England. He appeared on Don Messser's CBC programs and Messer recorded several of Doucet's compositions.
In 1975 Boston fiddler Frank Ferrel, of Fiddler Records, issued an LP with ten new performances by Tom along with eight cuts from early discs and tapes. Playing with him on the recording were Henry Riendeau on guitar and Edmond Bordeau on bass, with his friends Larry Riendeau, Joe Cormier and Gerry Robichaud providing enthusiastic support. Doucet was long-time friends with the Riendeaus, including Larry and Henry's father, Louis Riendeau, of Berlin, N.H. [Information from Frank Ferrel's article on Tom Doucet in Old Time Music, No. 22, Autumn, 1976].