Day 29 - Brian Hebert - “Keith McCambley’s Waltz”

Canadian Fiddlers’ Advent Calendar 2018 Welcome to day 29! Originally this was supposed to be an Advent Calendar from Dec. 1 - 24, but due to the overwhelming response, it will cover the entire month of December. December 29 – Brian Hebert – Pembroke, ON – “Keith McCambley’s Waltz” Brian is one of my musical heroes that is also a wonderful friend. My first introduction to Brian’s music was through Graham Townsend. Graham would stay at our house if he had gigs in the Winnipeg area, and he’d often bring along cassettes he’d recorded of some of his extensive record collection. On one of these trips, the tape contained a dub from an album by Brian Hebert. I absolutely LOVED his style, and the sound of his album. He had a real country feel to his playing, and the backup included a steel guitar, which I thought was just beautiful and such a great addition to a fiddle album. There were many of Brian’s compositions on this record, “Raemona’s Waltz,” “Royal Wedding Jig,” and the tune that to this day is still my all time favourite fiddle tune, “Shades of Dawn.” I could not stop listening to this tune. Because it was sometime in the mid ‘80’s, we didn’t have information resources at the tips of our fingers like we do today. So, when Graham got home, I called him and he read me the contact info of the record company from the back of Brian’s album. I immediately sat down and wrote them a letter asking how I could buy this record made by Brian Hebert. Whoever received this letter forwarded it on to Brian, and one day a couple of weeks later, I got a parcel in the mail from Brian Hebert himself. That tune ended up ensuring that I woke up each morning for school in a good mood! My mom would put the ghetto blaster outside my bedroom door and I would wake up to the sweet sound of “Shades of Dawn,” and really, who could wake up crabby listening to that?? If you’d like to hear it played by Brian and I together, here it is. I’m sure you can imagine what a thrill this was for me.    • Shades of Dawn - Brian Hebert & Patti Kust...   Brian still lives in the Pembroke area and is retired from his job as a school teacher. He implemented fiddle lessons into the curriculum in the Ottawa Valley and has churned out countless great fiddlers through his years both in the classroom and teaching privately. I’m so proud to call him a friend, even though I still get a little starstruck when I see him. He’s another living legend and I know you will love this tune of his that he wrote for his friend, “Keith McCambley’s Waltz.”