Fox Family Fiddle - Métis Tunes from Montana

Produced by Philip Aaberg & Nicholas Vrooman at the Sweetgrass Music studio "The Bin" in Chester.   Engineered by Justin Krezelak

     Fiddle players Vince and Jamie are the children of Jim and Krystal Fox. Jim is Gros Ventre and Krystal is Métis/Gros Ventre. When Jamie was five she used to go around and make like she was a fiddle player. A fiddle came to her that Christmas. When she was seven, she left it out one day. Vince eyed it, picked it up, and without hesitation began to play. Within a couple of years Vince was showing Jamie what he knew. They have played together ever since. Jim learned to play guitar so he could chord for his kids.

The Michif (Métis) tradition of fiddle playing on the Fort Belknap Reservation was on its last legs just as Vince and Jamie fell in love with the tunes. Old Fatty Morin was still around, and the Doney Brothers were still playing, but that was about it. The kids’ playing affirmed their mother’s cultural background and brought great pride. Vince and Jamie, through their love of the Michif tunes, brought a new healing to an old discord between cultural sectors of the tribal society. As word got out, others on the reservation and along the Montana Hi-Line were incredibly enthused to see youngsters taking on a music that was in jeopardy of vanishing.

Vince and Jamie have been fortunate to play with master traditional Métis fiddlers Jimmie LaRocque and Mike Page of the Turtle Mountain reservation, Johnny Arcand of Saskatoon, and Fatty Morin in Montana. Additionally, they have been mentored by Métis elder Al Wiseman of Choteau, an archivist of Michif fiddle tunes. Vince and Jamie were brought into the fold of contemporary fiddle performance through family friendships with nationally renowned pianist Philip Aaberg and fiddler Darol Anger, both of whom have nurtured the talent you find herein. Although having expanded musical interests, and learning numerous tunes and styles from many traditions, their experience with elder Métis fiddlers is exceptional and singular. Those old-style, customary example, traditional-lineage players firmly root Vince and Jamie in the Métis tradition deep into the 19^th century. Coming from within the tradition themselves, they represent the continuance of this generation maintaining a style and repertoire that dates back to the fur trade era of the 17^th century and the first generation of European and Aboriginal mixing in the upper reaches of the North American continent.       

-Nicholas Vrooman, Helena Indian Alliance