Reg Hill

Canadian fiddling legend Reg Hill was born in Brockville, Ontario in 1927 and moved to Avonmore (near Ottawa) at a young age. After learning how to play the fiddle from his mother, Hill taught himself guitar, drums, saxophone and piano, and was performing at dances by the age of 15. After spending some time in a group named The Rock Mountain Rangers, Hill formed his own group, Reg Hill's Swingsters, which became a popular draw throughout eastern Ontario. After getting married in 1950 and moving to Oshawa, Hill accepted an invitation to join Mac Beattie and The Ottawa Valley Melodiers, one of the biggest country groups in the Ottawa area, and made frequent appearances on radio and television, including many guest spots on CBC-TV's Don Messer's Jubilee. Reg stayed with the Melodiers until 1978, when poor health forced him to retire, and he passed away the following year. In 1981 he was posthumously inducted into The Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame.



The names of Hill's bandmates on this album are not mentioned on the back cover, but Ottawa Valley Fiddling was recorded at Stereo Sound Studios in Montreal, produced by George Taylor and engineered by Gaetan Desbiens, and every one of the songs was written by Hill. His fiddling is markedly different from, say, King Ganam or Ned Landry, but what I found most interesting about these three tunes was the addition of some crisply-played piano solos to the mix, which gives them an almost jazzy flavour at times.

Uncle John McDermid's Reel
Lake Kamaniskeg Waltz
Puffin' On The Ole Cigar

Note: These songs have been archived at It Came From Canada.