Appalachia to Nova Scotia

As I drive across Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, gazing at its mountains in the distance, I’m met with a sudden sense of familiarity. If you told me I was driving through a valley in Southwest Virginia, I would be inclined to believe you.

After all, these mountains are technically part of the Appalachian Mountain chain, stretching all the way from the southern United States into the Canadian maritime provinces and Newfoundland. Between the fiddle tunes, square dances, and strong sense of community, it’s not just the scenery here that feels a lot like home.

I first “discovered” Cape Breton while working through a graduate program at Ohio University in 2016. I was interested in applying to the Fulbright Program, an international educational and cultural exchange program available to students, scholars, and professionals of all backgrounds. I was deeply interested in learning more about the roots and branches of bluegrass and country music, and how its many variations are indelibly shaped by place.

Tracing the roots of immigration and settlement in the Appalachian region — a complicated history in itself — led me to find similarities between Appalachia and Cape Breton traditional musical styles and discover connections between the people who settled in these regions.

Speaker Session:
Toni Doman-Vandyke

February 18 | 7PM – 8:30PM
Birthplace of Country Music Museum

In this talk, Fulbright recipient Toni Doman-Vandyke will explore technology’s impact on the traditional music community of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada.

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Beginning in the late 1700s, amid economic unrest back home, Scottish migrants flocked to the province of Nova Scotia in pursuit of better opportunities. As a result, the region is rich in Scottish-Gaelic culture and traditions (Nova Scotia literally translates to “New Scotland”). It is also home to many different cultural groups, including the indigenous Mi’kmaq people, the region’s first and original inhabitants, and the Acadians, French settlers who first colonized the area in the 17th century. Today these cultures and communities are found throughout Cape Breton Island along with their distinct, and sometimes overlapping, musical traditions.

Both the Maritimes and the Cape Breton traditional music styles have histories that parallel traditional music in Appalachia, including similarities in the people who settled in both areas and in the remote geography of both historically isolated regions, cut off by mountains, valleys, and islands — resulting in unique and distinct musical styles respectively.

Contemporary technology has impacted on traditional music immensely. Websites like YouTube connect us with music and cultures outside of our own geography. Before the advent of recorded music in the mid-1800s — not that long ago, really — listening to music was localized. You had to be where the music was happening to learn it and pass it down. Today, musicians and listeners have access to music globally via the internet, where individuals can share, learn remotely, and promote content within and beyond genres.

Today, traditional sounds of a given genre inevitably blend and change, and new traditions can become standard. Our technology also connects music styles to broader global audiences; in this case, making Cape Breton’s unique maritime music more accessible and better known to “outsiders.”

Through conversations and interviews with musicians, tradition bearers, and cultural caretakers, I am documenting how Cape Breton’s musical community is using and interacting with modern technologies. I’m seeking to uncover how this use is impacting and or influencing the Cape Breton sound, specifically focusing on traditional music connected to Scottish and Gaelic influences.

“The same tune can be played in Ireland or in parts of Scotland, and then played in Cape Breton, and you can say, ‘Okay, that’s Cape Breton because of the way they’re playing it.’ It’s a rhythm thing for me, a rhythm and a tone thing. I’m thinking about how the fiddle music reflects the drones and the sound of a bagpipe. . . Then the rhythm of it, it kind of fits the step dancing tempo, it’s at a human speed of being able to do your reel step or the jigs. There’s a liveliness to it. Those are the key elements that I think about with Cape Breton music. The fiddling — I think because it took off in a way here and rooted in a way here, it became its own flavor.”

Bradley Murphy, Gaelic singer and fiddle player

If you take a listen to Cape Breton’s traditional music today, you’ll hear a distinctive fiddle style with tunes played along to a piano accompaniment. It’s believed by scholars that the fiddle was performed unaccompanied up until the late 1800s. The modern Cape Breton piano accompaniment was influenced by 1920s jazz sounds and is now a recognizable and stand-alone sound. Like all traditions, this music is being passed on and adapted by generations of players.

I’m currently creating a research-based podcast series that documents the relationship between technology and the Cape Breton traditional music scene using voices from my interviews, soundscapes, music, and more (to be released later in 2025).

How do Cape Breton traditional musicians and cultural caretakers feel about the increase in accessibility to global musical styles and is this increase playing an effect on traditional sounds? Traditional artists want to preserve the integrity of the Cape Breton traditional style and sound, and at the same time they are generally open to a player (respectfully) putting their own style and flavor on a tune.

“The tradition certainly is a living tradition. Although there is a base point for what is considered the tradition of this area, it has been greatly influenced by contemporary cross-pollination as people have toured around other places and brought music around. People such as yourself have come here to take in the area and there’s been an absorption of other styles of music.

The style of music from when I first started, it’s definitely changed. Whether that’s good or bad, again it’s a living tradition, there’s always going to be a bit of an evolution. . . The music is one thing, but it’s interwoven with the culture and the people. It is very inviting and very inclusive and it’s just a lot of fun to be around.”

Allan Dewar, piano player

Both Appalachia and Cape Breton are filled with traditional music that is alive in community jams and dances. The two places have my heart. Now that I am home, I want to participate more in my Southwest Virginia musical community, and ask the same questions: How is technology impacting Appalachian music, and its players, today?

Toni Doman-Vandyke received a 2023-24 Fulbright Award for her project “Contemporaries Technologies and the Traditional Music of Cape Breton.” Toni earned her Master’s Degree in Communications and Media Arts and Studies from Ohio and is one of the few students to earn the world’s first four-year degree in traditional bluegrass music offered at Glenville State University in West Virginia.

Toni is currently performing in the folk and country music duo Virginia West. Through all of her creative outlets, Toni aims to promote arts and culture for a greater understanding of the Appalachian region.