The Lumber Jills are New Brunswick’s ambassadors for the province’s signature old time fiddle and step dance tradition. With contemporary arrangements, but one foot each firmly on a heritage barnboard floor, the group has toured 4 continents and produced 12 cast members since 2014.
Sackville, New Brunswick has a strong 'Old Time' fiddle tradition, cemented in part by the legendary fiddler Curtis Hicks. Born in the farming community of nearby Midgic in 1915; he was five years old when his parents took him to a house dance and he heard a fiddle for the first time. He would later attempt unsuccessfully, to make a fiddle out of a shingle and rabbit wire.
Curtis would raise his son Ivan Hicks to carry on the legacy at The Fawcett Dance Hall on Silver Lake, when he was only 9 years old and Ivan began teaching Stacey Read in the late 1980’s when she was just 4 years old. Today Stacey is founder of The New Brunswick Old Time Fiddle Co.; home of The Lumber Jills, who are based in the fiddling town of Sackville over 100 years later.
With real fiddles (not created from shingles or any rabbit wire to speak of..) the 2023 cast of fiddlers Julie Smith, Katie Macilvena, Sara Nelson and her brother James on guitar and fiddle are proud to carry on the fiddling traditions of Sackville, from barns to stages around the region. Favourites at Levee on the Lake and The Miramichi Scottish Festival, these tradition bearers have committed themselves to preserving the heart of fiddle music from their home and all the traditions that go with it. In the Fall of 2023 they will be at Dollywood performing for The Harvest Festival in Pigeon Forge Tennessee and in 2024 The National Celtic Festival of Australia and HebCelt in Scotland with more dates to follow.