Achi news desk-
John Allan Cameron was highly decorated during his lifetime in the world of music, including receiving the Order of Canada.
On Tuesday, he was announced posthumously as one of this year’s three inductees into the Cape Breton Music Industry Hall of Fame.
“John Allan Cameron is known as the Godfather of Celtic music, and he really helped popularize Celtic music to a national audience,” said Marc Botte, board chairman of the Cape Breton Music Industry Co-operative, which hosted the announcement on Tuesday at the Gaelic College in Bay St. Ann, NS
“This is really amazing. This is something you wouldn’t really expect, or wouldn’t expect at this point in my life,” said Joella Foulds, another of the new inductees.
At a different stage in her life, Foulds managed Cameron near the end of his career.
“I actually helped him through his final recording, so it’s great to think of myself even close to that category,” Foulds said in an interview at her Southside Boularderie home.
The third name announced on Tuesday was the late fiddler Winston Scotty Fitzgerald.
“Who inspired most, if not many, of our Island fiddle players who came after him,” said Botte.
The trio announced for 2024 joins Rita MacNeil, Matt Minglewood, the Men of the Deeps, and Buddy MacDonald’s song ‘Getting Dark Again,’ who are the first ever Hall of Fame inductees in 2023.
The plan is for the Hall itself to be located on the new Nova Scotia Community College campus in downtown Sydney, which is scheduled to open in September.
“And we’re also working with the Cape Breton Regional Municipality to build a ‘walk of stars’ down the newly renovated Charlotte Street,” said Botte.
The 2024 induction ceremony with a full concert is set for June 20 at the Sydney 200 Centre.
