Flute and Fiddle restore local music and dance culture

Jan 20, 2013 | 4:48 AM

Shannon and Jeff Simpso are two brothers from Birch Hills who have had a dream of creating a dance hall with a family atmosphere in their small town.

Having Donny Parenteau on stage and a dance floor packed with people Saturday night helped make that come true, but they are just getting started.

“I bought this place about three and a half years ago for a cafe,” Shannon said. “But a year later I bought the restaurant down the street (New Ground Cafe) and turned that into the Clay Oven restaurant and then Jeff and I restored this building into the dance hall we had always dreamed about.”

The dance hall is a restored building in Birch Hills that had been empty for many years and was in bad condition. However, the building had beautiful hardwood floors, a pressed tin ceiling and a strong history for the town, having been built in 1920 and previously used as a community dance hall.

“We had a big job ahead of us,” Jeff chuckled. “There were beams down the centre of the building, so we reconstructed the layout and then we had to refinish the floors and ceiling. It was a lot of work but we had Dan (Levesque) come in and look at it now.”

The restored dance hall now named the Flute and Fiddle, opened last November and has had a number of acts in already, but the first major success was the show Saturday night with Donny Parenteau.

“We sold out so quickly,” Shannon said. “And today, we had more than 50 calls from people really wanting tickets.”

Parenteau, of course, is no stranger to people in the area and playing in Birch Hills at the Flute and Fiddle was a pleasure for this local musician who was happy to be performing in the historic building.

While there Parenteau promoted his latest album, Bring It On, and his band played all the usual favourites, even bravely asking for requests.

The result was a dance floor filled to capacity all night long.

“You’ve got to love what you do,” he said. “When you are up there just loving the music and enjoying what you are doing, the crowd gets that vibe and sends it right back. I’m so fortunate to do what I love for a living.”

And this is the theme of Parenteau’s latest venture of motivational speaking. Having started playing fiddle at 14 years of age and performing professionally since he was 19, Parenteau is taking the secrets of his success to younger children to motivate them to do what they love.

“I want to talk to the kids before they become teenagers and know everything,” he laughed.

Parenteau will be going to 10 schools throughout the Saskatoon Tribal Council on a tour sponsored by the Potash Corp.

“I’ll be talking to the kids to tell them that ‘yes, it is possible and you don’t have to settle, but you have to have a passion for what you do and be willing to work hard.’ Then we will be doing a concert, so the kids can see what we really do.”

The Flute and Fiddle is planning to involve local musicians in their dance hall dream and starting in February, will have Open Mike nights.

“Fridays we really want people to just come in to hear great local musicians, including music students. It’s really exciting to think of the possibilities,” Shannon said.

For more information on the Flute and Fiddle, go to their website.

kcay@panow.com

On Twitter: @KarenspaNOW