Cliff Britton

From Glengarryceltic

Clifton (Cliff) Britton was born in 1915 in the small community of Lodi in Stormont County (next to Glengarry). Both of his parents were fiddlers. He performed on the tenor banjo and also took up the fiddle at an early age.

After a sojourn in Northern Ontario he returned to the Glengarry area and married Ruth Presley. They had two children, Myrle and Douglas. They year 1942 saw this young family established at Lancaster where they remained until 1948. These years were important ones in the development of Cliff’s fiddling skills. By this time some of the early recordings of the Cape Breton fiddlers had arrived and Cliff was enthralled with the tunes and the style of playing. A frequent companion during this period was Bruce Ross an enthusiastic young fiddler who shared Cliff’s taste in music.

In 1948 Cliff moved with his family to Monkland where he established his own automotive repair business. His popularity as a fiddler continued to grow and his daughter, Myrle, became his piano accompanist. As well as fulfilling many personal playing engagements he became a member of Fr. John D. MacPhail’s “stable” of fiddlers and performed with this group at countless concerts and lawn socials.

In 1959 the Glengarry Historical Society instituted an annual fiddling contest. Cliff won this event as well as those in the succeeding two years and retired from competition undefeated. He was a founding member of the Glengarry Old Time Fiddlers Association in 1966 and of the Glengarry Strathspey and Reel Society in 1977 and played an active role in each of those groups for a number of years.

Cliff’s favourite fiddlers were Winston “Scotty” Fitzgerald, Angus Chisholm, “Little” Jack MacDonald and Joe MacLean. His favourite tunes were “The Marchioness of Tullybardine” “Elspeth Campbell” and “Southwest Bridge Reel.”

Cliff passed away on May 23rd, 1985 and Ruth just six months later.

Cliff’s tunes in this collection were named after his grandmother Mary Joe MacPherson and two of his grandchildren Kaelin McKie and Candace Dawn. It is believed that he composed some other tunes but, unfortunately, they were not notated before his death.