![]() “Some people wanna write about themselves and say, ‘look everybody, shut up and listen to me. Making music may have been a natural impulse for Gordie when he was young, but as he’s become quite good at it, he’s had to come to terms with the fact that people want to see him perform and hear him play. And the fact that people clapped or enjoyed it was secondary.” So obviously at that point it seemed natural to me (to make music). I couldn’t understand why everyone was clapping. And then everyone would clap and I’d start to cry I was so embarrassed I’d run upstairs because everyone was making noise and it was loud. She’d play something on the piano, ‘Scotch On The Rocks’ was the first thing I think I learned, and I would harmonize with her on the second part of the fiddle tune. I can remember I would harmonize with my mother at parties. We moved to Big Pond when I was four or five. And it hurt a lot so I guess that’s why I remember it.” I can remember sitting on the piano stool with my grandfather who was a fiddler, Bernie Ley, and I can remember he was playin’ the fiddle and I guess my mother was playin’ the piano and I was up on the stool with her on the piano bench and I fell off, right on top of my head. It seemed like it was the natural thing to do from as far back as I can remember. I think I wanted to hear about that magic moment when he realized he was a ‘rock star’. I know it’s kind of a silly question anyway: “Where does your genius come from?”, but I had to ask. “I don’t think about it too much.” I don’t think that’s because he’s humble, though he is, I just think he doesn’t even notice. (WGO # 28, October 1998)“I never really thought of it like that,” he says over the phone from Halifax where he’s just finished work on a Christmas television special that the Rankin sisters are doing. When I ask where the music comes from he can’t understand what I mean, much less answer the question. Comfortable with any type of music (he played in the school band at Malcolm Munroe Junior High and Riverview High School) he’s found his way through the blues and pop/rock back to the traditional music of Cape Breton to become one of its finest players. He taught himself to play guitar as a teenager but his interest leaned more towards Stevie Ray Vaughn than Eastwood Davison. Most recently he’s been working in television on Rita MacNeil’s show and as musical director for shows like Celtic Electric. A well-respected guitar, he has played on dozens of recordings, even producing and co-producing the odd one. Besides touring with the Rankins (he plays guitar in the band), he’s co-owner with Fred Lavery of Lakewind Sound Studios at Point Aconi. ![]() Still in his mid-twenties, the music keeps Sampson busy. It’s hard to believe he’s even had time to record this album. In September his much anticipated debut album Stones was released. ![]() As a member of Realworld in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s he co-wrote some of Cape Breton’s first exportable pop songs and has since had a hand in a number of Top 20 singles in Canada including the Rankins’ current hit “You May Be Right”. (WGO # 28, October 1998)Long revered for his virtuosity on a variety of instruments, Big Pond native Gordie Sampson has also played an important role in the popular music of Cape Breton Island. ![]()
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