Rufus Guinchard was born on September 6, 1899, in the community of Daniel’s Harbour on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, where he spent his first 47 years He then moved to Port Saunders and later to Hawkes Bay, where he remained until his passing at the age of 91. The oldest boy in a family of eight was fishing with his father, Joseph, by age 8 and, by age 14, was trapping, logging, and learning the various other skills required to live at that time. At age 22, he was married and later widowed with eight children. He remarried in 1949 and had an additional three children.

Rufus learned to play fiddle at age 11 by watching and listening to other fiddlers in the area, most notably his Uncle John Peter Payne. Determined to teach himself how to play, he would take down his father’s old fiddle and practice when nobody was home. Not wanting anyone to catch him learning, afraid they would laugh at his initial attempts, he’d sit on the kitchen table by the window with his feet on a chair so he had a clear view of anyone approaching the house. Looking out the window to his left necessitated holding the fiddle on his right shoulder so the bow wouldn’t strike the window. Being only 11 years old, he shortened the bow to a more comfortable length by holding it halfway up the stick. Thus, he developed a unique style that remained unchanged over the next 80 years of fiddle playing.

As an adult, when not occupied as a fisherman, logger, trapper, carpenter, or river warden, Rufus played the fiddle for dances along the coast from Sally’s Cove to Flower’s Cove. He learned and retained many of the old tunes played in these communities and continued to play them through the 1950s and ’60s, when local folk music was less prevalent today. During a revival of interest in folk music in the mid-1970s, Rufus was “discovered” by folklorists and invited to perform at Memorial University and The Arts & Culture Centre in St. John’s, thus launching his new career as a “professional musician” at the age of 75. With musicians like The Breakwater Boys, and Jim Payne & Kelly Russell, he began traveling the world, bringing his unique style of fiddling to delighted audiences in Japan, Australia, France, England, Ireland, the USA, and all across Canada. Rufus appeared on countless radio and TV shows. He received numerous awards, including the Newfoundland & Labrador Arts Council Award for Music and, most notably, the prestigious Order of Canada.

Rufus recorded three albums during this time. His first, Rufus Guinchard – Newfoundland Fiddler, was a solo LP released by Breakwater Books Ltd. in 1978. Step Tunes & Doubles was recorded in 1981 with accompaniment by Jim Payne on guitar and myself on second fiddle & bouzouki, released on LP on the Pigeon Inlet Productions label. Humouring the Tunes was produced in 1990 by Jim Payne, who also provided guitar accompaniment. In 1987, some Step Tunes & Doubles recordings were released on cassette tape along with tracks from the LP Jim Payne & Kelly Russell, titled Newfoundland Songs & Fiddle Music. In 1996, the Step Tunes and Doubles recordings were re-released on CD & Cassette as Fathers of the Newfoundland Fiddle – Volume 1.

When Rufus passed away on September 7, 1990, he left with us a great legacy of unique and indigenous Newfoundland music that would not have survived had it not been preserved in his memory to be passed along to the next generation.