In his first fiddling competition, six-year-old Hardy Loomis of Athabasca won the novice competition at the 28th Grand North American Old Time Fiddle Championship in Radway at the Agricenter July 20-22.
Fiddling since he was three years old, Hardy has only recently begun to play seriously at jamborees and fairs across the province. The competition in Radway was his first real competition, said his mother Anita.
She also said her son is all talent and learns his songs strictly by playing by ear. It’s this natural talent that draws people to him and keeps them coming back.
“Every weekend we are out at jamborees, and he already has a lot of followers who come out just to see him play,” Anita said. “He also played at the River Rats Festival recently, too.”
Anita home schools her two sons, Hardy and his younger brother Bowie, so Hardy has plenty of time to practice his favourite instrument. However, it isn’t the only one he plays; in addition to the fiddle, he plays the drums and guitar, and so does Bowie.
Although Hardy is mostly self-taught and never had a professional lesson, Anita said his grandfather is also a well-known fiddler and helps him learn his songs.
Indeed, his grandfather is a big influence on Hardy’s fiddling career and taught him the song that helped him win the competition, Boil ‘Em Cabbage Down. Anita said Hardy was the youngest competitor at the contest but that didn’t stop him from competing against older kids. She noted that in order for Hardy to win, he had to have a play-off with a nine-year-old when they landed in a tie.
“No one came prepared for a play-off because no one expected a tie,” Anita said. “He ended up being pretty lucky in the end because the judges chose a fiddle style called the ‘reel’ and the song he played falls into that category and its one of his best songs.”
For a six-year-old, a reel is a pretty lively song to play given its quick tempo and the repetitive phrases, but the songs style choice didn’t concern Hardy, despite his initial butterflies.
“I get more excited when people are happy when I play,” Hardy said. “Boil ‘Em Cabbage Down is a fast song and people dance. If at first they haven’t seen me, they just watch and think I’ll play Twinkle Twinkle, but then they hear the music and know it’s good and see a lot and dance. I like that. I like when people give me compliments.”
As any young man would, Hardy enjoys when people around him are happy because of something he did, but he knows he has the chops to back it up, too. Anita said when they first arrived at the competition there was a big trophy that the kids got their name put on if they won, and Hardy raced up to it and stared and said, “I’m going to get my name on that, Mom.” And so he did in the end.
Up next for the little fiddling sensation is another competition in Westlock on Aug. 20, followed by the Harvest Gold Fiddlers Weekend & Old Time Dance in Athabasca on Sept. 3. For now though, Hardy just wants to keep playing for a long time.
“I love playing and I’m going to keep playing until I’m 80, then I’ll stop.”
