Figgy Duff was a Canadian folk-rock band[1] from Newfoundland, Canada.[2] They played a major role in the Newfoundland cultural renaissance of the 1970s and 1980s.[3] Formed in 1976 by Noel Dinn, who named the band after a traditional pudding, Figgy Duff travelled across Newfoundland, learning traditional songs and performing them with distinct elements of rock and roll.
Figgy Duff | |
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Origin | Newfoundland, Canada |
Genres | Folk rock |
Years active | 1976 | –1995 , 1999, 2008, 2016
Labels | Amber Music (1991–1995) |
Past members | Noel Dinn (1948-1993) Pamela Morgan Frank Maher Dave Panting Geoff Butler Philip Dinn (1949-2013) Art Stoyles (1943-2015) Derek Pelley Kelly Russell Sandy Morris Anita Best Jamie Snider Bruce Crummell Rob Laidlaw |
Website | Figgy Duff (defunct) |
The band relied heavily on the research of ethnomusicologist Kenneth Peacock's 1965 3-volume Songs of the Newfoundland Outports as a resource for songs that they adapted into a new rock-based sound called “trad-rock” — an amalgamation of rock music and traditional folk music of unknown authors.[4][5]
They began working with Island Records early, though the album that resulted has yet to be released. Instead, they released their independent self-titled debut album: Figgy Duff in 1980.[6][2] The album was also released by Ottawa-based Posterity Records. It was followed by After the Tempest in 1982.[2][7][8]
Through the next thirteen years, Figgy Duff continued touring and released three more albums: Weather Out the Storm[9] (1989), Downstream[10] (1993) and the compilation Retrospective[11][12] (1995).
The band's line-up changed several times, but the core of Noel Dinn and Pamela Morgan, singer-songwriter, stayed the same. Weather Out the Storm was nominated for a 1991 Juno Award. Dinn died of cancer in 1993, and Morgan disbanded Figgy Duff soon after.[13]
The band has since reunited three times, once in 1999 for a silver anniversary tour,[14] again in summer 2008 to celebrate the release of a CD of live recordings from the bands' previous reunion,[15][16] and for the 2016 Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, featuring Aaron Collis on accordion.[17]
Discography
- 1980: Figgy Duff
- 1982: After the Tempest
- 1989: Weather Out the Storm
- 1993: Downstream
- 1995: Retrospective[18]
- 2008: Figgy Duff Live Silver Reunion
References
External links
- Figgy Duff official site at Amber Music
- More Figgy Duff background[usurped]
- Figgy Duff – Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, v. 2, p. 62
- Figgy Duff in The Canadian Encyclopedia
- Figgy Duff discography at Discogs