By Linda Browne
Growing up in the rural town of Musgrave Harbour in Notre Dame Bay, Madison Mouland developed a love and appreciation for traditional Newfoundland music. You might even say it runs through her veins like the saltwater that ebbs and flows along “The Shore,” as the region is affectionately known.
But once her cousin began taking music lessons from Eric West, that affection grew even deeper. “All of this traditional music that Eric does, my cousin was so into it, playing it at home. And I loved it, listening to him play guitar,” Mouland, 24, recalls.
When she was eight years old (and continuing for the next 10 years), she also started taking guitar lessons with West, “and it kind of took off,” she says.
But it wasn’t until she attended her first Vinland Music Camp in 2013, at the age of 13, that she started to discover new musical passions and gain confidence in her abilities. Then held at the Killdevil Camp and Conference Centre at Lomond in Gros Morne National Park, it’s also where she bonded with other young people who shared her love of Newfoundland folk music. Little did she know how the camp would influence the course of her life.
“I remember going home that year and I had ‘Saltwater Joys’ on a piece of sheet music and I played it over and over and sang it. And my mom was like, ‘Huh. She can sing. I didn’t know that,’” laughs Mouland.
“So then they started encouraging me and put me in voice lessons at 16. And then I decided I wanted to go to music school, and it kind of went on from there. But camp was really what inspired me to start singing.”
Mouland is just one of many whose lives have been touched by Vinland Music Camp. Started by West in 2001, the first camp featured West and local multi-instrumentalist Daniel Payne as instructors, along with guest instructors Shirley Montague and Gayle Tapper, and included 11 students.
As word and enthusiasm grew, so did the number of instructors, classes and participants. Today, Vinland Music Camp boasts 10 instructors teaching everything from accordion, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, ukulele, tin whistle and flute, as well as singing, songwriting, storytelling, recitation and folk dancing. The camp also hosts special guests who perform and host workshops, which have included renowned local artists as well as visiting artists from across the country, Ireland, England and the U.S.
“We’ve also had collaborations with artists from Conne River and the Mi’kmaq culture, we brought in throat singers from Labrador, and we did workshops in Inuit music, French performers from the Port au Port. There’s been quite a cross section of music over the years,” West says.
Since 2009, Vinland Music Camp has been run by the Soundbone Traditional Arts Foundation, a non- profit dedicated to teaching and preserving the traditional music, dance and storytelling arts of Newfoundland and Labrador. The event now takes place in central Newfoundland at the fully accessible Lion Max Simms Memorial Camp in Bishop’s Falls, attracting around 50 patrons annually, ranging in age from eight to 80.
“One thing I’m really proud of is that we were able to make our camp so inclusive for all ages,” West says.
He’s also proud of the impact Vinland has had on fostering friendships, creativity and community among participants, whether they’re fine-tuning their skills or bonding over nightly campfires and singalongs.
“It’s a very joyous thing,” he says. “People are writing songs together, working on stories, they’re dancing together, performing music throughout the week on different instruments. It’s a chance to try new things and meet new people.”
This year, the camp will ring in its milestone 25th anniversary from August 17-22. West smiles as he recalls special moments, like the funny song about a sly fox that three young participants wrote at Gros Morne one year.
“This particular fox stole my sandals,” he laughs, “my treasured sandals that I used for kayaking. And I had blamed my friend Gayle’s dog. But I found them later chewed up a little bit…So these three little girls wrote this wonderful song about ‘Mr. West, he lost his shoe, what will he do?’ And they did a little dance. It was the most charming thing you can imagine.”
Vinland Music Camp has seen several young musicians participate over the years that have since turned pro – people like Rosemary Lawton, Aaron Collis (of Rum Ragged) and Allan Ricketts. And then, of course, there’s Madison Mouland, who went on to earn a music degree from Memorial University and is now a music teacher at a local school near her hometown, helping instill in her students a love of folk music like Vinland Music Camp did for her.
Mouland also performs and, these days, is heavily involved with Soundbone as a board member and instructor. She’s never missed a camp since she first attended 12 years ago and, like West, holds many dear memories.
Recently, she performed a song for her students that she wrote with her good friend and fellow Vinland Music Camp participant, Alex Hodder, who passed away before their third session of camp together. (Soundbone has since established a youth scholarship in his name.)
She’s come a long way from that young girl who had stage fright all those years ago. Vinland helped her find her voice – and many beloved friends and connections along the way.
“Camp was the big thing that threw me into Soundbone as a kid and really influenced me becoming a musician,” she says. “It’s like a family there. I’ve always said that you can’t be uncomfortable at Vinland.”
To learn more about Vinland Music Camp or to register online, visit www.soundbone.ca.
