Biography:Arthur Joseph Boulay

Arthur Joseph (A.J.) Boulay. Boulay was born in New Hampshire in 1883 and lived there for some thirty years before moving in 1913 to Saint-Stanislas (near Beauharnois, Province of Quebec). He learned to fiddle at age ten and took formal lessons, and joined a dance band in the years prior to emigrating. As was the case with many early 78 RPM Quebecois fiddlers, music was not his main occupation, and Boulay found work in a cheese factory and a bakery. He is credited with being the first Quebec fiddler to be recorded, in 1923 (by RCA Victor), when he waxed a quadrille in three parts and a medley of Gigues. In 1924 he removed to Cornwall, Ontario, but visited Quebec regularly, recording some sixty tunes. Boulay died in Cornwall, December, 1948.