Annotation:Lionel's Favorite
LIONEL'S FAVORITE. Canadian, Reel (4/4 time). Canada, New Brunswick. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB'. "Lionel's Favorite" was composed by Moncton, New Brunswick, fiddler Lionel Poirier (1934-1970). He was an 1996 inductee into the New Brunswick Country Music Hall of Fame, which recorded at the time:
Lionel Poirier was born in 1934 at East Bathurst and moved to Saint John in 1939. He got his first fiddle at the age of 5 and played for his first dance at the age of 12.
He played with numerous groups in the late 40’s and early 50’s including Vance Patterson, Rickey Russell, among others. Lionel played on television with a very popular American star “Curly O’Brien and the Top Hands” in the fifties. He also toured the Maritimes with great Country Music stars Carl and Pearl Butler of “Don’t Let Me Cross Over” fame as well as Grand Ole Opry Star Grandpa Jones.
Lionel then played with Don Messer’s Jubilee on CBC from Halifax. He joined the “Maritime Farmers” television show on CHSJ and played with them for many years. In the later 60’s and the early 70’s he played at the Art Marr Country Music Jamboree at Lily Lake.
He retired from playing due to illness and passed away at the young age of 36. He will always be remembered as one of the great fiddlers.
