For your Grammy® Consideration for Best Regional Roots Album

About the Album

“Barefoot on the Gravel Walk” is a celebration of New England’s living fiddle and song traditions — a vibrant blend of Irish, Scottish, Acadian, and French Canadian immigrant influences that took root in the mill towns, dance halls, and river valleys of the Northeast.

Through original compositions and re-imagined traditional works, E J Ouellette (Sullivan on his mom’s side) honors these cultural threads while carrying them forward with fresh energy and artistry. This album is deeply tied to the place and people of New England — the work songs, dance tunes, and fiddle-driven gatherings that shaped its regional identity. It all started with Fiddle in hand!

Track one *On the Gravel Walk* (a recomposed version of the traditional Irish reel “The Gravel Walks”) features collaborations with notable Celtic and American musicians including Enda Scahill (Ireland) and Dave Mattacks (UK/US), showcasing the living and global relevance of this regional form. Dave Mattacks appears on 5 out of the tracks on this album and has long resided in Marblehead Massachusetts.

E J Ouellette: Fiddle: Featuring Enda Scahill: 4 String Banjo, Dave Mattacks: Drums, Deborah Offenhauser: Piano, Steve Baker: Saxophone, Carol Coronis: Cittern, Geoff Wadsworth: Tin Whistle, & Kristine Malpica: Percussion, EJO Wrecking Crew: Acoustic, Electric & Bass Guitar

Song by EJ Ouellette: Scottish strathspey fiddle tune Delnabo circa 1890: Featuring Don Gaudreau: Piano, Dave Mattacks: Drums, Steve Baker: Saxophone.

Jig composed by E J Ouellette: Mandolin, Fiddle, 4 String Tenor Banjo, Acoustic, Electric & Bass Guitars. Featuring Don Gaudreau: Piano & Dave Mattacks: Drums

Unlike Celtic recordings produced solely in Ireland or Scotland, this album reflects the New England evolution of those traditions — a blend of early settler influences, Celtic/Quebecois rhythmic phrasing, and regional bowing styles that developed through the folk revival and kitchen party scenes of the Merrimack Valley and surrounding northern areas. The music was often played in grange halls and dances, mill towns, and front parlors, making it a true expression of place and heritage.

Bandmates are part of the E J Ouellette & Crazy Maggy Band a New England fiddle dance band with 26 years performing in New England’s Nor’east. Besides the above artists band mates on this album include Steve Baker on Sax, Lisa O’Donnell on piano and backing vocals, Geoff Wadsworth on tin whistle, Don Gaudreau piano, Peter Whitehead drums, introducing Deborah Offenhauser on Piano and Kristine Malpica on percussion. This album is Co-Produced by Lisa O’Donnell.

Song and Tune Composed by E J Ouellette on Vocals, Fiddle, Bass Fiddle, 4 String Tenor Banjo, Acoustic & Bass Guitars. Featuring Lisa O’Donnell on Background Vocals & Piano. Dave Mattacks on Drums.

A reel composed by E J Ouellette: Fiddle, Acoustic & Bass Guitar. Jake Geppert: 5 String Banjo. Steve Baker: Saxophone. Pete Whitehead: Drums

The album combines traditional and original songs and material, arranged with reverence for the idiom and crafted to preserve the vocal, Fiddle, and rhythmic styles native to Northern New England fiddle and song. EJO’s songs reflect the history Massachusetts & New England’s industrial, maritime and Nor’east farming traditions.

A reel composed by E J Ouellette: Fiddle, 5 String Tenor Banjo, Acoustic & Bass Guitars. Featuring: Deborah Offenhauser: Piano, Pete Whitehead: Drums, Steve Baker: Saxophone

A song by E J Ouellette: Vocals, Fiddle, Acoustic, Electric & bass Guitars. Featuring Dave Mattacks: Drums

This album represents the distinct regional music traditions of New England, specifically the New England/Nor’east Celtic and Acadian Fiddle & folk dance cultures of the Northeast. These traditions, though often overlooked, are deeply rooted in the immigrant history of the region — shaped by Irish, Scottish, French-Canadian, and passed south and west through generations of oral tradition and communal performanc

As an artist, teacher, music producer and tradition-bearer with decades of experience in this style, I respectfully submit this work as part of a broader effort to recognize New England’s Nor’east Celtic/Acadian tradition as a valid and vital part of the Regional Roots landscape — alongside Cajun, Hawaiian, Native American, and other place-based genres.

Thank you,

Sincerely,
Artist, Producer “Barefoot on the Gravel Walk” CEO of Whole Music Records™