Championship fiddler Kelli Trottier came late to singing but she's a triple threat entertainer now - singing, step dancing and fiddling.
"We do a variety of music during our show," said Trottier, who is accompanied by guitarist Greg Simm. "We do folk, country, swing and Celtic. Greg is a real treat for the audience himself. When we play, we'll read the audience and play to them, so if it looks like the crowd appreciates the fiddle music we'll play more of that. So there will be fiddling and singing and step dancing and Greg's a pretty funny guy so there will be some humour thrown in there. It's just going to be a fun easy time for everybody."
Trottier bloomed in a hotbed of musical tradition that is Ontario's Ottawa Valley where she grew up to discover her passion for entertaining.
Trottier started step dancing at four years old to her dad playing the fiddle.
"I was bugging my mom and dad to get me a fiddle and I started when I was nine," said Trottier, who took classical training to get mad skills in violin. "But it was always the fiddle first and then the singing - I mean I remember entertaining as a family and the three girls huddled around a microphone just to round out the show and that was the extent of it."
When she played in bands during high school she started to sing harmony.
"I remember when I first was asked to sing by myself I thought 'I can't sing by myself,'" Trottier said. "So singing came along quite a bit later."
She started her own band in Kingston, Ontario so she'd have a bit more control of her career where she could make choices about the music she played and the money she made. That was when she realized she'd have to sing the songs.
"That's when I realized I hadn't thought it all the way through," she laughed. "I just had to rise to the occasion and I didn't feel like I should do fiddle music all night so I just started a little bit more."
It took a long time for people to stop calling Trottier the fiddler, she added.
"Oh, Kelli Trottier the fiddler," she said. "Now I'm still considered the fiddler but people are now and have been for a while - recognizing me as a singer, which has been really nice because wow, I guess I really am a singer now."
With a new single I Can Smell The Rain released to country radio earlier this week, Trottier is packing her bags and heading out to tour British Columbia.
Trottier was in concert in Prince George during the B.C. Old Time Fiddlers' Association's 39th annual Old Time Fiddle contest in July, 2008 and she's looking forward to her return.
"I'm anxious to come back and revisit Prince George and I'm really looking forward to it," said Trottier.
Trottier will play Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at the Elder Citizens Recreation Centre.
Tickets are $20 at the Elder Citizen Recreation Centre, 1692 Tenth Avenue or at the door.
