...

, but the story starts a year earlier. In the fall of '87, I got a phone call from the Edmonton Oilers, asking me if I'd be interested in coming to play fiddle at some of their regular season games. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine this call. Hey this was in the Gretzky, Messier years. I was playing bars/nightclubs, 6 or 7 nights a week in those days. NHL hockey games had organ players, not fiddlers. There had never been a fiddler play at a hockey game before in the NHL and they wanted to try something new. They offered me $100, supper and 1 beer a night. I agreed to this 'huge' contract, who wouldn't? In the bars, I was making $66.00 a night and had to buy my own suppers & beverages. If I remember correctly, they hired me for about 10 games throughout the regular season. I played way up in the catwalk/the rafters, next to the organ player. This is where you find all the media folks as well. Every game I played fiddle at, the Oilers won the game. Well the playoffs started and I wondered if I'd get a call. I think they played 3 rounds and eliminated 3 teams but I never got a call. But now they were about to start in the Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins. The phone rang. It was Bill Tuele from the Oilers, asking me to come and play at the home games for the final. (I was undefeated so I don't know why they took so long to call - haha). I most definitely agreed. I had gigs in nightclubs but told the band, I would show up a bit late on game nights. They were ok with that. The media up on the catwalk was crazy. 100s of reporters from every newspaper in North America. The Boston Globe did a story on the fiddler at the hockey game, as did other American newspapers. How excited do you think this young fiddler was? So the Oilers won the first 2 games. The Oilers went to Boston and I hoped they'd ask me to come along, hey I was undefeated....no such luck. They won game 3 in Boston and in the 2nd period of game 4, they were tied at 3 and the lights went out in the Boston Garden. They couldn't get them back on, so the game was cancelled and they came back to Edmonton to play game 4. I got the call again. Yee Haw. I told the band, sorry boys, I'll be late for the gig again. If the Oilers win tonight, it's the Stanley Cup. Well, the Oilers won and I was a part of it all. I couldn't believe what was happening. Our family, like most every other family in Canada, were hockey crazy. We watched Hockey Night in Canada all the time and knew every player's name, from every darn team. I thought of my Dad, who loved hockey and I knew he was at home watching this. Well, with all the hoopla, excitement and the presentation of the cup and all, I never showed up for my nightclub gig. The only time in my life that I never showed up for a gig. They understood...(thanks boys). I was undefeated and was going to hold out for more money the next season (haha). Game 1 of the next season, the Calgary Flames had a fiddler (David Glowasky) playing and he played at every game that year and was hired for many years. The Oilers never called again. I guess that ship had sailed. When Ottawa got a team a few years later, they had a couple of fiddlers play for them. (Bobby Lalonde, Kelli Trottier) That was an exciting time for ole Cal. My dad passed away 7 months later. I'm so glad he got to witness this special moment. If you're interested in any of my products, go to my website https://www.calvinvollrath.com/ www.calvinvollrath.com www.campcalvin.ca