By Jay Scott Kanes

NEW LONDON, PEI, Canada – Facing an expectant audience, Norma and Marie, the Arsenault Sisters, appear immune to fatigue. Beneath matching cowboy hats, they step and strut, drawing bursts of applause.

“We’re not young, but entertaining gives us fantastic exercise, and we love it,” said the sisters, one from Stratford, the other from Indian River in Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province.

Amazingly, these singing, step-dancing and instrument-playing sisters, easily among Atlantic Canada’s most energetic entertainers, are closing in on senior-citizen status. Norma is 60 years old. Marie’s two years younger.

“We learn all the time,” they said. “Every time we do shows, we’re very nervous, but we keep learning new things, making new friends and meeting people who tell us to keep going, not to stop performing.

“At our ages, we’re fortunate that we still can do what we do – that we still can dance.”

For the second summer in a row, Norma and Marie share the stage at weekly ceilidhs in New London. They’re joined by singer-guitarist Rodney Savidant, multi-instrumentalist Keelin Wedge and keyboardist Glen MacEachern.

Marie, a former schoolteacher, married a farmer, has one son and three grandchildren. Unmarried, Norma works in a government office in Charlottetown, the provincial capital.

In 2007, the Arsenault Sisters released a new CD, one with a country-Acadian flavor and called Sisters in Harmony. “The title means more than harmonizing our songs,” they said. “We’re in harmony as sisters. We get along well, and we’re always there for each other.”

Their CD-launch party had admirers “hanging from the rafters” in the New London Community Complex. Some fans were turned away.

“The album has songs that we’re requested to sing at shows,” they said. The 14 tracks include: “Les Gars de Mont Carmel”, “I Wonder How the Old Folks Are At Home”, “Moonlight and Clover” and “On My Father’s Side”.

Norma and Marie dedicated one song, “An Old Log Cabin For Sale”, to the memory of Edgar Millar, a fiddler who died in early 2007, and another song to their late mother, Annie Arsenault.

“Edgar was a great friend who performed many shows with us and always played that song on the mouth organ,” Marie said. “He always asked us to sing it, but we didn’t know the words until after he passed away. Norma learned to play the mouth organ so we could record it in Edgar’s memory.”

Norma and Marie also teamed up with three other musicians, Ardene Caseley, Gwendy Murphy and Avis Bernard, in Friends 2000, an all-female band. “We’re friends from school-days who got together at a cottage in the summer of 2000,” said Norma. “Then we started to play music together.”

Friends 2000 issued a gospel CD, Praying in Harmony. The launch party, this time in Kensington, drew another capacity crowd.

“Singing always played a big part in our lives, whether as girls sitting on a wood-box behind the stove at home, on stage for many years, in church choirs or simply to my grandchildren,” said Marie.

Back in 2002, the Arsenault Sisters released an earlier CD, Making Memories. Originally from Wellington, PEI, they first entertained in the 1960s.

“Our father fiddled at home and liked to invite different musicians, including Eddy Arsenault. We learned our first shuffle from Helene, Eddy’s daughter, who later starred in the band Barachois. She was five years old and taught us at a house party.”

On another memorable occasion, Norma, then 14 years old, received her first guitar as a Christmas gift.

A third sister, Dorothy Arsenault-Ross, performed with Norma and Marie before marrying into another musical clan, the Ross Family. As youngsters, the lively stepping Arsenault trio appeared twice on Don Messer’s TV show. Now the Ross Family performs summer shows in nearby Stanley Bridge.

“When we were young, fiddle and step-dance contests were big,” the sisters said. “We always went, not necessarily to win, but for fun. Coming from a farm with chickens, beef cattle and milk cows, we stayed busy at the hay and potatoes. Music and dancing gave us our outings.”

Starting in 2000, Norma and Marie entertained tourists in Cavendish. “At our age, we take performing one summer at a time, one day at a time,” they said. “It’s hard to stop, and it’s always fun. When we talk to people after shows, their reactions make us feel so good.”

Probably the Arsenault Sisters have more CDs ahead. “Norma has another dream,” said Marie. “She’d like to record a fiddle CD.”

ARCHIVES