By Jay Scott Kanes

ORWELL CORNER, PEI, Canada – In almost four decades since Cef Pobjoy arrived in Canada via Europe and the United States, he’s become a popular troubadour along some of the country’s eastern shores.

A regular performer on concert stages and in community halls, 61-year-old Cef entertains at every opportunity. He’s a Celtic-folk singer-songwriter who plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, mouth organ and fiddle. Sometimes, he’s joins ceilidh bands. On guitar, he may stray into jazz and blues.

“I really love singing,” said Cef, taking a break during a show at the Orwell Corner Historic Village on Prince Edward Island. “I’m not an opera singer, nor a highly trained singer, but I’m a very committed singer. For me, music’s a daily activity. I started at age 12.”

In 2004, Cef released East Coast Towns, a pleasing CD. “I wrote all the songs and most of the tunes,” he said. “I’ve written dozens of songs, although it can be difficult. Doing the CD was a great experience because I had to finish the songs. Often you can’t stop writing. With some songs, if you don’t put them onto a CD, you’ll work them to death for the rest of your life.”

Born in Dundalk, Ireland, an east-coast town, he grew up in Drogheda, and then lived in other east-coast towns, like Waterford and Dublin, Ireland, and London, England, finally settling in Gairloch, PEI.

“I’m drawn to other east-coast towns too,” Cef said. “Maybe there’s a mood to them – the optimism of morning light on the sea, the eternity of gulls’ cries and the sea-deep hearts of maritimers.”

All these East Coast towns, cold winds on the sea,
Raging over the broken ground, shake you to your knees.
Where shipwrecks talk, and spirits walk,
Down the streets where I belong,
The heart is seeking shelter, in a lonely sailor’s song.
From “East Coast Towns”, Cef Pobjoy, 2004

Cef enjoys telling tales in songs and between them. In “The Ferry Shanty”, a recent song, he defends transport links from Wood Islands, PEI, to Caribou, Nova Scotia. “Take the ferry, not the bridge, to the other side…. We’ll forget the seas in any weather….”

Another song tells of a co-worker’s cat prone to chew on electrical cords. “Willie the cat, he likes to dance. Any time he gets the chance, he’ll jump around and throw a step….”

Often Cef sings a line and then asks his audience to sing one. “It’s a greater experience for me if I can include the listeners,” he said. “That increases their openness to what I’m doing.”

When offstage, Cef works as a recreational therapist and social worker at the Hillsborough Hospital in Charlottetown. “I assist people with dementias, and we use music as therapy,” he said. “I sing with them and encourage them to sing.”

Cef holds no monopoly on Popjoy musical talent. His wife, Wendy, fiddles, a daughter, Kathryn, sings and another daughter, Valerie, plays guitar.

Wendy and Cef met in Ireland. “We got married and went to live in New York,” he recalls. “But the Vietnam War was on. As a newcomer, I’d have been targeted for the draft and forced to fight a war in which I had no belief.”

So in 1969, the Pobjoys crossed into Canada. After stints in Vancouver and southern Ontario, they moved to PEI.

“To me, PEI was totally recognizable as a kindred place,” Cef said. “I felt a strong Celtic presence in the families and the house- and farm-designs. Most of the Irish people came from County Monahan where my mother lived and I spent much of my childhood. I remember visiting farms there, and PEI has farms in the same styles. Even the narrow overhangs on barns made me feel at home.

“PEI has a different feel from New England, where the Irish also went. It’s less disturbed by modern change. Now if I leave, even for a month, I come back feeling an incredible emotional pull to the soil.

“People love music here too. There’s a great camaraderie and openness among musicians. I play with many musicians – from people my own age to youngsters.”

I left my home at 12 years old,
To fish upon the sea.
I always knew I’d sail away,
I’d leave my family….
Haul the tiller hard to port,
She mounts the breaking tide.
Reef the sail in the living gale,
And don’t fall over the side.
From “I Left My Home”, Cef Pobjoy, 2004

“Music’s powerful,” Cef said. “It goes deep into souls and emotions, releasing energy, memories, thoughts and reflections. For me, it’s an art-form and a therapy that keeps me going.”

He’ll climb onstage in many more East Coast Towns yet.

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