Avondale Music - Artists - Harry Hibbs


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Harry Hibbs

Between 1969 and 1976, a phenomenon of Canadian television happened when an unlikely star rose in the form of Harry Hibbs. The shy accordion player from Bell Island Newfoundland was featured weekly in a show first hosted from the Caribou Club in Toronto, and then from the Newfoundland Club in Galt, Ontario (now Cambridge).

The shows were aired on CHCH Hamilton and despite reaching over 100,000 viewers weekly in Eastern Canada, it was never shown in Harry's homeland.

Terry Hynes was a show host & the guitarist for At The Caribou and he remembered, "People would dress up like they were going to a wedding! That club was the start of bringing all of us from Newfoundland together. She was a fine time!�

Manny Pittson was the producer for the shows, having been at the helm of Don Messer's Jubiliee. "We used to record the backing tracks in a wrestling ring up in Hamilton," Pittson recalled. "The lights around the the neighbourhood used to dim when we started recording at the club.�

"We got a party going," said Ray Kent, Harry's first manager. "And Harry got that music going and he opened up people's hearts, they smiled more and they said, 'Do it again, Harry!' It was Newfoundlanders at their very best.�

The songs on this disc are the last surviving recordings from 7 years and over 150 shows. They represent a significant part in the Hall of Fame career of Newfoundland's Favourite Son, Harry Hibbs.

Harry Hibbs Off The Floor