Vietnam-era veteran Donna Hébert is a fiddler, performer and teacher from Amherst, Massachusetts. One of her students, Cynthia Thomas, wrote a beautiful melody called the Thanksgiving Waltz, to which Donna added lyrics this fall about the hopes and fears of families with members serving in the military. Recorded with guitarist Max Cohen, Donna sings and plays fiddle.
Fiddler Cynthia Thomas is a clothing designer and owner of First Mountain Design in Leverett MA. Also an accomplished fiddler, Cynthia wrote the melody, Thanksgiving Waltz, that Donna adapted with lyrics as Thanksgiving Day. Please contact Cynthia at www.firstmountaindesign.com. about recording the melody, which is published in Donna's book Fiddling Demystified for Strings. The mp3 sample of this melody is in its original key of G major on Donna's Fiddlejam CD, the companion CD to her book. To record the song, please contact Donna Hébert.
Donna's other songs documenting the lives of ordinary and extraordinary women have achieved recognition here and around the world. Her "Babies," about war from a mother's perspective, was sung in Japan at that country's 40th Hiroshima Commemmoration Ceremony by American duo Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer. Donna recorded it on Rude Girls: Rude Awakening, a 1988 INDIE Award winner on the Flying Fish label. "Nana Danced," Donna's song about her French-Canadian grandmother, is the most requested of her songs and is a staple at Chanterelle concerts.
Her celebratory "Blessing" has been sung in community gatherings for 15 years and has been recorded by eight artists in the U.S, Canada and Europe, including singer-songwriter Lui Collins on her Stone By Stone CD. "The Shuttle," Donna's song about her French-Canadian mill-working ancestors, made the 1999 Smithsonian/ Folkways anthology, "Mademoiselle voulez-vous danser," where she recorded it with Chanterelle.
"The Ballad of Francine Hughes," a table-turning murder ballad co-written with Lyn Hardy and recorded on Rude Girls: Rude Awakening, tells the horrific story of The Burning Bed using an old Appalachian melody. It was included on Smithsonian's 1988 Folk Song America Collection.
Adjunct fiddle instructor at Amherst College, Donna also teaches Fiddling Demystified for Strings workshops for colleges, schools, festivals and summer residencies. With her performing and contradance group, Groovemama, Donna leads The Great Groove Band of school-age musicians at the Old Songs and Philadelphia Folk Festivals. She also performs Franco-American fiddle and vocal music with heritage groups Chanterelle and The Beaudoin Project. A 2005 Artists' Grant Finalist in Massachusetts, Donna has mentored six Franco-American fiddling apprentices under the auspices of New England arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts.
