EJ Ouellette’s Whole Music
In addition to performing with Crazy Maggy and as a solo artist, EJ Ouellette is also the Principle at Whole Music. While EJ previously owned and operated 2 large music teaching schools that included recording studios in the northeast of Boston, with over 400 students, 75 teachers, and full staffs, Whole Music is currently on a new mission. This is a living mission with more emphasis on a new vision in the new Music Business Environment and Virtual Music Development.
EJO Whole Music has been developing musicians, singer/songwriters/recording artists for 40 years. We have trained 14,000 musicians in our studios and many have gone to music college from Berklee College of Music to Belmont College Nashville, the Boston Conservatory to the Guitar Institute in LA and more. Many of our clients now have professional careers in music and many just do it for the love. That is why we do it. For the Love of Music!
*Barefoot on the Gravel Walk* by E J Ouellette
This album represents the distinct regional music traditions of New England, specifically the New England Celtic and Acadian Fiddle & song cultures of the Nor’east regiona of the US. These traditions, though often overlooked, are deeply rooted in the immigrant history of the region — shaped by Irish, Scottish, French-Canadian, and passed south and west through generations of oral tradition and communal performance.
Unlike Celtic recordings produced solely in Ireland or Scotland, this album reflects the New England evolution of those traditions — a blend of early settler influences, Quebecois rhythmic phrasing, and regional bowing styles that developed through the folk revival and kitchen party scenes of the Merrimack Valley and surrounding areas. The music was often played in grange halls and dances, mill towns, and front parlors, making it a true expression of place and heritage.
The track *On the Gravel Walk* (a recomposed version of the traditional Irish reel “The Gravel Walks”) features collaborations with notable Celtic and American musicians including Enda Scahill (Ireland) and Dave Mattacks (UK/US), showcasing the living and global relevance of this regional form. Dave Mattacks appears on 5 out of the tracks on this album and has long resided in Marblehead Massachusetts.
Bandmates are part of the E J Ouellette & Crazy Maggy Band a New England fiddle dance band with 26 years performing in New England’s Nor’east. Besides the above artists band mates on this album include Steve Baker on Sax, Lisa O’Donnell on piano and backing vocals, Geoff Wadsworth on tin whistle, Don Gaudreau piano, Peter Whitehead drums, introducing Deborah Offenhauser on Piano and Kristine Malpica on percussion.
The album combines traditional and original songs and material, arranged with reverence for the idiom and crafted to preserve the vocal, +iddle, and rhythmic styles native to Northern New England fiddle and song. EJO’s songs reflect the history Massachusetts & New England’s industrial, maritime and Nor’east farming traditions.
As an artist, teacher, music producer and tradition-bearer with decades of experience in this style, I respectfully submit this work as part of a broader effort to recognize New England’s Nor’east Celtic/Acadian tradition as a valid and vital part of the Regional Roots landscape — alongside Cajun, Hawaiian, Native American, and other place-based genres.
Sincerely,
Artist, Producer “Barefoot on the Gravel Walk” CEO of Whole Music Records™