The phrase “family tradition” can apply to any number of things, from holiday customs to unique rites and rituals – whether it’s secret handshakes, bad-joke-a-thons or annual excursions to obscure destinations. 

But for Newburyport resident Sarah Ann Hajjar, one family tradition has an especially prominent place in her life: Cape Breton fiddle.

Sixteen-year-old Hajjar is the great-granddaughter of legendary Cape Breton fiddler Bill Lamey, a central figure in Boston’s Cape Breton community for decades who pioneered recordings of Cape Breton music. She’s also the niece of fiddler Doug Lamey – Bill’s grandson – who was active in the local Cape Breton scene in the late 1990s/early 2000s before moving to the island, and has two albums to his credit.

Hajjar has now made her own contribution to the family tradition, having just released “Coming Home,” a three-track EP with 18-year-old pianist Allan Chiasson, whose family also possesses a rich Cape Breton music legacy. She’ll be performing selections from the recording as well as other tunes from her repertoire on November 9 at Watertown’s Canadian American Club – the hub of Boston’s Cape Breton community – as part of its annual gala. 

The three sets on “Coming Home” are chock full of tunes often found in the repertoire of Cape Breton and Scottish musicians, including “Road to the Isles,” “Hull’s Reel,” “Way to Judique,” “Walking the Floor,” “King George IV,” and “The King’s Reel” – not to mention the jig “Bill Lamey’s.” The EP is scheduled to be available on Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube, Apple and other popular platforms in mid-November.

“It took a lot of energy, and they were all very long days,” says Hajjar of the recording process, which took place over a weekend back in March. “You’d practice all day, then go in the studio and do a take, then do it again and again, and see what worked and what didn’t. But coming out of it, Allan and I were both proud of what we accomplished, knowing what we could do with our music at a young age.”

Not every young musician has a family music tradition to build on, of course – and even with one there’s no guarantee it will play a part in their lives. What helps is to have an encouraging family, a bevy of supportive mentors and friends, and a willingness to put yourself out there and seize opportunities that strengthen your ability, and self-confidence. 

That’s how it’s been for Hajjar, who started out playing classical violin at age four and over time began exploring Scottish and then Cape Breton music, finally embracing it fully during the pandemic. This was around the time of a difficult transition to middle school, so in the quest for positive, confidence-building experiences, Hajjar’s mother began taking her to fiddle camps in New England, particularly Boston States and Pure Dead Brilliant, the latter of which is in Groton. She made the acquaintance of established Celtic musicians like Katie McNally – who served as producer for “Coming Home” – Hanneke Cassel, Andrea Beaton, Natalie MacMaster, Wendy MacIsaac, Howie McDonald, Jenna Moynihan, Emerald Rae, and Emilie and Nora Carroll (who perform as a duo, The Carroll Sisters), among others. 

All along, she had her Uncle Doug, who’d given Hajjar her first violin when she was three and taught her her first tune (“Coulter’s Candy”). On visits to Cape Breton, she’d watch him play concerts and sessions, and as she grew older he would talk to her about the Cape Breton fiddle and its place in the Lamey family.

“I have always looked up to Doug; he’s had a huge impact on my life with his music,” says Hajjar. “He has always encouraged me to play and carry on this tradition after him and my great-grandfather.”

Hajjar began to get prime performance opportunities, among them at the Glendale concert, part of the annual KitchenFest Music Festival in Cape Breton – an event at which Bill Lamey had appeared – and with Doug Lamey at the beloved Red Shoe Pub in Mabou, a haven for Cape Breton music aficionados. She also began to show up at stages in Greater Boston, appearing at Lamey’s 2023 CD release concert in The Burren; in 2024, she played a set at the Boston Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest). 

She met Chiasson in 2024 at a music camp at the Gaelic College in Nova Scotia, and the pair hit it off. “Allan just goes along with each section of the tune so well; he doesn’t plan, he just makes it happen,” says Hajjar. “He’s very experienced, and I feel confident when we play together. We’re really in synch with one another, there’s no pressure – we have a lot of fun with the music.”

They decided to apply for a spot at the 2025 BCMFest and wound up playing for a large, very appreciative audience in the Dayfest portion of the festival at The Burren. 

Hajjar had thought about making a recording before she and Chiasson crossed paths, and their BCMFest appearance and a couple of other gigs convinced them to give it a try. They launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the project, and in March went to the Acadia Recording Company in Portland, Me. 

McNally was only too happy to sit in the producer’s chair.

“I think Sarah Ann and I have very similar musical values,” she says. “We both love digging up really traditional Cape Breton tunes and learning from scratchy old tapes, but we're both Boston girls who love playing trendy new tunes from Scotland and getting down with a disco ball at the Boston Urban Ceilidh [a popular social dance event held during BCMFest].”

While Hajjar and Chiasson were not making a full-length album, the experience of recording in a studio – a closed-off environment that, even with familiar and friendly faces present, can be a little unnerving at first – required some adjustment on their part. Fortunately, says Hajjar, they had McNally, as well as engineer Jason Phelps, in their corner.

“Katie said, ‘Just go about playing the set. Don’t think about it.’ So we’d play the set five times in a row. If there was something off in one take, we could see how that part sounded in one of the other takes; if it was right, Jason could pull it out and put it into the version we were working on. That was just an incredible process.”

McNally says, “I tried to emphasize with them is that a big part of any recording project is learning. Every time I record or produce a record, I always try to remember that it's snapshot of who I am at a moment in time, and that's a really special thing. They might each make 20 more records and they'll never make this one again – but I hope they'll be proud of it for the rest of their lives.”

Hajjar also found her Uncle Doug to be of enormous help: He talked with her about the best platforms on which to make the recording available, and suggested she and Chiasson also use a professional videographer as part of the promotion for “Coming Home.”

With the EP done, Hajjar says she and Chiasson will focus more on performance opportunities, although it’s a little difficult to arrange such things since Chiasson is attending college in Nova Scotia (in fact, he won’t be able to play at the November 9 gig, so Boston-area resident Rachel Reeds will be at the keyboard).

Adding this milestone to her other experiences has given Hajjar some valuable perspective about her place in the family tradition: She feels enriched by this legacy but not defined by it. 

“There have been some experiences and opportunities I’ve had that are different from Uncle Doug’s, just as his were different from those of my great-grandfather,” she explains. “For example, going to fiddle camps has been a big part of my musical development. You meet a lot of people, and you hear, and learn, lots of different tunes from different traditions – and at the same time, you’re sharing and passing along what you know.  

“Being part of the family music tradition with my great-granddad and my uncle has meant a lot to me, and I know it’s also opened some doors, but I feel like I’m my own person. Maybe I’ll pass along the music to someone else in my family, and it’ll just keep on going.”

For more about the November 9 gala at the Canadian American Club, go to canadianamericanclub.com