1939 - 1983.
Ernie Shewchuk played violin & recorded with The Meadowlanders and Johnnie & The Nite-Liters
Ernie Shewchuk
Violinist for The Meadowlanders, recorded for Eagle Records Co in 1960, 1964, 1965 and 1966. with Johnny and the Nite-Liters and Freddie Chetyrbok and the Meadowlanders in 1967.
Biography.
Ernie was born the third of six children to parents Peter J. and Annie Shewchuk on the ranch in the District of Meadowlands, Manitoba, near the South tip of Lake Winnepegosis. Besides being a rancher, his father was also a winter commercial fisherman. After evening chores, the only entertainment on the farm was the radio and the fiddling music of a Metis hired hand. Ernie, at the age of 15, enjoyed the fiddle music so much that he wanted to learn to play and would watch the fiddler and ask him to teach him. His parents ordered a violin from Eaton's catalogue for $29.95. With some coaching from the hired man, Ernie quickly became a self-taught fiddler. At school, a couple of this classmates played guitar. They got together on weekends and began practicing the numbers they could hum off the radio. At this time Ernie’s sister joined him on the accordion.
The young group formed a band and before long they were playing for local dances. Friends who also wanted to go to the dance traveled with them on the tarp covered box of the one ton truck. A this point they had no amps. After high school, Ernie and the others moved to Winnipeg in search of work and soon were playing for barn dances and entertained at legions. Now they had amplifiers and microphones.
In the early 60s, Ernie spent time at Rankin Inlet and Baffin Islands working on heavy equipment. When he came back to Winnipeg in ‘63, he joined up with Johnny and the Nite- Liters, who needed a fiddler. Members of the group were: Ernie - fiddle, John Zazuliak -accordion, Jerry Martell - lead guitar, Hank Turko - rhythm guitar, Ray Rogers - bass and Ron Christenson - drums. They played a dances and entertained at bars. In 1964, the Nite- Liters recorded a few singles, some with Ernie's compositions such as Bunny hop polka, Meadowlanders Reel, Ernie's Reel, the Liters Polka with Eagle Records. Following this, they accompanied Freddie Chetyrbok on his album of “Pub With No Beer”, an album of Ukrainian comedy songs.
In 1965, Ernie married Betty (Kindret) and that fall fall they moved to Meadowlands to take over the family farm. Here they formed a band called Freddie and the Meadowlanders, consisting of: Ernie – fiddle, Betty – Accordion, Freddie Chetyrbok - rhythm guitar, Cymbaly and vocal, Larry Hewlko - drums. With good Ukrainian and old time music, they were kept busy every weekend playing in a large area.
In February 1967, they recorded an album with Eagle Records in Winnipeg of songs by Freddie and Instrumentals. Here again, Ernie featured his own copyrighted compositions of Pipe Cleaners Special, T- Bird Polka, Hatchet Hoedown and Pawlish Polka. A second album, followed of more Ukrainian comedy songs.
With the responsibility of ranching and the family, as well as the geography between members. Ernie and Betty became The Meadowlanders, along with other more local group members and played in a smaller radius of home.
Unfortunately, Ernie met his untimely death tragically in November 1983 by drowning, breaking through the ice while setting nets for commercial winter fishing on Lake Winnipegosis at the age of 44 years. He was survived by his wife Betty, daughters Michelle and Joyce, as well as son David.