Don Messer and The Islanders Art took sick and by Ray Simmons for many years. Don Tremaine announced the program on television from Halifax . Ray was always a member of the band and did the Outports Program on CFCY, but per¬ haps he is best known as a clarinetist with Don and was loved and respected by his many fans. Don knew what his audiences wanted to hear and on quick, rec¬ ognizable and danceable tunes, he built his enormous popularity. Folklorists Dorothy & Homar Hogan credit him with influencing other fiddlers with a style as clean, straight-ahead and neat as a well- tended farm and marked by "down-to-earth" simplicity. The band had made 18 tours by 1969 and a Centennial trip for Festival Canada in 1967 lasted three months and covered sixty-one centres. More than thirty-five 78's were recorded by Apex, mostly compositions of Don Messer . Composer at work. Don Messer , who once fiddled all night for 35 cents, wrote all the arrangements for his shows. 103