100 pages, including 18 illustrations. Paperback, $14.95 Published 2003 by Whale's Jaw Publishing

Purchase from an independent bookseller in the Cape Ann area, or online from Amazon.com

It was a certain place and time in America, when a fisherman of talent, creative imagination and irrepressible self-confidence could propel his career from the deck of a schooner to the stages of New York concert halls, competing with seasoned performers in a fast-changing world of music and entertainment.

Essentially self-taught, Gloucester's John Jay Watson became a favorite fiddler of the mackerel fishing schooner fleet. He was shipwrecked in a devastating gale at Prince Edward Island in the Canadian Maritimes. He worked his way back to Gloucester by playing concerts along the way - and knew he had to have a life as a professional musician.

In his unconventional march toward success, Watson gravitated to  other remarkable musical personalities of the period, notably Ole Bull, the Norwegian violin virtuoso who was a frequent performer on American music stages.

The Stream I Go A-Fishing In follows Watson's adventures as a solo violinist and impresario in New York City, and as composer of popular parlor melodies for piano and violin when a sheet music craze was sweeping the nation. In the course of his career, Watson was a part of the 3 musical worlds of 19th century America.

One reader has called The Stream I Go A-Fishing In "a gem of Americana ... incredibly informative of a rich period of musical development in Gloucester, New York and Boston."

Joseph E. Garland, Gloucester author-historian, wrote that "John Watson and his fantastic life and times [have been brought] vividly alive at the hands of Chet Brigham, whose superbly written The Stream I Go A-Fishing In is one of the best Gloucester reads in a long time.

Says Gloucester city councilor and one-time fisherman John A. "Gus" Foote, "Little has been written of the culture, poetry and music of those who earn their living from the sea. Chester Brigham gives us a front-row seat to observe one of the great musical fishermen, John Jay Watson."

In conjunction with The Stream I Go A-Fishing In, Chester Brigham wrote and produces a narrated musical excursion, "The Fiddling Fisherman," that has been performed several times in the Gloucester area. As a narrator (Rick Doucette) recounts Watson's adventures in the accents of the waterfront, musicians (Jeff Stockman, violin and Nina Bergeron, piano) play John Watson's own arrangements of his parlor melodies. "The Fiddling Fisherman" gives audiences the opportunity to hear Watson's popular tunes just as they were played in his day.