Cape Breton Celtic music star John Allan Cameron opens his variety show on CBC. The show ran from 1975 to '81.

Most music fans have heard the song I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool.

Well, the late John Allan Cameron was Celtic when Celtic wasn't cool.

And Cameron's role as an international trail blazer for the music of the Maritimes is lovingly documented in Celtic Soul: The Life And Music Of John Allan Cameron, which debuts tonight on Bravo (9 p.m.).

Long before the likes of the Rankin Family, Ashley MacIsaac and Natalie MacMaster (Cameron's cousin), it was a toothy Canadian kid from Mabou, N.S., who picked up a 12-string guitar and delivered traditional music from the kitchens of Cape Breton to the world. And he always did it with a smile.

At first the people of Cape Breton were wary of Cameron's ambitions. "Hank Snow's from Nova Scotia, too -- if you're going to play guitar, why don't you play country music?" they asked.

Likewise, at first the people in the rest of Canada were wary of Cameron's approach. "In the era of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, how can someone wearing a kilt and an ear-to-ear grin be taken seriously?" they asked.

But Cameron loved what he did, and audiences always responded to him.

He basically invented a style of guitar-playing by which the traditional sound of bagpipes could be summoned with a 12-string. And through more than three decades of albums, TV appearances and relentless touring, Cameron established himself as the undisputed godfather of Celtic music in Canada.

Cameron died less than six weeks ago in Toronto at the age of 67. He had been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and leukemia in 2005.

But thankfully, Cameron still was alive for a series of touching concerts and events that paid tribute to him, and clips from many of those heartfelt gatherings are included near the end of Celtic Soul.

Directed and executive-produced by Janice Evans, Celtic Soul features interviews with the likes of MacMaster, MacIsaac, Tom Cochrane, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo, and Cameron's wife Angela and son Stuart (who also is a respected musician). But it's the old clips of Cameron himself that really tell his story.

He always loved music growing up, but he surprised relatives when, at 19, he headed to a Roman Catholic seminary in Ottawa. Four years later, mere months before being ordained, he left the seminary and returned to Nova Scotia.

He attended St. Francis Xavier University and briefly was a teacher in London, Ont., before deciding to pursue music as a full-time vocation. His early breaks came with guest spots on TV shows such as Don Messer's Jubilee and Singalong Jubilee, and in 1970 he even won over the snooty country crowd when he appeared at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry (in a kilt, of course).

For many years Cameron opened for Anne Murray on tour, and in Celtic Soul Keelor tells a funny story about his tours with Blue Rodeo in the far reaches of Canada's north.

"In all these little, little corners of Canada, there's always a picture of the Queen, and a picture of John Allan and Anne Murray," Keelor recalled. "They were the pioneers."

Cameron had two TV series of his own between 1975 and 1981, and later he was a regular on Don Cherry's Grape Vine. Cameron was a hockey nut and had close friendships with many NHL legends.

Cameron was inducted into the Order Of Canada in 2003.

According to Celtic Soul, "Today Cape Breton has a deeper and more thriving traditional Scottish music scene than Scotland itself."

If that's true, John Allan Cameron is the main reason for it.