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    <description>A quarterly magazine for fiddlers of all levels and styles. Site includes extensive excerpts from the magazine, hundreds of fiddle-related links, and much more.</description>

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--&gt;&lt;/style&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Last summer my wife, Connie, and I made a &amp;ldquo;grand tour&amp;rdquo; of Scotland, a nearly thousand mile road trip that took us weaving through the Scottish Highlands, far west to the windswept Isle of Lewis, north to the megalith-strewn &lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Orkney islands, and back south to the rollicking Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Our plan was to trace family roots on the Isle of Skye, explore Scotland&amp;rsquo;s vast prehistoric landscape, and, of course, sample the region&amp;rsquo;s fine fiddling. I am happy to say that &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; in spite of a few mishaps and one of Scotland&amp;rsquo;s wettest summers in recent memory &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; we were amply rewarded on all counts. In this series, we&amp;rsquo;ll introduce you to some of the fiddlers we met along the way.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Our first musical destination was the home of Aonghas Grant, the renowned left-handed fiddler living in the western Highlands in the shadow of Britain&amp;rsquo;s highest peak. Aonghas would soon be celebrating his eightieth birthday and had recently released a first volume of his extensive repertoire in Mel Bay&amp;rsquo;s &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;The Glengarry Collection.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Having not quite mastered the art of driving on the left side of the road, our car struck a curb just as we pulled into Fort William and we arrived at the Grants&amp;rsquo; Bed and Breakfast as deflated as our front tire. Hearing of our predicament, the soon-to-be octogenarian Aonghas immediately sprang into action, fetching a lug wrench and capably supervising the changing of the tire. The crisis averted, Connie set off to find some fish and chips while Aonghas and I retired to his patio to turn our attention to the main purpose of our visit.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&lt;img width="300" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="360" border="0" align="left" alt="" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1177252.jpg" /&gt;Growing up in the West Highlands in the 1930s, Aonghas had experienced a way of life that has largely disappeared in the 21st century. Throughout our conversation, he often noted the contrasts between then and now, musical and otherwise.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Over the last thirty years, his increasing involvement in education has helped to pass along the musical heritage of the Glengarry region, a fiddle style that reflects the piping and Gaelic song traditions long popular in the area.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun:

yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Aonghas:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt; On my father&amp;rsquo;s side of the family, they were very musical. There were pipes and fiddles and Gaelic songs, singers. I never had a lesson in my life, really. I got a fiddle from my uncle when I was about twelve or thirteen. I was at the pipes before that and within half an hour I could play two or three tunes I&amp;rsquo;d already played on the pipes. My uncle showed me how to hold it and tuned it up for me. And my son (Angus), some forty years later, is the same. He got a little fiddle from my brother. He just started and never actually got any lessons and then just played tunes. That was it, you know. All the old-timers had a tremendous repertoire of tunes. Hundreds and hundreds of tunes! And I&amp;rsquo;ve never ever seen a sheet of music between any of them. My uncle was born about 1875 and my father was born in 1880. And they probably learned from their father in just the same way, you know? Just picked it up and played. No formal lessons at all.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;A lot of the older fiddlers took a great interest in me because I was the only one of my generation to play the fiddle. There were quite a few pipes and the accordion was starting to come in after the war.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;But I was on the fiddle and I used to watch just what they were doing, watched the bowing and the fingers. I never read a sheet of music till way in my fifties. I went down to a fiddle competition and played and the famous Tom Anderson of Shetland, he was down judging. I won the competition and some months later he phoned me and said he planned on doing a summer school at Stirling University and wanted me to come down and teach. I said I never taught anybody at all, but he said, &amp;ldquo;Oh, you&amp;rsquo;ll come down.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;I like your style of playing.&amp;rdquo; And I ended up teaching there for twenty-seven years. A lot from America, Norway, Japan, all over.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;And then some years at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. They started doing a BA degree course in Scottish fiddle and I was a part-time tutor there for about ten years.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Music has been in your family for how many generations?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;My grandfather, he was born about 1835, he played. And my great grandfather, he played the pipes. He was born in the 1790s. Mostly in the Highlands area, music followed families. I don&amp;rsquo;t know if there&amp;rsquo;s such a thing as a musical gene but if you just grow up hearing music and if you&amp;rsquo;re inclined to be musical, you&amp;rsquo;ll play something. Our three children all play. My oldest daughter is a good piper. My son is a very famous fiddler, and my youngest daughter is an equally good fiddler. They all just picked it up and played, you know. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Was it in a professional role that your grandfather played or was it a hobby?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Oh, just a hobby. I mean, if my father was alive now, he would be amazed to think that you actually got paid for playing the fiddle.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;And to think that his grandson was full-time earning a living playing the fiddle! Even when I was young, to play all night at a dance, we would get the equivalent of a dollar. Right into the &amp;rsquo;80s, you&amp;rsquo;d play from 9 till 1 in the morning. And you&amp;rsquo;d get about a pound fifty in today&amp;rsquo;s money. Thirty bob.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So your family always played for the love of the music, then.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun:

yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Most of the old fiddlers I knew in my day, they all worked as shepherds, deer stalkers, farmers, fishermen. You, know, they had a full-time job. In those days, to think that you could support the family playing the fiddle was just a joke, you know! Nobody would dream that you could earn a living playing the fiddle! Our only outlet for playing was dances, particularly in the wintertime when things were slack and there&amp;rsquo;d be lots of dances to play.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun:

yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;You&amp;rsquo;d see four to six fiddlers and a side drum &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; that was a band.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;And an odd piper would play a few tunes. The fiddlers go away for a dram and the piper would play for a few sets. And there wasn&amp;rsquo;t an accordion in sight, or an amplifier or a mic at all.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt; I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t say it was a hobby; it was a way of life with you. You know, when I started my working life, I left school at fourteen and all my father&amp;rsquo;s people were hill shepherds and deer hunters and I just followed that line. A long day in the hills, and then you&amp;rsquo;d come back at night and pick up the fiddle and you moved into a different world. From the hard work you&amp;rsquo;re doing out in the hills &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; wild weather and good weather &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; and then you picked up the fiddle, you changed places altogether. It was a great comfort to you, playing the fiddle. It was a sweetener. Things have changed so much now. The best thing that happened up in the Highlands was the Feis [music festival] and the Gael movement when they started up in Barra [in 1981]. Things were starting to die out and the local priest and a few musicians, they got together and started things off.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;And it mushroomed. Every area has a week&amp;rsquo;s tuition with the kids and they also have ongoing classes that keep it going. I teach twice a month at a school forty-five miles away and a lot of good fiddlers turned up at that. And I also teach at home. When I was young, there was nobody teaching at all.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;You were hearing it from family and friends, but nobody actually gave lessons?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;No. No. None at all.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;You learned the pipes first. Someone must have shown you how to hold it?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;No, you just grew up knowing how to play the pipes. All the Highlanders, it&amp;rsquo;s automatic. You have to learn the fingering and the grips and throws [embellishments]. You start off with the chanter and then the goose [bagpipes without drones], the chanter with a bag, and then on to the pipes. A lot of Highland fiddlers play the pipes and fiddle equally well. It&amp;rsquo;s quite a normal thing in the Highlands. Even going back fifty, seventy, eighty years, there were a lot of good pipers who were also excellent fiddlers. A lot of the pipers had a bit more knowledge about music because they had been in the army and probably learned music when they were in the army in the pipe band. There was no such a thing as a pipe band until England was in so many wars and there were all these wild Highland men doing nothing and they drafted them into the British army. A lot of chiefs&amp;rsquo; sons went with them and they took their personal piper with them. So there&amp;rsquo;d be a dozen or more pipers and they got together and the army thought this would be quite a good idea to get a band going. The pipe bands were quite a thing. All the Scottish regiments had pipe bands.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;What did a dance consist of in those days?&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;It was square dances. The odd waltz. Quadrilles and lancers.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Square dance sets.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Was there a caller or did everyone know the dances?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Oh, we always laugh. Anytime I&amp;rsquo;m in the States, I&amp;rsquo;m amazed.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;And somebody says the caller gets more money than the fiddler!&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Why is it? Why do you need a bloody caller? We grew up; we all knew the dances and the sets. You start young and you know it.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Some parts in the south, I think they&amp;rsquo;ve started having callers.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun:

yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So in the old days, you&amp;rsquo;d just name the kind of set?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Yes, there used to be a guy who started announcing the dances &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; &amp;ldquo;Take your partner for such and such a dance.&amp;rdquo; And that was it.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Other times, the band leader would just say, &amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;re going to play for quadrilles, or &amp;lsquo;Strip the Willow&amp;rsquo; or &amp;lsquo;Highland Schottische&amp;rsquo;,&amp;rdquo; and that was it. Everybody knew what they were doing.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;How old were you when you started going to these dances?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Well, dances and ceilidhs, when you were young you&amp;rsquo;d be going there just to see and listen to the music and the songs.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Your parents would be dancing and you&amp;rsquo;d just be coming along.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Yes, that sort of thing. I always think nowadays the kids are still in high school at eighteen. You know, they spend a third of their life getting educated. By the time I was eighteen I was capable of buying and selling sheep and cattle. I&amp;rsquo;m taken aback by the young ones nowadays; they don&amp;rsquo;t know how to harness a horse or saddle a horse! Nobody&amp;rsquo;s doing that. They know all about laptops and computers and phones, but when we all grew up, we knew all these things: working sheep dogs, training sheep dogs, saddling horses, deer ponies, out shooting deer, fresh salmon. You grew up with it. That was a way of life with you. And then, as I was saying, after a hard day&amp;rsquo;s work, it was nice to pick up the fiddle and play some tunes.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;[For the full text of this lengthy interview, &lt;a target="_blank" href="Store-Subscribe.page"&gt;subscribe&lt;/a&gt; to Fiddler Magazine or &lt;a target="_blank" href="Store-Subscribe.page"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Winter 2011/12 issue.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=63056</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>A Grand Tour of Scottish Fiddling, Part 1:  Aonghas Grant of the West Highlands</title>

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--&gt;&lt;/style&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Charles and Anne Horner live in a small community a few miles off of Interstate 40, just west of Knoxville, Tennessee, at the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau. One warm July day, a student, Tabitha Lawson, and I went to see Charles and try out some fiddles. Tabitha liked her first Horner fiddle so much she wanted a second one. While she tried fiddles, I spoke with Charles about fiddle making and his life.&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Horner was born in 1933 in a one-room poplar log cabin that sits 100 yards from his shop. It&amp;rsquo;s the same cabin in which his father, Charles, was born in 1903. This is also the same cabin his grandfather, William, built around 1896. He was named Charles Jean Harner at birth, but his father failed to correct the misspelled birth certificate so his name is Horner today.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;In the 1950s, things were beginning to boom in America, but in the Appalachians, jobs were scarce. It was then that Charles began what was to be his lifetime endeavor. From his humble beginnings he taught himself&amp;nbsp;to build&amp;nbsp;an instrument that can stand up to&amp;nbsp;a great&amp;nbsp;deal of scrutiny. Being of that natural independence that is a common trait in East Tennessee, he has been determined to excel at making quality instruments. He would have given anything to have&amp;nbsp;been able to go to &amp;ldquo;one of those Chicago schools&amp;rdquo; but when he was of the age to attend he was&amp;nbsp;just a poor&amp;nbsp;boy&amp;nbsp;wearing shoes that did not match. When a classically-trained violinist like Kenny Sears uses a couple of Horner&amp;rsquo;s fiddles for his sessions and Opry performances, it speaks for itself about Charles&amp;rsquo; capacities as a builder. Twenty-five years ago he re-evaluated his life as he felt he was not living in a way that enabled him to build at his best. He made a decision to change and give more attention to details and making a better product. According to his long-time friend Chuck Naill, today Horner is making the best instruments of his career.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&lt;img width="350" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="294" border="0" align="left" alt="" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1177251.jpg" /&gt;How long have you been making fiddles?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;I started trying it when I was fifteen years old in 1948. And needless to say, I didn&amp;rsquo;t a bit more know how to do it than anything. I was just groping around in the dark like a blind man and wouldn&amp;rsquo;t have knowed a good one if I&amp;rsquo;d seen it. I got real interested in it and just kept trying down through the years. I spent four years in the Navy and finally found me a book that gave me some directions on how to go about making one. I got started that way. Just trial and error, working on down through the years. I would do other things just to keep going, like making toys and chairs and cabinet work and furniture. Along about 1975, I just quit everything but the musical instruments. I&amp;rsquo;ve done banjos and mandolins. I must&amp;rsquo;ve made fifty or sixty banjos. Mandolins &amp;ndash; 241 of those. I made about six violas, one cello, two double basses, and I don&amp;rsquo;t know how many fiddles. Somewhere around 400 to 500.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Do you keep them all numbered?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;No, I didn&amp;rsquo;t number the fiddles. I numbered the mandolins. The banjos, I didn&amp;rsquo;t care that much about them. I made about six or seven guitars. I didn&amp;rsquo;t have the interest in guitars that you needed, and there are so many people making guitars, anyway. I just like the fiddle better than anything. Nowadays, the fiddle and the mandolin&amp;rsquo;s about all I do.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;You said you&amp;rsquo;ve made one out of walnut?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Yes, that was on a special order, that&amp;rsquo;s the only reason I did it. It was for a guy in Canada.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Do you ever make any out of cherry?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;Made one. I did that because I had such a beautiful piece of wood.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun:

yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;It had a real broad curl in it. It was real pretty, but I never did do another one.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;You were talking about this maple here, curly maple. Where do you get your maple?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="line-height:normal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Roman"&gt;Down through the years I cultivated a friendship with loggers.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s the guy that&amp;rsquo;s gonna find the tree for you because he&amp;rsquo;s in the woods every day. You know we can&amp;rsquo;t go through people&amp;rsquo;s property chopping on trees to see if that&amp;rsquo;s got what we want! And then I&amp;rsquo;d be around sawmills. There&amp;rsquo;s always a chance a log would get in there. They&amp;rsquo;d generally sell it to you. I use a lot of American wood. I like European wood. It&amp;rsquo;s just so hard to get the type that you want. You order it from a mail order house and they just pull it out of a bin and ship it to you and I can&amp;rsquo;t afford to go up there and look at it; they might not let you, anyway. But I&amp;rsquo;ve had good luck with American wood. There&amp;rsquo;ll be people say you can&amp;rsquo;t make a good instrument with American wood, but I don&amp;rsquo;t believe that.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Roman"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Roman"&gt;[For the full text of this interview, &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;subscribe&lt;/a&gt; to Fiddler Magazine or &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Winter 2011/12 issue.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=63055</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Charles Horner: Fiddle Maker of  the Cumberland Plateau</title>

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font-family:Arial"&gt;Eddie Poirier and I met in the 1970s through a mutual friendship with Johnny Wilmot. We were both taken with Johnny&amp;rsquo;s old-style Irish fiddling which was flavoured with a lively Cape Breton swing. At the time Eddie was already an accomplished musician, adept at many instruments and styles of music, but ever eager to learn more. Today, with dozens of recordings behind him, he is one of the Maritimes&amp;rsquo; finest musicians &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; equally at home playing and composing tunes for bluegrass, Acadian, Irish, or Maritime audiences. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&lt;img width="200" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="252" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1162087.jpg" alt="" /&gt;Tell us a little about yourself, Eddie. Where were you born, where are you from, and when did you start learning music?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;I was born in Rogersville, New Brunswick, in 1943. My father came from a musical family &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; in those days he played tin whistles and sang old songs. I guess they came from France because they were Meuniers and Poiriers. My musical talent I guess came from the Meunier side, as far as I know. I don&amp;rsquo;t know how many of the Poirier side were musicians &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I know there&amp;rsquo;s some that play music now&amp;hellip; But I know that my grandmother on my father&amp;rsquo;s side, her family was where the music was coming from.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;And your father was a player?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;My father learned the fiddle; in fact, he made his first fiddle &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; he was only sixteen or seventeen years old. He went to a house somewhere and he saw a fiddle and saw how somebody was playing it, so he examined it and he went home and made himself one. He was kind of a Jack of all trades cowboy &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; he&amp;rsquo;d do anything, try anything. So anyway, he made a fiddle and he borrowed some old Michael Coleman records and some Joseph Allard records, and he learned off those old records, and an old gramophone he had there. By the time I came along &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; he was in his thirties when I came along &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; he was quite a fiddle player. He played good and he was agile and he was rigid and he played lively. Steam was coming out of the fiddle when he picked it up. Of course hearing that when I was a kid, well, I just liked the fiddle, I guess. I remember I always tried to make myself a fiddle. I&amp;rsquo;ve never made one in my life, but I always tried &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;I&amp;rsquo;d take a shingle or a slab of wood and I&amp;rsquo;d carve and put thread for strings&amp;hellip; It never worked, of course. But by the time I turned about seven, then he started letting me use his, a fiddle that he had bought in 1932. Bought it at Eaton&amp;rsquo;s for $2.95, a copy of a Strad made in Czechoslovakia. Anyways, it was good enough to learn&amp;hellip; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;[We used to] take two knitting needles and tap on the strings while he was playing &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;he let us do that. That got me interested enough that when I turned seven, he let me use his fiddle and I started to learn a little bit. He told me one thing when I started out. I never forgot that. He looked at me right straight in the eyes and he said, &amp;ldquo;If you&amp;rsquo;re going to play the fiddle, you&amp;rsquo;ve got four fingers &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; figure out a way to use them,&amp;rdquo; he said. That was the end of the teaching. [laughter] And I went from there. I started playing Don Messer stuff&amp;hellip; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;One night of the week there was &amp;ldquo;Scottish Strings&amp;rdquo; in Antigonish.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;We had an old battery-operated radio, and my father never missed that &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; he liked the Cape Breton stuff, too. So we listened to that, and by the time I got to ten, twelve, thirteen years old, I was beginning to be able to play quite a bit. I played for my first square dance when I was twelve. My sister got married and they let me play for the square dance &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;one dance, but I was some happy there, I&amp;rsquo;ll tell you. Anyway, that&amp;rsquo;s where it all started.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;I guess you must have enjoyed performing. What did you do as your teenage years progressed to develop your music?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;Well, after I got that square dance in there, that kind of gave me a little incentive to move further, you know? And there was another thing, when I was a young fellow there, we used to take a bus to go to school&amp;hellip; I picked up this old fiddle and I was walking around waiting for that bus &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I did that every morning pretty well. And then all of a sudden&amp;hellip; I started playing this tune just out of nowhere, out of my head, you know, so that was the first tune I ever made, composed. Every morning I&amp;rsquo;d play it. I always made a joke about it, that tune I had to go to the barn to play, because I drove everybody crazy &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; my mother, my father. I was always strumming on the fiddle. I&amp;rsquo;d get home from school and throw my bags in the corner &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;never mind the homework. Anyway, I wrote that tune, I called it &amp;ldquo;La Grange Reel&amp;rdquo; &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; the barn. I still play it today, and I was thirteen years old when I wrote that one. It went on for a long time after that that I never wrote any tunes&amp;hellip; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;I was about eleven years old when I got a guitar, but I played more on the fiddle. I didn&amp;rsquo;t know any chords for that guitar. A fellow came over home and knew three chords &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;he showed me that, and once I got the drift of that I started hunting for more chords. I figured out all the chords on the guitar on my own. But that wasn&amp;rsquo;t enough &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I was tune-oriented, I guess. I had to play tunes on it. By then I could play &amp;ldquo;Saint Ann&amp;rsquo;s Reel&amp;rdquo; and a few others. I started playing with that and by the time I hit sixteen, seventeen, I was able to play a pile of tunes on the guitar and on the fiddle. Played for dances, played guitar for the guys that could play the fiddle&amp;hellip; Did a lot of playing, every weekend, every night almost. There was a bootlegger, we used to go to his house every night almost &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; sit there and sing and play the guitar. We made an awful racket. No wonder I can&amp;rsquo;t spell. [laughter]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So you started playing guitar and became a versatile musician &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; you play a lot of instruments today.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;Well, I liked all kinds of music, and for some reason, when I heard Bill Monroe and Mac Wiseman, that was my road. So I learned to play that bluegrass stuff, but I wasn&amp;rsquo;t very successful at all of it &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;all I could do was play it on the guitar. And I tried to play like a banjo on the guitar &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;cross-picking and stuff &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I can still do some of that a little bit, but I&amp;rsquo;m not good at it anymore. After I got a banjo, I learned to do it the right way, you know? But I just had to learn that. So I was about nineteen or twenty years old when I got a banjo and I set out to learn that. I&amp;rsquo;m kind of a determined kind of person &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;a stubborn mule, you know? You&amp;rsquo;ve got to be determined if you&amp;rsquo;re going to win. So I sat there and I tinkered with that. I&amp;rsquo;d hide myself for four days with that. I didn&amp;rsquo;t know how to tune it, but I had the banjo &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;that&amp;rsquo;s all. I sat there and I figured out how to tune it so I could play something with three fingers. I came out of there playing &amp;ldquo;Home Sweet Home&amp;rdquo; &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;not very fast, but I could play it a little bit. And I kept on from there. I learned to play the banjo and then the mandolin, of course, is the same as the fiddle, tuning-wise. So I could play tunes on the guitar, tunes on the mandolin&amp;hellip; I learned to play bass, I learned to play chording on the piano a little bit, I play the accordion a bit &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I&amp;rsquo;m not the greatest, but I can get a tune out&amp;hellip; Dobro, I play some of that&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;I wonder &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; with all of these different things, it must take an awful lot of practicing. What advice can you give someone who&amp;rsquo;s trying to learn the fiddle? If they followed your road and played all the instruments, would that make it difficult for an aspiring fiddle player? Or do you think it&amp;rsquo;s good to try all the different instruments?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;Well, it can&amp;rsquo;t be that bad. I went through it and I survived. I&amp;rsquo;m not trying to blow my own whistle here, but I think I can play any of the instruments as good as &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I should say better, but as good as the average bear. But I would have probably become better if I&amp;rsquo;d stayed with one &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I would have been better at the one. But I don&amp;rsquo;t know, it&amp;rsquo;s the satisfaction that you have to get for yourself&amp;hellip; I can go and play with anybody, whatever style they are in &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; bluegrass, old time, country, Irish, the odd Scottish tune &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;maybe not as good as a Cape Bretoner would, but I can do my own version of it. Same as the Irish &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I do my own version, I don&amp;rsquo;t try to copy nobody, because when you start copying people, you&amp;rsquo;d better start trying to look like them, too, you know? [laughter] It might have taken me longer to learn [the different styles and instruments] because I&amp;rsquo;m practicing this one and then I&amp;rsquo;m practicing this one &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; there&amp;rsquo;s only so much room in the head, you know? But I think they&amp;rsquo;re all in different little compartments. It&amp;rsquo;s like a folder on your computer, I think. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So you try to keep the styles separate &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;you feel you have distinct different styles. Difficult to do. I know lots of people who play multiple styles, and the accent comes through in each style.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial"&gt;You&amp;rsquo;ve listened to some of my stuff, and you can tell when I&amp;rsquo;m playing a Don Messer tune &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I don&amp;rsquo;t put the same thing in it as if I was playing an Irish reel, say, because the bowing is different. But that&amp;rsquo;s the first one that I learned, this kind of bowing &amp;ndash;- I just added the other ones on later. It&amp;rsquo;s like building a house and then [adding on] a little room &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; it&amp;rsquo;s part of the house but it&amp;rsquo;s different. Different color, different siding on it. It&amp;rsquo;s the same as the mandolin. I can play old time tunes on the mandolin, or I can do bluegrass mandolin, which is different. Or guitar &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; when I pick up a guitar, I have to think guitar. If I think fiddle when I&amp;rsquo;ve got a guitar in my hand, I&amp;rsquo;m in trouble&amp;hellip; You&amp;rsquo;ve got to think whatever instrument you&amp;rsquo;ve got in your hand at the time. It&amp;rsquo;s the same as when you talk. If you talk French you have to think in French, and if you talk English, you have to think in English &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; those are two separate boxes.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;[Eddie&amp;rsquo;s recordings can be purchased directly from Eddie. He can be reached at &lt;a target="null" href="mailto:edfiddle@hotmail.com"&gt;edfiddle@hotmail.com&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;[Paul Stewart Cranford is a fiddler, composer, publisher, and retired lighthouse keeper living in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. For information on his &amp;ldquo;Cape Breton Musical Heritage&amp;rdquo; series, visit his website at &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.cranfordpub.com"&gt;www.cranfordpub.com&lt;/a&gt;. The website also includes of hundreds of tunes, both as sound clips and on-screen music notation.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;For the full text of this interview, as well as transcriptions of three of Eddie&amp;rsquo;s tunes (&amp;ldquo;Angus LeFort&amp;rsquo;s Favourite Waltz,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;The Old Mill Jig,&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;Across the Sea&amp;rdquo;), &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Fall 2011 issue.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Please see our &amp;ldquo;&lt;a target="_blank" href="New-Free-Video-Lessons.page"&gt;Free Video Lessons&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rdquo; link to see Eddie playing the above-mentioned tunes.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=62318</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>New Brunswick's Eddie Poirier: At Home on the Strings</title>

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line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;It is a story made in Hollywood, but then done bluegrass style:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;Just before he died, a famous fiddle player sat down and recorded hours of music for his son. The son takes the box and stores it away. Thirty years after the fiddle player dies, the son finds the box of tapes in a closet and realizes he is sitting on a box of artistic treasure. Although he&amp;rsquo;s not made music in years, the son, also a fiddle player, decides to cut an album using some of the tunes and it becomes a big hit.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;img width="150" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="231" border="0" align="left" alt="" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1162081.jpg" /&gt;The fiddler was Paul Warren, of perhaps the greatest bluegrass band of all time, Flatt &amp;amp; Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. And the son, Johnny, a talented musician in his own right, knew he had to do something.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&amp;ldquo;My main reason for doing this was, when my dad was sick, he wanted to keep these tunes from being lost, and I wanted to pay tribute to my dad,&amp;rdquo; Warren said. &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m sure he took some songs to the grave with him, but I think he put these down so maybe I&amp;rsquo;d record them one day. It is a unique style, and a unique sound. This music is bigger than my dad or myself. I don&amp;rsquo;t want this sound to die. If people hear it, and play it, it will keep it alive.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;The resulting project was &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT"&gt;A Tribute to Fiddlin&amp;rsquo; Paul Warren,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt; and it quickly sold through two pressings after its release in late 2009. But it was not a slam dunk deal at the time of discovery.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;When Johnny Warren found the tapes, they looked fragile, and he did not own a reel-to-reel machine to play them on. He called his old friend and collaborator, banjo player Charlie Cushman, who sent him to Beaverwood Studio in Nashville, TN, where the tapes were restored and put onto a master disk. He started listening to the tunes and the memories of dozens of obscure fiddle tunes came flooding back.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;There were tunes familiar to some older listeners, but for many folks, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT"&gt;A Tribute&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt; was an introduction to music that went back to the early 20th century or maybe farther. Cuts such as &amp;ldquo;Buck Creek Gal,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Katy Hill,&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;Ole Joe&amp;rdquo; may have been recognizable, but &amp;ldquo;Sugar in My Coffee-O,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Two Hog Weeds and One Stalk of Corn,&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;Pretty Girl Goin&amp;rsquo; to Milk a Cow&amp;rdquo; were probably not. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;As the project evolved, they decided to bring in other contributors to include a link to each of the original Foggy Mountain Boys. Earl Scruggs, Curly Seckler, Marty Stuart, Tim Graves, and Kent Blanton are all special guests. Scruggs&amp;rsquo; appearance was particularly historic.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&amp;ldquo;We wanted Earl to play &amp;lsquo;Buck Creek Gal&amp;rsquo; from the Carnegie Hall album, and so on that song, Johnny is playing his dad&amp;rsquo;s fiddle and Earl&amp;rsquo;s playing his banjo ? so those two instruments were back in the same room again after all those years,&amp;rdquo; Cushman said. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;It was said that Paul Warren was a man of a thousand fiddle tunes ? but he never got to showcase them outside the bands of others.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Dad never got to do his own recording, that was the policy of Lester and Earl at that time, that they didn&amp;rsquo;t allow band members to do individual projects,&amp;rdquo; Johnny Warren said. &amp;ldquo;He is on 250 recordings, but none of them are his own. There is some stuff he did on live shows that was never recorded, and things I heard him play that he never played out anywhere.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;img width="265" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="200" border="0" align="right" alt="" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1162079.jpg" /&gt;The story could have ended with the success of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT"&gt;A Tribute,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:

Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt; which Johnny Warren says is still selling well, almost two years after its release. But neither he nor Cushman felt the job was complete. &amp;ldquo;There was more stuff we wanted to get out,&amp;rdquo; Warren said.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;And so, a Fall 2011 release is planned for &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT"&gt;A Tribute to Fiddlin&amp;rsquo; Paul Warren: Volume 2.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt; &amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;While Warren was out to preserve old songs, he insists the album isn&amp;rsquo;t just the titles.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Dad was a stylist; you could listen to the radio and tell who it was when a song he played on came on,&amp;rdquo; Johnny said. &amp;ldquo;A lot of fiddlers today, they&amp;rsquo;re really good, but you can&amp;rsquo;t tell who it is playing &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; a lot of it sounds alike. Dad&amp;rsquo;s style was a peppy, happy style that came out of his soul. You can see it in those Flatt and Scruggs TV show DVDs that are out now. [Former promoter] Lance LeRoy once said that Dad was a Fiddlin&amp;rsquo; Arthur Smith with overdrive.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;Paul Warren had several influences growing up and had to put a lot of effort out just to be able to play his instrument. Born in 1918, he started playing at age thirteen, sneaking his father&amp;rsquo;s fiddle out of a drawer in the house when no one was around. Warren&amp;rsquo;s family did not have a radio, so he would ride his bike to a neighbor&amp;rsquo;s house, listen to the Grand Ole Opry, and then hum the tunes he heard all the way back on the ride home, to get them in his brain so he could transfer them to the fiddle. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;Warren said that Volume 2 is likely the last of the tribute albums. But he hopes that the attention the two CDs are warranting will correct an oversight ? some would say an injustice ? in bluegrass music history.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Paul Warren and Jake Tullock [bass] are not in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. They are the only two Foggy Mountain Boys left out, and that bugs me. Flatt &amp;amp; Scruggs was to me the greatest bluegrass band of all time and the whole band should be there. I think most folks would be surprised to know that. When you hear the fiddle breaks from those old tunes, you know that Paul and Jake were just as innovative on their instruments as anyone in the band. That stuff is classic. The problem is that that stuff will get away, people will forget. It would be like leaving one of the Beatles out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Dad was real humble, and I am sure it wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be a big deal to him, but I think he deserves to be there.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;[For CD ordering information, please contact Johnny Warren at &lt;a href="mailto:jwarren256@me.com" target="null"&gt;jwarren256@me.com&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

[For the full text of this article, as well as a transcription of the tune &amp;quot;Old Joe Can't Play the fiddle,&amp;quot; &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Fall 2011 issue.]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph" style="mso-hyphenate:none"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;

mso-bidi-font-family:TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT"&gt;[Michael Brantley is a photographer, writer, and &amp;ldquo;wannabe&amp;rdquo; banjoist and fiddler. Despite living in North Carolina, where you can throw a shoe in any direction and hit a picker &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; and many people do &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; the learning curve has been steep. He is currently pursuing a master&amp;rsquo;s degree in English/creative writing. He can be reached at &lt;a target="null" href="mailto:mike@brantleystudio.com"&gt;mike@brantleystudio.com&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=62319</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>A Son's Tribute to Fiddlin' Paul Warren</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>Traditional fiddlers have myriad ways of holding their bows. Texas &amp;ndash; and Texas-styled &amp;ndash; fiddlers place their thumb on the bottom of the frog. Fiddlers in the greater Galax area (a rough circle with a radius of around sixty miles with Galax, Virginia, at the center) place their thumb on the stick, usually above the wrapping. The photographs in this article will illustrate these different styles. Both styles produce great music.&lt;br /&gt;

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&lt;img width="250" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="370" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1162423.jpg" alt="" /&gt;Luke Thomasson (photograph courtesy of Allan Ray Thomasson)&lt;br /&gt;

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The Texas technique of the thumb on the bottom of the frog goes way back. The photograph of Luke Thomasson, Benny&amp;rsquo;s father, shows him holding the bow that way. It had to be taken no later than 1924 as that&amp;rsquo;s when Luke passed away. &lt;br /&gt;

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&lt;img width="200" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="261" border="0" align="left" alt="" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1162076.jpg" /&gt;Benny Thomasson (courtesy of Rich Nevins)&lt;br /&gt;

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&lt;img width="250" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="348" border="0" align="left" alt="" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1162078.jpg" /&gt;Fulton Myers,Hillsville, Virginia, 1966 (photograph by C. Faurot)&lt;br /&gt;

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&lt;img width="250" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="343" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1162424.jpg" alt="" /&gt;Tommy Jarrell, c. 1917; cropped from larger photo of Tommy with Lily Scott (courtesy of Kerry Blech)&lt;br /&gt;

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&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;img width="200" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="238" border="0" align="left" alt="" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1162082.jpg" /&gt;Kirk Sutphin's hand&lt;br /&gt;

(photograph by C. Faurot)&lt;img width="200" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="195" border="0" align="right" alt="" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1162083.jpg" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

Kirk Sutphin, who probably worked with Tommy [Jarrell] more than anyone else, told me that Tommy kept telling him to work his bow hand down. To this day he holds his bow exactly where and how Tommy did.&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

...&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

(For the full article and many more photos, please &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Fall 2011 issue.)&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

[Charlie Faurot founded Old Blue Records in 2004. Old Blue&amp;rsquo;s catalog has grown to nine CDs, which include material from his earlier efforts, both released and unreleased, and new recordings of the New North Carolina Ramblers and Riley Baugus. Old Blue&amp;rsquo;s most recent release is OB-708, Out in the Field Behind the Stage at Galax Fiddlers Conventions&amp;ndash;1967 &amp;amp; 2010.&amp;nbsp; Charlie lives in Midlothian, VA, and can be reached at the Old Blue website, &lt;a href="http://www.oldbluerecords.com" target="_blank"&gt;www.oldbluerecords.com&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=62338</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Hold On! A Look at Bow Holds in Traditional Fiddling</title>

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    <item>

      <description>Many young fiddlers practice for hours because they&amp;rsquo;re driven by dreams and aspirations. Some dream of winning contests, while others&amp;rsquo; ambitions are playing on the Grand Ole Opry or working for a nationally-known recording artist. Dan Kelly is an example of a fiddler whose dreams have become reality. He has won prestigious fiddle contests, was Roy Acuff&amp;rsquo;s last &amp;ldquo;Smoky Mountain Boy&amp;rdquo; fiddler on the Grand Ole Opry, and has developed a successful career as a sideman. He has toured with country stars: Pam Tillis, Steve Wariner, Faith Hill, Lonestar, SheDaisy, Alan Jackson, and currently with Clint Black. Working for such notable artists has allowed him to perform on the stages of the Kennedy Center, the Grammys, CMA &amp;amp; ACM award shows, the Tonight Show, David Letterman, Good Morning America, and Carnegie Hall. In spite of all these achievements, Dan is a mild-mannered person who is appreciative of the success he has experienced in his life and career.&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Dan grew up in the Alleghany Mountain town of Connellsville, Pennsylvania. He began playing the fiddle at the age of eight and was taught by Sylvan Hare, James Bryner, and Chuck Conner. As a youngster he began participating in local fiddle contests. However, it wasn&amp;rsquo;t long before his parents, Ken and Gloria, began making longer trips for him to compete and meet other musicians. At the age of twelve, Dan won the Canadian National Open Fiddle Championship. The award was presented to him by Canadian fiddle great Graham Townsend. His wins continued as a teenager, which placed fiddle trophies in every room in the Kelly household. During Dan&amp;rsquo;s contest career he was the state fiddle champion of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia, along with winning the Mid-America Championship twice. In 1983, at the age of seventeen, Dan won the coveted and most famous fiddle championship title in the nation, &amp;ldquo;The Grand Masters.&amp;rdquo; Bobby Taylor, respected fiddle judge and coordinator of the Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival, describes Dan&amp;rsquo;s contest playing in those days. &amp;ldquo;Of all the great fiddlers, I have always felt Dan Kelly pulled the thickest, richest, and most powerful tone. His playing was always authoritative but never rough. It was always liquid smooth.&amp;rdquo; It would be this reputation that would later attract the attention of the &amp;ldquo;King of Country Music,&amp;rdquo; Roy Acuff.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="250" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="182" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1140555.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;[When Howdy Forrester&amp;rsquo;s] illness became terminal, Roy asked Dan to step into Howdy&amp;rsquo;s place as a member of his &amp;ldquo;Smoky Mountain Boys.&amp;rdquo; Dan held this respected position until Roy&amp;rsquo;s death in 1992. Dan says, &amp;ldquo;The highest compliment or achievement I have ever received is the fact that Roy Acuff, the &amp;ldquo;King of Country Fiddlers,&amp;rdquo; liked my fiddling. That&amp;rsquo;s always been a huge deal for me. Of all the great fiddlers in Nashville that Roy could have picked to replace Howdy, he chose me. As a young fiddler, that boosted my confidence, which helped me succeed in a town full of great musicians and fiddlers.&amp;rdquo; Upon Roy&amp;rsquo;s constant encouragement, Dan continued his college education and graduated from Belmont with a degree in Music Business. Although Dan earned a college degree in the business of music, he credits Roy Acuff as his greatest teacher and mentor. &amp;ldquo;He taught me about the business, helped my fiddling and, as a master of the stage, helped me as a performer.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Dan says his present work with Clint Black is somewhat reminiscent of those days. &amp;ldquo;Clint has had twenty-two number one hits and has sold over twenty million records. Not only is he a great singer but he&amp;rsquo;s a great songwriter, musician, and producer. When you&amp;rsquo;re playing with someone of his or Steve Wariner&amp;rsquo;s vocal and instrumental caliber, you&amp;rsquo;re inspired to play great every night. I like this because both artist and band complement each other&amp;rsquo;s musicianship.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;With each artist for whom Dan has worked he has developed skills which have made him more versatile as a player and performer. &amp;ldquo;My time with Faith Hill really helped me as a performer,&amp;rdquo; Dan says. &amp;ldquo;You had to be a great player, but you had to be able to move and become part of the show. We went from playing venues for 15,000 people to 100,000 as Faith gained country/pop crossover success. The energy of the performance and the show was as important as playing great music.&amp;rdquo; Another thing Dan points to is the necessary growth he&amp;rsquo;s had as a multi-instrumentalist. He has always played guitar and mandolin, but in his early days of touring he was hired solely as a fiddle player. Dan says, &amp;ldquo;Over the years, because of economic pressures, it has become a necessity for the fiddle player to be a utility musician who also plays mandolin and acoustic guitar. Now the trend is for the fiddle player to also be able to sing harmony. For young players who want to pursue work with touring artists, it&amp;rsquo;s important to expect that you will not just be playing fiddle. The more versatile you are, the more valuable you are to potential employers.&amp;rdquo; &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Dan&amp;rsquo;s favorite career highlight, other than playing for Roy Acuff and winning the Grand Masters fiddle championship, was playing Carnegie Hall with Alan Jackson. Dan says, &amp;ldquo;It was with the Grand Ole Opry. They chose certain artists (to represent the Opry) and Alan was one of them whom I was playing with at the time. Carnegie Hall is as big as it gets. It was a dream come true.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;When Dan is not touring with Clint Black, he performs with the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band, does session work around Nashville, maintains a private teaching schedule, and teaches a violin class at a local private school. &amp;hellip; Of all the advice Dan gives young players, he says it boils down to practice. &amp;ldquo;It seems like a no-brainer but everyone has to realize you only get out of your playing what you put in. Practicing fifteen to twenty minutes a day will not make you a fiddler. It takes hard work.&amp;rdquo; &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Dan&amp;rsquo;s fiddling with the &amp;ldquo;Tennessee Mafia Jug Band&amp;rdquo; is a change of pace from his playing in a modern country band. The band harkens back to the string band sound, comedy, and antics that are reminiscent of his days with Roy Acuff&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;Smoky Mountain Boys.&amp;rdquo; The band has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, performs at festivals, and makes regular appearances on &amp;ldquo;The Marty Stuart Show,&amp;rdquo; on RFD TV. They have finished a new recording, which features Dan&amp;rsquo;s fiddling and will be available from their website (tennesseemafiajugband.com) and live shows. Dan says that playing with a bluegrass band is one way that he keeps his skills sharp. &amp;ldquo;When you play with an artist, you&amp;rsquo;re performing the same show night after night. It&amp;rsquo;s easy to start losing your chops. I like playing bluegrass because it helps keep me in shape and keeps me on edge with playing on the spot.&amp;rdquo; The band also gives Dan an opportunity to introduce a new generation of fiddlers to the tunes of Howdy Forrester. &amp;ldquo;We recorded &amp;lsquo;Howdy in Hickman County&amp;rsquo; on this new project. Howdy&amp;rsquo;s tunes are so intricate and complex. He was such a great player and has been one of my greatest influences as a fiddler.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;When asked about a new solo project, Dan replies, &amp;ldquo;I don&amp;rsquo;t have anything in progress right now but it&amp;rsquo;s always a possibility.&amp;rdquo; Hopefully, for the world of fiddling, that possibility will become a reality. You can hear and learn more about Dan Kelly from his website, &lt;a href="http://www.fiddlingdankelly.com" target="_blank"&gt;fiddlingdankelly.com&lt;/a&gt;, and see clips of his bluegrass/old time fiddling with the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band and Roy Acuff on YouTube.com. Dan has also kindly made a video lesson of the tune &amp;ldquo;Tugboat&amp;rdquo; and performs a Howdy Forrester tune; please visit out &lt;a href="New-Free-Video-Lessons.page" target="_blank"&gt;Free Video Lessons&lt;/a&gt; page to check them out.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;[For the full text of this article, along with a transcription of a variation on &amp;ldquo;Tugboat&amp;rdquo; that Dan played when he won the Grand Masters Championship in 1983, &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Summer 2011 issue!]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;[L. Scott Miller is a freelance musician, writer and educator. He is the 2010 Grand Masters Traditional Fiddle Champion and is passionate about the fiddling from his native Ohio River Valley.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=61583</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Dan Kelly: Grand Masters Fiddle Champion at the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, &amp; Beyond</title>

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      <description>&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;The Boston area has always had a bustling acoustic music scene.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;In recent years, thanks largely to the string programs at Berklee College of Music, the area has become a magnet for young fiddlers. It was at the 2009 Joe Val Bluegrass Festival that I was introduced to one of the recent fiddling immigrants, Kimber Ludiker. Hailing originally from Washington State, Kimber had recently earned the title of Grand National Fiddle Champion at the prestigious National Oldtime Fiddlers&amp;rsquo; Contest held each June in Weiser, Idaho. A master of Texas-style fiddling, Kimber was now busy honing her bluegrass chops with the Boston-based belles of bluegrass, Della Mae.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;At the time of this interview, held during the following year&amp;rsquo;s Joe Val festival, Kimber had won her second consecutive Grand Championship title. I was looking forward to hearing about her experiences at Weiser and other fiddle contests. Unlike many fiddlers of her generation, she did not start out as a Suzuki violin student. She is a fourth generation fiddler who picked it up the old-fashioned way, playing music with her family. We started out talking about her family&amp;rsquo;s fiddling roots.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="200" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="266" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1140556.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Kimber:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt; My mom [JayDean Ludiker] plays the fiddle. My dad [Tony Ludiker] plays the fiddle. My brother [Dennis Ludiker] plays the fiddle. Aunts and uncles and cousins. Lots of fiddlers. But I&amp;rsquo;m a fourth generation fiddler. My grandpa played &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; my mom&amp;rsquo;s dad &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; and then his dad played, too.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Where were they from?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;My grandpa Lloyd grew up in North Dakota. He ended up moving to Washington [State] with his father to start a logging business and then moved the rest of the family over once they got set up. My grandpa Lloyd used to play fiddle for dances during the depression for change. Eventually he stopped playing. He had five kids and then married my grandmother Lois, who also had five kids. So they had ten, and then they had three. My mom was one of those three. So by the time she was being raised, she didn&amp;rsquo;t know that her dad played the fiddle because he had sort of stopped. But one night when she was little, she woke up and thought she heard something funny. The next time it happened again, she got up out of bed and tried to find this noise. She went to the basement door and listened in and it was a fiddle! My grandpa was playing fiddle in the basement and she had no clue that her dad played at all. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Did you get to hear your grandfather play?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;I did. He passed away when I was nine. My very first memories of playing were actually with him. He bought my brother and I our first fiddle. It was a little 32nd size mini-fiddle. We&amp;rsquo;d always get in trouble trying to pick up my parents&amp;rsquo; fiddles, so he brought us this little one and I remember sitting in the dining room of my grandma and grandpa&amp;rsquo;s house and just playing fiddle tunes with him and my brother. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Did you learn from him or did you learn from your mom?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s really hard to say. I didn&amp;rsquo;t really have any fiddle lessons until I was fourteen and went down to Texas. My mom was a fiddle teacher, so from the second I was born she would teach private lessons out of our home. When I was a baby, my mom&amp;rsquo;s students&amp;rsquo; parents would be holding me while she taught their kids. I grew up listening to fiddle lessons! Constantly.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;How do the mechanics [of the National Oldtime Fiddlers&amp;rsquo; Contest at Weiser] actually work? Do you get a number?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Yeah. You sign up and then they randomly select what number you&amp;rsquo;re gonna play. It could be eight o&amp;rsquo;clock in the morning or two o&amp;rsquo;clock in the afternoon for the preliminaries. Everybody plays and then they cut to fifteen or twenty. That&amp;rsquo;s a big cut. That first cut is like winning the lottery. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;You have to play three tunes? What are the constraints on it?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Yup. There&amp;rsquo;s a time limit. You have to stay under four minutes. There&amp;rsquo;s an eight second grace period. I&amp;rsquo;ve gone more overtime than I think anybody in the history of fiddle contests [laughs]. I have a hard time cutting up songs. If you try to squeeze three songs into four minutes, you can&amp;rsquo;t really play a lot of these songs how they were written. You have to chop &amp;rsquo;em up. So you see people chopping parts out of waltzes, not repeating [sections]&amp;hellip;.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Two years ago they changed the championship division and I think they give you more time. And then they do a round robin final round. They take the top five and everybody&amp;rsquo;s on stage at once and they tell you what you&amp;rsquo;re going to play right before you play it. So two years ago, it was like, &amp;ldquo;Okay, choose a song off of this list. Play it as closely to how it was written and then do your interpretation of it.&amp;rdquo; So you&amp;rsquo;d play, like, &amp;ldquo;Old Joe Clark&amp;rdquo; and then start improvising on it. Last year for the final song, they said, &amp;ldquo;Okay, everybody&amp;rsquo;s going to play &amp;lsquo;Happy Birthday&amp;rsquo;.&amp;rdquo; I understand why they did it. That&amp;rsquo;s something you cannot prepare for. But it&amp;rsquo;s six bars, not even a whole song, you know. So that was interesting! Kind of humiliating but interesting. It seemed like a joke, you know &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; Happy Birthday? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Let&amp;rsquo;s say you were to learn Benny Thomasson&amp;rsquo;s break for &amp;ldquo;Tom and Jerry&amp;rdquo; and play it just the way he played it. Is that a good idea? Obviously, it takes a lot of skill to do that.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s people who have won who will learn a version of someone else&amp;rsquo;s and play it. I don&amp;rsquo;t have as much respect for that. I think once you&amp;rsquo;re to that playing ability, you should be able to do something that&amp;rsquo;s your own. Not to say that you shouldn&amp;rsquo;t take a Benny Thomasson lick or an Orville Burns lick or a Major Franklin lick or something, but I&amp;rsquo;m not as into copying something note for note. Originality is important to me. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;You&amp;rsquo;ve got a lot of different rounds to get through, so you&amp;rsquo;ve got to bring a lot of tunes to it.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s six rounds, three songs apiece. Eighteen tunes and they can&amp;rsquo;t be the same. Most of the people I&amp;rsquo;m competing against are my friends, so it&amp;rsquo;s like, &amp;ldquo;What are you playing before so I don&amp;rsquo;t play the same thing?&amp;rdquo; We help each other out in that way and for the show&amp;rsquo;s sake and for the judges&amp;rsquo; sake not play the same songs as everybody else. Although that has been a strategy in the past for a lot of people. In tie-breakers, someone plays that and then you choose to play the same song and try to play it better than them. But I can&amp;rsquo;t hang with the animosity of it. I hate it. [laughs]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;[For the full text of this lengthy interview, &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Summer 2011!]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;You can keep up with Kimber&amp;rsquo;s projects at her website &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.kimberludiker.com"&gt;www.kimberludiker.com&lt;/a&gt;. You&amp;rsquo;ll also want to look her up on youtube to see some fine examples of her &amp;ldquo;controlled improvisation&amp;rdquo; in action.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;[Peter Anick, author of Mel Bay&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;Old Time Fiddling Across America,&amp;rdquo; teaches fiddle and mandolin and performs with the Massachusetts bluegrass band Wide Open Spaces (&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.wideospaces.com"&gt;www.wideospaces.com&lt;/a&gt;).]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

Photo: Peter Anick&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

12.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=61582</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Grand Champion Fiddler Kimber Ludiker</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;I first met Don Leister when he had a booth set up at the Grayson County Fiddlers Convention in Elk Creek, Virginia. The quality of his work was immediately apparent upon picking up a violin and playing a few notes on it. His violins possess a warm tonal quality, and the longer you play the instrument, the more it sings. The look and feel of his instruments reveal the care put into their making. His twenty years&amp;rsquo; experience as a violin and viola maker is evident.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Later I caught up with Leister again at the Appalachian String Band Festival at Clifftop, West Virginia. There we talked about how he got started making fiddles. Unlike some of the makers I have talked with over the years, Leister does not tap the wood, but feels he can achieve the desired end by cutting to specifications that he learned from other master builders and at workshops.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="200" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="301" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1140557.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;What prompted you to starting building violins?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;I started playing the violin again as an adult and I wanted a better violin. In my family we all grew up making things, so being an artist and woodworker, naturally I had to make one.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Do you use unusual woods as a rule or as part of experimentation?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t experiment too much with woods. American spruce and maple are about as unusual as it gets for me. The standards are European woods. Spruce from the Alpine regions in or near Italy and maple from Eastern Europe are what I like the most. Runner up, though, is American red maple and red spruce. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;There are always a range of looks, weights and sound qualities from any given species of tree, but generally speaking, I like the way the European woods look the most. Cost can be a factor, though; good-looking wood with some years on it can easily get into the hundreds of dollars for a fiddle. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m always on the lookout for red maple around Virginia and West Virginia; you wouldn&amp;rsquo;t think it would be so hard to find &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; you know, it grows on trees!&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;[Leister holds up a rather large piece of wood brought to him by Jimmy Costa, a West Virginia fiddler and banjo player. He is hoping to get quite a few fiddles out of this red maple that came as a gift. The quarter-sawn block ripples in the West Virginia evening sunlight.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Is there anything new you bring to your designs?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;I think the designs all came from those before me; at best, I can only hope to put into practice what I have been taught and observed. Makers generally don&amp;rsquo;t want to change too much on a model at one time, in order to know what the effects are. The violin is such a wonderfully functional and beautifully designed object, it&amp;rsquo;s near impossible to improve on it. Better to work within the design; there are a great deal of possibilities, with room for experimentation, and always a lot to learn there. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Do you favor one style fiddle over another? Say a Stradivarius over Guarneri?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;I have made over forty Strad models, and am making some Guarneris now. I&amp;rsquo;ve always been appreciative of and attracted to Strad&amp;rsquo;s instruments. It has also been less difficult to get access to Strads &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; reliable information and good teachers. That being said, I&amp;rsquo;m really glad Guarneri came along!&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;I make Strad and Guarneri models and I follow their graduation schemes, just not quite as thin as Strad did nor quite as thick as Guarneri.&amp;nbsp; &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m going to be making a copy of an early Carlo Bergonzi that the owner describes as being between a Strad and a Guarneri in terms of sound and playing characteristics. It is a very highly arched violin, doesn&amp;rsquo;t look puffy, just beautifully made. I&amp;rsquo;m really looking forward to having a chance to make a model that is a little different, by one of the great classical makers.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Are you selling more to fiddlers or violinists? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Violinists and fiddlers both really like my instruments; it has been about an even split. Even though every violin initially has a classical set-up, every one plays and sounds different. Some players prefer a fast, easy response and others like a lot of depth. Picking out an instrument is a very personal thing.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;At both festivals where we talked, Don worked into the night, fitting bridges and making repairs under a work light at his stand.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun:

yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;He is a dedicated craftsman whose fiddles keep garnering more and more attention. As they should.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Don Leister&amp;rsquo;s violin shop is located at 2803 Stonewall Avenue, Richmond, VA&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;23225; phone: (804) 920-5592.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;[For the full text of this interview, along with more photos of Don at work, &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Summer 2011 issue!]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;[Bob Buckingham fiddles, teaches, and writes in the Upstate of South Carolina.]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

Photo: Laura Chessin&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;   &amp;nbsp;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=61577</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Don Leister: Violin Maker from Richmond, Virginia</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;em&gt;[Ed Note: Be sure to check out a few video clips of Darol at the bottom of this page. Thanks to Darol for sharing!]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

In the 1940s Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys revolutionized American string band music by incorporating virtuosic instrumental solos and a &amp;ldquo;high lonesome&amp;rdquo; vocal style. Thirty years later, a new generation of bluegrass instrumentalists, steeped in rock &amp;amp; roll, fascinated by jazz, and comfortable with formal training, sought to expand the boundaries of string band music even further. Many bluegrass luminaries, including Richard Greene, Kenny Kosek, Andy Statman, Sam Bush, Russ Barenberg, Tony Rice, Bill Keith, and Tony Trischka pushed the stylistic envelope by incorporating elements of jazz, rock, and world music. In 1977, the release of the exquisitely recorded, all-instrumental &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;David Grisman Quintet &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;album heralded the arrival of a whole new genre of acoustic music.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;That genre, along with its evolutionary branches, is now commonly referred to as &amp;ldquo;new acoustic music.&amp;rdquo; In this issue of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Fiddler Magazine,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt; we begin a series of articles exploring the history of new acoustic music through the eyes of its pioneers. We start, appropriately enough, with Darol Anger, who played violin in the seminal David Grisman Quintet and is credited with coining the &amp;ldquo;new acoustic&amp;rdquo; moniker. An innovator throughout his musical career, Darol set the standard for new acoustic fiddling. He also brought jazz improvisation into the string quartet format, expanded the fiddle&amp;rsquo;s role as a percussion instrument, and promoted the cross-pollinization of traditional string musics from around the world. In this interview, we travel with Darol from the future back to the &amp;rsquo;60s and eventually weave our way back to the present.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="275" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="183" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1099042.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Darol: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:

Arial"&gt;We&amp;rsquo;re definitely in the future as music goes. At least with the acoustic string music scene, everything is happening at once. All the cultures are coming together. It&amp;rsquo;s like the fulfillment of some kind of promise that all the string musicians from all over the world were going to be regularly getting together and playing together, sharing their musics and their styles and creating a whole new kind of world style. Whatever you want to call it, the only real difference is one of reach &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; the fact that musicians all over the world can be in contact very easily through email, over the internet, to pass music files around and to connect. There&amp;rsquo;s a huge migration of younger people to large and small music festivals where there&amp;rsquo;s actual human interaction and people seeing people playing live on stage.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;What was it that attracted you to fiddle music when you were one of those younger people?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Well, I got into music because of the Beatles, basically. Everyone in my fifth grade classroom wanted to be the Beatles. We all picked our guy that we wanted to be [laughs] and obviously that entailed playing some sort of guitar or bass or drums. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So which Beatle were you?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;I preferred George, actually. He was the quiet guy just making up the cool guitar riffs. Anyway, so my parents bought me a guitar, but they bought a guitar that was physically unplayable. I remember just being very frustrated about that. But then, soon after, we were in a restaurant with my folks and there was a guy strolling tables playing popular tunes of the day on the violin. He made it look easy, and I said, &amp;ldquo;Man, that seems a lot easier than guitar. I&amp;rsquo;ll play that!&amp;rdquo; So forty years later, here I am still struggling with one of the most difficult instruments to play. But I don&amp;rsquo;t really regret any of it now. It&amp;rsquo;s also one of the most rewarding instruments. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;But flash forward a few years. I had taken classical violin lessons for years and I had no idea fiddling existed. Then I heard Richard [Greene]. And I said, &amp;ldquo;Oh, I guess I don&amp;rsquo;t have to play electric guitar any more! Maybe I could do everything that I thought I wanted to do on electric guitar on fiddle.&amp;rdquo; But I was already ruined for any kind of pure traditional music by the Beatles! They incorporated anything that they wanted and anything that they liked into their music. So I was sort of inculcated with that ethos. So when I was in college, I was playing bluegrass. It was bizarre bluegrass. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;When I heard a band called the Great American Music Band, which featured Richard Greene and David Grisman playing&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;David Grisman&amp;rsquo;s tunes, it changed my world radically. I actually started a group in my home town of Santa Cruz, California, to play the tunes that I had learned from my bootleg tape of that performance of the Great American Music Band. I learned all of&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Richard Greene&amp;rsquo;s fiddle solos and all the melodies and all the chord progressions to all the tunes from that concert tape. So when my friend Todd Phillips, who was taking mandolin lessons from David, brought me up there to play with David Grisman, I was ready. I knew all of David&amp;rsquo;s tunes. [laughs] And we just started playing together and we basically jammed for about six months. I would drive the hundred miles to David&amp;rsquo;s house in Marin County and then drive back in my old VW bus. Sometimes I&amp;rsquo;d spend a couple of days. I&amp;rsquo;d stay in his basement.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;You know, people think of bluegrass as a traditional form but it&amp;rsquo;s really not at all. It&amp;rsquo;s actually sort of a radical synthesis of previous forms. It was this virtuoso pop form that just created itself overnight through the confluence of incredibly creative musicians who were playing very personal styles. But it was based on traditional styles. So basically, when David started writing his original tunes that were based on a different combination of influences &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; David was also very influenced by the Beatles &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; he was really following in the tradition of bluegrass.&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

...So in that way, just as bluegrass was a rhythmic milestone and a harmonic milestone from traditional old time string band music, &amp;ldquo;Dawg music&amp;rdquo; was in its way really in the tradition of moving music forward, incorporating new influences from different parts of music around the world into the string band form. That&amp;rsquo;s what I know as a musician. And I&amp;rsquo;ve been consciously doing that with the Turtle Island String Quartet, with the Montreux Band, and with Psychograss, with my duet with Mike Marshall, and with my new group, the Republic of Strings. I see that as my job &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; to recombine, extend the possibilities of the string band so that other people can be inspired and move it forward. &lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;[For the rest of this lengthy and inspiring interview, &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;purchase the Spring 2011 issue&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;For the latest news on Darol&amp;rsquo;s projects, online tunes and interactive forum, visit Darol&amp;rsquo;s web site at &lt;a href="http://www.darolanger.com" target="_blank"&gt;www.darolanger.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;letter-spacing:-.1pt"&gt;[Peter Anick, author of Mel Bay&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;Old Time Fiddling Across America,&amp;rdquo; teaches fiddle and mandolin and performs with the Massachusetts bluegrass band Wide Open Spaces (&lt;a href="http://www.wideospaces.com" target="_blank"&gt;www.wideospaces.com&lt;/a&gt;).]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=59651</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>The Pioneers of New Acoustic Music, Part 1: Darol Anger</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;em&gt;[Ed Note: Check out a couple of video clips of Roger at the bottom of this page. Thanks to Roger for sharing!]&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

Roger Cooper is a link to the past for what he calls &amp;ldquo;Big Sandy River&amp;rdquo; style fiddling. He says, &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;ve never heard anybody else call it that. But to me, the fiddling and tunes through this area of eastern Kentucky, southern Ohio and southwest West Virginia have a common style and sound.&amp;rdquo; Roger learned from his old friends and mentors who comprise a list of who&amp;rsquo;s who of the area&amp;rsquo;s old time fiddlers. His relationships with Buddy Thomas, Bob Prater, Morris Allen, Jimmy Wheeler, and George Hawkins make him a primary resource for the region&amp;rsquo;s rich fiddle tradition.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="225" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="286" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1099043.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Roger&amp;rsquo;s musical life and fiddling have been well-documented on his recordings: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Going Back to Old Kentucky&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt; and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Essence of Old Kentucky&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt; on Rounder Records. It is apparent, after reading the liner notes, he is more comfortable shifting attention from himself to the old fiddlers who were his friends and mentors. Joe Dobbs, retired radio host of Music from the Mountains, comments, &amp;ldquo;Roger truly loved Buddy Thomas and those old people. He didn&amp;rsquo;t necessarily have an interest in the cultural significance because they were his friends and neighbors. He loved being around them and playing those old tunes they had kept alive in spite of the growth of commercial music.&amp;rdquo; &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;One of the defining characteristics of Roger&amp;rsquo;s fiddling is the rhythmic pulse of his bowing. Flatpicking guitar champion Robin Kessinger agrees. &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;ve played guitar a lot behind Roger over the years. His fiddling is precise and clear and his timing is impeccable. But the thing I&amp;rsquo;ve learned most from playing with him is rhythm. I don&amp;rsquo;t mean timing, but the pulsating rhythm he puts in a tune.&amp;rdquo; Roger considers this hard-driving dance rhythm and pulse the most important element in old time fiddling. He likens the strong beat to a fly wheel on an engine which must have enough initial spin to set itself in motion, which he regulates with bow speed. Though he considers himself a down bow fiddler, his frequent use of shuffle bowing is often disguised by his equal emphasis on the up bow. He developed this by backward bowing (leading with an up bow) tunes like &amp;ldquo;Martha Campbell,&amp;rdquo; stating that many old-timers, like George Hawkins, took pride they could bow either way.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Roger also notes he puts a lot of pressure on the bow. &amp;ldquo;I like to get everything out of a fiddle I can. I remember J. P. Fraley had bought a Hayslett fiddle [Harold Hayslett is a renowned violin maker from Charleston, West Virginia]. We were jamming and I kept eying that fiddle thinking, &amp;lsquo;I wonder what that fiddle&amp;rsquo;s really got?&amp;rsquo; because J.P. played pretty light, never very hard. So I said, &amp;lsquo;J.P., let me play that fiddle.&amp;rsquo; Then I really tore into it. I tried to get everything I could out of it. Finally J.P. squawked, &amp;lsquo;Give me that fiddle back. You&amp;rsquo;re goin&amp;rsquo; to play the guts out of it!&amp;rsquo; J.P. was real mild mannered and easy going but he really got excited.&amp;rdquo; [laughs]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Another ingredient to Roger&amp;rsquo;s fiddling is his ease at improvising and creating melodic variations. &amp;ldquo;I think of the basic tune as the skeleton. After you learn the basic skeleton there are a lot of different ways you can approach it. The good fiddlers around here put their twist on it.&amp;rdquo; He comments that though there was some isolation (geographically), the river trade and travel brought musical influences from a lot of different places, making old time fiddling along the Ohio River Valley different from the coal fields or isolated mountain areas.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Although Roger&amp;rsquo;s hard-driving style and melodic variations were influenced by his mentors, his fiddling is distinctly Roger Cooper. To Roger, individual style is one of the ingredients that make old time fiddling a living tradition. &amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s fine to learn to play a tune just like Buddy Thomas or someone else, but as you become a better fiddler your personality needs to come out. That&amp;rsquo;s your individual style. Otherwise you&amp;rsquo;re just copycattin&amp;rsquo;.&amp;rdquo; &lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Roger is also active in teaching the tunes and fiddle style he learned from his mentors to a new generation of interested fiddlers. He is a master artist teaching through the Kentucky Arts Councils&amp;rsquo; Folk Arts Apprenticeship program and teaches each summer at the&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Cowen Creek Mountain Music School in Whitesburg, Kentucky. He has also produced a learning DVD, entitled &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;Splitting&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Hairs. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;ldquo;The only way to keep these tunes and style alive is to teach it to young people,&amp;rdquo; he says. &amp;ldquo;They&amp;rsquo;re the future of this music.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Roger&amp;rsquo;s recordings, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;Going Back to Old Kentucky&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt; and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;Essence&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;of Old Kentucky,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt; are available from Rounder Records as downloads; a physical CD of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;Essence of Old Kentucky&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt; is now available from Musical Traditions Records (&lt;a href="http://www.mtrecords.co.uk" target="_blank"&gt;www.mtrecords.co.uk&lt;/a&gt;). The liner notes go into detail about his mentors, the regional style and tune backgrounds. His learning DVD, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;Splitting Hairs, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;is available from the Jesse Stuart Foundation in Ashland, Kentucky (&lt;a href="http://www.jsfbooks.com" target="_blank"&gt;jsfbooks.com&lt;/a&gt;) along with free downloadable transcriptions to six of his local tunes.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;[For the rest of this article, as well as a transcription of &amp;ldquo;Susan&amp;rsquo;s Gone&amp;rdquo; as played by Roger, &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;purchase the Spring 2011 issue&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;[L. Scott Miller is a freelance musician, writer and educator. He is the 2010 Grand Master&amp;rsquo;s Traditional Fiddle Champion and is passionate about the fiddling from his native Ohio River Valley.]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=59650</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Kentucky's Roger Cooper: Big Sandy River and Beyond</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal;mso-hyphenate:none" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Well folks, here we are again, the Skillet Lickers, red hot and rarin&amp;rsquo; to go,&amp;rdquo; said Clayton McMichen, introducing the Skillet Lickers&amp;rsquo; &amp;ldquo;Soldier&amp;rsquo;s Joy.&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Gonna play you a little tune this morning, want you to grab that gal and shake a foot and moan.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal;mso-hyphenate:none" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Old time fiddle virtuoso William Clayton McMichen died in 1970 but he&amp;rsquo;s not forgotten. Bob Everhart, President of the National Traditional Country Music Association bestowed a new award on the fiddler from Georgia. &amp;ldquo;We just finished our 34th festival of old time music in LeMars, Iowa,&amp;rdquo; said Everhart, &amp;ldquo;and Juanita McMichen was on hand to accept the proclamation we made, making her father the &amp;ldquo;Fiddler of the Century&amp;rdquo; for our upper Midwest area. Clayton McMichen was an incredible fiddler.&amp;rdquo;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;img width="200" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="250" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1099041.jpg" alt="" /&gt;Recently, I drove through the winding &lt;span style="letter-spacing:.1pt"&gt;Kentucky hills to Battletown, where Clayton&lt;/span&gt; McMichen spent his last fourteen years. High on a bluff on a grassy knoll above the Ohio River sits the house Clayton helped build. His eldest daughter Juanita McMichen Lynch lives in this secluded area with her husband of sixty years, Clifford. Now eighty-four, Juanita helped me go through boxes of memorabilia she collected about her famous father over the years. She had grown up with the Skillet Lickers. She told me Clayton loved to cook and among the dinner guests were Fiddlin&amp;rsquo; John Carson, Riley Puckett, Gid Tanner, Arthur Tanner, Hugh Cross, Earl Johnson, Lowe Stokes, Slim Bryant, Kasper Malone, and Uncle Bert Layne. &lt;br /&gt;

...&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

McMichen, who once quipped, &amp;ldquo;There&amp;rsquo;s 500 overalls sold for every tuxedo suit &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; that&amp;rsquo;s why I stick to swamp opera,&amp;rdquo; was a master of old time hoedown fiddling. He was the driving musical force behind the old time super group, The Skillet Lickers. McMichen was much more than the comic country bumpkin figure he portrayed in the Skillet Lickers&amp;rsquo; musical skit &amp;ldquo;Corn Licker Still in Georgia&amp;rdquo; or in stage show comic routines. McMichen also loved pop tunes, jazz, and blues. As early as 1922, McMichen&amp;rsquo;s Home Town Boys band featured Robert Stephens on saxophone and K. D. Malone on clarinet. After the Skillet Lickers he teamed up with jazz- oriented guitarist Hoyt &amp;ldquo;Slim&amp;rdquo; Bryant in the early 1930s to form the Georgia Wildcats. Then in the 1940s he added a twelve-piece Dixieland jazz band that regularly played on WHAS in Louisville.&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

Clayton McMichen, known as &amp;ldquo;Mac&amp;rdquo; and later in the mid-1940s as &amp;ldquo;Pappy,&amp;rdquo; was respected by the leading musicians of his era. &amp;ldquo;When he lived in Louisville he owned the town,&amp;rdquo; said Pee Wee King, another famous Louisville musician, in the book &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Hell Bent for Music.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt; &amp;ldquo;Everybody loved him and his music.&amp;rdquo; &lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;....&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal;mso-hyphenate:none" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-BoldItalic"&gt;Early Years&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal;mso-hyphenate:none" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;William Clayton McMichen was born on January 26, 1900 in Altoona, Georgia, to Mitchell Harvey McMichen (March 15, 1874-Aug. 1961) and Missouri Elizabeth Smith McMichen (May 5, 1880-Nov. 5, 1964). Their Scots-Irish ancestors came to the United States around 1800 and became farmers. The McMichen family also played music; his grandmother (Sarah Lankford McMichen, b. November 1855) played banjo and many of the nine children were musically inclined.&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

Clayton was a young boy when he learned to play the fiddle from his uncles and his father, a trained violinist. He played Viennese waltzes at the uptown hotel &amp;ldquo;crinoline&amp;rdquo; dances. &amp;ldquo;Mitchell (Clayton&amp;rsquo;s father) studied and played classical music and thought fiddle music low-class,&amp;rdquo; said Juanita McMichen Lynch. &amp;ldquo;He was a concert violinist and wouldn&amp;rsquo;t let my dad touch his violin. So Mitchell hid the fiddle under his bed so no one could mess with it. When he would go out, my Dad would take it out from under the bed and sneak out to Mitchell&amp;rsquo;s saw mill.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal;mso-hyphenate:none" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Clayton befriended an old black gentleman whom the family fondly called &amp;ldquo;Uncle.&amp;rdquo; Clayton loved Uncle and spent as much time as he could with him. Whenever Clayton disappeared, they knew to go to Uncle&amp;rsquo;s house first. Uncle encouraged Clayton to play the fiddle and taught him his first song, &amp;ldquo;Sally Goodin.&amp;rdquo; Young Clayton played it &amp;ldquo;over and over&amp;rdquo; until he almost drove his sisters and mother crazy &amp;ldquo;see-sawing back and forth.&amp;rdquo; [&amp;ldquo;The McMichen Family&amp;rdquo; by Joann T. Allen]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

Clayton took his father&amp;rsquo;s fiddle every day when he went to work and put it back when he heard him coming home. One day his father came home and accidentally heard young Clayton playing. When asked what he thought he was doing, the six year old Clayton replied, &amp;ldquo;Trying to play this durn thing.&amp;rdquo; When Bertha, his oldest sister, asked if he could play &amp;ldquo;Sally Goodin,&amp;rdquo; he tuned his fiddle and rendered the tune perfectly. Grandpa was so amazed at how well the boy could play he got him his own fiddle and told him he&amp;rsquo;d help him any way he could.&amp;rdquo; [Unpublished Manuscript on her father by Juanita McMichen Lynch]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

Some of the first fiddle pieces Clayton learned from his father and real uncles were &amp;ldquo;Pretty Little Widow,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Billy in the Low Ground,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Nancy Rollin&amp;rsquo;,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Arkansas Traveler,&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;Durang&amp;rsquo;s Hornpipe.&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;There was a black string band that used to play at a brothel nearby and my dad would go listen to them play and sing,&amp;rdquo; said Juanita. &amp;ldquo;He&amp;rsquo;d lay in the grass for hours listening. He learned some of his best licks from that group.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Some of his songs like &amp;ldquo;In the Pines&amp;rdquo; came from them.&amp;rdquo; &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;Clayton&amp;rsquo;s grandfather, William Harvey McMichen (b. Sept. 1854) ran a local store, the local post office, and owned one of the first automobiles in the area. Grandpa McMichen feuded with a Mr. Armstrong who ran a competing local store. After Armstrong bought a Columbia cylinder machine, Grandpa McMichen bought an Edison machine which out-drew Armstrong&amp;rsquo;s and gave Grandpa all the town&amp;rsquo;s business. As a boy, Clayton learned several songs from the Edison including Arthur Collins&amp;rsquo; &amp;ldquo;All in, Down and Out,&amp;rdquo; issued in 1907 and Ada Jones&amp;rsquo; &amp;ldquo;I Remember You,&amp;rdquo; issued in 1909. [Cohen]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&amp;ldquo;When he was nine years old, he entered a fiddle contest,&amp;rdquo; said Juanita. &amp;ldquo;He won but was too young to be awarded a prize.&amp;rdquo; When audiences heard him play they were in awe of his ability. When someone whose family was from Ireland would play or sing a song, Clayton would play his version and they were elated to hear their old native music. Much of the music that we pass from generation to generation was recorded that way.&amp;rdquo; [Unpublished Manuscript on her father by Juanita McMichen Lynch]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

Bertha and Trudy, Clayton&amp;rsquo;s sisters, remembered the many good times they had at their neighborhood dances, some of which were held in their home. Their mother &amp;ldquo;beat spoons&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;beat straws&amp;rdquo; and accompanied her husband, brother-in-laws, young Clayton, and the other musicians.&lt;br /&gt;

...&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="line-height:normal;mso-hyphenate:none" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;[For the rest of this lengthy article, &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;purchase the Spring 2011 issue&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial; "&gt;[Richard L. Matteson Jr. lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where he performs and teaches at Mom&amp;rsquo;s Music. Matteson writes for Mel Bay Publications, The Old-Time Herald, and publishes articles on World Wide Bluegrass and his website: &lt;a href="http://www.BluegrassMessegers.com" target="_blank"&gt;BluegrassMessegers.com&lt;/a&gt;. His new Bluegrass Series of old time song paintings can be viewed at the Kentucky Music Hall-Of-Fame in Renfro Valley, Kentucky, or on his web-site: &lt;a href="http://www.MattesonArt.com" target="_blank"&gt;MattesonArt.com&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt; &lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

12.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=59649</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Clayton McMichen: "Fiddler of the Century" - The Early Years</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;Calum MacKinnon is a terrific Scottish fiddler. He worked many years for Boeing as an aerospace engineer. As fiddler Frank Ferrell put it, &amp;ldquo;when he retired he gave up Boeing for bowing.&amp;rdquo; A charming man with the most beautiful Scottish brogue, I caught up with him at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington, last summer. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;I began by asking Calum a little about the history of Scottish music. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="200" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="241" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1045341.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s the earliest stuff we know about?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt; &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;The earliest stuff we know dates back to the early 1600s. There were a few manuscripts of tunes, and they weren&amp;rsquo;t actually written for fiddle in those days, they were written for the lute. It&amp;rsquo;s got the same tuning and the same fingering as fiddles and mandolins, so it was easy to transpose from lute to fiddle. But the real fiddle itself, the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;fithel,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt; as it was called, was a two-stringed instrument. It was supposedly brought back from the first Crusade by the Crusaders who went from Scotland. It was by all accounts a wretched little instrument that was never in tune, and it sounded awful. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;It was replaced in the 16th century with viols when the King of Scotland got a consort of viols shipped out to him, and they were played for a while, but the people called them by the old name. Then when the viols were replaced by violins in the 17th century, they continued to keep the old name, modified a bit from &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;fithel&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; to fiddle. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;The tunes themselves go back several hundred years. There&amp;rsquo;s a small handful that supposedly go back to the 14th century. Of course they were never written down for hundreds of years, but were passed on orally. Then finally they were written down in the 16th and 17th centuries. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;In the 18th century the local traditional fiddlers were pretty much taken over by the Intelligentsia of Edinburgh, and all the old fiddle tunes were rearranged in the Baroque style. They were rearranged with &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;continuo,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:

120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; for harpsichord and cello, and with figured bass. There were elaborate counter-melodies written in some cases for the harpsichord and for the cello. Actually Joseph Haydn was commissioned to arrange almost 400 Scottish songs, and Beethoven did 150, and there was some local talent who did a lot of that as well, the local Scots. So there&amp;rsquo;s a whole Scottish Baroque 18th-century period, which I love, and play. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So by that point we at least have the dots. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;Yes, it&amp;rsquo;s all written down. There was a tremendous blossoming of music books starting in the 18th century. The first real fiddle music was published in 1700, but then from 1750 to 1850 there were dozens of books published. It became very popular. Many of the tunes were arranged so that they could also be played by the German flute, a wooden flute. It was capable of going down to the low G on the fiddle.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;Then Niel Gow, the most famous Scottish fiddler of all, came along in the middle of the 18th century. He was a great fiddler with a great style and had a brother who played the cello with him at dances. Niel&amp;rsquo;s son Nathaniel became a prolific composer and a great publisher of fiddle music. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;In the 1800s James Scott-Skinner came along. He was a concert violinist as well as a fiddler and a dance teacher and started off as a little boy in a kids&amp;rsquo; musical group. He became very famous as a performer and also wrote over 600 tunes, many of them the best tunes in the repertoire. Most of his works were written with piano accompaniment, and from then on, there has been a progression of performers who have kept his musical tradition alive. There are players today who sound just like Scott Skinner did, and many are successful fiddle competition winners.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;The history goes way back, but let&amp;rsquo;s talk a little about your family history.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;My parents came from a little island called Tiree in the Hebrides. They both came from Gaelic-speaking families, and Gaelic was their first language. By the time I came along, they had moved to Glasgow, so I grew up in Glasgow, although I spent the five years of World War II up in the islands away from the bombing. All the kids were evacuated from the cities. In my early years I had more Gaelic than I had English and I had to learn English when I came to Glasgow. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;When I was age eight the headmaster in our primary school started violin lessons on Saturday mornings, so my mother signed me up. At the same time, the old man next door was a traditional fiddler who played his fiddle down in the crook of his arm. He claimed to have been taught by Scott Skinner, but he had a twinkle in his eye when he said it, so I&amp;rsquo;m not sure that it was true. He taught me the fiddle music, and with my Highland parents, they were much more interested in fiddle than they were in the classical violin. I was extremely fortunate, in that I got both of them at the same time. I got the good technique from my violin teacher and the Scottish style from old Willie Kemp. My violin teacher organized a summer camp for us and so I attended my first one at age eight&amp;hellip;that would have been in 1947. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;What was that like?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;It was great. It was the headmaster and some of his teachers who were the staff at camp. We were all little nippers &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; we were all primary school kids, about thirty of us, boys and girls. We were watched pretty closely, and we lived in a school house building in another part of the country. We spent a couple of weeks down there learning to play as an orchestra, and then did a concert at the local community hall. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Was it classical music?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;No, it was classically-based arrangements that we did, but they were based on Scottish tunes. Some of the very first tunes I learned were reels and strathspeys and jigs and slow airs. I got all of that stuff even from the classical man. We were also doing Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and La Paloma and stuff like that, but there was a fair mixing of the Scottish stuff thrown in at the time. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So fill me in. When did you leave Scotland?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;I went to high school and university in Scotland. I left school early and went to join Rolls Royce. I got a five-year apprenticeship at Rolls Royce and became an engineer. They sent me to college so I finished up with an engineering degree as well. Then, when I was about twenty-seven years old, I came over here. It was only originally for a two-year trip, just to see what it was like. That&amp;rsquo;s why I went to Phoenix. I was attracted by the palm trees and the swimming pools and the sun. Sun! But it wasn&amp;rsquo;t all it was cracked up to be. After a year and a half in Phoenix I still wasn&amp;rsquo;t ready to go home but I wanted to live someplace that looked more like Scotland, so here was Seattle and Puget Sound and a job with the Boeing Company, so I came up here in 1967 and I&amp;rsquo;ve been here ever since.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;...&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So what are your future plans?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:

Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;Well, I&amp;rsquo;m spending more time at home just now. If I&amp;rsquo;m wanted for a dance on the East Coast, it&amp;rsquo;s a day traveling to get there and there&amp;rsquo;s another day traveling back home for three hours of pleasure, so I&amp;rsquo;ve been a little more selective on the gigs that I take on. I really enjoy teaching. I love being invited back to Swannanoa. I&amp;rsquo;ll go back there any time they ask me. I teach a lot at home and play for a lot of dances and the odd concert. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;There are lots of Scottish fiddle competitions around the country, and I&amp;rsquo;m a judge for these competitions. I&amp;rsquo;ve been a judge at the US National Scottish Fiddling competition five or six times now and have coached a few National champions. That&amp;rsquo;s where I met some of my heroes, like Arthur Scott Robertson.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;We have a Northwest Scottish Fiddlers&amp;rsquo; organization here in Seattle that I started up. Many but not all of them of them are students. We have a nice little teen band with eight or so teenagers that we give separate sets to do, and we perform at places like the Northwest Folklife Festival. A week after Folklife we got an invitation to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year. Of course that&amp;rsquo;s out of the question, to fly to Edinburgh, but it was a feather in our hats to be considered. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Well, that&amp;rsquo;s terrific. You&amp;rsquo;re a success story. You play the music you love, and it sounds like you&amp;rsquo;re doing the right thing, getting it on to the next generation. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;I just love teaching. You know what it&amp;rsquo;s like. It&amp;rsquo;s so satisfying to teach, especially the young ones, and watch them grow. I did a big dance weekend last fall here at Fort Worden. Muriel Johnstone and Keith Smith, a great fiddler, and I were all here and a week later we did a concert in Seattle while they were in town. We got my premier student Christina Smith&amp;hellip;involved in the concert too&amp;hellip;she&amp;rsquo;s sixteen years old, an absolutely gorgeous player, and as I was sitting in the audience, listening to her play, the thing that struck me was not that she reminded me of my playing &amp;mdash; she reminded me of Arthur Scott Robertson&amp;rsquo;s playing, who was one of my mentors, and I thought I must have done something right here because I&amp;rsquo;ve transferred it straight from Arthur to this young woman here, who&amp;rsquo;s then going to transfer it on to somebody else when she gets older. And that&amp;rsquo;s very satisfying.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;[For the full text of this interview, as well as Calum&amp;rsquo;s tune &amp;ldquo;Springtime Waltz,&amp;rdquo; &lt;a target="_blank" href="Store-Subscribe.page"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the winter 2010/11 issue!]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;For more information, please visit &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.calummackinnon.com"&gt;www.calummackinnon.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="NoParagraphStyle"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

9.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;[Fiddler Magazine&amp;rsquo;s Review Editor, Paul Anastasio is a former student of Joe Venuti and a veteran of the bands of Merle Haggard, Asleep at the Wheel, Larry Gatlin, and Loretta Lynn. For information on opportunities to study with Paul, and his &amp;ldquo;Swing Cat&amp;rdquo; recording company and &amp;ldquo;The Impressionist&amp;rdquo; chin rest, see his ad on page 44 or visit his website at &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.SwingCatEnterprises.com"&gt;www.SwingCatEnterprises.com&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=56571</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Calum MacKinnon: Scottish Roots in the Pacific Northwest</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:30.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Baskerville"&gt;T&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;he Kane Sisters, Liz and Yvonne, of Letterfrack&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

12.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Connemara, Ireland, are truly a dynamic duo. First learning fiddle from their grandfather Jimmy Mullen and Sligo player Mary Finn, the Kanes later spent three years touring with accordion player Sharon Shannon as part of her band &amp;ldquo;The Woodchoppers.&amp;rdquo; Their first solo album was called &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:

120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;The Well Tempered Bow&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;; this was followed by &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;

mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Under the Diamond&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;, and just this past summer, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Side by Side. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Both full-time fiddle teachers as well as touring performers, Liz and Yvonne succeed in combining their love of playing music with their desire to pass it on to others.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="275" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="223" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1045343.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;I had the pleasure of chatting with them and seeing them perform in Philadelphia this past summer.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;I read recently that you were educated at Kylemore Abbey, so your school is on a million postcards.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Yvonne:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; Yes, it&amp;rsquo;s beautiful.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Liz: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;There were a lot of students from all over the world there boarding. But it&amp;rsquo;s not a school anymore. It just closed down. It was a brilliant school, a lot of fun.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Yvonne: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;It was day girls and boarders. So we were day girls. It was run by Benedictine nuns. It was a beautiful setting. We only lived back the road from it &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; we were about three miles away. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;And did you play music at the school?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Liz: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Yeah, the music teacher there, Sister Carol, was from Cork. She&amp;rsquo;s a great musician, a brilliant pianist, and she still teaches piano to a lot of the local kids, and she also plays flute and she sings&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Yvonne: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;She would have taught us the piano and violin, as in classical.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s really fun watching you guys &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; there will be moments where you look over at each other and there&amp;rsquo;s some communication, just in the eyes, and a smile, and it makes you wonder, &amp;ldquo;Okay, what just happened there?&amp;rdquo; And I know when I play with my brother, we sometimes silently comment on the music &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; or maybe there&amp;rsquo;s a part that I used to get wrong, but just got right&amp;hellip; Is it something like that? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Liz:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; Exactly. Where we do that note the second time around, let&amp;rsquo;s go for a variation&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Yvonne: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;We have a few looks and we just seem to know.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Liz: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s funny touring now with Edel Fox because on my right is Yvonne, and we kind of play off each other. I know what Yvonne&amp;rsquo;s thinking, and then I look over at Edel and sometimes I think she should know what I&amp;rsquo;m thinking because we&amp;rsquo;re so used to knowing what each other&amp;rsquo;s thinking.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Right. So when it comes to variations, I guess you have to plan them ahead of time, and say, &amp;ldquo;Let&amp;rsquo;s try this the second time through.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Liz: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Exactly. And sometimes you wouldn&amp;rsquo;t always remember them on the night, but you might on the second time around, or the last time around&amp;hellip; The tunes are very intricate, a lot of the tunes we play, so to remember every detail and variation, you kind of have to have a little bit of leverage.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;How do you go about choosing your tunes? Do you ever disagree about what you&amp;rsquo;ll play and record?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Liz: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;I went through a phase of being crazy about Sliabh Luachra tunes, and Yvonne was like, &amp;ldquo;Well, it is a lovely tune, but maybe not for us.&amp;rdquo; There is, I suppose, a certain type of tune that suits our style, certain keys.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Yeah, so what kind of thing would you draw the line at?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Yvonne:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; We&amp;rsquo;d obviously have to love the tune to be playing it, you know, and sometimes we change the tunes, just put them into different keys, so it&amp;rsquo;ll suit the fiddle a lot more&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Liz:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; And make them more interesting, and brighter for us&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Yvonne:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; &amp;hellip;for us to play. When it comes to picking tunes, Liz might pick out a few tunes and play them on the tape, and say, &amp;ldquo;What do you think of this?&amp;rdquo; and I&amp;rsquo;m like &amp;ldquo;Yes,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;No,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Maybe,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Definitely not.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Liz:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; The thing is, when I do play them on the tape for you, or vice versa, it&amp;rsquo;s not until we actually play them together and record them together that we can say, &amp;ldquo;You know what, that really doesn&amp;rsquo;t suit us.&amp;rdquo; &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So even if it seems to suit one of you, your combined sound&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Yvonne: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;We both agree in the end. But we end up loving the tune usually.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Liz: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Yeah. And agreeing in the end.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;[For the rest of this interview, and transcriptions of Liz&amp;rsquo;s tunes &amp;ldquo;Three Deer and a Hare&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;Pangur Ban,&amp;rdquo; &lt;a target="_blank" href="Store-Subscribe.page"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the winter 2010/11 issue!]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;For more information, please visit &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:

120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.thekanesisters.com"&gt;www.thekanesisters.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

9.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;[Tim McCarrick works as a music editor for J.W. Pepper. He has written about fiddle playing for Fiddler Magazine and Mel Bay&amp;rsquo;s Fiddle Sessions website. He has nearly 20 arrangements published for school orchestras from Mozart and Beethoven to Gershwin and Led Zeppelin, and he is also working on a string method book, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why he never updates the Irish Fiddle website! He lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania, with one wife, two daughters, two dogs, and lots of stringed instruments.]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;   &amp;nbsp;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=56570</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Liz and Yvonne Kane: Sisters in Sync</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;The world of fiddling has seen tremendous growth over the last decade, not only in numbers, but also from a technical and creative standpoint. Tristan Clarridge&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;and Brittany Haas are at the forefront of this vibrant scene and are increasingly leaving their mark on the rapidly evolving world of neo-stringband music. Both originally from California, they are now members of Boston-based Crooked Still, an incredibly talented quintet that has blazed new trails with their explorations of mostly traditional American roots music put to a freshly woven string groove.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;Tristan Clarridge began his fiddling on the contest scene, and along with his older sister Tashina, was a dominant force in the major contests of the West, especially the prestigious Grand National Championship held in Weiser, Idaho, which Tristan has won four times. He also developed an interest in cello along the way, and as fate would have it, it was this that opened up his current opportunity with Crooked Still when his cello mentor, Rushad Eggleston, a founding member, left the band in 2007. Proving himself an incredibly quick study, Tristan stepped into Rashad&amp;rsquo;s formidable shoes, where the cello serves as the driving rhythmic force, a distinguishing sound that gives the band much of its identity. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;Brittany Haas captured national attention as a teenage fiddler with the release of her solo CD and as a member of Darol Anger&amp;rsquo;s Republic of Strings. An inventive interpreter of southern old time fiddle tunes,&amp;nbsp;she&amp;rsquo;s a versatile fiddler who can play bluegrass, Celtic, swing, and more modern fiddle styles. A 2009 graduate of Princeton University, she&amp;rsquo;s been a full-time musician for barely more than a year. As a college student, she managed to find time to perform with banjo player Tony Trischka, comedian and banjo player Steve Martin, her old time fiddle mentor, Bruce Molsky, and of course, her current band, Crooked Still.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="250" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="188" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/1045346.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;On the heels of Crooked Still releasing their highly regarded fourth album, I met up with Brittany and Tristan in the San Francisco Bay Area in June, 2010. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;What are the hard parts of playing in a band like Crooked Still &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; what challenges you?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Brittany:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; I think the soloing aspects of it, because I&amp;rsquo;ve always considered myself better at playing old time than bluegrass, maybe just because I like that vibe better, where everybody&amp;rsquo;s all playing together at the same time. But being opposite people like Greg and Tristan, who are really great at taking crazy solos &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; not necessarily showy things, but things that really express what they&amp;rsquo;re trying to do but in this really fast kind of way. In a super fast song, just being able to get something out, like a meaningful solo... I find that pretty tricky.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Tristan:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; Me, too.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Do you try to work them out ahead of time pretty much?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Brittany: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Sometimes. I generally improvise a bunch. I guess I don&amp;rsquo;t really ever completely work things out, even though sometimes I think I should. It&amp;rsquo;s sort of one of my inner monologue things, where I&amp;rsquo;m thinking, &amp;ldquo;Should I go the route of deciding what I&amp;rsquo;m going to do, or should I try to stick to my gut feeling, which is like, if you&amp;rsquo;re improvising, you should do it on the spot and incorporate whatever you happen to be feeling, even though that can go horribly wrong if your brain isn&amp;rsquo;t as quick as your fingers&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Tristan, what&amp;rsquo;s the most challenging part of the cello role in the band?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Tristan:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; I guess I would say a lot of the same &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; soloing is definitely a hard element, and having grown up as a fiddle player, I think a lot as a fiddle player, but then everything is so much larger and harder to get to on the cello. So technically, to play the same thing that I would think of as a fiddle player ends up not really being something that I can use or pull off on the cello. So I generally feel like my fingers are a bit behind what I&amp;rsquo;m trying to get out, so I work on that a lot, especially for soloing. I don&amp;rsquo;t ever really work out a solo, but sometimes I&amp;rsquo;ll sort of have a structure of a solo in mind &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; a way that I can try to put a solo in context of the song. Sometimes it helps to just have an idea of, &amp;ldquo;Well, maybe I&amp;rsquo;ll start high and work my way down, or maybe I&amp;rsquo;ll start low&amp;rdquo; &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; there will be little pieces, but I&amp;rsquo;ll improvise how I get between them. I tend to find that if I work out a solo and then I try to play it over and over again, it starts to feel, and probably sound, very stale.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Brittany:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; I think another Crooked Still-specific challenge is how Aoife approaches singing &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; she&amp;rsquo;s not just a singer, it&amp;rsquo;s more like another musician in that she&amp;rsquo;s always switching things up and changing melodies here and there. You can&amp;rsquo;t be like, &amp;ldquo;Oh, she&amp;rsquo;s going to do a phrase that&amp;rsquo;s this length, and I&amp;rsquo;m going to do a little fill,&amp;rdquo; it&amp;rsquo;s more interactive than that, which is pretty cool. And sometimes I think that I maybe go a little bit overboard with filling, since we&amp;rsquo;re sort of a bluegrass band but not really. There&amp;rsquo;s not a mandolin player, and sometimes Greg plays fills, but that&amp;rsquo;s not really his style &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; he plays so rhythmically most of the time that I sometimes step over that space that&amp;rsquo;s in there. I&amp;rsquo;ll be like, &amp;ldquo;nobody else is taking the fill, so I&amp;rsquo;ll do it.&amp;rdquo; But I enjoy that, sort of having that voice that&amp;rsquo;s in the same range as the vocals. &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Talk about your perception of what&amp;rsquo;s happening in the world of fiddling.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Tristan:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; It seems like a particularly vibrant time for the fiddle scene right now.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;And you guys are in the middle of it&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Tristan:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; Boston right now in a lot of ways is really a center for it&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Brittany: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;And there&amp;rsquo;s a really cool overlap of styles that I guess has been happening for awhile, but it&amp;rsquo;s more apparent in kids who have grown up not really doing any one style in particular.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Yeah. When I was getting into fiddle music, people played their style &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; they didn&amp;rsquo;t even really listen outside. If you played Texas fiddle, then that&amp;rsquo;s all you really knew, and bluegrass was walled off. And now we&amp;rsquo;re definitely seeing the totally opposite thing.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Brittany:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; I think I felt that a little bit. Like &amp;ldquo;Oh, I&amp;rsquo;m taking bluegrass lessons,&amp;rdquo; and then &amp;ldquo;Oh, I&amp;rsquo;m going to Scottish camp,&amp;rdquo; but then at a certain point there are so many things all trying to combine themselves in your brain, it&amp;rsquo;s like, why compartmentalize?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Tristan: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s when they just become your sound, just how you play.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Brittany:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; Yeah, you can have a bluegrass jam one second and then play an old time tune. It&amp;rsquo;s no big deal &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; it&amp;rsquo;s all music.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Tristan:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; It&amp;rsquo;s interesting because a lot of these musical traditions have developed partially because of that kind of isolation &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; people only knowing what they knew that was right around them. I guess that&amp;rsquo;s kind of true of any traditional music that develops, certainly the old time stuff. And it&amp;rsquo;s interesting because that isolation just isn&amp;rsquo;t there now at all &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; with the internet, and buying music off i-Tunes&amp;hellip; So you get all these young players that, for better or worse, don&amp;rsquo;t really identify with a certain way of playing or a certain kind of jam &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; they just get together and just play whatever it is that comes to mind. So I&amp;rsquo;m really curious to see what that will lead to and what the differences are.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;[For the full text of this interview, &lt;a target="_blank" href="Store-Subscribe.page"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the winter 2010/11 issue!]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;Crooked Still: &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.crookedstill.com"&gt;www.crookedstill.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;Tristan&amp;rsquo;s other band, the Bee Eaters: &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://beeeaters.com"&gt;http://beeeaters.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;

mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;[Jack Tuttle is the music editor of Fiddler Magazine and the author of twelve instruction books. He teaches bluegrass banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and guitar and old time and Celtic fiddle in Palo Alto, California. Please see his website at &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.jacktuttle.com "&gt;www.jacktuttle.com&lt;/a&gt; for more information.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=56569</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.7144Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Crooked Still's Brittany Haas and Tristan Clarridge</title>

    </item>

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&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;When it comes to fiddling, Mark O&amp;rsquo;Connor has pretty much done it all. He studied Texas style with Benny Thomasson, played swing with St&amp;eacute;phane Grappelli and performed his own classical compositions with Yo-Yo Ma. His Nashville studio work and fiddle camps have done much to revive the popularity of the fiddle in contemporary American music. Last November, Mark achieved yet another milestone, the publication of the first of his string method books designed to create an &amp;ldquo;American school of violin playing.&amp;rdquo; With the aim of teaching violin technique through a solely American repertoire, Volume I starts off with variations on &amp;ldquo;Boil &amp;rsquo;em Cabbage Down&amp;rdquo; and progresses through &amp;ldquo;Soldier&amp;rsquo;s Joy,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Bonaparte&amp;rsquo;s Retreat,&amp;rdquo; and a number of Mark&amp;rsquo;s own compositions. Mark envisions a ten-volume series which exposes the rich cultural legacy of American string music in a graded progression suitable for teaching violin, viola, and cello.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

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&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Last December, as part of the kick-off for the new American Roots Music Program at Boston&amp;rsquo;s Berklee College of Music, Mark joined Berklee students for a performance of folk, jazz, and classical music that spanned the spectrum from &amp;ldquo;Tennessee Blues&amp;rdquo; to Mark&amp;rsquo;s Double Violin Concerto. We did this interview the next day as he was resting up prior to a teacher-training workshop for his new violin method.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

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&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt; &lt;img width="300" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="230" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/997531.jpg" alt="" /&gt; &lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;I&amp;rsquo;d like to talk about your &amp;ldquo;New American School of String Playing&amp;rdquo; and relate it to how you learned to play, how you took your own experiences and translated them into your method. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:

120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Well, I had a pretty expansive training regimen in music when I was a kid. Guitar was my first instrument and classical music was the first musical style that I studied. I did that for about seven years and the last two of those years, I added flamenco. So I started to bring in a folk music, world music aspect to my studies. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

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&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;How old were you when you started?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

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&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;I was five. I began in classical guitar right away. So I learned how to read music and then later learned some flamenco by ear. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Were your parents musicians? Is that how you got interested?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;They were dancers, ballroom dancers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;So how did you get interested in classical music at the age of five?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;I didn&amp;rsquo;t get interested on my own. It was something that my mother wanted me to do. I would say I was barely an above-average student for a while; I ended up developing much more around the age of nine or ten. Then I won a couple of classical guitar competitions. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

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&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;This all happened before I even got a violin in my hands. Around that same time period I did see some fiddlers and violinists play on television. On PBS. Thank goodness for PBS back then! In Seattle at least, that was our window into a broader world of music. I grew up in Seattle so I was a bit isolated from a lot of the southern and regional fiddle music styles that I would later become proficient in. One of the first fiddlers I saw on television was Doug Kershaw, the Cajun player. I was really moved by his performance &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; he seemed like he was having such a good time playing and put so much energy into his performance. Then my mother started getting into the cultural aspect behind a lot of this music, a lot of these styles, and she became very interested in the plight of the Cajuns, for instance, how they came from Acadia and that there were pockets in this country that still spoke mainly French and so forth. All these early insights and experiences from the culture and context of the music that I discovered while learning to play are really part of me today. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;So what happened after you saw fiddling on TV? Did you convince your parents to get you a fiddle?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;For three years, I begged them for a fiddle. They thought I was a little bit fickle and wasn&amp;rsquo;t completely serious about my request. And it wasn&amp;rsquo;t until I was trying to construct one out of cardboard around age ten, attempting to put my old set of guitar strings on it, that convinced my mother. It folded up on me and I ended up crying about it. So I finally got one at eleven. My very first lessons were with Barbara Lamb. She was a player that had classical background and also played some bluegrass and old time fiddling. She got me started on my technique and sound production right away and made sure that my posture was good. Many of the tunes in the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;O&amp;rsquo;Connor Method Book I&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; as well as the sequence of them came from my lessons with Barbara. She was a great teacher for me, and believe it or not, she was just fourteen at the time. After about seven or eight months, my second teacher was John Burke and he started working with me in the realm of creativity and improvisation. My experience learning from John is one of the reasons that there is a creative component to the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;O&amp;rsquo;Connor Method &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;right from the start. And within a year practically, I was taking lessons from Benny Thomasson. Those were extraordinary times. I was his student for about three years, until I was fourteen. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Was he giving regular violin lessons at a scheduled time every week?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;For me, because he lived a little over two hours from my home in Seattle, I had a special situation developing with him where my mother would drive me down to his house and my lesson would literally last an entire weekend. These excursions took place every other weekend. So I would learn from him hours and hours a day on a Saturday and half of Sunday, then come back home in order to go to school the next day. And we kept up that schedule more or less for a good three years.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

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&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt; &lt;img width="300" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="234" border="0" align="right" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/997532.jpg" alt="" /&gt; &lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Had you already been playing contests at that point and that&amp;rsquo;s how you got involved with Benny?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;I&amp;rsquo;d only entered one. I literally met Benny at my very first contest I went to at Weiser [Idaho]. I was still very much a beginner but he did notice in me, like you said, some kind of potential even though I was not developed at all at that point. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Was that the first time you heard Texas fiddling played or had you been familiar with it before then?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;No, that was it. It was Benny Thomasson at Weiser, but not in the competition. It was jamming in the campground that I heard him. That would be 1973. The idea of him teaching me did not come up until I believe it was a week later at a smaller regional contest in Oregon. That was the occasion I remember like it was yesterday. I was warming up in the hallway to compete in the little junior division. I knew very few tunes and I was just doing this for the experience, really. There were not many fiddlers our age at that point in the Northwest &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; there were literally only a handful. It was the same three or four kids who entered all those contests for at least a couple of years. And a couple of them were Benny Thomasson&amp;rsquo;s students. So I developed a little community, created friendships, and it was nice for me because it was a little isolated, like I said. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

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&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;How did Benny prepare you so that in one year you actually could win a contest?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t think Benny really prepared me for contests as the central vision of my lessons. I learned about 250 tunes from him, averaging about four or five tunes per weekend. Of the 250 tunes I learned from Benny, I probably played only about fifty of them in contests. And I would say that easily seventy-five percent of those fifty tunes were my renditions, my own variations&amp;hellip; I would say that our teacher/student relationship had to do much more with me developing repertoire, creating fiddle tune variations, arranging, creativity, and perhaps some technique, too, mainly bowing &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; one of the greatest bowers to ever live, Benny. He basically challenged me to be my own deal. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;I remember when I asked him when I was twelve, &amp;ldquo;How do you get your own style, Benny?&amp;rdquo; He said, &amp;ldquo;Why Mark, you don&amp;rsquo;t sound like nobody else I have ever heard, and that means you have your own style.&amp;rdquo; And honestly, he couldn&amp;rsquo;t have cared less if I ever won a contest. He was not about that, at that time. He was a world champion and fifteen-time Texas State champion back in the 1940s but that seemed so long ago, it did not come up, really. He did attend many of the contests, though, and entered, but it almost seemed more symbolic for some reason. I always got the distinct impression, since he lost so many of them, that it was the socializing, friendships, jamming, and fiddle trading that attracted him the most to that environment. Everyone looked forward to the jamming way more than the contest itself, that was a no-brainer. You know, I believe he lost the vast majority of the contests I saw him enter. He would even lose the senior divisions. Wrongly of course, I might add, because in my book he was always the best. I lost three out of four myself, you know. Lots of people only remember my wins, which is very nice, of course, but I had to learn to lose seventy-five percent of the time. It was a humbling experience, and it made you appreciate the other more wonderful things that happened at these events besides the competition part. It was more important for me to be in a learning environment that these contests provided after hours &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; some wicked jam sessions, really some of the best jamming I had ever been in, and of course, picking up tunes and new variation ideas.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve always wondered about Texas-style fiddling &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; was that something that developed specifically for these competitions?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;First and foremost, Texas fiddling is that state&amp;rsquo;s regional musical culture complete with the indigenous strains of Hispanic music, along with the Bob Wills sound of a new hillbilly swing that took Texas by storm in the 1930s and 1940s on the level that Glenn Miller and the big bands did with the rest of the country&amp;hellip; Texas fiddling had its own culture. &amp;ldquo;Cotton Eyed Joe&amp;rdquo; is Texas fiddling. Two steps&amp;hellip;the Texas dance halls, &amp;ldquo;San Antonio Rose,&amp;rdquo; waltzes inspired by the rancheros, walking bass lines and moving guitar chord progressions with a different chord on each beat. All of these things represent Texas&amp;rsquo; own folk music culture. Just like Kentucky has bluegrass and Louisiana has Cajun fiddling. Texas fiddling made for some great dance band playing and great jam sessions, I have to tell you. Just amazing jams. There was real character in those jams back in the &amp;rsquo;70s, and the personal styles and variation display was just riveting at times. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;But to your question, I would say that many times both Benny and I would in fact lose the contest because we played Texas style, and frankly that style was frowned on in many regions of the country, including the Northwest where we both lived in the 1970s. I would say in the great majority of the contests I entered, I would have been better off either playing old time, bluegrass, or Canadian fiddling in order to win fiddle contests when I was a kid. You have to remember that Texas fiddling did not become popular for contests until I eventually won every contest at least once around the country playing in the Texas style by the time I was twenty &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I sort of proved it could be done, I suppose.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

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&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Texas-style fiddle hoedowns, largely developed in the 1930s by Benny Thomasson, was one of the first styles of fiddling not specifically designed to accompany dancers. So in effect the Texas- style hoedown is performance music &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; music that you should sit down and appreciate rather than get up and clog, buck dance, or two-step to, if you will. You could also make a case that bluegrass music was also designed for performance and not to specifically accompany a dance. That music was also invented in the 1930s and 1940s. Bluegrass fiddling has always been a little more showboat and improvisatorial, and Texas fiddling is more about the craft of the variation, careful melodic development. The expertise behind playing this Texas style does not translate well to broader audiences and has been mainly relegated to devoted aficionados. Benny basically expanded the form of a traditional music in a way that seemed to appeal to me and perhaps my mother&amp;rsquo;s classical aesthetic. When you&amp;rsquo;re raised listening to classical music on the phonograph till age ten, and that was constantly the only thing you heard, your ear probably starts gravitating to longer forms and more development. And it seemed to us that Benny Thomasson was this genius creative fiddler that worked on these fiddle tune variations so masterfully. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;And so the idea of variations came very early to him. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Right. Very early, he told me, at age nineteen. And I think that&amp;rsquo;s what inspired and motivated him. The theme and variations concept of Texas fiddling really is a very nice interesting musical bridge to other styles of music &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; jazz and classical, for instance. So it was a legitimate development of the folk material that Benny was involved in. His father and grandfather played fiddle music and he learned from them and so now we&amp;rsquo;re talking about a lineage that goes back to the mid-1800s just in a couple of generations of Thomassons. It did not escape my mother that I was getting to be mentored by a legend, connected to a legendary fiddling legacy. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

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&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;When he was teaching you how to create variations, what kinds of advice did he give you? How did he guide you?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:

120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;I remember this mental struggle that I would pose for my teacher Benny in that I basically just wanted to emulate him. I wasn&amp;rsquo;t that precocious that I would show up and go, &amp;ldquo;Hey Mr. Thomasson, check this out!&amp;rdquo; I wasn&amp;rsquo;t that kind of person. I was actually pretty shy. I realized that I was sitting right across from musical greatness. As a matter of fact, I wanted to be like him so much at some point that I started to walk like him with a little bit of a bend in my back. He had a bad back. But it was that mentor-pupil relationship where I kind of idolized him. So we had a bit of a mental struggle there because he saw in me, maybe just a little like himself, a unique voice that was bubbling inside and just kind of waiting to come up. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial; "&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial; "&gt;[For much more of this interview &amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;discussion of Mark&amp;rsquo;s new method books, more on Mark&amp;rsquo;s contest years and the history of American fiddling, the Nashville scene, his current work and more, &lt;a target="_blank" href="Store-Subscribe.page"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Fall 2010 issue.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;For information on Mark&amp;rsquo;s new Method Books, his fiddle camps, recordings, schedule, and more, please visit &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.markoconnor.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;www.markoconnor.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;em&gt;[Peter Anick, author of Mel Bay&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;Old Time Fiddling Across America,&amp;rdquo; teaches fiddle and mandolin and performs with the Massachusetts bluegrass band Wide Open Spaces (&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.wideospaces.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;www.wideospaces.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;em&gt;).]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

Photos:&lt;br /&gt;

Top: Mark by Deanna Rose&lt;br /&gt;

Bottom: Benny Thomasson and Mark at the 1975 Grand Masters Championship, courtesy Mark O'Connor&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt; &lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;   &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=53719</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Mark O'Connor: On Learning, Playing, and Teaching Strings, American-style</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Maybe it is overreaching to talk about a &amp;ldquo;jug band&amp;rdquo; catching lightning in a bottle.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;For the Carolina Chocolate Drops (CCD), there seems to be no other way to put it. Since the release of their debut album, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:

Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Dona Got a Ramblin&amp;rsquo; Mind,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; just over two years ago, the band has toured continuously, signed with a major record label, and been part of a major Hollywood movie.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="300" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="209" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/997535.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;The Carolina Chocolate Drops are a hard group to describe, and that may be part of their appeal. They first came onto the scene as a band whose music appealed to bluegrass, old time, string,&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;and Americana fans. The young African-American trio of Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson have a core sound that is drawn from the black string band music popular in the Piedmont (central) region of North Carolina nearly a century ago, but they draw on elements of other types of music as well as their individual backgrounds to create a style all their own.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Jug band&amp;rdquo; would seem to pigeonhole the group, as would &amp;ldquo;old time string band,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;folk,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;roots,&amp;rdquo; or any other tag you&amp;rsquo;d try to slap on them.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;ldquo;The string band stuff has always been there for us, and we&amp;rsquo;ve been hoping to add jug band stuff,&amp;rdquo; said Dom Flemons (guitar, banjo, harmonica, jug, snare, voice). &amp;ldquo;People call us a jug band because we use jugs, but that is a specific style. But in terms of material, we&amp;rsquo;ve expanded the landscape of our sound. And, we&amp;rsquo;ve gotten better after a couple of thousand shows.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Their latest album, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;Genuine Negro Jig,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; is their first on the Nonesuch label and is moving on the charts (#4 on the bluegrass chart at the time of this story). Cuts such as &amp;ldquo;Cornbread and Butterbeans,&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;Hit &amp;rsquo;Em Up Style&amp;rdquo; have proven to be favorites.&lt;span style="mso-spacerun: yes"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;ldquo;This album is pretty different,&amp;rdquo; Robinson (fiddle, banjo, vocals) said. &amp;ldquo;We took a few more risks this time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;Dona Got&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:

120%;font-family:Arial"&gt; was straight up string band; this one is more representative of us as musicians, more of who we are right now.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Robinson, the group&amp;rsquo;s main fiddler, was influenced by his mother, a classically trained cellist and opera singer; his sister, a classical pianist; and his grandfather, who played harmonica. Just twenty-seven, he is just now getting into the classical sound himself.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;ve been playing a lot more classical stuff, which for me is a very good change. I wanted to do something different, and I like the structure, and the structured way of learning with the classics,&amp;rdquo; Robinson said. &amp;ldquo;No sound is less than a 10. The technical skills you develop are immeasurable. I think my fiddling has matured and gotten better.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;The group has only been together five years, first meeting at an event called the Black Banjo Gathering, held on the campus of Appalachian State University, in the mountains of North Carolina. An online group had put the meeting/workshop/jam together to bring awareness to the African roots of the banjo.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Flemons, originally from Arizona, attended with educator and musician Sule Greg Wilson. Giddens, who hails from the Piedmont region of North Carolina, and Robinson, who grew up on the far western edge of that region, also attended. All four of them had made the trip &amp;mdash; unknown to each other &amp;mdash; to meet Joe Thompson, an old time fiddler. At ninety-one, Thompson is widely believed to be the last of the old time black string band musicians.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Shortly after the meeting, Flemons, Wilson, and Giddens formed a band called Sankofa Strings in Arizona. By the end of the year, Flemons was ready to move to North Carolina, where Giddens and Robinson had hooked up with Thompson, and pretty soon the musicians were gathering on Thursday nights to play old tunes. In 2006, the current configuration of the Carolina Chocolate Drops was formed, with Wilson and Thompson joining the band&amp;rsquo;s shows from time to time. The inspiration for the name of the band came from an African-American string band headed by Howard Armstrong in the 1930s known as the Tennessee Chocolate Drops.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;In early 2007, the American Folk Alliance awarded the band &amp;ldquo;Emerging Artist of the Year,&amp;rdquo; but they got their biggest national exposure in a Denzel Washington movie. They appear in the opening moments of &amp;ldquo;The Great Debaters,&amp;rdquo; a critically acclaimed film, and were part of the soundtrack.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;They&amp;rsquo;ve since played a range of venues, from a trio of appearances on The Grand Ole Opry, to a half-dozen trips to Europe, to making the rounds on National Public Radio.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Giddens (banjo, fiddle, vocals) graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studied classical voice. She also is an avid Celtic music fan and contra dancer, which helped spark her interest in clawhammer banjo. Flemons got into folk music, and worked his way backwards from Bob Dylan to Hank Williams to Jimmie Rodgers and beyond. Robinson was into classical, rock, country, hip hop, Latin, bluegrass, and jazz.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Part of why we are so different [as a group] is because we&amp;rsquo;ve had so many different influences, and it all finds its way out,&amp;rdquo; Robinson said. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Giddens added that has also allowed the CCD to play a variety of venues. &amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;re starting to really diversify our audiences, playing some rock clubs, arts centers, festivals, educational shows,&amp;rdquo; she said. &amp;ldquo;There is a broad cross-section of ages and types of people&amp;hellip; from bluegrass to the House of Blues in New Orleans.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="239" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="198" border="0" align="right" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/997533.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;The binding at the crux of the immense raw talent that is the Carolina Chocolate Drops is unmistakably Joe Thompson. His proteges hold him in high esteem, even though their demanding and far-flung schedules prevent the aging fiddler from joining them on very many dates. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Thompson grew up playing barn dances, &amp;ldquo;frolics,&amp;rdquo; corn shuckings, and later, venues all over the country, including Carnegie Hall. He has a short bowing style and a vast collection of tunes, many of which were collected playing on his porch with field hands when he was growing up. He played with the Thompson Family, a string band that included his brother and cousin, who have since passed away. Thompson can still work a bow, and on any given night, musicians gather at his house to play a little music and pick up what they can from the old master. With his hey-day coming from an era in history that few people are left to remember, his experiences can at times seem surreal&amp;hellip;. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Thompson may not get out much, but he still inspires the Carolina Chocolate Drops. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;ldquo;My playing will always have Joe&amp;rsquo;s influence,&amp;rdquo; Robinson said. &amp;ldquo;I don&amp;rsquo;t play with him as regularly, or as much, but he will always have an influence on my playing, in both style and rhythm. He&amp;rsquo;s taught us to play as an ensemble. That is one of the most important things to learn &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; to learn to play in the context of playing with other people.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;Giddens added, &amp;ldquo;It comes down to a &amp;lsquo;What would Joe do?&amp;rsquo; He gets us back to basics, even when he&amp;rsquo;s not around. He&amp;rsquo;s such a special person, and his music is special.&amp;rdquo;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;[For the full text of this article, as well as the tune &amp;ldquo;Snowden&amp;rsquo;s Jig&amp;rdquo; (&amp;ldquo;Genuine Negro Jig&amp;rdquo;) as arranged by the Carolina Chocolate Drops, &lt;a target="_blank" href="Store-Subscribe.page"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Fall 2010 issue.]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;For more information on the band, their recordings, and their busy touring schedule, please visit &lt;a href="http://www.carolinachocolatedrops.com" target="_blank"&gt;www.carolinachocolatedrops.com.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify;mso-hyphenate:none;

tab-stops:28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;[Michael Brantley is a photographer, writer, and &amp;ldquo;wannabe&amp;rdquo; banjoist and fiddler. Despite living in North Carolina, where you can throw a shoe in any direction and hit a picker &amp;mdash; and many people do &amp;mdash; the learning curve has been steep. He can be reached at mike@brantleystudio.com.]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;span style="mso-tab-count:1"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=53718</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Carolina Chocolate Drops: Steeped in the Tradition of Old Time Fiddlin'</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;Marlene &amp;ldquo;Cookie&amp;rdquo; Segelstein was a long time fixture in the viola sections of Connecticut orchestras. About fifteen years ago she shifted gears and began to seriously study klezmer and related Jewish music styles. She and her band, Veretski Pass, are about to move from Southern New England to the San Francisco area, so I decided to interview her before she left town. We talked about the meaning of klezmer music, its history and violin style, and ranged from her music projects to how her experience as both an orchestral and klezmer band player has affected her view of violin pedagogy. Josh Horowitz (JH), cimbalom and accordion player in Veretski Pass sometimes joined in. Comments enclosed by { } are explanatory comments by Stacy Phillips.&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;    &lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Stacy Phillips (SP): Is klezmer becoming more influenced by classical-style violin?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="300" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="201" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/997529.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Cookie Segelstein (CS):&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; Yes and no, because of different backgrounds of the players.&amp;nbsp; Jewish sensibility has been more towards the polished than the other folk styles in the area [of East Europe]. If it was a family of musicians and they could afford it, they would send the child for lessons. So there always was an art music sensibility to Jewish music as far back as we can go, the late 1800s. The good bands were pros, often mixed Jews and Gypsies, and were able to play Jewish style, Gypsy style, Ukranian, Polish, etc., as the gig required.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;I think that the Jewish style was less flashy, more internal, more about sound and emotional quality. If the music was played too fast at a ritual the people might say the band was &amp;ldquo;playing like Gypsies&amp;rdquo;; not surprising, as the bands were often mixed Jewish and Rom musicians.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;There was a folk quality but the people I grew up with {in Kansas City, MO}, refugees and Holocaust survivors from that area of Eastern Europe, liked the polished quality.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;My father liked the fiddler in his home town because he could also play Ukrainian and Hungarian tunes and a waltz, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;czardas&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; as well as classical pieces. This was in Nizhniye Veretski at the base of Veretski Pass of the Carpathian Mountains. That pass, an important route for the Austro-Hungarian peoples, is now part of northwest Ukraine, near Poland and Hungary. There was a mix of Ukrainians, Poles, Hungarians, Germans, Russian, Hutzuls, Ruthenians, and Gypsies.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:

Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: That&amp;rsquo;s the mix of music, too.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:

Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;In our band, Veretski Pass, we relish the many styles of all of those ethnicities, and use their styles and melodies in a mix with our own.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;There were folk musicians in the town bands along with others with some formal music education &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; usually that would be the lead fiddler. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;SP: The fiddlers who were recorded were probably the ones with training, which skews the evidence some. What are your sources for information about the old styles?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve had a lot of sources and I believe all and none. You never know. I interviewed my father and uncle, other family branches. Also researchers like Joshua Horowitz, Henry Sapoznik, Zev Feldman, and Joel Rubin and started piecing things together. The old klezmer violin recordings I&amp;rsquo;ve heard, I don&amp;rsquo;t think are solely representative.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: Was there a disconnect in the klezmer violin tradition because of the Holocaust in East Europe and we&amp;rsquo;re trying to piece it together again?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; Absolutely. The connection to the Old Country was too painful after that. There was such a desire to assimilate [in America].&amp;nbsp; Some of the old klezmer musicians were hired for ritual functions as would a plumber be, but were not recognized as artists. My parents had a small collection of Jewish music and a Ukrainian record. Mostly they listened to Connie Francis and Frank Sinatra.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;In Europe, Jewish music stopped for about sixty years. Many of the styles are just gone. We were cut off from sources by World War II. Even before that it was not considered a good profession.&amp;nbsp; If a child wanted to study violin they would be sent to a teacher, not to apprentice with klezmorim, unless it was a family of hereditary klezmorim. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: Describe something about klezmer violin to a fiddler who might know nothing about the style.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; There&amp;rsquo;s a deeper relationship between bow and string, meaning more bow pressure than, for instance, traditional American styles, or even some Gypsy playing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;When I teach klezmer violin I have exercises for varying the pressure to elicit vocal kinds of sound. You are facilitating dance but you are also imitating a voice. I am a tone-aholic.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: Let&amp;rsquo;s talk about your path to becoming a klezmer fiddler.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:

Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; I was handed a violin when I was five and forced to play for my parents&amp;rsquo; friends who were Holocaust survivors. I took lessons from the son of another survivor, a family friend. I didn&amp;rsquo;t want to play. I couldn&amp;rsquo;t do what I wanted when there was company.&amp;nbsp; They would sing me a tune {from their Old Country home} that I would have to learn by ear. I&amp;rsquo;d play it and they would cry. It was horrible for me. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Meanwhile I was faking reading music in the school orchestra. I was an ear player in a music reader&amp;rsquo;s world. I switched to viola in high school and my teacher busted me when I was seventeen. I played a piece that had a mistake in the notation and I had learned it from a recording and wasn&amp;rsquo;t playing the mistake. Then he really trained me.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: At some point you must have started to like it because you wound up majoring in it in college.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; I loved the sound of the viola and playing harmony. I liked playing, but not for my parents and friends. But there was some kind of effect because when I was an undergraduate in Kansas City, I got involved with a band that played for international folk dances &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; Balkan, Romanian, Serbian, Russian, Greek &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; about twelve people in the band, a reading band. That was fun for me.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Because I could play by ear I also did strolling violin gigs with my teacher. I would watch his fingers and play what he did a split second later, playing the Great American Song Book repertoire.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Then I got a master&amp;rsquo;s degree in viola from Yale and joined the New Haven Symphony [assistant principal] and Orchestra New England [principal], married, and had kids. I felt a responsibility to teach my children about the family history.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;I decided to learn more about Jewish music. I didn&amp;rsquo;t put two and two together and thought that klezmer was different from what I grew up with. I went to KlezKamp {a long-running camp that teaches Jewish music both instrumental and vocal and where Cookie went from being a student to being an instructor}. When I took what I learned to my father, he didn&amp;rsquo;t recognize the style, which tells me that it&amp;rsquo;s all regional, as well as recreated.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;At KlezKamp, for the first time, I experienced a community of klezmer music. That was the big experience for me. That&amp;rsquo;s besides learning how to play the music. I used to be embarrassed by my family&amp;rsquo;s circle of friends. Now I could treasure what I got from them.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: Is Veretski Pass the first band you&amp;rsquo;ve been in that is centered on your playing?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Actually, it&amp;rsquo;s really a meeting of the minds, as it&amp;rsquo;s a democratic band. We all share a musical sensibility, and trust each other 100%. If any of us has an idea, we all try it, and decide together if we think it works.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;We&amp;rsquo;ve just finished our new project,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; The Klezmer Shul. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;We got a grant to write an instrumental synagogue service with no text, to avoid any divisive elements. We recorded a live performance and we&amp;rsquo;re probably going to release that.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;JH:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; It was an inspired performance, taking a lot of chances and some flaws.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: Talk about the Veretski Pass band.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:

Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;We are mostly a concert group but love teaching and playing for dancing. We&amp;rsquo;ve done university residencies, European tours, mostly Germany, Poland, Austria, and Switzerland.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: What&amp;rsquo;s it like to play Jewish music in that part of the world?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;My mother spent her teenage years in Auschwitz. The first time I was in Germany, I didn&amp;rsquo;t know what to expect. I met people I really liked. There were moments of &amp;ldquo;Get me out of here!&amp;rdquo; Then there were lovely people at our workshops. But you can still buy a good luck charm of a Jew holding a coin in Krakow.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: Any general advice to fiddlers who want to learn klezmer?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:

Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; I would recommend listening to native speakers of Yiddish. There are certain tonal gestures that will inform someone learning the music.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: Like learning Gaelic to be a better Irish-style fiddler.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;Exactly. There are certain fall-offs in the Yiddish language. You have to look for vocal and instrumental recordings. It&amp;rsquo;s like an accent. If you have a good ear, your ear will inform your hands what to do. Timing things like how to phrase consecutive eighth notes and whether three notes are an even triplet or two sixteenths and an eighth.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;SP: There are many non-Jewish klezmer bands in Europe. How are they?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;CS:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt; You don&amp;rsquo;t have to be Jewish to play the music. They are very good. There is some virtuosic playing. Jewish music is going down the same road as Celtic and bluegrass.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;[For the full text of this interview, &lt;a target="_blank" href="Store-Subscribe.page"&gt;purchase&lt;/a&gt; the Fall 2010 issue. Part two will appear in the Winter 2010/11 issue, along with transcriptions of the klezmer tunes &amp;ldquo;Tshernovitser Sher&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;Linejumper Hora.&amp;rdquo;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Arial; "&gt;For more information, please visit &lt;a href="http://www.veretskipass.com" target="_blank"&gt;www.veretskipass.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial; "&gt;[Stacy Phillips is an internationally known fiddler and Grammy award- winning Dobro player. He has performed with Mark O&amp;rsquo;Connor, Eileen Ivers, Peter Rowan, Bela Fleck, David Bromberg, and many others. On fiddle, he specializes in old time, bluegrass, and klezmer styles. He is completely self-taught on his instruments. Phillips has recorded three solo albums and has published over 25 books and DVDs. He edits the on- line magazine &amp;ldquo;Fiddle Sessions&amp;rdquo; (www.fiddlesessions.com/). For more on Stacy&amp;rsquo;s performances and books please visit &lt;a href="http://www.stacyphillips.com" target="_blank"&gt;www.stacyphillips.com.&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;

mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=53717</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Klezmer Fiddler Cookie Segelstein: New Stylings from the Old Country, Part One</title>

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    <item>

      <description>&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;Seamus McGuire, originally from County Sligo, enjoys a dual career: medical doctor specializing in pediatrics and professional musician. Born into a very musical family, his parents played music, as do his sisters and his brother Manus (by the way, also a doctor). Seamus now lives on the shores of Lough Swilly in County Donegal with his wife Una. Their sons Patrick and Neil are following in the McGuire family tradition &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; both are medical students and both play the fiddle!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;From the beginning, Seamus managed to bridge the classical and traditional worlds &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; winning prestigious fiddle contests (Fiddler of Dooney, The Oireachtas) and playing with the Dublin Symphony Orchestra. A bit later, the influential group Buttons and Bows featured Seamus, his brother Manus, Jackie Daly, and&amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Garry O&amp;rsquo;Briain. His highly-acclaimed solo album &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;The Wishing Tree&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt; melds classical with traditional, as does his ongoing work with the West Ocean String Quartet, who have just released their third CD,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt; Ae Fond Kiss.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="325" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="260" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/936580.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;I was delighted to be able to talk to Seamus about his background and influences, as well as his current work.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;You and your brother Manus are from Sligo, right? So you began your playing there?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Yes, we did, starting at the early age of six or seven. Our parents, Paddy and Jo, loved music and both played &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; our mom was a fine violin player and our dad played piano. They shared a particular love of Irish traditional music, and encouraged us to play from a very early age. I think we were very fortunate to grow up in the kind of musical environment in which classical music was encouraged as well as Irish music, and that gave us a broadly based interest in music of different kinds. Yehudi Menuhin was on our family record player as often as Michael Coleman and James Morrison!&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;One of the interesting things that happened in our house as we grew up was the arrival of musical friends of our parents, including some from the United States. Among our visitors was the celebrated New York-based fiddler, Lad O&amp;rsquo;Beirne, whose younger brother, Dick O&amp;rsquo;Beirne, was an English teacher in Sligo Grammar School and a good friend of my parents. Lad was a very influential fiddle player in New York as a younger man, and his dad, Phil O&amp;rsquo;Beirne, taught Michael Coleman how to play. Lad would visit our home in Sligo, bring his fiddle, play great tunes for us kids, and send us recordings of sessions from New York. Looking back on it now, that was a really inspiring start to our traditional music education!&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;I also met Paddy Killoran, another great US-based Irish fiddle player, at a Fleadh Ceoil in Mayo when I was a small boy&amp;hellip; So we had a very interesting time when we were kids, meeting other musicians and hearing lots of different types of music, and playing in competitions such as the Fleadh Ceoil and the Sligo Feis Ceoil, one traditional, the other classical.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;My sisters studied piano and the Irish harp, and Manus and I concentrated on the fiddle. One of my sisters, Fiona, played piano along with John Lee and myself on our album &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;The Missing Reel, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;which is an exploration of music from Leitrim and Sligo. So to get back to your question, I had a very musical family with lots of support and encouragement from the beginning &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; a great start to my life in music.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Sadly our dad, Paddy, died in June 2009, but his musical legacy lives on through his family &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; most of his grandchildren are fine young musicians, something which made him very proud.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;To take my own musical story a step further, I had to make a big decision when I reached the age of seventeen &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I had to decide which career I was going to pursue and I was quite interested in music as a career. But I also enjoyed science in school and had an interest in studying medicine. My parents encouraged me, I think, in the direction of medicine rather than music. Initially I was undecided and I brought my fiddle over to college in Galway and played a bit, but I decided to concentrate on medicine as my career, and I&amp;rsquo;ve absolutely no regrets. I&amp;rsquo;ve had a very rewarding and interesting life in pediatrics, and I feel privileged to have had this most interesting career. I managed to keep my music going as well, which is something that some people find a little bit unusual &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; but it can be done with a lot of careful planning and time management, and I don&amp;rsquo;t play golf [laughter], which is the standard answer I give when people ask me (which they often do) where I find time for music and medicine &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; I don&amp;rsquo;t play golf, unlike many of my medical colleagues!&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;My brother Manus is a doctor, too &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; he&amp;rsquo;s a GP, a family physician, in East Clare &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; in a place called Scarriff on the shores of Lough Derg &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; where there&amp;rsquo;s a deep-rooted interest in traditional music. And I live in Donegal, in the northwest of Ireland, where traditional music is also very prominent &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; we&amp;rsquo;ve got well-known groups such as Altan and Clannad, and many other well-known musicians such as Tommy Peoples and Dermot Byrne have also come from this part of the world.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;I read that you did an internship in Canada?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;I did my residency training in pediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, a famous medical institution with a world-wide reputation, an inspiring place to work and study. A life-&lt;span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt"&gt;changing experience which I still feel so lucky to have completed&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Did that get you learning different styles of tunes?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;It was really amazing how it worked out. I went to Toronto as a young medical graduate to do my post-graduate residency in pediatrics, and purely by good fortune, I arrived in a place which introduced me to the world of non-Irish fiddle music! At Canadian folk festivals I had an opportunity to meet fiddle players from Cape Breton, the Ottawa Valley, Scandinavia, and the United States &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; in fact, I played briefly in a band called Hang the Piper with Ian Robb, a well-known Ottawa-based folk singer. We played at a few festivals in North America &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; including the Philadelphia Folk Festival one year&amp;hellip; and we performed at a very beautiful festival called Mariposa, held every summer on the magical Toronto islands. There I had the opportunity to meet Tom Anderson, the great Shetland fiddle player who was an iconic figure in Shetland and Scottish fiddling. I was really glad to have had a chance to meet him at Mariposa, and again some years later at a fiddle festival in Shetland. My brother Manus came to Canada when I was there, during his vacation from medical school &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; he played the fiddle for the whole summer, and made some good friends in the music world in Toronto at that time.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;That was the period in 1980 when we recorded our first fiddle duet album, for a label called Folk Legacy, based in Sharon, Connecticut, under the kindly guidance of Sandy Paton, a great supporter of our music. The album was titled &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;The Humours of Lissadell&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%"&gt; after a reel of the same name. Lissadell is a beautiful coastal place in County Sligo made famous by W.B. Yeats. He wrote some of his most beautiful poems about Lissadell House and the Gore-Booth family who lived there.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;A short while later I met the great box-player, Jackie Daly, in Toronto. He was over there on tour with De Dannan and we played at a memorable session in downtown Toronto one evening. That was the start of the next chapter &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; because a few years later, in 1983 back in Ireland, Manus and I and Jackie Daly formed a band with Garry O&amp;rsquo;Briain, the mandocello and guitar player. We called the band Buttons and Bows. We recorded two albums with Green Linnet and one with Gael Linn. The interesting thing for Manus and me was that we were able to bring back to Ireland a lot of the music which we had learned in Canada from such far-flung places as Sweden and Shetland.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt"&gt;Manus and I and Jackie recorded Canadian waltzes, which had never really been played very much in Ireland before. And this was a new, exciting time because we brought music from Canada, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Shetland, which we had learned in Toronto, back to Ireland, where some of the tunes may have originated&amp;hellip;you could say the circle was completed!&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&amp;hellip;.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;[For the rest of this interview, along with Seamus&amp;rsquo; transcription of &amp;ldquo;Esther&amp;rsquo;s Reel&amp;rdquo; (played on the West Ocean String Quartet&amp;rsquo;s new CD, &lt;i style="mso-bidi-font-style:

normal"&gt;Ae Fond Kiss,&lt;/i&gt; as well as on Buttons and Bows&amp;rsquo; first album, entitled &lt;i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"&gt;Buttons and Bows&lt;/i&gt;), &lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page"&gt;purchase the summer 2010 issue&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style="text-align:justify" class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%"&gt;[The West Ocean String Quartet&amp;rsquo;s new CD, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;Ae Fond Kiss, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%"&gt;with special guest Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill, has just been released. For more information, please visit their website at &lt;a href="http://www.wosq.com" target="_blank"&gt;www.wosq.com&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;[Tim McCarrick works as a music editor for J.W. Pepper. He has written about fiddle playing for Fiddler Magazine and Mel Bay&amp;rsquo;s Fiddle Sessions website. He has nearly 20 arrangements published for school orchestras from Mozart and Beethoven to Gershwin and Led Zeppelin, and he is also working on a string method book, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why he never updates the Irish Fiddle website! He lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania, with one wife, two daughters, two dogs, and lots of stringed instruments.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;em&gt;  &lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;   Photo above by Shane McCarthy. West Ocean String Quartet, left to right: Seamus McGuire, Niamh Crowley, Ken Rice, Neil Martin.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=49744</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Seamus McGuire: An Ocean of Music</title>

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      <description>&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;It was past four in the morning when the man with the white hair and the black vest walked into the campsite at the Galax Old Fiddlers&amp;rsquo; Convention. A band of twenty-somethings were already there, charging through a romping version of some old time tune or other. When they were done, the fiddler nodded toward the fiddle case the man in the straw hat had brought with him.&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt; &lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;&amp;ldquo;Can you play that thing, old man?&amp;rdquo; the fiddler asked.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;&amp;ldquo;I might be able to get a little something out of it,&amp;rdquo; he answered.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;Saying that his hands were a little stiff, and that he didn&amp;rsquo;t know how well he&amp;rsquo;d be able to do this late at night, the newcomer took a while to get his fiddle out and rosin his bow. When he finally started fiddling, you could almost hear the jaws around the campsite dropping.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;Buddy Pendleton has that effect on people.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt; &lt;img width="225" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="338" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/936567.jpg" alt="" /&gt; &lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;Buddy was a mailman in Patrick County, Virginia, for just over forty years. His previous job was fiddling for Bill Monroe&amp;rsquo;s Bluegrass Boys. Before that, he played and recorded with the Greenbriar Boys and performed with Joan Baez. After Buddy became a mailman, he won the title of World Champion Fiddler at Union Grove contest five consecutive years. And his fluid, powerful playing still takes people by surprise.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;Buddy lives about a mile and a half from where he was born, in Lone Ivy, just below Lovers Leap. He came into the world a little more than two weeks before Christmas in 1935. Buddy tried the banjo and guitar before settling on the fiddle.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;&amp;ldquo;Santa Claus brought me a fiddle when I was about eleven or twelve years old and I started trying to saw on it,&amp;rdquo; Buddy said. &amp;ldquo;At that time there wasn&amp;rsquo;t a teacher in the whole valley there. Not one close enough for me to tune in on.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;So Buddy turned to the family&amp;rsquo;s crank-up record player for instruction. &amp;ldquo;After I got started working on the fiddle some, I liked Tommy Jackson&amp;rsquo;s fiddling pretty well. He had some records out and I used to get a few of those to learn tunes from,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;And there was a fiddler, Buddy Durham. His records were advertised some. I used to hear some of that. And I listened to the Grand Ole Opry a little bit.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;Buddy mentioned Howdy Forrester, Kenny Baker, and Chubby Wise as influences, too. &amp;ldquo;I liked that old Fiddlin&amp;rsquo; Arthur Smith,&amp;rdquo; Buddy said. &amp;ldquo;Not the one, you know, that came along later and created &amp;lsquo;Dueling Banjos,&amp;rsquo; but the one that was into the fiddling.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; "&gt;But not every song he learned came off a record or out of a radio.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt; &lt;span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt; "&gt;His mother played guitar and harmonica. His father played Charlie&lt;/span&gt; Poole-style banjo. His uncle played fiddle.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;d also been listening to my dad and my uncle play some music. Sometimes on a Sunday afternoon they&amp;rsquo;d have a little session at my Grandpa Pendleton&amp;rsquo;s home. So after Santa Claus brought me the fiddle, I started trying to learn to play it. And after I learned to keep time a little bit, I was able to pick up a few tunes from my uncle Delmar that way.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;&amp;ldquo;There was one other fiddler I would hear play some. But I didn&amp;rsquo;t concentrate on learning tunes from him as much as I did my uncle Delmar. The other fiddler was a Pendleton, too, and I guess we were related a little bit. His name was Gervis Pendleton. He played quite a bit around through the community there.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;Pendletons settled in Patrick County nearly two decades before the Revolutionary War began and they&amp;rsquo;re still pretty thick on the ground there. And they&amp;rsquo;ve long been playing music there. His father and uncle played at Christmas parties back when Christmas was celebrated for two weeks or so.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;&amp;ldquo;And also there used to be old-timey corn shuckings going on up in the valley there,&amp;rdquo; Buddy said. Farmers would gather in their corn and then invite the neighbors. &amp;ldquo;And the neighbor farmers would come in and the women folk would cook up a big supper, and the men folk would shuck out the pile of corn. And I used to hear a little music, you know, the local music at those corn shuckings.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;Buddy played at Lone Ivy gatherings, too. He played at frolics and square dances and the Buffalo Ridge Pentecostal Church. And when he was fourteen, Buddy played in his first fiddler&amp;rsquo;s contest. He won. &amp;ldquo;So I got interested in fiddlers&amp;rsquo; conventions,&amp;rdquo; Buddy said.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;He played and won at a lot of regional conventions. His best stretch was thirteen wins in a row. He won Galax. He won Union Grove. He&amp;rsquo;s the only person to win it five times in a row.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;It was at Union Grove that Buddy met Ralph Rinzler, mandolin player for the Greenbriar Boys. Buddy joined the band for its first album on the Vanguard label. He was with the band when they played with Joan Baez. A couple of years later, Rinzler was Bill Monroe&amp;rsquo;s band manager. He called Buddy to ask if he&amp;rsquo;d like to be a Bluegrass Boy. It sounded like exciting times, driving around in an old Oldsmobile station wagon with a bass fiddle tied on top, playing with legends and legends-to-be every night, collecting stories.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;Once, Buddy and his band mates didn&amp;rsquo;t think to haul the bass in when they stopped for the night. When Monroe caught up to the band the next morning, the bass was still on top of the car and water from the night&amp;rsquo;s rain was sloshing around inside.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;Another time, Monroe was napping in the front passenger seat while Buddy drove. Buddy didn&amp;rsquo;t slow down quite enough when he came to a set of railroad tracks. The station wagon bounced hard enough to break a bolt holding the steering together &amp;ndash;&amp;ndash; and to wake the Father of Bluegrass pretty completely.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;Buddy was with the band for less than a year. But it wasn&amp;rsquo;t his driving or his playing or his part in the soggy bass episode that ended his time with the Bluegrass Boys. Buddy didn&amp;rsquo;t like the traveling. He&amp;rsquo;d just gotten married. And he had a job offer back in Patrick County, working for the postal service. Those jobs don&amp;rsquo;t come along very often. People who get them tend to hold onto them until they retire. And that&amp;rsquo;s what Buddy did. He came off the road with the Bluegrass Boys to deliver mail along the rural roads of Patrick County.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;[For the rest of this article, as well as Jack Hinshelwood&amp;rsquo;s transcription of &amp;ldquo;Angeline the Baker&amp;rdquo; as played by Buddy Pendleton, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;a href="Store-Subscribe.page" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;purchase the summer 2010 issue&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Cambria; color: windowtext; "&gt;Recordings available from:&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Cambria;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;

mso-bidi-font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;

color:windowtext"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; font-family: Cambria; color: windowtext; "&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.summerskyproductions.com" target="_blank"&gt;www.summerskyproductions.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Cambria;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;

mso-bidi-font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;

color:windowtext"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.oldbluerecords.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;www.oldbluerecords.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 120%; "&gt;[Tim Thornton grew up in Appalachia and then got a degree for studying it. He teaches English and works on the radio in Roanoke, but he lives, writes, and plays most of his music in Shawsville, Virginia. His fiddle is nearly six feet tall and is almost always played pizzicato.]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small; "&gt;&lt;em&gt;Photo above by Christine McKenney.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=49743</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Buddy Pendleton: Still Delivering</title>

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    <item>

      <description>&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Fifteen years ago I listened for the first time to a two-CD compilation of Swedish folk music entitled &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;Aring;rsringar. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Most of the Swedish folk music I had heard previously was very traditional, played on one, two, or three fiddles, usually with relatively fixed harmony parts. The wide-ranging &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:

Times-Italic"&gt;&amp;Aring;rsringar &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:

120%"&gt;collection presented quite a different picture. It covered the evolution of Swedish folk music between 1970 and 1990, a twenty-year period of great discovery and creativity. Its styles ranged from unaccompanied tunes played on fiddle, bagpipe, or whistle in the older styles to wild and newly composed pieces played by ensembles of percussion, horns, electric guitars, and synthesizers.&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;The recording opened with a beautiful tune called &amp;ldquo;Fast&amp;auml;n&amp;rdquo; played by a band called Groupa, with an enthralling arrangement of fiddle, flute, cornet, and bass clarinet. Though newly written, the tune sounded very Swedish, and the arrangement and instrumentation were innovative and captivating. There was a second very different and more traditional tune by Groupa on the same collection. Impressed with their music and curious to hear more, I bought a couple of their recordings and was hooked. While all Groupa&amp;rsquo;s musicians were excellent, the player whose music held me most was Mats Ed&amp;eacute;n. In addition to playing fiddle, button accordion, and something called a drone fiddle, Mats also composed several beautiful tunes on each Groupa recording. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img width="225" vspace="0" hspace="10" height="290" border="0" align="left" src="/_mndata/fiddle/uploaded_images/936573.jpg" alt="" /&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;In the ensuing years I have come to appreciate Mats Ed&amp;eacute;n as one of Sweden&amp;rsquo;s greatest folk musicians, a multi-faceted player and composer deeply rooted in tradition, yet brimming with new ideas and possibilities. In both his traditional and contemporary music you will find a wide variety of musical modes, rhythms, and emotions. His tunes can be both melancholy and joyous, pensive and uplifting, startling and soothing. They can paint a picture of his favorite places, or make you want to dance, cry, or sit and wonder. But they usually make you feel good.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;But that&amp;rsquo;s not all. Mats is also an accomplished composer of classical, contemporary, and folk-based music. He has written concertos for violin, cello, saxophone, and other instruments. In 2008 his set of five folk &amp;ldquo;suites&amp;rdquo; for recorder, accordion, percussion, nyckelharpa, viola, and cello was premiered on live radio throughout Europe. Those compositions, including a piece called &amp;ldquo;Bj&amp;ouml;rndansen&amp;rdquo; (Bear Dance), were meant to convey, in Mats&amp;rsquo; words, &amp;ldquo;a deep connection with history, close to the earth, which means it is natural, honest, and does not have a stiff upper lip!&amp;rdquo; &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;In addition to accordion and a standard violin, Mats plays a unique instrument he calls a &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:

Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;bordunfiol,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt; or drone fiddle. This instrument was inspired by Norwegian Hardanger fiddles and sympathetic string fiddles developed by Anders Ros&amp;eacute;n and others in Sweden. Mats&amp;rsquo; bordunfiol, made by Anders Norrude, a well-known musician and maker of fine and unusual instruments, has a viola body with the scale length of a standard violin. The five playing strings and five sympathetic strings can be tuned in various ways to suit each piece of music. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;I interviewed Mats at his home in Harl&amp;ouml;sa, a small village east of Lund in southern Sweden. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;I heard that your first musical influence was your stepfather, Sven Ed&amp;eacute;n. Did your early repertoire come mostly from what you were exposed to by him at home?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Yes. But then also I had some friends, you know, my first fiddle &lt;span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt"&gt;mates. We all met in the same summer camp in 1971. Leif Stinnerbom,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt"&gt;Ulf Jonsson, Bo Thal&amp;eacute;n, Mats Berglund, Lars Warnstad. But&lt;/span&gt; then after a while, the repertoire my father was playing, you know, it was a bit boring and so I was more fond of playing music from Dalarna. I listened to Bj&amp;ouml;rn St&amp;aring;bi, Pers Hans Olsson, and Thore H&amp;auml;rdelin. And then Anders Ros&amp;eacute;n and Kalle Alml&amp;ouml;f came with this groundbreaking record called &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;

line-height:120%;font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;V&amp;auml;sterdalton. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;They played with scordatura, you know, A bass, and drone fiddling, and different tunings, and the sound of the music was fantastic. So that was the repertoire I liked to play. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Can you describe how the V&amp;auml;rmland style is different from the Dalarna style?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Well, the music from the east and northeast of V&amp;auml;rmland is kind of the same as the west of Dalarna. It is not really the same as R&amp;auml;ttvik [style]. There is a slight difference. Because there have been a lot of contacts. The fiddle players didn&amp;rsquo;t bother with borders, there was just woods there, you know, and moose, so they cross over. So you can find tunes from the western part of Sweden, actually, from many places, that are very similar. If you generalize, one style is western style, one style is eastern style, one is south&amp;hellip;. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So the style of the region that is closest to Norway is more like Norwegian music?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Yeah.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;You sought out a lot of older fiddlers in V&amp;auml;rmland. What was it like to learn from them?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;It was a thrill. At that time Leif (Stinnerbom) and I lived together, and we went out [to look for older fiddlers] and sometimes we had luck, sometimes not. Sometimes we went to a little local grocery store and said &amp;ldquo;Hey, do you know some fiddle players, some musicians here?&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Yeah, these guys here.&amp;rdquo; And &amp;ldquo;Oh, I have not played for many years, I can&amp;rsquo;t play anything, but you can go to that guy.&amp;rdquo; And so it was. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Then we came home with the tape recorder, and as I was more skilled in writing down the music, I would do that. Leif was asking the questions, I made the music notes, and Inger [Stinnerbom] made the notes because she had better handwriting than me. We got a good understanding what the music was for the people. It was dance music for them. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Did you feel like you got a better sense of the musical heritage of your area by learning from all these fiddlers?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Yeah, in a way, yes. And also you understand [how they learned tunes]. For example, Oskar [Andersson] played one tune, or his friend Alfred [Magnusson], who was born eight years earlier in 1890. We would ask &amp;ldquo;So what is this tune?&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Oh, it&amp;rsquo;s an old Norwegian tune that we learned from 78s.&amp;rdquo; So a lot of [fiddlers], they have a need for new tunes, so when they bought a new record they all learned it, you know, because it was a new tune.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;So it could be from records, radio&amp;hellip;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;Whatever. Records, or &amp;ldquo;this is an old tune I learned from my father&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;this is a lyric from the very popular songwriter from the 1930s&amp;rdquo; and whatever, you know? In one way, Oskar was very observant how he played the melodies, in phrasing. Not exactly, we didn&amp;rsquo;t need to play exactly [his way]. But expression was important. To express yourself. He said that you have to express yourself, you know. If you just play the melody it is boring. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic"&gt;Would he correct you if you were playing for him, or suggest things? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%"&gt;He&amp;rsquo;d just suggest things. One time he just rose up and said, &amp;ldquo;You are young. Why you play so boring? Just play off!&amp;rdquo; And he was not a good player because his hand was twisted from a whole life in the woods. But the music he knew. He was better playing accordion, but then he would have to stop because his hand was not working so good. So he would play violin again, and he said, &amp;ldquo;I know this doesn&amp;rsquo;t sound so good, but I know the melody, and you can listen. If you take away the [roughness] you can see this is some music inside here that is very interesting. The way of making the music.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:

10.0pt;line-height:120%;font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;

color:windowtext"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;color:windowtext;

mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;color:windowtext;

mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;[For the rest of this interview, along with Mats&amp;rsquo; tunes &amp;ldquo;Ett Steg Till&amp;rdquo; (One Step More), &amp;ldquo;Blues in Bayreuth,&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;Chokladpojkarna&amp;rdquo; (The Chocolate Boys), &lt;a target="_blank" href="Store-Subscribe.page"&gt;purchase the summer 2010 issue&lt;/a&gt;.]&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;color:windowtext;

mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;For more information:&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;color:windowtext;

mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;Mats&amp;rsquo; website: &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.matseden.se/"&gt;www.matseden.se/&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;color:windowtext;

mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;Mats&amp;rsquo; MySpace page: &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.myspace.com/matseden"&gt;www.myspace.com/matseden&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;color:windowtext;

mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;Groupa&amp;rsquo;s website: &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.groupa.se/"&gt;www.groupa.se/ &lt;/a&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;color:windowtext;

mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;You can find sheet music with Mats&amp;rsquo; compositions at The Swedish music information centre: &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.mic.se"&gt;www.mic.se&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;color:windowtext;

mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;Mats Ed&amp;eacute;n video at Malm&amp;ouml; Academy of Music: &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.mhm.lu.se/o.o.i.s/14763"&gt;www.mhm.lu.se/o.o.i.s/14763&lt;/a&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;color:windowtext;

mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;[Allen Barnes has played American old time and other folk music styles on several instruments for over thirty years. He lives in Davis, California, and has been learning Swedish folk music on the fiddle, mostly in non-standard tunings.]&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

Photo above by Thomas Ringdahl.&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="BasicParagraph"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:120%;

font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;color:windowtext;

mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times-Italic;

mso-bidi-font-family:Times-Italic;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/Articles.page?ArticleID=49742</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Mats Edén: Rooted in Tradition, Growing New Possibilities</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>Welcome to Fiddler Magazine's new Free Video Lessons! This is a fairly new feature of our website, and will be adding more videos as often as we can. We plan to compile a nice library of made-for-Fiddler Magazine videos featuring great fiddlers of a variety of styles.&amp;nbsp;Please check back regularly to see what's new!&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

So far, we have offerings from several terrific fiddlers: New Brunswick fiddler Eddie Poirier, featured in the Fall 2011 issue; Nashville fiddler Dan Kelly, featured in Summer 2011; Cape Breton fiddler Kimberley Fraser; and SF&amp;nbsp;Bay Area fiddlers Sarah Kirton and Dave Barton. The Eddie Poirier tunes are transcribed in the Fall 2011 issue. Dan Kelly has made a couple of videos of his &amp;quot;Tugboat&amp;quot; tune, transcribed in the Summer 2011 issue, as well as the Howdy Forrester tune &amp;quot;Howdy from Hickman County.&amp;quot; Dave Barton's contest-winning tune &amp;quot;Too Late Schottische&amp;quot; was transcribed in the Fall 2011 issue and is performed by Sarah Kirton and Anne Kanerva and Dave Barton and Anne Kanerva. Sarah and Anne have also recorded three great slangpolskas. Just click on the links at right&amp;nbsp;to get started (&lt;strong&gt;click on &amp;quot;Older&amp;quot; to access more&lt;/strong&gt;). Enjoy!&lt;br /&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/New-Free-Video-Lessons.page?ArticleID=61122</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Free Video Lessons -- Intro</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>New Brunswick fiddler Eddie Poirier will be featured in the fall 2011 issue of Fiddler Magazine. The article will include transcriptions of three of his tunes. This is the first of three videos of his fiddling -- please click on the links at right to view the others. Enjoy!&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;iframe width="500" height="400" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lYNWO74eYec"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/New-Free-Video-Lessons.page?ArticleID=61892</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Eddie Poirier -- Old Mill Jig</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>New Brunswick fiddler Eddie Poirier will be featured in the fall 2011 issue of Fiddler Magazine. The article will include transcriptions of three of his tunes. This is the second of three videos of his fiddling -- please click on the links at right to view the others. Enjoy!&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;iframe width="500" height="400" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1h_sZkZ7Kdk"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/New-Free-Video-Lessons.page?ArticleID=61890</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Eddie Poirier -- Across the Sea</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>New Brunswick fiddler Eddie Poirier will be featured in the fall 2011 issue of Fiddler Magazine. The article will include transcriptions of three of his tunes. This is the third of three videos of his fiddling -- please click on the links at right to see the others. Enjoy!&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;iframe width="500" height="400" frameborder="0" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GqI6XF3QiKo" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/New-Free-Video-Lessons.page?ArticleID=61891</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Eddie Poirier -- Angus LeFort's Favorite Waltz</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>Dave Barton of San Jose,&amp;nbsp;CA, won first place in the 9th Annual Nebraska American String Teachers Fiddle Tune Composition contest for his tune &amp;quot;Too Late Schottische.&amp;quot; It was transcribed in the Fall 2011 issue of Fiddler Magazine. Here it is performed by SF&amp;nbsp;Bay Area fiddler Sarah Kirton and cittra player Anne Kanerva, as well as by Dave Barton and Anne Kanerva. Sarah and Anne have also recorded three Swedish &amp;quot;sl&amp;auml;ngpolskas.&amp;quot; Enjoy!&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Too Late Schottische&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;by Dave Barton (played by Sarah Kirton &amp;amp; Anne Kanerva): &lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bT9vJ9_C7OU" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;Too Late Schottische&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;by Dave Barton (played by Dave Barton &amp;amp; Anne Kanerva): &lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eViku5lLQrk" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;font&gt;The next three tunes are &lt;strong&gt;sl&amp;auml;ngpolskas&lt;/strong&gt; (a version of &lt;span style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1318018300_0"&gt;polska&lt;/span&gt; found in southern &lt;span style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1318018300_1"&gt;Sweden), played by Sarah Kirton and Anne Kanerva&lt;/span&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;strong&gt;Polska efter Ola Andersson (&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;font&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#307)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;font&gt;, found in  Svenska L&amp;aring;tar, Sk&amp;aring;ne (Sweden).&amp;nbsp; We play it a little differently than  it's found there.&amp;nbsp; Sarah learned it in the early '80's from Ingvar  Andersson, but the way  she plays it may have changed a bit from his teaching.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

Polska #307:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mqahrftanUM"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;strong&gt;Polska efter Petter Dufva (&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;font&gt;&lt;strong&gt;#306)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;font&gt;, found in Svenska L&amp;aring;tar, &lt;span style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1318018300_4"&gt;&amp;Ouml;sterg&amp;ouml;tland&lt;/span&gt; (Sweden). It's known under a variety of names and places. Sarah learned in at &lt;span style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1318018300_5"&gt;Mendocino&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1318018300_6"&gt;Scandia&lt;/span&gt; Camp in 2000 from Jeanett Walerholt.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

Polska #306:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6cb-lLIpd8c" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;strong&gt;&lt;font&gt;Polska efter Abraham Hagholm (#207)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;font&gt;, found in Svenska L&amp;aring;tar, &amp;Ouml;sterg&amp;ouml;tland (Sweden).&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

Polska #207:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;span style="font-size: small;"&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FqU1xecKRx0"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;/span&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/New-Free-Video-Lessons.page?ArticleID=62290</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>"Too Late Schottische" + Swedish Slängpolskas</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>Here's a video lesson from Nashville fiddler extraordinaire Dan Kelly. Dan is featured in the Summer 2011 issue of Fiddler Magazine (&amp;quot;Dan Kelly: Grand Master's Fiddle Champion at the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, &amp;amp; Beyond&amp;quot; by L. Scott Miller). In this lesson, Dan explains a few of his techniques in the tune &amp;quot;Tugboat,&amp;quot; part of which is transcribed in the Summer 2011 issue (to purchase, please see the Store/Subscribe link at left).&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;iframe width="480" height="390" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/V1upmOg908A" title="YouTube video player"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

Here's Dan playing the whole tune, accompanied by Scott Miller (2010 Grand Master's Traditional Fiddle Champion) on guitar:&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;iframe width="480" height="390" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iHzo0bO1ZOo" title="YouTube video player"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/New-Free-Video-Lessons.page?ArticleID=61121</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Dan Kelly -- "Tugboat" Lesson</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>Another great tune from Dan Kelly, accompanied by Scott Miller:&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;iframe height="390" frameborder="0" width="480" title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JhnQigQ7WkQ" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/New-Free-Video-Lessons.page?ArticleID=61135</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Dan Kelly -- "Howdy from Hickman County"</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>In this video, Cape Breton fiddler Kimberley Fraser teaches a lesson on a common and important Cape Breton fiddle technique, the &amp;quot;cut.&amp;quot; Enjoy!&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;iframe width="640" height="390" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fcffL0vEgJE" title="YouTube video player"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/New-Free-Video-Lessons.page?ArticleID=61308</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Kimberley Fraser -- Cape Breton "cut" lesson</title>

    </item>

    <item>

      <description>In this video, Kimberley Fraser teaches the reel &amp;quot;Green Grow the Rashes O.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;iframe width="640" height="390" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jfGSkhDfhNM" title="YouTube video player"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</description>

      <link>http://www.fiddle.com/New-Free-Video-Lessons.page?ArticleID=61309</link>

      <pubDateParsed>2012-02-04T12:05:15.73Z</pubDateParsed>

      <title>Kimberley Fraser -- "Green Grow the Rashes O"</title>

    </item>

    <lastBuildDate>2/4/2012 7:05:15 AM</lastBuildDate>

    <link>http://www.fiddle.com/</link>

    <title>Fiddler Magazine</title>

    <pubDate>2/4/2012 7:05:15 AM</pubDate>

    <webMaster>info@fiddle.com</webMaster>

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