Fiddle and …
Music
of the frontiers . . . |
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2022 Calendar begins at last!
Wed, Mar 17 (St. Pat’s Day) 6 pm – solo, Opening for Pirate Jenny, the Pirate Rock Band! Alberta St. Pub, PDX
Sun, Apr 17. – Dallas, zoom from John Cobb Eco Farm, 4 – 5 pm…
Sat. April 30 – Independence Heritage Museum Opening: solo, 1-3 pm (break for ribbon cutting at 1:15)
Sat. May 7 – Sheep-to-Shawl at Mission Mill, Salem, 10:15-11:30, solo; later with the OOTFA fiddlers.
Sat, May 14 – Polk County History Museum, Rickreall; solo, 12:30 – 4 pm
Sat Jun 4 (??) – 9-10 a.m, for Helmick Park Anniversary of Oregon’s 1st state park ?? (fiddlin’ was rained out!)
Mon., Jul 4 – 1:45-4 pm at Newell House, at SW corner of Champoeg State Park
Sat. Aug 27 – Brownsville Pioneer Days – wandering minstrel, 1-4 pm
Sat. Sep 17 – 4:30-5:30 for Independence Wine Crawl; Main Street in front of the Mural.
Sat Oct 1 – With Debo Kerr on Guitar: 4-6, Monmouth City Park, at the gazebo – (Manit Day 2022 Northwest; the annual cultural celebration of natives of the Marshall Islands, runs 10 am – 6 pm). .
Dec 12 @ – danzas por la Senora de Guadelupe. Times t.b.a.
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MUSINGS:… and brags… a few old video links near the bottom of this page … notes on lessons …
pre-covid Memories: Summer of 2018… sunny Saturday Mornings at the Independence Saturday Market. On the first warm day I fiddled 2 1/2 hours straight, a wide variety, from hoedowns to show tunes: after each straight to the next without a break, always changing key, and genre, and alternating between bare tunes and songs with lyrics. I loved it; back home I wrote down the tune list, 60+ … tunelist here.
Enjoyed The Elements that made Old Time Fiddle, a program for Santiam Historical Society, Stayton, June 2018. First, violin: Mark Babson sampled baroque/classical/ romantic violin pieces; then I sampled different threads that contributed to old-time fiddle: 1) an ancient tune, Soldier’s Joy, inc. how it can be played many ways but is still the same; 2) a tune played in an open tuning; 3) the Scots/Scots-Irish migrations to Appalachia and the Mixolydian mode of the bagpipe chanter; 4) the influence of African-American fiddlers; 5) synthesis of these in a tune from SW Virginia; 6) for contrast, a regular New England/Eastern Canada tune; 7) a French Canadian tune; 8) the influx of rags; 9) swing; 10) Scandinavian; 11) a Norteño tune; and, 12) for where do all these tunes come from?, how I made “The Swallows”, and played that. A one-hour romp through old-time fiddle, and a hit.
The St. Paul Rodeo July 3 was fun: Opened and played breaks for The Bronco Billy Band. No set list; old country-western standards alternated with fiddle tunes named for hoofed animals, finishing with Bill Staines’ great rodeo rider’s lament, Sweet Wyoming Home, yo-de-lay-ee oo… which they hadn’t heard of, I think… (all went well!)
The “Steam Punk Jane Austen Ball” near Halloween was a different kick — dozens of extraordinary costumes wending through the hospitality tables in the formal Grand March around the upper floor of the Mission Mill Building, straight into reels, squares, circles. I love doing this!
Poke here for 2017
poke here for some of 2016
poke here for 2015 –, Lots of old calendars here. … & a few old photos
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Solo fiddling and calling, an 1800’s Reel at Newell House, for an authentic 1859 dinner and dance. – Suzi on the left. The lady in the gray skirt skirt twirled in the center of “Bird in the Cage”… touching everyone’s ankles! |
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LOCAL JAMS:
Appalachian fiddle tunes: Intense Appalachian fiddle tunes jam in Keizer on the second Sunday of each month. Here’s a few tunelists. About half of the core group of 15 or so musicians show up at any particular jam. Inquire.
Second Wednesday each month, Monmouth Senior Center, 6:30 – 8pm; (a few friends practice/perform) musicians and listeners welcome!
Mix, tunes and wild songs: in Corvallis, 2nd Thursdays of each month; at Old World Deli, 7 pm; hosted by Wild Hogs in the Woods.
General jam: Guthrie Park, 3 miles south of Dallas at 4320 Kings Valley Hwy, every Friday night, 6:30-10 pm for 28 years, until Covid (I never missed a Friday from the first session for ten years or so). [Note — I stopped in 2019 after a lead musician dropped her loaded pistol on the stage… been back a couple of times after covid.] A large jam – 10 or 15 musicians each week, a large and faithful audience of folks on the benches around. Strict rotation around the circle of musicians; country-western, older pop, folk, fiddle tunes and waltzes, and everyone can play all of ’em. If weather is nice, fiddlers may move out to the porch.
Ancient History: |
—-> An Appalachian Christmas – “Presenting three of the valley’s most respected folk musicians Truman Price, Jane Keefer, Tim Crosby.” |
The “Appalachian Christmas” with Jane Keefer and Tim Crosby was fun to research! Asked for an hour program; studied, laid it out, we practiced once and nailed it: great: widely varied, perfect; many groups around the valley would love to have it — if only they knew about it! details |
A few nice verses of June Apple filmed by Ray Leach at Centralia Campout August 2005, trio with Adam Price and Tom Peloso (of Modest Mouse):
These are with son Adam on banjo, at Northwest Folklife Festival, Seattle, Memorial Day Weekend 2007:
Most of these videos, and a few others, are on YouTube, some with nice comments – poke here, or just enter the words “old time fiddle” and see what comes up!—
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Two CD’s:
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LESSONS:
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From the desk window in June, with organic Jerseys . . . . . . | |
Preview YouTube video danza2013 Perico fragment
Preview YouTube video Old Time Fiddle – St. Anne’s Reel – Truman Price
Preview YouTube video Uncle Sam’s Farm – oldtime fiddle – Truman Price
Preview YouTube video Oh, Susannah!
Preview YouTube video Fly Around, Pretty Miss: old time fiddle, Adam & Truman Price, Tom Peloso
Preview YouTube video Frosty Morning