Chirps Smith Is Our Next Guest

When I started the Fiddle Club of the World (Chicago Chapter) in the spring of 2008, our second featured guest was my old pal and band buddy, Lynn Chirps Smith from LaGrange, Wisconsin. (Of course, we all know he was raised in Charleston, Illinois and spent many years in Grayslake.) Fittingly, Chirps will be the second featured guest in the new incarnation of Fiddle Club in the back room of the Grafton Pub & Grill (4530 N. Lincoln) on Monday, December 10. Come join us at 8pm for a Set* and a Session.** We plan on doing this every 2nd Monday of the month.

Dec. 10, 8pm
Chirps Smith

Another guest the fiddle section of the storied Volo Bogtrotters. (Fred Campeau was last month’s guest.)

* A set of tunes, songs, and chat with a featured guest, followed by
** a jam session for all players.

 

***There will be a donation jar to compensate the Featured Guest.

Come join the fun. So many tunes still to play.

Like this one, from April 2008.

– Paul Tyler, convener, Chicago Chapter

Fiddle Club is all the way back!

I am very pleased to announce that after some dormancy, the Fiddle Club of the World (Chicago Chapter) is back with a regular schedule. Starting November 12 at 8pm, we will have a Set* and a Session** with a Featured Guest*** every 2nd Monday of the month at the Grafton Pub & Grill (4530 N. Lincoln).


Nov. 12, 8pm
Fred Campeau

Dec. 10, 8pm
Chirps Smith

Representing the fiddle section of the storied Volo Bogtrotters

 

* A set of tunes, songs, and chat with a featured guest, followed by
** a jam session for all players.

***There will be a donation jar to compensate the Featured Guest.

 

Come join the fun. So many tunes. So little time.

– Paul Tyler, convener, Chicago Chapter

 

Fiddlepalooza 2018: Fiddle Club Is Back

Fiddle Club of the World (Chicago Chapter)
presents a Fiddlepalooza
(* see below)
Tuesday, October 9, 7:30
Room # E324, Old Town School of Folk Music (4545 Lincoln)
Registration $25 (free for students registered in Tuesday night fiddle classes this session)

Learn traditional dance tunes from Austria from


Theresa Aigner – violin                Marie-Theres Stickler – button accordion
from Vienna and Upper Austria      from Salzburg, in Lower Austria

Both are members of Die Tanzgeiger (The Dance Fiddlers), a roots music band of long-standing from Vienna. The band’s leader, Rudi Pietsch visited a number of Old Town School fiddle classes over the course of a session in the Spring of 2010. He was also a featured artist at a Fiddle Club of the World meeting. A few years later, he and Marie-Theres poked their heads in Old Time Ensemble class and yodeled for us. Now we get to spend an evening with Marie-Theres and Theresa and learn a few traditional melodies from the Alps. This is a great chance for an up close experience with musicians who are passionate about the old-time music of their culture.

Note: Die Tanzgeiger will be part of the World Music Wednesday Concert on Oct. 10.

https://youtu.be/ZD9hst2PrIE

* This is Fiddle Club’s third Fiddlepalooza in which we partner with the Old Town School of Folk Music’s Tuesday night fiddle classes in bringing special guests to the students, while opening workshop participation to all who are interested. The first Fiddlepazalooza in 2010, which took place 2 days after Rudi Pietsch’s Fiddle Club visit, featured Paul Brown & the Mostly Mountain Boys from North Carolina along with the Polka Chicks from Finland. Our second Fiddlepalooza, in 2015, featured Mette Jensen & Kristian Bugge from Denmark. Both events were great fun. A memorable highlight was the 28 fiddlers in a circle on stage in the concert hall playing the tune just learned from Kristian.

Tunes from Spencer & Rains

Tricia Spencer & Howard Rains
Fiddle Club of the World meeting

(aka concert & jam session)
Thursday, June 22 – Admission $20
Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln in Chicago)


Music starts at 7:30. Come for the concert. Stay and play and learn a tune or two. All instruments and all listeners welcome.

Antelope Gap key of D

Mowing the Meadow key of A

Sally Ann key of G

Both Tricia Spencer and Howard Rains grew up in fiddling families in the center of the U.S. Tricia is from Lawrence, Kansas. Howard is from East Texas. The merging of the formidable talents on multiple instruments has produced a great musical whole, larger than the mere sum of the parts. Their twin fiddling is a treat not to be missed.

Check out the videos on their website. Scroll down after enjoying the lovely photos and Howard’s artworks.

Paul Tyler-convener

Tunes from Ken Keppeler & Jeanie McLerie

Ken Keppeler & Jeanie McLeri
Friday, May 12, 7:30pm

Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie)
Admission $20

Jerusalem, learned from the Lewis Family of Crowflat, New Mexico and Del City, Texas

Vals Vicente Arragon, learned from Vicente Arragon of Cuba, New Mexico

And some tunes learned from Elliot Johnson & the Gu’Achi Fiddlers, of the Tohono O’odham Nation

Libby Bird Song Mazurka

Sonora Church-Purple Lillies Polka

And here are some YouTube videos . . .
Ken & Jeanie playing a Cajun tune

A 1/2 hour documentary on Cleofes Ortiz, Violinista de Nuevo Mexico, the source of the Fiddle Club Orchestra’s Valse de los Paños

More Fiddle Club Guests for 2017

Bayou Seco

aka Ken Keppeler & Jeanie McLerie

Fiddle Club of the World meeting (aka concert & jam session)

Friday, May 12 – Admission $20
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton in Skokie) 

Music starts at 7:30. Come for the concert. Stay and play and learn a tune or two. All instruments and all listeners welcome.

Ken & Jeanie bring loving attention to little known musical wonders of the Amermican Souths, from Cajun waltzes to Tohono O’odham polkas and Mexicano rancheros to Cowboy ballads and other folk songs. Go to this YouTube video to listen to their performance of a Fiddle Club favorite, Purple Lillies Polka


Spencer & Rains

aka Tricia & Howard

Thursday, June 22

Fiddle Club meeting with a concert & jam/workshop

Location to be announced

Featuring old-time tunes from Texas, the Central Plains, and other corners of America. Check out these videos for a great guitar-fiddle duet and some sublime twin fiddling. There are more videos on their website linked above.

More Fiddle Club Events
Friday, April 28: Barn Dance with the Fiddle Club of the World Orchestra
Paul Tyler will teach and call the figures at The Social
Old Town School of Folk Music (4545 Lincoln), 7:30, more info here

Wednesday, June 21: Fiddle Tunes Jam for Make Music Chicago
6 to 8pm in the Welles Park Gazebo. Like it on Facebook.

Tunes from Steve Gibons

Steve Gibons – Sunday, March 12, 7:00pm
Steve Gibons
Violinist Steve Gibons is the leader of the Gypsy Ryhthm Project, a unique mix of Western jazz and the rich sounds of Romany music from Roumania and Bulgaria.

The concert this night will be a solo demonstration. in a intimate, conversational setting, of the Klezmer, Balkan and Romany music on the violin. The workshop that follows will some common style elements and ornamentation in these music styles, such as found in these two tunes:

Taqsim Ravelnikov
“This one,” says Steve, “starts with a ‘taqsim’, I will go over the ornaments and special tunings of the scales in the workshop.”

Cimpoi Suite
“Here’s a recording that starts with a phrase containing the Klezmer ‘kretch’ or crying sound.”

This event will also be webcast on Concert Window.

You do not have to be a fiddler to participate in Fiddle Club of the World. We joyously welcome all musicians and all listeners.

Fiddle Club Presents Cajun Music and a Cajun Dance

This Friday, February 17
Blake Miller with Amelia Biere & A.J. Srubas

Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie
Cajun music workshop at 6:30. Cajun Dance at 8pm

Admission to both the workshop and the dance is $20. $10 for just the dance.

Grandson of well known accordion builder Larry Miller, Blake Miller has been surrounded by Cajun music and culture his entire life. Hailing from the small town of Iota Louisiana, Blake, a fluent french speaker and songwriter, managed to acquire a degree in Francophone studier from The University Of Louisiana at Lafayette and in the mean time founded the popular young Cajun band The Pine Leaf Boys and became a member of the premiere Louisiana roots Band The Red Stick Ramblers. He has also served stints in just about every other cajun/creole band of note including Balfa Toujours, Les Malfecteurs and Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole bringing his strong cultural identity and accomplished musicianship to the world. Now plays with the world traveled Revelers for the past 4 years singing and playing his own songs on fiddle and accordion.

Originally from a small town in Wisconsin, Amelia Biere was exposed to many forms of traditional music at an early age. She grew up listening to her dad sing, play guitar, piano, and fiddle. Fate took her to Minneapolis for college, where there were regular Cajun dances. She got hooked! Mentored by a few of the stalwart musicians of the Twin City music scene, Amelia started learning French, playing and singing. Two bands resulted: Ana and the Bel-tones and Millie and the Mill City Heavyweights. In 2014, Amelia decided to move to the source of it all – Lafayette, LA. There she has been soaking it all in, ever expanding her love for the culture. In addition to playing Cajun music, she plays old-time guitar and loves to dance. When not playing music, she is a wedding florist.

AJ Srubas is originally from Green Bay, WI where he grew up playing Irish music in a family band. After graduating high school, he went to study fiddle in Ireland for a few months but upon returning home he was introduced to old-time music when his older brother started to learn claw hammer banjo. Before he knew it, he was completely hooked. AJ now lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and has been playing old-time music for the last decade. He plays old-time fiddle in the Bootlicker Stringband and Cajun fiddle and pedal steel guitar in the New Riverside Ramblers. When not playing music, he is an apprentice violin bow maker and organizer for The Monday Night Square Dance and other Minnesota festivals. AJ teaches private lessons and has taught at the Central Rockies Old-time Music Association’s summer festival, Berkeley Old-time Music Gathering and many Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-time Music Association events.

Tunes from the South Carolina Broadcasters

South Carolina Broadcasters – Friday, January 27, 7:30pm
Fiddle Club meets at Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton, Skokie).
Admission is $20 at the door. Reserve your seat here.

Concert set, followed by a jam/workshop. There will be singing.

Solid and spirited old-time playing and singing from the Carolinas. Here is where bluegrass and old-time are so intertwined that it’s just great music. Andy, Ivy, and David will entertain us, and then lead us through some tunes and songs, such as these . . .

Haystack Blues

Lost John

Tell me Truly

Upcoming
Fiddle Club Barn Dance – At The Social
Friday, February 3, 7:30p, Old Town School of Folk Music
Blake Miller & Friends – Cajun Dance,
Friday, February 15 – details to be announced
Steve Gibons – Romany, Klezmer, & Balkan fiddle
Sunday, March 12, 7:00p, Seman Violins

Fiddle Club Guests for 2017

Some hot fiddling to warm our cold winter nights.

Meetings held at Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton, Skokie).
Admission is $20 at the door.

All meetings begin with a short concert followed by a jam/workshop.

South Carolina Broadcasters – Friday, January 27, 7:30pm
South Carolina Broadcasters
A fine old-time trio from North [sic] Carolina, the South Carolina Broadcasters are made up of Andy Edmonds, David Sheppard, and Ivy Shepherd. Here’s some key words: “a broad and mature mix of sounds ranging from Surry County bluegrass to Carter Family country and even the Cajun sounds of Lafayette,” so you know what to expect. Here are some more: “razor sharp harmonies, exceptional multi-instrumentation, and fabulous song selection” that will make you want to come out on Friday night in January, whatever the weather. The Broadcasters feature two fiddles, along with banjo, guitar, and more. And did I mention harmony singing?
Reserve your seat here.

Just added! Blake Miller, Friday, February 17
Cajun music workshop at 6:30. Cajun Dance at 8pm

Admission to both the workshop and the dance is $20. $10 for just the dance.

More details to come.

Steve Gibons – Sunday, March 12, 7:00pm
Steve Gibons
Violinist Steve Gibons is the leader of the Gypsy Ryhthm Project, a unique mix of Western jazz and the rich sounds of Romany music from Roumania and Bulgaria, that includes cymbalonist Nicolae Feraru, whose band was a surprise feature at the Fiddle Club sponsored Battle of the Bands in 2015. The concert this night will feature Steve and an accompanist in a intimate, conversational setting. The workshop that follows will introduce us to some common style elements and ornamentation in Klezmer, Balkan and Romany music.

You do not have to be a fiddler to participate in Fiddle Club of the World. We joyously welcome all musicians and all listeners.

More to Come
Ken Keppeler & Jeanie McLerie of Bayou Seco, Friday, May 12
Irish music tba

Also
Fiddle Club of the World Barn Dance, Friday, February 3, 7:30-9:30
Calling by Paul Tyler. Tunes by the Fiddle Club of the World Orchestra.
(This will be a regular event. Next one to be scheduled sometime in April.)