Tunes from Betse & Clarke

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Paul Tyler

Betse & Clarke
Sunday June 19, 7:30pm
The Atlantic Bar and Grill (5062 N Lincoln Ave)
A concert, followed by a workshop/jam.
Admission is $15.

Fiddle Club is thrilled to present Midwestern duo Betse Ellis and Clarke Wyatt for a special evening of fiddle and banjo tunes. Betse & Clarke explore their love of old time music with an inventive spirit, taking listeners on a field trip across mountain folkways and new landscapes. Their music is familiar… and totally different; a fiddle and banjo duo with a sense of adventure, radiating outward from Kansas City, Missouri.
Betse Ellis plays fiddle and sings like nobody’s business. Her years with The Wilders proved her passion for Ozark tunes and an unstoppable stage presence. Her early violin studies continue to shape her musicianship through technique and composition. Clarke Wyatt has an original and creative approach to three-finger banjo. His background as a pianist and composer inform his banjo method as much as his love for old time music.

Here is a tune to help you get ready for the workshop/jam in the back room at the Atlantic. More info: http://www.betseandclarke.com/

Calico – learning at tempo

Calico – learning, slow

Calico – learning, fiddle slow

Calico – learning, banjo slow

Want to hear more? Go here.

– Judy Higgins, Fiddle Club associate

Tunes from Kristian Bugge

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Paul Tyler

Danish Fiddle Tunes with
Lydom, Bugge & Høirup
Thursday, June 16, 7:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)
A concert set, followed by an old-time jam.
Admission is $18.
Purchase tickets here. Reserve your seat.

Accordionist and harmonica player Sonnich Lydom, fiddle player Kristian Bugge and guitarist and singer Morten Alfred Høirup. This lively trio performs old dance tunes and songs from every corner of their Scandinavian home country. From rural islands like Læsø to metropolitan Copenhagen, including a few of their own compositions. Expect everything from wild polkas and jigs to lyrical waltzes, fiery reels and happy hopsas, plus the exotic “Sønderhoning” dance tunes from the famous Island of Fanø, and long forgotten songs from all over the country. An unforgettable live experience spiced up with humor and stories from their many years on the road.

Here are some tunes, played slow, followed by the same tunes as heard on their new CD Gagspil, where each is part of a longer set. We’ll work on these at the workshop/jam following their concert on June 16.

Fiddle Club is not just for fiddlers. All players and music lovers are welcome to join us.

-Paul Tyler, convener

Big Fiddle Week Coming to Chicago

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Paul Tyler

Lydom, Bugge & Høirup
folk music from Denmark
Thursday, June 16 – 7:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)
Admission $18

Betse & Clarke
Traditional/Future Folk
Sunday, June 19 – 7:30pmg
Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln in Chicago)
Admission $15

Fiddle Tunes Jam!
Make Music Chicago
Tuesday, June 21 – 6 to 8pm
Winnemac Park (Damen & Foster in Chicago)
free to all players and listeners, bring a chair

A Fiddle Club Fandango

Posted on May 6, 2016 by Paul Tyler

Don Ricardo Ibarra
with family and friends
Friday, May 13, 7:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)
$15 admission

This musical house party will be hosted by mis amigos, Juan Rivera and Pedro Gomez. They will introduce to Son Caletano. For Pedro and Don Ricardo, this is a deep-rooted family tradition. For Juan, it is the music of a neighboring region. (The video below was filmed at a party in Juan’s back yard in Cicero last summer.) Let this night be a party, and let us all be open to what can happen when musicians get together to play, and talk a bit, about the music they love. There will be playing and singing and, hopefully, a little dancing. Perhaps there will be a little teaching for those of us new to Son Caletano.

Some background from Juan Rivera:
Don Ricardo Ibarra was born in 1941 in Tiquicheo Michoacán, part of the “Hot Land’s” region (La Tierra Caliente). His Father, don Miguel Ibarra, was a very important fiddler in the region of the Son Calentano. He played with many important musicians of the region and was a contempory of don Juan Reynoso, known as the “Paganini de Tierra Caliente”. He taught his 4 sons to play the music since they were children and also his nephew Serafín Ibarra*. Don Ricardo Ibarra’s first instrument was the guitar and vihuela, but after his older brother Enrique died in 2005, he took up the fiddle again and started to play it since then with his brothers Miguel and Guadalupe and his cousin Ismael.

Here’s a link to an article en Español that Juan wrote for the Federation de Clubes Michoacana en Illinois.

*Serafin Ibarra has appeared on stage at the Old Town School of Folk Music several times. I took a workshop with him at the School’s Festival of Mexican Son in 2005.

-Paul Tyler, convener

Tunes from Harry Bolick

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Paul Tyler

Old-Time Fiddle Tunes from Mississippi with
Harry Bolick
Friday, April 22, 7:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)
A concert set, followed by an old-time jam.
Admission is $15.

How many fiddle tunes do you know that hail from Mississippi? Really. You need to learn a few more, because they are some of the coolest, quirkiest, funnest tunes ever found in these here United States. And our next Fiddle Club guest, Harry Bolick, a Brooklyn-ite with deep Mississippi roots, is just the guy to introduce us to this regional tradition and some of its fine tunes. Harry has recently published and produced the book and CDs pictured above, all containing tunes collected in Mississippi during the 1930s by folklorists working for the Works Project Administration, part of FDR’s New Deal. Here’s a sample.

Mississippi Shuffle
Mississippi Shuffle slow

White Hat
White Hat slow

Sugar in the Gourd
Sugar in the Gourd slow

Bust down.

Paul Tyler, convener

A Fiddle Calendar for a Chicago Summer

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Paul Tyler

Upcoming Fiddle Club of the World (and other) events
lots and lots of happenings, starting in April

Sunday, April 17, 7-9pm: monthly jam at Gideon Welles (4500 N. Lincoln)

Friday, April 22, 7:30pm: Harry Bolick guests at Fiddle Club of the World
at Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)

Friday, April 29, 8:30pm: Big Shoulders Square Dance with Cook County Revelers & Tamara Loewenthal

Saturday, April 30, daytime: fiddle & banjo workshops with Bruce Molsky
& clogging workshop with Tamara Loewenthal
(see Old Town School of Folk Music workshop listings)

Saturday, April 30, 8pm: Bruce Molsky in concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music

Sunday, May 15, 7-9pm: monthly jam at Gideon Welles (4500 N. Lincoln)

Thursday, June 16, 7:30pm: Lydom, Bugge & Høirup, Fiddle Club guests from Denmark
at Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)

Sunday, June 19, 7pm: Betse Ellis & Clark Wyatt guest at Fiddle Club of the World
at the Atlantic Bar & Grille (5042 N. Lincoln)

Tuesday, June 21, 6-8pm: Fiddle Club jam for Make Music Chicago 2016
at Winnemac Park, all players are welcome

July 7-10: 14th Midwest Fiddle Championship* and 5th Battle of the Bands
at Square Roots Festival (Lincoln Square in Chicago)
*rumors that a Banjo Division will be included are true

Tunes from Tim Macdonald & Jeremy Ward

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Paul Tyler

Scottish Fiddle Tunes with
Tim Macdonald & Jeremy Ward
Sunday, March 6, 7:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)
A concert set, followed by an old-time jam.
Admission is $15.

In 2013 and 2014, Tim Macdonald won the top prize in the Open Division of the Midwest Fiddle Championship at the Old Town School of Folk Music. In 2015, he took the second prize in a hotly-contested duel with Matt Brown. For that contest, he brought along Jeremy Ward as his accompanist on cello, and introduced us all to incredibly new but equally ancient sound.

Here are some tunes, played slow and then at tempo, to help you prepare for the jam following their concert on Sunday, March 6.

Captain Campbell

Flora MacDonald’s Reel

Mrs. Oswald of Auchincruive’s Favourite

Fiddle Club is not just for fiddlers. All players and music lovers are welcome to join us.

Up next at Fiddle Club of the World
Square Dance with Pop Wagner
& Bob Bovee & Friends
Friday, March 11, 7:30pm
Evanston Barn Dance at the American Legion Hall (1050 Central St.)

Fiddle Club’s Ninth Year Begins

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Paul Tyler

The Chicago Chapter of the Fiddle Club of the World is pleased to announce its ninth season of concerts and jams featuring guest artists representing fiddle traditions (and more) from all over the globe. The three meetings listed in this post will all be held at Seman Violins at 4447 W. Oakton in Skokie. Admission for each meeting is $15.

Tim Macdonald & Jeremy Ward
Scottish tunes on fiddle and cello
Sunday, March 6 – 7:30pm

Harry Bolick
Mississippi fiddling
Friday, April 22 – 7:30pmg

Lydom, Bugge & Høirup
folk music from Denmark
Thursday, June 16 – 7:30pm

Check back to this blog in coming weeks for recordings of tunes you can learn for the jam sessions to follow each concert. Fiddle Club is not just for fiddlers. Players of other instruments and listeners or all sorts are welcome.

More dates to remember: Bob Bovee & Pop Wagner, Fiddle Club guests in 2014, will be playing the Evanston Barn Dance on Friday, March 11 at the American Legion Hall (1030 Central St.) Actually, Pop will be calling the figures. Bob, joined by several of his local friends, will lead the band. And we hope to schedule a Fandango of music from Michoacan, Mexico some time in early May. TBA.

Old-Time Square Dancing in Chicago

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Paul Tyler

A couple of great dances are coming up in the next month or so in the City of Big Shoulders. We’ll call them Big Shoulders Square Dances.

Foghorn String Band plays the first ever Evanston Barn Dance on Monday, November 2. Calling by Bill Sudkamp and DrDosido.

(Click the poster for the Facebook event page.)

Renowned caller, Phil Jamison, will lead you through the figures at Kuhn Barn at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois on Sunday, November 8 at 6:30pm. Music will be supplied by the Volo Bogtrotters.

(Click Phil’s picture for more information).

Can I Get an Amen plays the Global Dance Party at the Old Town School of Folk Music on Friday, December 4 at 8:30pm. Calling by DrDosido (aka Paul Tyler)

(Click the band’s picture for ticket information.)

No experience needed to enjoy any of these great dances. All figures will be taught. Merriment is encouraged.

Recovering Old-Time Music

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Paul Tyler

with the
BluEagle String Band
Friday, October 9, 7:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)
A concert set, followed by an old-time jam.
Admission is $15.

Dave Prine, Tyler Wilson, & Jim Chesney make up the BluEagle String Band, the most recent iteration of the Old Town School of Folk Music’s first in-house old-time string band, known variously as the Friends of Old Time Music and the Fleming Brown String Band (see below). But that was back in the 1960s.

In the 1970s, Tyler Wilson and Dave Prine performed in a duo known as the NRA. At that time, the band name was the acronym of the National Recovery Administration, a centerpiece of FDR’s New Deal. Just as the original NRA sought to bring renewed vigor to rural American life, Tyler & Dave’s NRA recovered the vigorous old-time string band music of the 1920s and ’30s for a new generation of listeners and players.

Adding Jim Chesney on guitar and vocals, the group is back with same great old-time songs, and a new name, taken from the iconic logo of the Depression-era National Recovery Administration. They’ve just released their first ever album (see above), which will be available for purchase at their Fiddle Club appearance. They’ll start with a concert set. We’ll follow with a jam session of tunes and songs. Give a listen to some of the old favorites we’ll play together in back room of Seman Violins.

All Around the Mountain

Diggin’ on the New Railroad

Georgia Railroad

The Glendy Burk

Fiddle Club is not just for fiddlers. Banjo players and guitar players are also needed. We welcome anyone who wants to come and join us with any instrument. You can also come for to sing, or just to listen.

Up next at Fiddle Club of the World
Square Dance with Phil Jamison
& the Volo Bogtrotters
Sunday, November 8, 6:30pm
Kuhn Village Barn (at Fermilab in Batavia)

Fiddle Club of the World

(Chicago Chapter)

Author Archives: Paul Tyler