Fiddle Club does Make Music Chicago

Posted on June 14, 2014 by Paul Tyler

Some tunes for Make Music Chicago day performances (Saturday, June 21).
These recordings can all be found in alphabetical order on the Fiddle Tune Archive. Direct links are provided below

Beatrice Hill’s 3-Hand Reel

Celeya Polka

Indian Corn

Little Betty Brown

La Pollo Pinta

Snouts and Ears of America

El Viento (aka Viento, El)

Walk Old Shoe, Heel Come a-Draggin’

More tunes for Make Music Chicago day performances (Saturday, June 21).
These can be found on various posts on Fiddle Club of the World blog (this very blog>. Use the tag cloud to locate them by the specifed tags in parentheses. Direct links are provided below.

(Arto Järvelä)
Edward Öst’s Brud Polkka

(Chirps Smith)
Mississippi Palisades

Ten Cents

(Irish fiddle)
The Black Rogue (jig)

Gone for His Tea

Kerry Slides

(Norwegian tunes)
Eg I Liten Eg

Vidar’s Vals

(Swedish Fiddle)
Häst Schottis

Marsch från Bohuslän

(Tune of the Week)
Sullivan’s Polka/Britches Full of Stitches

Mazok

And a couple more in standard notation (Recordings linked below.
Missouri Waltz — Italian Scotís (schottische) — Blackthorn Stick (Scottish jig)

Missouri Waltz

Italian Scotís

The Blackthorn Stick

At our monthly jam session at the Leadway on Sunday, June 15, we’ll play through most of this list and pick our favorites for next Saturday’s performances. Be at the Leadway (5233 N. Damen) at 7pm.

Paul Tyler-convener

PS For your convenience, click here to download the Tune List, complete with links to recordings and notation.

All Sorts of Big News

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Paul Tyler

1. Everything is all set for
12th Midwest Fiddle Championship
Youth Division Round* – Sunday July 6 at 11 am
Open Division & Youth Division Finals – Thursday, July 10 at 6:30 pm
At Square Roots Fest
Open Division Finals (also Youth winners perform) – Saturday, July 12 at 1:30
3rd Battle of the Bands – Sunday, July 13th at 7 pm *
The Championship is held in Maurer Hall,
Old Town School of Folk Music West (4544 Lincoln)
*These events held in Szold Hall, Old Town School East (4545 Lincoln)

Important links
Midwest Fiddle Championship info and an online registration form (register by July 1).

2. Fiddle Club of the World will participate
Make Music Chicago
on Saturday June 21st with performances at
Indian Boundary Park, 11-11:45 am
Poetry Foundation, 1:30 -2 pm (tentative)
Joan’s Studio, 4:15-5 pm

Past jam participants are welcome to join.

3. Coming this summer, new ways to participate in Fiddle Club of the World
Friends of the Fiddle Club supporting membership
Also, a new World Membership will provide access to an online Fiddle Clubhouse,
plus new gear and swag are coming: membership cards, case stickers, a CD and (eventually) a t-shirt.

Paul Tyler, convener

Throwback Thursday: Bluff Country Gathering

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Paul Tyler

Six years have passed, and I’ve made over 180 posts to the Fiddle Club of the World blog. These contained a lot of great tunes and other stuff . And the mp3s, photos, ABCs and some notation are all still here. You can use category lists or the tag cloud on the right sidebar to help you find a tune of interest. I also think an occasional throwback post would be a good way to highlight some of our good memories.

Since today marks the start of the 16th Bluff Country Gathering in Lanesboro, Minnesota, I thought I’d start off by linking a report on 2008 Bluff Country Gathering. Those musings will give you a bit of the flavor of this annual roundup of fiddlers, banjoists and old-time music enthusiasts from the Upper Midwest. You’ll also want to follow the link to another post featuring recordings from a Fiddle Showcase. Tunes from Tom Sauber, Brad Leftwich and Alice Gerrard showed up on this blog in August of 2008. Those recordings can also be found on DrDosido.net, along with tunes from Mac Traynham, Chirps Smith and Stephanie Coleman from the same session.

This will be the first Bluff Country Gathering since the death of the event’s founder, Gail Heil. Beloved by all, Gail was a fine fiddler and multi-talented musician. She was also a mentor to many, and a close friend to my family. Our hearts have traveled many a mile to be with Bob Bovee, her husband and musical partner, as he kept the Gathering on the path that he and Gail set it on sixteen years ago.

Gail Heil, 1946-2013

It’s also worth noting that Bob Bovee & Gail Heil were a little bit of the inspiration behind the Fiddle Club of the World. Back in the very early years of this century, Chirps Smith and I were running a Sunday afternoon fiddle jam session at the Hideout, a then new music club on Chicago’s north side. Once our monthly session coincided with Bob & Gail’s annual visit. So I helped them arrange a date to play on the Hideout’s stage following our jam, in which they fully participated. The combination of playing together, then listening to a concert in friendly and close quarters lodged in my mind as something that should happen more often.

Though I tried, I was sadly never able to schedule Gail to a be featured fiddler at Fiddle Club. But next November 30, Bob Bovee and his old fiddling buddy, Pop Wagner, will be our guests in the back room at Seman Violins. Mark your calendars.

Paul Tyler, convener

Old -Time Square Dance with Bowhunter

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Paul Tyler

Friday, May 9
Dancing from 8:30 to 11:00
Old Town School of Folk Music’s Global Dance Party
Szold Hall, 2nd floor of 4545 Lincoln (Chicago)

Music by Bowhunter, a band of young’ns from Kalamazoo and Lansing.
They’re millennials, and they’re good.
Calling by Paul Tyler, an old boomer geezer from Indiana
He guarantees a good time for all, even for those who’ve never square danced before.

Click here for more info or to reserve your spot.

Old-Time Square Dance, May 9

Fiddle Club has moved – to here!

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Paul Tyler

But you already know that, because you’re reading these here lines.

The new host for Fiddle Club of the World blog is DrDosido.net.
DrDosido = Paul Tyler, the convener of the Chicago Chapter (thus far the only chapter).

The entire history of the blog is being spit polished and spruced up, to make sure all the music links successfully made the move. Past posts of interesting tunes &c. will be highlighted on future “Throwback Thursdays.” Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

You’re welcome, of course, to browse anytime back through six-and-a-half years of tunes, pictures, and features. Hundreds of tunes have been posted over that time span from our 44 featured guests and other points of interest. Our guests have come from eight different countries. Fifteen US states have been represented, as well as over a dozen music styles and ethnic traditions.

Since 2013, Fiddle Club of the World guest artist meetings have been hosted by Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton) in Skokie, Illinois. Monthly, more or less, jam sessions are held at the Leadway Bar & Grill (5233 N. Damen) in Chicago. The usual time for a session is 7pm on the 3rd Sunday of the month. Check this blog for updates. A new season of guests will start in September with Pete Sutherland and Pete’s Posse.

Big plans are being made to expand Fiddle Club’s web presence. Check back this summer for guidelines on how to start a chapter in your home town. And we are working on the 12th Midwest Fiddle Championship on July 11th and the 3rd annual Battle of the Bands on July 12th. Both will be held at the Old Town School of Folk Music’s Square Roots Festival.

Stuff to Know About

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Paul Tyler

1. Old-Time Square Dance with Bowhunter
A fine young band from Kalamazoo & Lansing
Old Town School of Folk Music’s Global Dance Party
Szold Hall (4545 Lincoln), 8:30-11 on Friday, May 9

: Old-Time Square Dance, May 9

(click for larger image)

2. Fiddle Club of the World monthly jams
3rd Sunday of each month, 7 pm
Leadway Bar & Grill (5233 N. Damen)
Open to all fiddlers, players, pickers and listeners

3. 12th Midwest Fiddle Championship is in the works.
At the Old Town School’s Square Roots Festival
Weekend of July 11-13
Details to be announced.

4. Friends of the Fiddle Club is forming!
Pay some attention, learn how you can help,
and what you get out of it. It’ll be good.
I promise.

Have you seen this one?

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Paul Tyler

Many of us know tunes that came from the playing of Harvey “Pappy” Taylor of Effingham, Illinois. It’s a treat to see Pappy play. This is from 1984.

Tunes from Folkestra

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Paul Tyler

Folkestra from England
Sunday, April 13, 7 pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie)
This event is free.

Here are some tunes we can play together. (Click the arrow to listen, right-click the tune title to download.)

Rusty Gulley, an old-style hornpipe in 3/2
NB: In the Geordie dialect, a gulley is a long sharp knife.

Squirrel in the Tree, a jig in G

Here are the ABCs. Copy and paste a whole block into this online converter and turn it into music to read or play.

An evening of English Traditional Music

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Paul Tyler

Folkestra from England
Sunday, April 13, 7 pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie)
This event is free.

Folkestra is 11 teenage instrumentalists and singers from Sage Gateshead, an Old Town School clone in Northern England. They are doing a week-long residency at the Old Town School of Folk Music, highlighted by a concert and ceilidh/barn dance at Global Dance Party on Friday, April 11. (That event is also free.) Their visit to Fiddle Club gives us a chance to hear more tunes, learn a couple, and play together.

I hope to be able to post some tunes to learn this week. But try out this pair.

New and Old Morpeth Rants by Our Northern Branch

Just added! A peek at Folkestra’s performance at the Old Town School of Folk Music’s Global Dance Party on April 11, 2014.

More tunes, and maybe some notes, to follow.
Paul Tyler, convener

Fiddle Club Meetings New and Old

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Paul Tyler

New Fiddle Club meeting just arranged.

On Sunday, April 13 at 7pm we’ll be joined by special guests, the Folkestra, an 11-piece band from northern England. Details will be forthcoming as to location &c. We will have some tunes to learn ahead of time for what promises to be a memorable jam session. Mark your calendars.

An Old Meeting Noted in a Chicago Tribune Blog

Eric Zorn writes about a tune he found on the Fiddle Club of the World blog (this one!).

Chirps Smith alert! Video images and more.