Fiddle Club of the World Welcomes Renee Vaughan

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Paul Tyler

Fiddle Club is back again. We are bringing a featured guest fiddler to give us a short concert and lead a jam. In this case, our fiddler is Renee Vaughan, a nyckleharpist from Minnesota.

Renee Vaughan plays new and traditional Scandinavian music on nyckelharpa (a keyed-fiddle), the national folk instrument of Sweden. Renee is currently the Musician-in-Residence at UW-Madison’s Center for Nordic Folklife and will be sharing tunes from her project on the music of first generation Swedish immigrants.

This Fiddle Club of the World-Chicago Chapter meeting will be held

Wednesday, May 1 at 8:00pm at

Borelli Pizza (2124 W Lawrence Ave, Chicago)

Suggested donation: $10. The concert set will be followed by a jam for all players. A couple of Nordic tunes will be posted next week to help you get ready to play.

Here’s a tune from a Swedish fiddler, August Widmark, who emigrated to Minnesota in the 1800s. Renee learned this from a music notebook kept by Mr. Widmark and his family. Learning the story and setting of this notebook are a centerpiece of her residency at UW’s Center for Nordic Folklife.

Widmark Polonaise (aka Slangpolska efter August Widmark)

To learn more about Renee, her instrument and her music, checkout: www.reneevaughan.com.

Big Fiddle Stuff in City of Big Shoulders

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Paul Tyler

Leadway Jam Session Big Shoulders Square Dance

Sunday, November 16:
Last jam session of the year at 7pm at the Leadway Bar & Grill (523 N. Damen).
(Click tune list above for running list of all 2014 jams.)

Friday, November 21 Big Shoulders Square Dance with White Mule.
8:30 Global Dance Party at the Old Town School of Folk Music (4545 N. Lincoln).
Hot fiddling by Genevieve Harrison Koester. Solid old-time backup by Smith Koester, Andy Gribble and Abby Ladin. Callin by Paul Tyler. Dancing by y’all. No experience necessary.
(Click photo above for more information. Tickets available here.)

Barn Dance Tonight

Posted on November 2, 2014 by Paul Tyler

This event is the culmination of the apprenticeship grant that Judy Higgins and I received from the Illinois Arts Council. We’ve met every week for the last half year to learn about 18 to 20 tunes. We’ve worked on building up speed and drive with the bow. Judy’s playing has become way more danceable. And we’re going to test that out tonight with a return to the Atlantic Bar & Grill for a old-time square dance in the back room.

The band, Judy and the Big Dogs, includes Steve Rosen, Chris Walz and yours truly. Eric Zorn will call – and teach – the figures. Come on out at 7pm, fill the floor and square your sets. We’re gonna have a big time tonight.

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.

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.

More Tunes from Lotus Dickey

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Paul Tyler

Don’t forget!
Lotus Dickey CD Release Celebration
Sunday, December 1, 7pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie)
$15 at the door for a concert, followed by a session of tunes

Lotus Dickey jigging, circa 1986

Lotus Dickey at Sugar Hill, circa 1986

Complete and corrected notation for all the tunes.
Music notation is here.
ABC notation is here.

And some more tunes recorded in 1986.

Greasy Strings

Paddy on the Handcar, Second tune in a medley from the album “Pride of Glencoe”

More tunes here.

Tunes from Lotus Dickey

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Paul Tyler

Lotus Dickey CD Release Celebration
Sunday, December 1, 7pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie)
$15 at the door for a concert, followed by a session of tunes

Music at the celebration provided by Dickey’s Disciples.

Lotus Dickey & the Sugar Hill Serenaders

1984 Disciples – aka Sugar Hill Serenaders
in front of Lotus’s cabin on Grease Gravy Hill

Lotus Dickey & Friends at Fermilab barn dance

1989 Disciples – aka & Friends
at the Fermilab Barn Dance
(click for full photo)

Here are some tunes recorded in 1989 for the album that has recently been reissued on Vigortone Records. The CD will be on sale at the Fiddle Club of the World meeting (more info here).

Oyster River Hornpipe

Kiss Waltz

Holiness Piece

The following recordings are from 1986. The quality is not as good as the recordings on the CD. But Lotus was playing a bit stronger at the time. The first two tunes, but not the waltz, can be heard on the CD.

Porter

Little Bess

Albert Dougherty D Waltz #2 (guitar; in A dorian, aka 1 sharp)

Complete and corrected notation is here.
Complete and corrected ABC notation is here.
(Click your pick.)

Dickey’s Disciples (aka the Volo Bogtrotters)
circa 2009 at Breaking Up Thanksgiving

More tunes here.

Paul Tyler -convener
Fiddle Club of the World, Chicago Chapter

Tune of the Week for July 2, 2012

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Paul Tyler

A classic rag, as played by Les Raber of Hastings, Michigan.
Check out his cool Michigan Fiddler trading card.
Collect the whole set.

NB Twenty-four Tunes of the Week have been posted through the first half of 2012. Since the second half of the year just started, I’ve started the numbering back at 1.

Paul Tyler, convener

Tune of the Week for March 26, 2012

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Paul Tyler

I’m a little late posting this weeks TofW. Sorry about that. Sometimes life in the fiddle-industrial complex gets hectic. But my mind is back home in Indiana, so I think it’s time for a Lotus Dickey tune.
Sugar Hill Serenaders
Lotus Dickey, Paul Tyler, John Bealle, Teri Klassen

Little Bess

X:13
T:Little Bess
M:C|
L:1/8
S:Lotus Dickey from Poindexter Ainsworth
K:D
D2f2 fgfe | d2F2 A3F | E2AB cBAc | d2F2 A3+EA+ |
+D2A2+fe fgfe | d2F2 A3+FA+ | +E2A2+AB cBAc | +F4d4+ +F4d4+ :|
K:A
e4 e3f | e2c2 +c4e4+ | B4 g2eg | aeae c’3c’ |
e4 e3f | e2+ce++ce+ +c4e4+ | B2ef gefg |1 +c4a4+ +c2a2+z2 :|2 +c3a3+z =+B3g3+z ||

Tunes from Lynn Frederick

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Paul Tyler

These tunes were originally collected by the late Jeff Goehring in the 1980s from traditional fiddlers in south and central Ohio. Jeff and Lynn played together in the Red Mules String Band. Many of Jeff’s field recordings are available on CD from the Field Recorder’s Collective, including albums featuring Lonnie Seymour, Jimmie Wheeler and John Hannah mentioned below. Also available are CDs featuring Cecil Plum, Arnold Sharp and Ward Jarvis. All can be found at www.fieldrecorder.com.

The guitar accompaniment heard on the recordings below is by Beth Braden, who was also a Red Mule.

Two tunes from Lonnie Seymour of Chillicothe, Ohio. Lonnie’s playing can be heard on Field Recorders Collective CD FRC403.
Tomahawk in A

Tomahawk slow

Log Chain in D

Log Chain slow

A tune from Jimmie Wheeler of Portsmouth, Ohio (FRC401) . . .
Cauliflower

Cauliflower slow

. . . and one from Estil Adams of Washington Courthouse, Ohio
Putner’s Run in G

Putner’s Run slow

Here’s a tune from John Hannah, a native of West Virginian who moved Columbus (FRC405).
Daddy Whipped the Baby in G

Daddy Whipped slow

This one is from Missouri fiddler Bob Holt. Lynn learned it from Jeff Goehring.
Blue Mule in G

Blue Mule slow

Lynn Frederick with Fred Campeau will guest at the Fiddle Club of the World meeting onSunday, October 23 at 6:30p at the Atlantic Bar & Grill (5063 Lincoln). More info here. Single meeting dues are $15. Register here by date (10/23/2011). For yearly dues of $60-which covers all meetings for the next 12 months–click here.

Fiddle Club of the World

(Chicago Chapter)

Tag Archives: midwestern fiddle