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)

Welcoming Maria McCullough & Yahvi Pichardo to Fiddle Club

Posted on September 19, 2015 by Paul Tyler

Friday, September 25, 7:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)
A concert set, followed by a jam/workshop.
Admission is $15.

Yahvi & Maria have been with loyal Fiddle Clubbers since our very
beginning in 2008. But they recently moved to El Paso, Texas. We are so glad
they could be our featured guests on a visit back to Chicago.

Here are a couple of tunes to help you get ready. The first is a gusto from Tierra Caliente, a style known as Son Caletano. Maria says, “We learned this tune from master teachers Serafín Ibarra and Jesús ‘Chucho’ Peredo.” Maria once had the opportunity to study with the grand master fiddler from that region, Don Juan Reynoso, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 94. The second is a tune from the Purepecha, one of the First Peoples of Michoacan.

El Tecolote, The Owl (something like this one.)

El De Ichán, Serafín Ibarra teaching Maria

Up next at Fiddle Club of the World
BluEagle String Band
Tyler Wilson, Dave Prine, & Jim Chesney
Friday, October 9, 7:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton in Skokie)

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

4th Annual Battle of the Bands

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Paul Tyler

The 4th annual Battle of the Bands, sponsored by the Fiddle Club of the World, will unfold in Szold Hall at the Old Town School of Folk Music (4545 N. Lincoln) in Chicago on Saturday, July 11, 7-9pm. Part of the Square Roots Festival.

3 bands, 2 hours of dancing, intermittent dance lessons, big fun

The winning band is the one that best fills the floor with dancers. Vote with your feet.

Nota Bene: Once again, all competing bands feature fiddlers.
Jim Stoynoff

Jim Stoynoff’s Greek Band
Izaki Metropoulos on violin
Greek music
An Iron Heart artist

Juan Rivera

Juan Rivera
con Los Condenados Huastecos
Mexican/Son Huasteca
An Iron Heart artist

White Mule

Genevieve Koester
with White Mule
Old-Time Square Dance tunes
White Mule

13th Midwest Fiddle Championship

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Paul Tyler

Presented by the Chicago Chapter of
the Fiddle Club of the World

Part of the Old Town School of Folk Music’s 4th Square Roots Festival.

Once again, prizes will be given for the top 3 contestants in each of 3 categories: Open Division Solo, Open Division Team, and Youth Division. There are a limited number of openings for this years contest. Contestants must register by July 6, 2012.

Youth Division First Round
Wednesday, July 8, 6:30pm, Szold Hall in Old Town School East (4545 Lincoln)
Youth under 16 compete as teams or solo

Open Division First Round & Youth Finals
Thursday, July , 6:30pm, Maurer Hall in Old Town School West (4544 Lincoln)
Separate Fiddle Team and Fiddle Solo categories

Open Division Finals
Saturday, July 11, 1:30pm, Maurer Hall
Plus winner of the Youth Division

Prizes, Rules and online Registration form can be found at http://www.squareroots.org/fiddle/

And later on Saturday night, we’ll do the 4th annual

Battle of the Bands
July 11, 7-9pm, in Szold Hall featuring
several Iron Heart Artists, including Liz Carroll, Juan Rivera & Jim Stoynoff

Paul Tyler, convener

Tunes for Make Music Chicago

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Paul Tyler

Sunday, June 21, 2015
Our performance schedule can be found on this post.

Our rehearsal schedule includes 5pm rehearsals at Gideon Welles pub (4500 N. Lincoln) the next 3 Sundays: 5/31, 6/7 and 6/14. We’ll be in the back room. Last Sunday we worked on Brudpolkka efter Edward Öst, Snouts and Ears of America, Polonæse Svøbsk, Walk Old Shoe, and Blackthorn Stick. On the schedule for this Sunday is El Viento, Storm and a couple others.

Y’all are invited to come learn a few tunes and play with us. Here are some aids to help you learn the tunes:
1. A Tune list, with links to downloadble recordings (also a downloadable pdf)
2. A Tunebook in standard music notation
3. ABC notation for the tunes (plus hints how to use ABCs)

And don’t forget. This Sunday (5/31) is also Bluegrass Night at Fiddle Club of the World, with a concert and workshop/jam led by Colby Maddox and Sunnyside Up. Meetings starts at 7pm at Seman Violins in Skokie (4447 W. Oakton). Admission is $15.

-Paul Tyler, convener

Fiddle Club recruits wanted

Posted on May 23, 2015 by Paul Tyler

To play for Make Music Chicago on June 21, 2015.

We have two performances and a fiddle tune jam scheduled. And I imagine that just like last year, we’ll have a load of fun and fellowship to go along with all the tunes. We invite you to join us, whatever you play, at whatever skill level you’re at (as long as you can learn a few tunes.)

We’ll be having rehearsals the next 4 Sundays from 5 to about 7 in the back room at Gideon Welles’s (4500 N. Lincoln). At each rehearsal, we’ll teach a couple of tunes that will be new to some folks, and we’ll review others that are more widely known. If you join us for the Make Music Chicago day, you can play along with all the tunes you know, and enjoy listening to the ones you don’t. Not everyone has to play on every tune.

We’ve prepared a working list of 24 tunes from a multitude of countries and cultures. You can view the list online, as a page on this blog. It contains links to recordings of each tune. Some music notation will also be posted here soon. Or if you prefer, you can download a pdf of the tune list with links.

Tunes to be taught this week include: Snouts and Ears of America, El Viento, Edward Öst Brudpolkka, and Polonæse Svøbsk.

Oh, and here’s a flyer for the Fiddle Tune Jam on June 21. Print it and spread it.

Hope to see you at Gideon Welles this Sunday at 5pm.

-Paul Tyler, convener

Bringing Bluegrass to Fiddle Club

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Paul Tyler

Colby Maddox & Sunnyside Up
Sunday, May 31 – 7pm
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton, Skokie).
Admission is $15 at the door.
How to get that bluegrass sound on your fiddle.
How to work that fiddle into a bluegrass band.

Colby moved to Chicago in 1995 to work with The Special Consensus bluegrass band where he rubbed elbows and shared the stage with many of his heroes like Tim O’Brien, Scott Nygaard, Sally Van Meter, Laurie Lewis, Slavek Hanzlik, J.D. Crowe and John Hartford. Along the way Colby studied fiddle with Missouri State Champion Charlie Walden and played for a short time in a duo with young banjo wizard Noam Pikelny.

Colby teaches at the Old Town School of Folk Music now, and in 2006 he won first prize at the Rocky Grass mandolin competition in Lyons, Colorado. Recent side projects include playing on the soundtrack for the recent PBS documentary The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National Barn Dance, narrated by Garrison Keillor and singing on the soundtrack for the Newberry Library’s Homemakers of the Civil War: Sheet Music.

The first two tunes below were recorded by Colby alone. He has Sunnyside Up guitar-backup on the last.

Cotton-Eyed Joe by Colby Maddox
“The bluegrass, two chord version. I have heard Jason Carter (Del McCoury) and Ronnie Stewart (The Boxcars) whip this one out for a little fiddle banjo fun. Small changes in the phrasing can turn into some nice twists.”

Strawberry Point by Colby Maddox
“A tune I learned from Al Murphy who heard Bill Monroe compose it on the spot in Strawberry Point, Iowa. Very good for working up your bluegrass phrasing, and we will learn a few standard variations.”

High on the Mountain
“This is the verse, which is normally the only section used for solos, but we can work up the chorus if you like this. With a little singing and light back up this one can really flow.”

Danish Duo Does Fiddle Club

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Paul Tyler

Fiddlepallooza 2015 with Jensen & Bugge
fiddle & accordion duo from Denmark
Tuesday, May 12, 7pm
Mauer Hall at the Old Town School of Folk Music (4544 Lincoln)
The program will include a concert set followed by a jam/workshop.
Admission is $15. Get tickets.

Fiddlepalooza returns as the Fiddle Club of the World once again teams up with the Old Town School of Folk Music fiddle program for an evening of listening and learning. This program is open to all fiddlers, players of other instruments and all lovers of traditional folk music.

We welcome from Denmark fiddler Kristian Bugge and accordionist Mette Jensen, childhood friends and music partners since 2001. Kristian Bugge is active in many Danish and Nordic folk music ensembles, including Baltic Crossing, Kings of Polka and Habadekuk. He has also been instrumental in promoting the Danish-American music of Dwight Lamb, an octogenarian fiddler and accordionist from Iowa. Kristian’s energetic fiddling is especially well-matched with the squeeze-box mastery of Mette Jensen. Give a listen . . .

Peder Pøhls Hopsa

Reelsæt

Den Trekantede Sløjfe

Future Fiddle Club events
Colby Maddox & Sunnyside Up
Bluegrass from the fiddle side.
Sunday, May 31, 7pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton in Skokie)

Make Music Chicago
Sunday, June 21, all day
Fiddle Club performs in the Loop and leads a Fiddle Tune Jam at the Lincoln Park Zoo

Rosin your bow,
-Paul Tyler, convener

Fiddle Club at Make Music Chicago

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Paul Tyler

The Chicago Chapter of the Fiddle Club of the World

will once again perform at Make Music Chicago on Sunday, June 21, 2015

with two performances and an open jam session

10-11am at Maggie Daley Park: Cancer Survivor Garden (337 E Randolph)
noon-1pm at Marina Plaza at Chicago Riverwalk
(Lower Wacker, between State St & Dearborn St)
3-5pm Fiddle Tune Jam at Cafe Brauer Patio
(Lincoln Park Zoo)

Anyone who has participated in a past Fiddle Club of the World jam session may join us. Come this Sunday (4/19) at 7pm to the Leadway Bar & Grill (5233 N. Damen) and help work up a list of tunes to share with the city on Make Music Chicago day.

Please contact me at fiddleclub@drdosido.net to ask for further information or instructions.

Paul Tyler, convener

A tune from Stephanie Coleman

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Paul Tyler

There will be more, many more, at the Fiddle Club of the World meeting at Seman Violins in Skokie (4447 Oakton). Admission is $15. Meeting starts at 7:30 with a concert, followed by a jam session/workshop.

Perhaps we’ll learn this tune.

Shakin’ Down the Acorns * by Stephanie Coleman with the Red Squirrel Chasers

* forthcoming on Vigortone Records

Fiddle Club of the World

(Chicago Chapter)

Author Archives: Paul Tyler