Category Archives: Featured Guests

Lotus Dickey CD release party

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Lotus Dickey CD Release Celebration
Sunday, December 1, 7pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie)

Honoring the memory of Lotus Quentin Dickey (1911-89), Dickey’s Disciples will play tunes from the new CD: Down the Pike and Other Fiddle Tunes from Orange County, Indiana. The four disciples who accompanied Lotus in recording these tunes will be present: Fred Campeau-banjo, Jim Nelson-guitar, Steve Rosen-banjo and Paul Tyler-guitar and mandolin. To make it look even more like a Volo Bogtrotters appearance, Lynn “Chirps” Smith will also join the fun. And after the concert set, we’ll make a circle and everyone can play. Some of Lotus’s favorites will be taught.

Lotus Dickey: Down the Pike

Lotus Dickey was incredible man, a brilliant song writer and powerfully good fiddler. I was very privileged to spend a great deal of time with him from 1981, when I booked him for the Indiana Fiddlers Gathering in Battle Ground, up until his death in 1989. During that time, we made an concerted effort to identify and document all the tunes he had learned during his boyhood (the 1920s) from the old fiddlers who were his neighbors in Orange County, Indiana. The last time I saw Lotus, was a visit he made to Chicago in April of 1989. We set up an overnight recording session in the concert hall at the Old Town School of Folk Music and recorded about fifteen tunes with accompaniment by Dickey’s Disciples. The next morning, Lotus and I sat in front the microphones in engineer Flawn Williams living room and record another eight or so tunes, mostly waltzes.

Those were magic moments. The public first heard them on a 2-cassette album issued by Marimac Records in 1992. Now thanks to Vigortone Records, these session have been re-mastered and re-issued on CD. The CDs can be purchased at this Fiddle Club of the World meeting.

Lotus at his cabin on Grease Gravy Road
Lotus Dickey in front of his cabin on Grease Gravy Road near Paoli, Indiana.

To hear some tunes from Lotus Dickey & Dickey’s Disciples, go here and here.

-Paul Tyler, convener

New Season Starts Sunday

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Open jam this Sunday (9/15) at the Leadway Bar & Grill (5233 N. Damen) at 7 (pm).
Fiddlers and all players of other instruments are welcome. Bring your current favorite tune.

new season
(click here for a printable flyer)

To hear Norwegian tunes from Vidar Skrede, click here or here.
To hear recordings by Stuart Rosenberg, click here.

For the most current info and other goodies, check the Fiddle Club of the World facebood page. You do have to be on facebook (You mean you’re not!) and you do have to ask to join. Just ask, we’ll open the door for you. Click here for our facebook page

– Paul Tyler, convener

Special Last Minute Fiddle Club Guests

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Bjärv
Monday, June 24, 7pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie)

Sometimes great musicians wander into Chicago with open dates on their schedule. Fiddle Club of the World loves to take advantage of these situations, especially when the musicians in question are the talented men of this folk trio from Sweden and the US.

Bjarv
Bjärv

Olof Göthlin (fiddle), Ben Teitelbaum (nyckleharpa) & Mikael Grafström (guitar) will be in the acoustically wonderful back room of Seman Violins. (Thanks to Peter Seman and his staff for hosting). They’ll give us a bit of a concert and teach us a tune or two so we can all play together. All we ask is a $15 donation, payable at the door. This is a great chance to hear these fine musicians up close.

Fiddle Club meetings at Seman Violins are BYOB. Munchies will be provided.

If you want more, check out their bios, visit their website,
listen to the them on MySpace or watch them on a recent visit to the US . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVt-xKzrcHY

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

Jimmy Keane brings his accordion to Fiddle Club

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Sunday, January 27, 2013, 6:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie)
B.Y.O.B. Snacks will be provided.

All fiddlers and friends of fiddlers, including players of other instruments, are welcome. $15 admission. Click here to register.

Here’s a tune I recorded Jimmy playing on stage at the Indiana Fiddler’s Gathering in 1980 when he was a mere lad of 22.

Frieze Britches aka The Friar’s Breeches, aka Cunnla


And a half dozen years later he played with the also youthful and equally accomplished Liz Carroll in a concert for the Adler Cultural Center in Libertyville, Illinois.

unnamed reel-Limerick Lasses


From that same 1986 concert comes this solo performance of two Cuz Teahan tunes: The Road to Glentowne and The School of Glentowne . . .

Jimmy, of course, has had a long and outstanding career performing and composing wonderful tunes in the Irish tradition. You can find more samples on his own website.

Paul Tyler, convener

Fiddle Club guests for 2013

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Two concert meetings * are now scheduled for the Winter and Spring to be held in fun new location with great acoustics, the back room at Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie) (Check ’em out.)
B.Y.O.B. Snacks will be provided.

Jimmy Keane

Jimmy Keane, Accordion Master
Sunday, January 27, 2013, 6:30pm

As a young boy, Jimmy Keane, Jr. chose, not the ubiquitous button box or melodeon, but the full scale piano accordion. And he mastered it fully, becoming All-Ireland champion while still in his teens. Today he rules the roost. A Chicago treasure, Jimmy was recently named the Irish “Male Musician of the Decade (2000-2010).” An accomplished solo artist, he has performed with such bands as Aengus and Bohola, and participated on numerous tours of “Greenfields of America” and “An Irish Homecoming.” He’s got some new tunes he wants to try out for us, and will teach us a few.

$15 admission. Click here to register.

Kirk Sutphin & Bertram Levy
Kirk Sutphin & Bertram Levy
Sunday, March 10, 6:30 pm
Banjos, Bows and Bellows

This unique program features two artists who learned their music back in the 1970s from the same Blue Ridge Mountain luminaries–Henry Reed, Tommy Jarrell and Oscar Wright. Kirk still lives near his birthplace in Walkertown, North Carolina. He is both an excellent fiddler and accomplished in clawhammer and old-time finger-style banjo. He plays with the New North Carolina Ramblers. Bertram Levy spent his younger years in North Carolina, where he was an original member of the Hollow Rock String Band. Some years ago he moved to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, where he helped found the American Festival of Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend. A virtuosic banjoist, favoring gut strings, Bertram also plays tango music on bandoneon in the band Tangoheart, and traditional American music on the Anglo concertina. Their recent CD, “The Bellow and the Bow” features duets with fiddle, banjo and concertina.

$15 admission. Click here to register.

* Our guests will present a short concert (one set), to be followed by jam session.

Euro Roots World Music

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Jutta & the Hi-Dukes
Sunday, November 18, 6:30pm
Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln)

A world music trio from Evanston, they will play a short concert to start things off. Then we’ll work through a couple of tunes (see the link below), and maybe even do a simple circle dance or two. All fiddlers, musicians, listeners and dancers invited.

The tunes: click here for recordings and actual notes!

Jutta Distler plays for folk dancers
Jutta Distler plays for folk dancers. Terran Doeher leads the dance.

To register, follow this link, type ‘fiddle club’ in class name box.
$15 for this meeting. $60 for a year long subscription.

Fiddle Events

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Jutta & the Hi-Dukes
Just booked as special guests for our next meeting
Sunday, November 18 – 6:30p
Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln), in the back room
(To register for this meeting, see below. *)

A bit of world music. Maybe a little Klezmer. Maybe a touch of Danish.
They are Terran Doehrer, Zoï Doehrer and Jutta Distler.

Old-Time Square Dance this Friday
October 26, part of the Old Town School’s Global Dance Party.
Great music by Geoff Seitz & Friends,** calling by Paul Collins.
The dancing starts at 8:30. All dances will be taught throughout the evening. No experience necessary. Fun will be had.

*You can register for Fiddle Club of the World meetings at www.oldtownschool.org and search the class catalog for Fiddle Club. That brings up two choices: 1) a single meeting registration for $15, or 2) a year’s subscription to all Fiddle Club events for $60.

** Jim Nelson, Dedo Norris and Steve Rosen.

-Paul Tyler, convener
Chicago Chapter

Guest Artist for next Fiddle Club meeting

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Frank Hall, Old-Time Fiddler
Sunday, September 30 – 6:30p
Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln), in the back room

Founding fiddler of the Easy Street String Band, Bloomington, Indiana’s finest in the 1980s. Frank also played with the Yeah Buddys and the Monks before moving to Ireland right at the start of this century. He’s still playing American old-time tunes along with some of Ireland’s best traditional musicians.

Frank Hall Easy Street String Band

You can register at www.oldtownschool.org and search the class catalog for Fiddle Club. That brings up two choices: 1) a single meeting registration for $15, or 2) a year’s subscription to all Fiddle Club events for $60.

Here are some tunes to learn for the jam session with Frank . . .

Sopping Up the Gravy learned from a 1972 recording of Charlie “Jake” Corns of Battle Ground, Indiana


Jim Shank from Bruce Greene

Frank is a fine dance fiddler. So Fiddle Clubbers get to decide. Do we want him to play a concert set, or should we have a dance? If the latter, we’ll start with the jam session at 6:30, and follow with the dance. Let me know your druthers with a comment below.

– Paul Tyler, convener

Banjo master to appear at Fiddle Club

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Clarke Buehling – vintage banjoist
Sunday, July 8 – 6:30pm
Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln)

Clarke Buehling

“Clarke Buehling is both a banjo master and a devoted clear channel to America’s musical heritage dating back as far as 200 years. Most important of all: He sounds really good!” So says Pete Wernick, “Dr. Banjo,” founding member of the bluegrass band, Hot Rize, and a pretty good picker, himself.

Leader of The Skirtlifters Old-Time Band, Clarke Buehling specializes in the 19th century banjo styles that pre-figured both clawhammer and Scruggs picking. Clarke can play breakdowns and jig using the minstrel stroke, followed by virtuosic finger-picking on banjo rags and classical pieces. He’s a powerful player and a dynamic performer. A fiddle tune jam will follow a presentation not to be missed!

Green Corn-Essence of Old Virginny from the album Out of His Gourd.


St. Louis Tickle (Rag Time Two-Step) from the Skirtlifters album Wait for the Wagon.


(Both albums available here.)

Clarke Buehling will guest at Fiddle Club on Sunday, July 8 at 6:30 pm in the backroom of the Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln). Click here to register for a single meeting ($15 ), or click here for a year-long subscription ($60) to all Fiddle Club events..

Swedish guests at Fiddle Club

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Anders & Maria Larsson
Monday, June 4 – 7p
Room E124 — Old Town School East (4545 Lincoln)

This duo, veterans of the thriving Swedish folk music scene, is making their first visit to Chicago. In their few days here, they will give a workshop at the Old Town School on Sunday, June 3, followed by an evening concert at the Swedish-American Museum. Then on Monday evening, they will gather with Old Town fiddle alums, students and fans for an evening of traditional Swedish tunes. Come just to listen, or to play along. Not just for fiddlers.

Anders & Maria Larson
Anders & Maria Larson of Svanevit
(click here for info on June 3 concert at the Swedish-American Museum)

You can register for the Fiddle Club meeting for $15 by clicking here, or click this link for the $60 yearly subscription that gives you entrance to all Fiddle Club events.

Once again, here’s a couple of tunes of their beauteous music, as given on an earlier post, from the album Rikedom och gåvor with their quartet Svanevit.

Kardborren


Tranan