A tune from Stephanie Coleman

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.
Stephanie Coleman

Perhaps we’ll learn this tune.

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

Red Squirrell Chasers

* forthcoming on Vigortone Records

Sounds of Smith & Grimm

Beverly Smith & John Grimm

Below is a tune to learn for their Chicago concert and jam session:

Thursday, February 26, 8:30pm
Leadway Bar & Grill

(5233 N. Damen in Chicago)
Admission is $15

Christmas Eve slow, a tune from Jim Bowles of Tompkinsville, Kentucky


Besides being multi-instrumentalists, they are also wondrous singers of old-time and early country. Check out this promo video from the YouTubes. Lots of great stuff.

Tunes from Pop Wagner

Bob Bovee & Pop Wagner
Sunday, November 30 – 7pm
Seman Violins
(4447 W. Oakton, Skokie).
Admission is $15 at the door.


Okay, so this picture was taken 40 years ago. Their hair has turned gray, but they still play real good, with the same drive and passion for the old-time music they’ve shown to audiences all over the country. Few can do it any better. (Pop still has that fabulous mustache and Bob is sure to wear a great hat.) What’s in store for us is wealth of cowboy songs, old-time tunes, and more. Here’s some samples of Pop’s fiddling, tune we might play at the jam session.

Silver Creek Hasty by Anni Spring & Pop Wagner

Parted Lovers by Pop Wagner

Lamentation for William Hinkley by Adam Granger & Pop Wagner

Hobb Dye by Pop Wagner

Ebenezer by Anni Spring & Pop Wagner

Brazilian Tune (recording of a cool tune, sent by Pop)

Tunes from Pete’s Posse

For Pete Sutherland’s return to Fiddle Club of the World
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton, Skokie).
Sunday, September 28
Admission is $15 at the door.

The meeting begins at 7pm with a short concert followed by a jam/workshop.


Pete Sutherland                      Oliver Scanlon                  Tristan Henderson

A couple of tunes, originals by Oliver Scanlon, that we will all play together at the jam.

Descent of the Snark

Descent of the Snark slow

The Mindless Reel

A Twin Fiddle Throwback

One of my favorite classes to teach has always been my Twin Fiddle class.  I remember getting the idea for the class while driving to West Virginia in the summer of 1998. I told Gail (as best I remember), “This will be a class where I can teach Gu’Achi tunes and Swedish tunes and American tunes that lend themselves to harmonizing. And the students can master a little chord knowledge and music theory to help them figure out harmonies for themselves.”  We started the class within the next year, and it showed up in the Fiddle 4 rotation every year until a few years ago.  This year I brought it back.  As you will see at the end of this post, it was a great class.

But the most memorable year for Twin Fiddle was 2010 when, within the span of the few weeks, we were visited by fabulous fiddlers from three countries – Mexico, Austria and Finland – plus a band from North Carolina.

Osiris Caballero came by in May 2010. Besides teaching us a tune from his home state of Tamaulipas, he played a YouTube-worthy version of Cielto Lindo accompanied by our own Maria McCullough and Yahvi Pichardo.

Austrian ethnomusicologist, Rudi Pietsch, hung out at the Old Town School of Folk Music on his sabbatical away from Vienna. (The University of Chicago was his other hangout.) He visited Twin Fiddle class a couple of times and taught us a jodle (yodel) and a couple of polkas, as heard here

The Polka Chips from Finland and the Mostly Mountain Boys from North Carolina and Washington DC visited in June 2010 and did a special workshop for Fiddle Club and several Old Town School classes. This post reported on the workshop and the World Music Wednesday concert that followed. It also contains a recording and a video from Rudi Pietsch’s Fiddle Club meeting a few days earlier.

Check these old posts out for some great twin fiddle music 4 years past. And it continues, as this years Fiddle IV Twin Fiddle class proves at an Old Town School graduation showcase.

Paul Tyler, convener

Fiddle Club does Make Music Chicago

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.

Tunes from Folkestra

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.

X:1
T:Rusty Gulley
M:3/2
N:cf Punchanello’s Hornpipe / Three Rusty Swords,
N:from John of the Greeny Cheshire Way
O:England
R:Triple Hornpipe
K:G
GABc d2 G2 B2 G2 | F2 A4 c2 B2 A2 | GABc d2 G2 B2 G2 | D2 G4 B2 A2 G2 ::
g4 f4 ef g2 | f2 d4 f2 e2 d2 | c4 B4 AB c2 | B2 G4 B2 A2 G2 :|

X: 2
T: Squirrel in a Tree
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: G
d edc | BBB BBB | B2A GAB | ccc ccc | c2d efg |
fff fff | fed cBA |1 GBd e2d | B2 :|2 GB/c/d b2a | g2 |:
B dga |bbb bbb | b2 a gfe | ddd ddd | d2c Bdg |
fff fff | fed cBA | GBd e2d |1 B2- :|2 G2 |

Tunes from Don Stiernberg

Don Stiernberg
Sunday, January 26, 7pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie)

$15 at the door. Fiddle Club is not just for fiddlers. All players and music lovers are welcome.

A little lesson in swing. Another session tune on this earlier post.

Right or Wrong slow

Right or Wrong lesson

Right or Wrong improvised


Sunny Side of the Street slow

Sunny Side of the Street lesson

Sunny Side of the Street improvised

More Tunes from Lotus Dickey

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.