Tunes from Sule Greg Wilson

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Concert & Jam Session
(click above for more info about our featured guest)
Sunday, May 29, 6:30p
Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln)

To register, click one of these options.
Single meeting dues of $15, register by date (05/29).
Yearly subscription of $60 gives you admission to all Fiddle Club events (usually the 3rd Sunday).

Sankofa Strings CD

 

 

For your listening pleasure, here are a couple of tunes from Sule Greg Wilson from the Sankofa Strings (aka Carolina Chocolate Drops) CD, Colored Aristocracy

 

Johnny Too Bad


Jalidong


The tunes below are for the jam session that will follow Sule’s concert.

Colored Aristocracy
(work on this one for the session)


Old Joe Clark from a Carolina Chocolate Drops performance in Arizona


Woyaya, an African song

Tunes from Kathleen Keane

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Concert & Jam Session
(click for more info about our featured guest)
Sunday, May 15, 6:30p
Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln)

To register, click one of these options.
Single meeting dues of $15, register by date (05/15).
Yearly subscription of $60 gives you admission to all Fiddle Club events (usually the 3rd Sunday)

Kathleen Keane's new CD

For your listening pleasure, here’s a tune from Kathleen Keane’s new CD, Where the Wind Meets the Water (2011)

The Gypsy Reel / The Quarter Inch Wick


And from her eponymous first CD (1999) . . .
Unknown / The Ships Are Sailing


The tunes below are for the jam session and workshop. Each is played slowly, at first, then faster.

Cuz Teahan’s Polka (Terrence “Cuz” Teahan was a notable concertina player and teacher in Chicago’s Irish community in the last decades of the 20th century.)

Tom Sullivan’s Polka

East to Glendart – Jig

Meetings for Spring and Summer 2011

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All events happen at the Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln)

Good news. You can now join Fiddle Club of the World for $60 yearly dues. This allows you to 1) support our effort to bring notable fiddlers to the Old Town School for friendly and up close interactions with our local players, 2) save up to 50% off of single meeting dues, and 3) get a cool Fiddle Club card with your name and renewal date inscribed.

Kathleen Keane
Sunday, May 15, 6:30p – Irish

Kathleen Keane
A star of stage and screen–really–Kathleen once taught Irish step-dancing at the Old Town School and was a featured dancer in the Green Fields of America tour. She played tinwhistle in The Drovers (with whom she appeared in the film Backdraft as well as in the Tom Hanks movie, Road to Perdition. More recently, Kathleen has made her mark as a fine Irish fiddler. She toured for three years with Gaelic Storm, with whom she earned a #2 spot on the Billboard World Music chart, earned a #1 spot on the same chart with a song composed for the Windham Hill Celtic Christmas album, and recently released her first solo CD–Where the Wind Meets the Water–with a sell-out concert at the Mayne Stage. Fiddle Club offers a chance for an up close and friendly musical experience with our own Kathleen Keane.

Sule Greg Wilson
Sunday, May 29, 6:30 – Black Old-Time
Sule Greg WilsonSule is the first non-fiddler to be a featured guest at Fiddle Club of the World. During a long career as a dancer, drummer and educator, he took up the banjo as he became enthralled with the instruments historical and musical connections to the African diaspora. An organizer of the historic Black Banjo Then & Now conference held in 2005, Sule was a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. He is currently working with the Drops and our own Reggio “The Hoofer” McLaughlin on a new production being sponsored by the Old Town School. He’ll take a break from their rehearsal gathering in May, to give us a program of African-American banjo tunes and open us up to the rhythmic potential of old-time music. Sule is a fabulous teacher, so don’t miss this one.

Single dues for a meeting with a featured fiddler are $15. Register here by date.
Or you may choose the yearly dues option for $60.

Square & Ceilidh Dance workshop
Sunday, June 19, 6:30 – a dry run for Fiddle Club players,* dancers welcome

Square & Ceilidh Dance
Sunday, July 17, 6:30 – the real thing
Admission for dancers: $5

* To be a Fiddle Club player, come to a Fiddle Club event. There are no single dues for meetings at which we just play tunes, watch films or dance. Come and join us, even if you don’t have a Fiddle Club card. If you decide to register for one, we appreciate your support.

Dance Band Practice

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Square & Ceilidh Dance – July 17

I’ll call and teach the dances. You, Fiddle Club players, will be the band. There are tunes to be learned. We’ll start working on them at the Atlantic on Sunday April 17 at 6:30p. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure everybody knows them.

Here’s a tune book I made.
Note: a revised and corrected edition of the tune book is coming soon.

And here are the tunes . . .

Old-Time tunes for square and ceilidh dances
Ten Cents Chirps Smith – April ’08

Streak o’ Lean Pete Sutherland – October ’09

Daylight in the Morning Jim & Kim Lansford – July ’10

Granny Alan Jabbour – October ’08

Who’ll Cut the Britches Genevieve & Smith Koester – April ’10

Fire on the Mountain Matt Brown – May ’10

Sugar in the Gourd Paul Brown (Mostly Mountain Boys) – June ’10

She Oughta Been a Lady Vesta Johnson – October ’10 (from the jam session)

Steppin’ in the Parlour Bruce Greene – April ’11 (recording from Bruce’s visit in 1996)

Couple dances
Koputus polkka Arto Järvelä’s – September ’09

Hast Schottis Mary Allsopp – January ’11

plus 3 more tunes on this earlier post.

A Friday Night Fiddle Club this week!

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Bruce Greene
April 15, 8:30p
The Atlantic (5062 Lincoln)

Bruce Greene

Some tunes from Bruce on an earlier post below were played slow. These, played fast, are from Bruce’s last visit to the Old Town School in 1996.

Steppin’ in the Parlor (Bruce taught this tune to the Old Time Ensemble)

 

Wolf Creek
(This one is a variant of one my favorites that I learned from Lotus Dickey: ie, Dickey’s Discovery.)

 

Go here to register for this meeting – $15. Be aware the new yearly dues option may appear on this page any day now.

Also, Bruce will be giving a workshop on Eastern Kentucky fiddle tunes on Saturday at the Old Town School. Click here to register.

Paul Tyler, convener

PS. There are more of Bruce’s tunes on my website–drdosido.net–that you might enjoy. Some were recorded at informal sessions; others from the annual Fiddlers Reunion held at the Adler Cultural Center in Libertyville in the 1990s.

Tunes for the Square & Ceilidh Dance

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Dance band practice April 17 and June 19. We’ll workshop some of the tunes and dances on June 19. The full dance is scheduled for July 17.

Here’s a fun video from Italy of the Tacco e Punta (Heel & Toe?) dance.

Tacco e Punta (aka Patacake Polka)


Raatikko a dance known among Finns, Germans and other Euro-Americans

Give these variants a listen, Ein Zwie Drie und a Fier, from Joe Altman & the Spaasmachers, a German band in St. Meinrad, Indiana and The Seven Step, by a Bohemian Polka band in New Braunfels, Texas.

The Seven Step, a different dance and a different tune in the key of G

I learned it in D from Wayne Satkamp of Stendahl, Indiana and Herb Wenning of Portersville, Indiana, who played it in G. Here’s a video of The Seven Step as danced by the Ukrainians and Métis of Manitoba.

And we have to play a schottische. One of the most fun dances ever.
Hast Schottische slow from Mary Allsopp (see Jan 16th meeting)


We’ve played the Hast Schottis before. Next time, we’ll have more dancers.

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

Ain’t this a time

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Lots o’ fun coming our way. And beginning this week (say April 12), you should be able to sign up for a year’s worth of Fiddle Club meetings for a mere $60. Single meeting dues are $15, when there is a featured guest. Here is the link to register for a meeting. They are listed by date. Scroll through the workshop listings for descriptions.

Bruce Greene
Friday, April 15, 8:30 – Old-Time
An earlier post has a couple of tunes to learn for the jam session.

dance band practice
Sunday, April 17, 6:30 – all members welcome *
(I will soon post some tunes for the dance.)

Kathleen Keane
Sunday, May 15, 6:30 – Irish

Sule Greg Wilson
Sunday, May 29, 6:30 – Black Old-Time

Square & Ceilidh Dance workshop
Sunday, June 19, 6:30 – a dry run for musicians, dancers welcome

Square & Ceilidh Dance
Sunday, July 17, 6:30 – the real thing
Admission for dancers: $5

All events happen at the Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln)

* To be a member, come to a Fiddle Club event. Yearly dues are $60. Single meeting dues are $15 when we have a special guest. There are no dues for other meetings at which we just play tunes or watch films. We appreciate your support.

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

Bruce Greene comes to Fiddle Club

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Friday April 15 at 8:30 pm
Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln)

Good fortune brings Bruce Greene to us in a few weeks. A sublime player, Bruce learned from senior players in Central and Eastern Kentucky back during his student days in the early 1970s. He deserves credit for discovering many of the old masters we cherish–such as John Salyer and Isham Monday–and for recording and disseminating some of our favorite tunes, like “Jeff Sturgeon,” “Betty Baker” and “The Lost Girl.” This is his first trip to the Old Town School since 1996, when he visited the Old-Time Ensemble.

Bruce Greene

Click the picture to see the Bruce’s entry in the Old-Time Fiddlers Hall of Fame.

Here are some tunes to learn before April 15.

Did You Ever See the Devil, Uncle Joe?

slow version


Paddy in the Morning

slow version

Click this link to register for the Fiddle Club of the World. You have to scroll down to April 15. Scroll a bit further and you can sign up for a workshop with Bruce at the Old Town School (4544 Lincoln)

Eastern Kentucky Fiddle Tunes with Bruce Greene
Saturday 04/16/2011 from 1:30 PM to 3:20 PM

Future Meetings

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April 17 dance band practice
May 15 (tentative)
May 29 Sule Greg Wilson
June 19 Square & Ceilidh Dance workshop
July 17 Square & Ceilidh Dance

I am trying to line up an Irish fiddler to be the featured guest at our May 15 meeting. Banjoist Sule Greg Wilson will be our first featured non-fiddling guest. A founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, he will lead us on an exploration of old-time music in the African-American tradition. He can also help us free and feed our inner drummers. In June, we’ll have our first Fiddle Club of the World ceilidh, with easy to learn and fun to do “square dances” from around the world. The band will be fiddle club members. Come to the April 17th meeting and work on the tunes we’ll need to know.

Fiddle Club of the World

Paul Tyler, convener

Fiddle Club Movie Night

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Sunday, March 20 at 6:30
No meeting at the Atlantic this month.
Instead, go to 4544 Lincoln to the Resource Center (downstairs at the Old Town School of Folk Music) for Movie Night. We’ll watch some fiddle films from 1970 and 1990. Note: there is a concert that night. But you can go straight to the basement.)

Earl Collins

 

Say Old Man Can, You Play the Fiddle
by Bess Lomax Hawes
about Earl Collins, born to a fiddling family in Missouri a hundred years ago this year. As an adult, Earl moved to southern California. His family tradition is the source of our

Little Dutch Girl.

 

New England Fiddles

 

New England Fiddles
by John Bishop & Nicholas Hawes
about Joe Cormier (Cape Breton), Paddy Cronin (Irish), Harold Luce (Anglo-American), Willfred Guillette (French Canadian) & others. Lots of great tunes come from the Northeast, like this medley of

Petronella & Green Mountain Petronella by Rodney & Randy Miller.

 

Plus some other goodies.

After the films, head next door to the Grafton for the
Fiddle and Banjo Showcase!
from 9 to midnight, featuring, among others . . .

Paul Tyler, convener
Fiddle Club of the World