If you missed Kim & Jim Lansford at Fiddle Club last night, you can still catch them in a house concert Sunday (July 18) . . .
. . . or at the Monday night dance sponsored by the Chicago Barn Dance Company
Kim & Jim Lansford in Chicago
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Jim & Kim Lansford tonight
Jim & Kim Lansford
JIM & KIM LANSFORD from Galena, Missouri
Friday, July 16, 8 pm
Leadway Bar & Gallery (5233 N. Damen)
Show up tonight and register at the door. Dues are $15 for this meeting.
The registration link at oldtownschool.org is no longer working.
And here’s Jim & Kim with a medley of tunes from the nineteenth century.
These are great!
Presenting 8th Midwest Fiddle Championship
The Fiddle Club of the World is proud to present the 8th annual Midwest Fiddle Championship, with two divisions meeting in two venues. To start the fun off right, we’re returning to Giddings Plaza in Lincoln Square on Thursday, July 8 at 7:00pm for the Open Divisions. This Folk & Roots Festival preview is sponsored by the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce. At least a dozen fiddlers and fiddle bands have registered to compete. We’ll also hear from the top three youth bands who competed in June.
(click to enlarge)
And Here is the lineup for the Invitational Division that will take place on the main stage at the Chicago Folk & Roots Festival at 12:55pm, Saturday July 19. Each band is led by a fiddler and is required to bring along dancers to help demonstrate how good the fiddler plays.
Stil Nua, an Irish band featuring Kristen Bern of Palos Heights. Accompanied by flute, guitar and bodhran. Playing for step-dancer Rory Ward.
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The Cajun Vagabonds featuring fiddler Dorian Gehring of Chicago. Accompanied by guitar, bass and triangle. The dancers will do a waltz and two-step.
The Paulina Hollers, an old-time band featuring fiddler Elizabeth Lamberti and banjoist Jim Becker (both are Old Town School teachers). Accompanied by guitar & bass. The dancers are the Chicago Prairie Clogging Team, led by Rebecca Unger, back for their second appearance at Folk & Roots.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4XiweystCg]
Moravska Cimbalovka, a Moravian village band led by Andrew Tokarz. The lineup includes fiddle, kontra (a chording fiddle), cimbalom (a large hammer dulcimer), clarinet & bass. They will be bringing along some Moravian folk dancers.
Also the first place winners from the Youth Division and Open Divisions will perform on the main stage while the judges reach a consensus. The prize money is award accordingly . . .
First Prize – $400
Second Prize – $300
Third Prize – $200
Fourth & Fifth Prize – $150 each
Enjoy the friendly competition and the great music.
Paul Tyler, convener
Fiddle Club of the World (Chicago Chapter)
Tunes from Jim Lansford
Jim Lansford hails from Galena, Missouri. He’s learned first-hand from some of the best Missouri and Ozark fiddlers of the late 20th century and has carried the traditional sound forcefully into the 21st. His wife, Kim, is an accompanist second to none.
Here are a couple of fine tunes from the middle of the U.S.
From Cyrill Stinnett of Braymer, Missouri.
Grey Eagle in C
Grey Eagle in C slow
From Uncle Bunk Williams, an Ozark fiddler
Daylight in the Morning fiddle & guitar
Daylight in the Morning slow
Jim & Kim Lansford will be performing at a Fiddle Club of the World meeting, 8:00pm on Friday, July 16 at the Leadway Bar & Gallery (5233 N. Damen) in Chicago.
Click here to register.
8th Midwest Fiddle Championship
The Kid’s Contest is in the books. It was a competition for fiddle-led bands held on June 16 at the Old Town School’s beloved Armitage building. The First Place ribbon (and prize money of $150) was taken by the Hillions and Maddy.
[And proud papa suggests you also check out the band that won fifth place.]
The Open Division (called Team Division in the past) is back this year, scheduled for Thursday July 8 at 7 pm in Giddings Plaza in Lincoln Square. (Just a two-block walk up Lincoln from the School). It’s part of the Folk & Roots Festival preview sponsored by the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce.
All fiddlers are welcome to enter. It is highly recommended that you enter with a band of one or two accompanimists. Click here for more information (rules, prizes &c.).
An online entry form should appear soon at the above link. Or try this one that can be printed out and faxed or dropped off.
And again, the invitational Fiddle Band division will be held at the Chicago Folk & Roots Festival on Saturday, July 10 at 12:55 on the main stage in Welles Park. The top winners from the Kid’s Contest and the Open Division will also be there to play a tune.
The Midwest Fiddle Championship is presented by the Fiddle Club of the World (Chicago Chapter).
Paul Tyler, convener
Chicago is Fiddle World
Truly. What a few days we had at the beginning of June.
Rudi Pietsch from Vienna gave an intimate concert, joined by his friend Jürgen Schempp, from Swabia (that’s in Germany) on guitar. Your humble convener was quickly trained for second fiddle. For the proper Austrian style we lacked a kontra (chorded fiddle or viola) and a bowed bass. Here is a slow yodel followed by a fast dance tune.
Meraner Jodler-Ischler Schläunige
Two days later, the Mostly Mountain Boys and the Polka Chicks dropped in for two evenings at the Old Town School. On Tuesday night they did a workshop for several fiddle class and the Fiddle Club.
The Mostly Mountain Boys (Paul Brown-fiddle, Teri McMurray-banjo and John Schwab-guitar) hail from Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Washington DC. They started out with a twisty but fine version of “Fisher’s Hornpipe” they learned from Esker Hutchins of Dobson, North Carolina.
The Polka Chicks, from Helsinki (that’s in Suomi, aka Finland), are Kukka Lehto on fiddle and Tejia Niku on accordion. They started with song of poverty and sadness. The singer’s life is so sad that his parents don’t even care if he marries a girl in America.
unnamed song from northern Finland
Following this lovely introduction, Paul Brown taught us distinctive version of Sugar in the Gourd that he learned from Norman Edmonds of Hillsville, Virginia. And Kukka Lehto worked us through the haunting major and minor turns of Viktors Vals from Ostrobothnia, an area in western Finland with an especially rich fiddle tradition.
The following night, both the Mostly Mountain Boys and the Polka Chicks were on the stage in our concert hall for World Music Wednesday. A delightful performance.
Kukka Lehto & Teija Niku
One morsel more. One of the oldest folk dance tunes from Austria, a ländler that was written down in 1702. Rudi plays a setting that imitates the dudelsack (German for bagpipes). Here’s an example of a Czech dudelsack, and another view from Austria.
My father’s day gift to all who are the child of a dad.
Paul Tyler, convenver
Austrian tunes with Rudi Pietsch
Join us for a friendly concert and session on June 6 at 7:30 pm.
NOTE: This Fiddle Club meeting has been moved to the Old Town School of Folk Music (4544 Lincoln). We will meet in the Gallery on the 1st floor. The cafe may be open for beer sales. BYOB is also a possibility.
For the last few weeks, the Old Town School has been graced with a visitor from Vienna, Austria. Rudi Pietsch is an ethnomusicologist who is spending a quarter teaching at the University of Chicago and researching music in the communities of Central European immigrants in Chicago and the Midwest. In his spare time, he’s come by the School to learn a few American tunes. He also dropped in on Fiddle 4 Twin Fiddle class.
a yodel played on the fiddle in three voices
To hear all three voices, you’ll have to bring your fiddle and join in. Here’s Rudi singing one voice and playing another on fiddle.
yodel with fiddle
And here’s the same melody played as a ländler, a dance in 3.
yodel as a ländler
Here’s a polka, Der Einfache . . .
Der Einfache voice 1
add voice 2 (oops, the trio is missing)
Der Einfache played by Fiddle 4 class with Rudi Pietsch on piano
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And a Zwiebacher, Die Bacherlmuhl, a dance mixing 2s and 3s.
(click to enlarge)
Tunes from Paul Brown & Mostly Mountain Boys
Paul Brown, from Washington DC, learned old-time fiddle directly from some of the great old masters of North Carolina and Virginia, such as Benton Flippen, Luther Davis, Kyle Creed, Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham. Over the years he’s played fiddle with The Toast String Stretchers, The Bent Mountain Band (with Andy Cahan and Mike Seeger), and now The Mostly Mountain Boys.
Paul and the mostly boys will be part of the FIDDLEPALOOZA on Tuesday, June 8, 8pm at the Old Town School, along with the Polka Chicks. Here are a couple of tunes the Mostly Mountain Boys will help us through
Key of D. Can be performed with fiddle in standard tuning or with bass string tuned up to A. Inspired by Norman Edmonds of Hillsville, VA
Sugar in the Gourd
Sugar in the Gourd slow
Inspired by Luther Davis of Galax, Virginia
Shady Grove fiddle & guitar
Shady Grove slow
Click here for some tunes by the Polka Chicks.
Click here to register for Fiddlepalooza. (Steve Rosen’s Fiddle 3 and Paul Tyler’s Fiddle 4 students for this session are already registered.)
Tunes from the Polka Chicks
A selection of tunes from the Polka Chicks, from Finland. Along with the Mostly Mountain Boys, they will participate in the Fiddlepalooza at the Old Town School on Tuesday, June 8 at 8pm. The next day, June 9, both groups will be on stage for World Music Wednesday at 8:30.
Press the arrows to listen or right-click the blue title to download and save on your computer.
“. . . a polska and a waltz, which are both traditional tunes from Swedish-speaking areas in Finland. The tunes are called ‘Bromarvin polska’ (Polska from Bromarv, situated on a cape by the southern coast of Finland) and ‘Viktors Vals’ (from a small village called Jeppo in Ostrobothnia, Finnish west coast).”
Bromarv polska
Bromarv polska slow
Viktors vals
Viktor vals slow
” . . . a traditional polka played by a horn orchestra from Hattula, a county in Häme-region which is situated kind of in the southern-middle Finland. The tune is called ‘Ampumakoulun polkka’ which means ‘Shooting school polka’.”
Ampumakoulun polkka
Ampumakoulun polkka slow
Click here from some workshop tunes from Paul Brown & the Mostly Mountain Boys.
Click here to register for Fiddlepalooza. (Steve Rosen’s Fiddle 3 and Paul Tyler’s Fiddle 4 students for this session are already registered.)
Jim & Kim Lansford – July 16
Jim & Kim Lansford
from Galena, Missouri
Friday, July 16, 8 pm
Leadway Bar & Gallery (5233 N. Damen)
This is strong music. Not only because of the considerable talents of this duo, but because their tunes and songs are deeply rooted in rural American life and tradition. Great fiddling and heartful singing. Don’t miss this.
Click here to register.
Hear here . . .