Fiddlepalooza – Tueday, June 8

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Paul Tyler

Tuesday, June 8, 8pm at the Old Town School
Two bands from two traditions of old-time music – Finnish and American – the evening will be part workshop, part visit, and part jam session. Members of Steve Rosen’s Fiddle 3 and Paul Tyler’s Fiddle 4 will attend Fiddlepalooza in lieu of their regular class. All fiddlers, banjoists, mandolinists, guitarists, accordionists and friends of old-time music are welcome. Check back with this blog for some tunes to learn for the jam session.
Click here to register for Fiddlepalooza.

The Polka Chicks, from Helsinki, Suomi (Finland)
Their American tour features the duo of Kukka Lehto (fiddle & mandolin) and Teija Niku (accordions).

Polka Chicks, hear here . . .

Niittykosket

Masurkat

The Mostly Mountain Boys, from Washington, DC (USA)
Paul Brown (you hear him on NPR newscasts) plays fiddle; Terri McMurray is on banjo; and John Schwab is the guitarist.

Hear Paul Brown at the U of Chicago folk festival, 2008

Battle of the Horseshoe

Lady of the Lake

Click one of the following links to listen to and learn some tunes from the Polka Chicks and from the Mostly Mountain Boys.

The Polka Chicks and the Mostly Mountain Boys will share the bill on June 9 at the Old Town School’s World Music Wednesdays. Click here for more info or to reserve tickets.

Traditional Fiddling from Austria

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Paul Tyler

A free meeting – Sunday, June 6
time and location to be announced

Rudi Pietsch of the band Die Tanzgeiger (the Dance Fiddlers) from Vienna

Rudi Pietsch (on left)

Rudi, a fiddler and ethnomusicologist, is currently a visiting professor at the University of Chicago. The Old Town School has assisted his endeavors in Chicago, and in return, he wants to introduce us to a rich tradition of fiddling we know little about. Here are some samples from Die Tanzgeiger.

Weingalop

Ritterländler

Fiddle Club summer happenings – 2010

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Paul Tyler

This is going to be a summer full of great tunes. Keep your bow rosined. Get those banjos in tune. Listen for the chord changes . . .

Traditional Fiddling from Austria
Sunday, June 6, location & time tba
Presentation by Rudi Pietsch, a visiting professor at the U of Chicago. Back in Vienna, Rudi leads Die Tanzgeiger (the Dance Fiddlers).

Die Tanzgeiger, Rudi Pietsch is on the far left

F I D D L E P A L O O Z A
Tuesday, June 8, 8pm at the Old Town School
A workshop/jam session with bands from two traditions of old-time music – Finnish and American – the Polka Chicks from Helsinki & the Mostly Mountain Boys from Washington DC

The Polka Chicks

Click here to register for Fiddlepalooza.

The Fiddle Club of the World (Chicago Chapter) presents
8th Midwestern Fiddle Championship
Thursday, July 8, 7pm in Giddings Plaza in Lincoln Square
Open Division
Saturday, July 10, 12:55pm at Chicago Folk & Roots Festival
Band Division

7th Midwest Fiddle Championship

Click here for more information. NB: important update coming soon.

Jim & Kim Lansford
Friday, July 16, location & time tba

Jim & Kim Lansford

[Registration information under construction]

Felipe Valle from Mexico City
A Fiddle Club guest in the summer of 2008, Felipe is returning to Chicago this summer.
I’ll set up a workshop with him so we can learn a more Son Huasteca.

Felipe Valle

La Soledad

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

A delectable treat (un delicioso gusto)

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Paul Tyler

From the Huasteca region, i.e., northern Veracruz. That’s in Mexico.

The fiddler is Osiris Caballero who visited Fiddle 4 Twin Fiddle last week. His group, Los Utrera performed at World Music Wednesday the next night. Thanks to Yahvi Pichardo for arranging this visit. Yahvi and Maria McCullough assist in this rendition of La Cielito Lindo.

Another version in the Son Huasteca style can be found on the CD Folk Songs of Illinois #2: Fiddlers, played by Chicago’s own Sones de Mexico. Full disclosure: I co-produced this CD.

Paul Tyler, convener

Tunes from Matt Brown

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Paul Tyler

A selection of tunes from Matt Brown, one of the rising stars in the old-time music firmament.

Press the arrows to listen or right-click the blue title to download and save on your computer.

Matt sez: “Roscoe comes to us from the great Kyle Creed of Surry County, North Carolina. The tune is named after guitar player Roscoe Russell. This one is great for dances!”
Roscoe

Roscoe slow

“This version of Fire On the Mountain is one of my all-time favorite tunes. And not enough people play it. Isham (pronounced “Ice-um”) Monday of Monroe County, Kentucky played this beautiful tune with lots of drones, and in a low cross-tuning. I’m in AEAE on this version, but you can get most of the notes (if not all of the drones) in standard tuning.”
Fire on the Mountain

Fire on the Mountain slow

“This is Burnett & Rutherford’s version of the classic Cumberland Gap. It’s sweet, simple, and in G.”
Cumberland Gap

Cumberland Gap slow

Matt Brown visits the Fiddle Club of the World meeting on Sunday, May 2 at 6:30pm at the Leadway Bar & Gallery (5233 N. Damen) in Chicago. Click here to register.

Tunes from Genevieve (Harrison) Koester

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Paul Tyler

A selection of tunes from Dear Old Illinois (both a place and the life work of Genevieve’s father, Garry Harrison). Gena plays with her dad in the New Mules, a band featured at the Old Town School’s Trad Fest in January 2008. The first of these tunes is from the David McIntosh collection of folksongs from Southern Illinois from the middle of the last century. The next two are tunes Garry collected from downstate fiddlers 30 years ago.

Press the arrows to listen or right-click the blue title to download and save on your computer.

Across the Plains of Illinois “Source version is unaccompanied ballad singing by Ollie Barnard of Cave-in-Rock, IL. . . . I’ll sing all the words when we all get together but it has a nice tune by itself too.”

Across the Plains of Illinois slow

Sally Johnson from “Otis Reynolds of Geff, IL. There are a million versions of Sally Johnson, and most of them are very note-y and embellished. This one is the opposite. :)” (Warning: not the version transcribed in Dear Old Illinois.)

Sally Johnson slow

Who’ll Cut the Britches? from Henry Soper of Mt. Vernon, IL. “The full title given by Mr. Soper was the verse:
Oh boy, who’ll cut the britches?
Daddy cut them out, and mammy sewed the stitches.”

Who’ll Cut the Britches? slow

Genevieve Koester will be the featured guest at the Fiddle Club of the World meeting on Sunday, April 18 at 6:30pm at the Leadway Bar & Gallery (5233 N. Damen) in Chicago. Click here to register.

Some Tunes from Dennis Stroughmatt

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Paul Tyler

Some tunes from Upper Louisiana, aka the old French district of Illinois and Missouri, straddling the Mississippi River down from St. Louis. Dennis here gives us a brief intro to each tune. More stories to come on March 18 at the Leadway.

Press the arrows to listen or right-click the blue title to download and save on your computer.

Old Man Lucky in the key of D: “Old Man Lucky I learned from Charlie Pashia, right at the source. It was a song (no lyrics) for a guy named LaChance. He was a lucky man, and that was his name too.”

Old Man Lucky slow

Grandmere In waltz time in G: “Grandmere is a story song. It means Grandmother Complains. I learned it from Ida Portell in Potosi , MO.”

Grandmere slow

D’ou Viens in A: “D’ou Viens Tu is iShepherd, from where did you come.’ It’s a Christmas song. Also from Ida Portell. But I got the fiddle part idea from Roy Boyer.”

D’ou Viens slow

Dennis Stroughmatt will be the featured guest at the Fiddle Club of the World meeting on Sunday, March 28 at 6:30pm at the Leadway Bar & Gallery (5233 N. Damen) in Chicago. Click here to register.

Next Up: French Creole Tunes from Upper Louisiana

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Paul Tyler

Upper Louisiana is Illinois. The first European-Americans to settle in our state were French. And when the British defeated the French in the Seven Years War, many of the French moved across the river to Missouri. French culture and traditional French folksongs and tunes have survived downstate for over two centuries. Prairie du Rocher, Illinois and Ste. Genevieve, Missouri still celebrate the coming of the New Year with La Guignole, a house-to-house visiting tradition similar to mumming in Newfoundland or old-style mardi gras in Cajun southwest Louisiana. A number of older fiddlers and singers from near Old Mines, Missouri kept the old songs alive for later generations.

La Guignolee played by Charlie Pasha (or Pashia) in 1976 for the landmark LP of field recordings, “I’m Old But I’m Awfully Tough: Traditional Music of the Ozark Region.”

(A 1950s recording of the full Prairie du Rocher singers can be found on Folksongs of Illinois #1.)

Another fine fiddler from Old Mines, Missouri was Joe Politte. The following are a couple of his unnamed breakdowns recorded 30 years ago. The first one, in D, has been frequently taught at Old Town School fiddle classes under the title “Bass in the Hollow.”

D breakdown played by Joe Politte

C breakdown played by Joe Politte

Joe Politte

Dennis Stroughmatt

Jury Baker played by Dennis Stroughmatt

Dennis Stroughmatt will be the featured guest at the next Fiddle Club of the World meeting on Sunday, March 28. A younger downstate fiddler and singer, Dennis learned directly from such traditional masters from Old Mines as Charlie Pashia and Roy Boyer. He leads two bands that cover a variety of French-American styles–L’Esprit Créole and Creole Stomp–but will appear as a soloist at the Fiddle Club of the World. That meeting is scheduled for 6:30p on March 28 at the Leadway Bar & Gallery (5233 N. Damen). Click here to register.

Paul Tyler, convener

Some Tunes from Liz Knowles

Posted on January 23, 2010 by Paul Tyler

Ready for some Celtic/Irish tunes. Before she headed off to China, Liz gave us these to try. Each recording has the tune played slowly, and then up to tempo.

Press the arrows to listen or right-click the blue title to download and save on your computer.

The Black Rogue – jig

Gone for His Tea – reel

The Factory Smoke – hornpipe

Liz Knowles will be the featured guest at the Fiddle Club of the World meeting on Friday, February 19 at 7:30pm at the Leadway Bar & Gallery (5233 N. Damen) in Chicago. Click here to register.

Fiddle Club Meetings – Spring 2010

Posted on January 23, 2010 by Paul Tyler

LIZ KNOWLES – Feb. 19

A Celtic legend in her own right, Liz Knowles will visit the Fiddle Club fresh off a trip to China with Celtic Legends, the play for which she serves as music director. Liz’s impressive list of credits includes Riverdance, fiddling on Broadway in The Pirate Queen and the soundtrack for the movie Michael Collins. She has been a member of the John Whelan Band, Cherish the Ladies, and currently tours with the super-group, String Sisters. Her solo CD is The Celtic Fiddle.

Click here to register for an evening of Irish fiddling, old and new.

DENNIS STROUGHMATT – March 28

Part of Dennis Stroughmatt’s education was devoted to recording, observing, and learning many of the Creole French traditions still alive in “Upper Louisiana,” including the old fiddle tunes he learned from masters Roy Boyer and Charlie Pashia. He also developed a fluency in Illinois-Missouri Creole French, and acquired a wealth of stories and songs from elder story tellers and singers. His recorded works include The Gambler’s Fiddle and Cadet Rouselle, two CDs of old French Music from Upper Louisiana. He also performs with Dennis Stroughmatt & Creole Stomp.

Click here to register for a journey through the early music of the Illinois Country.

Genevieve & Smith Koester GENEVIEVE HARRISON KOESTER – April 18

Genevieve Koester’s command of old-time fiddling belies the fact that she’s been playing less than a half dozen years. She comes by it honestly as, in her words, “Both my parents play the fiddle – my mom is classically trained and my dad is a freak of nature (in a talented way).” While her mother Gaye has long led the group Mother Lode in Charleston, Illinois, Genevieve has joined with her father Garry Harrison in the New Mules, a string band dedicated to the old-time fiddle tunes and songs of downstate Illinois and beyond. Husband Smith Koester, also a member of the New Mules, will join Gena at the Fiddle Club of the World. The band’s new CD, Pride of America, is one of the best.

Click here to register for an evening of old-time tunes in a Midwestern key.

MATT BROWN – May 2

A multi-instrumentalist from West Chester, Pennsylvania, Matt Brown is one of the rising stars in the old-time music firmament. Though he’s just passed the quarter-century mark, he already has 3 albums to his credit, including the solo CD, The Falls of Richmond. On Lone Prairie, his debut CD, he was joined by veteran banjoist Paul Brown and guitarist Beverly Smith. Both CDs are from 5-String Productions, in which Matt is a partner. For his Fiddle Club appearance, he will partner with the Old Town School’s Steve Rosen.

Click here to register for a trip to southern climes.

All meetings scheduled for
Leadway Bar & Gallery
5233 N. Damen
Chicago, Illinois

Check back for links to tunes to learn for the jam sessions for each meeting.
Liz Knowles tunes
Dennis Stroughmatt tunes
Genevieve Koester tunes
Matt Brown tunes

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