Laurel Premo & Anna Gustavsson – Sunday, October 23, 7:30pm
Meeting held at Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton, Skokie).
Admission is $20 at the door or pay in advance here.
All meetings begin with a short concert followed by a jam/workshop.
John Cole, American fiddle tune played by Laurel Premo
Swedish Long Dance, played on nyckelharpa by Anna Gustavsson
Orsapolska, Swedish dance played by Anna Gustavsson
For more about Laurel Premo & Anna Gustavsson, click the picture.
Betse & Clarke
Sunday June 19, 7:30pm
The Atlantic Bar and Grill (5062 N Lincoln Ave)
A concert, followed by a workshop/jam.
Admission is $15.
Fiddle Club is thrilled to present Midwestern duo Betse Ellis and Clarke Wyatt for a special evening of fiddle and banjo tunes. Betse & Clarke explore their love of old time music with an inventive spirit, taking listeners on a field trip across mountain folkways and new landscapes. Their music is familiar… and totally different; a fiddle and banjo duo with a sense of adventure, radiating outward from Kansas City, Missouri.
Betse Ellis plays fiddle and sings like nobody’s business. Her years with The Wilders proved her passion for Ozark tunes and an unstoppable stage presence. Her early violin studies continue to shape her musicianship through technique and composition. Clarke Wyatt has an original and creative approach to three-finger banjo. His background as a pianist and composer inform his banjo method as much as his love for old time music.
Here is a tune to help you get ready for the workshop/jam in the back room at the Atlantic. More info: http://www.betseandclarke.com/
Calico – learning, fiddle slow
Want to hear more? Go here.
– Judy Higgins, Fiddle Club associate
Lydom, Bugge & Høirup
folk music from Denmark
Thursday, June 16 – 7:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)
Admission $18
Betse & Clarke
Traditional/Future Folk
Sunday, June 19 – 7:30pmg
Atlantic Bar & Grill (5062 Lincoln in Chicago)
Admission $15
Fiddle Tunes Jam!
Make Music Chicago
Tuesday, June 21 – 6 to 8pm
Winnemac Park (Damen & Foster in Chicago)
free to all players and listeners, bring a chair
Old-Time Fiddle Tunes from Mississippi with
Harry Bolick
Friday, April 22, 7:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton in Skokie)
A concert set, followed by an old-time jam.
Admission is $15.
How many fiddle tunes do you know that hail from Mississippi? Really. You need to learn a few more, because they are some of the coolest, quirkiest, funnest tunes ever found in these here United States. And our next Fiddle Club guest, Harry Bolick, a Brooklyn-ite with deep Mississippi roots, is just the guy to introduce us to this regional tradition and some of its fine tunes. Harry has recently published and produced the book and CDs pictured above, all containing tunes collected in Mississippi during the 1930s by folklorists working for the Works Project Administration, part of FDR’s New Deal. Here’s a sample.
Mississippi Shuffle
Mississippi Shuffle slow
Sugar in the Gourd
Sugar in the Gourd slow
Bust down.
Paul Tyler, convener
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.
Perhaps we’ll learn this tune.
Shakin’ Down the Acorns * by Stephanie Coleman with the Red Squirrel Chasers
* forthcoming on Vigortone Records
Saturday, April 4, 7:30pm
at Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton, Skokie)
The meeting will begin with a short concert followed by a jam/workshop.
Admission is $15 at the door.
Stephanie Coleman grew up as a Chicago fiddler, starting out with such local teachers as Chirps Smith, Rhys Jones, Steve Rosen and Paul Tyler. Then she went off to college in North Carolina and began to make a name for herself in the national Old-Time scene. From 2008 to 2010 she toured with Rounder Records artist Uncle Earl. She continues to grow in musical stature, performing with Cleek Schrey, Adam Hurt and many others. Currently, she lives in Brooklyn where she performs and teaches traditional Appalachian music on fiddle and banjo, leads weekly jams and does studio work.
Give a listen . . .
Rocky Pallet with Steve Rosen at the 2004 Midwest Fiddle Championship
Say Old Man, I Want Your Daughter with Adam Hurt from the 2009 CD Perspective
And more recently (and even better)
Future Fiddle Club meetings
Kristian Bugge & Mette Jensen
fiddle & accordion duo from Denmark
Tuesday, May 12 in Maurer Hall
Fiddlepallooza 2015
Old Town School of Folk Music (4544 Lincoln)
Colby Maddox
a bit o’ bluegrass
May 29 or May 31
Seman Violins
Spread the word.
-Paul Tyler, convener
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.
Meetings held at Seman Violins (4447 W. Oakton, Skokie).
Admission is $15 at the door.
All meetings begin at 7pm with a short concert * followed by a jam/workshop.
Pete’s Posse – Sunday, September 28
Traditional tunes and interpretations from Vermont. This is Pete Sutherland’s return to Fiddle Club, after a successful visit in October 2009 with Mark Roberts & Jeremiah McClane.
Fingal’s Cave-The Big Picture by Pete’s Posse
Pete Sutherland – Fiddle, guitar, banjo, piano & vocals
Oliver Scanlon – Fiddle, mandolin, dobro, foot percussion & vocals
Tristan Henderson- Guitars, bouzouki, mandolin, harmonica, jews harp, bodhran, snare drum, doumbek, foot percussion & vocals.
Arto Järvelä & Antti Järvelä – Monday, October 6
Traditional fiddling from Ostrobothnia, a district in west central Finland, an area that has one of the largest concentrations of fiddlers to be found anywhere.
Polska Ostrobott & Rahapolska by Arto Järvelä & Antti Järvelä
*Workshop and jam session only. Arto & Antti are doing a concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music on Sunday, October 5. Bring your ticket stub and get half-price admission to this Fiddle Club meeting.
Maja Kjær Jacobsen & David Boulanger – Sunday, November 9
Traditional Danish and Québecois fiddle music. (Pending visa process)
Danish Tune-Quebecois Tune by Maja & David
Maja Kjær Jacobsen, from Silkeborg (Danmark) plays fiddle and hardingfele (hardanger fiddle). David Boulanger, a member of La Bottine Souriante from Montreal, plays fiddle.
Bob Bovee & Pop Wagner – Sunday, November 30
Old-Time tunes, cowboy songs, heart songs and maybe a rope trick or two by this pair of old friends from Minnesota.
Robinson County by Pop Wagner & Bob Bovee
-Paul Tyler, convener
Fiddle Club of the World (Chicago Chapter)
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 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 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
Kirk Sutphin & Bertram Levy
Banjos, Bows and Bellows
Sunday, March 10, 2013, 6:30pm
Seman Violins (4447 Oakton, Skokie)
B.Y.O.B. Snacks will be provided.
Fiddler Kirk Sutphin, from Walkertown, North Carolina, joins with banjoist and concertinist Bertram Levy for a unique presentation of old-time tunes from the Blue Ridge Mountains. For more background, visit this earlier Fiddle Club post, or Bertram Levy’s website.
All fiddlers and friends of fiddlers, including players of other instruments, are welcome. $15 admission. Click here to register.
Kirk and Bertram will present a short concert, followed by a jam session. Here’s some of the tunes we’ll play in the session. (Some teaching may happen.)
The Rout learned from Burt Edwards
The Rout slower
Jump Jim Crow learned from Alan Jabbour
Jump Jim Crow slow
Paddy on the Turnpike learned from a recording of Frank Jenkins
Paddy on the Turnpike slower
Paul Tyler, convener