The official site for the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, as well as other fiddle tunes education and performance programs at Centrum, the nonprofit center for the arts located at Fort Worden State Park, in Port Townsend, Washington.
A hearty thank you goes out to Al McCleese, who followed you fiddlers around the Fort on our behalf, and captured your beauty and passion.
We've posted Al's photos from the 2009 Festival of American Fiddle Tunes on Centrum's Flickr site. You can also see photos from other programs.
Don't forget, you can post on Flickr too...just be sure to tag them
"fiddletunes09." We'll post a slideshow soon. And as always, we
want to see your photos, hear your tunes, and learn more at our fiddle tunes
community site--many of you are already busy sharing there.
Tom Braman talks to Fiddle Tunes veteran Jack Link about the early days of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, and his legacy of encouraging players to play outside their comfort zone. Recorded at the 2009 Festival in Port Townsend.
The 2009 Festival of American Fiddle Tunes had a special cajun cooking workshop track, and the public got a chance to sample the goods at the Friday night Cajun Swing Dance held outside McCurdy Pavilion at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend.
Jack Olmsted recorded a brief interview with Robin Miller detailing the essential ingredients of a good gumbo, and he also captured a bit of the scene from the evening. One could hear the music a mile away!
There are plenty more videos from the week over at our community site: http://centrumfiddle.ning.com. Hop on over and join the fun.
While not every fiddle tune is a dancing tune, there is no denying the power of fiddle music to get people out of their seats and get them dancing.
Each night during the workshop portion of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, the halls of Fort Worden State Park here in Port Townsend begin to vibrate with the sound of people dancing in time to the music of Scotland, Quebec, Louisiana, and New England.
Here's a clip of a dance session from Monday night...(and don't forget, tickets are on sale for our Friday and Saturdat big shows--there will be dancing there too, I suspect!).
It's Monday at the 2009 Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, and here's a great jamming scene from the porch of Building 204 at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. If you're part of this fine bunch of participants, let us know in the comments!
Since 2003, I’ve been attending the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend. It’s a week-long series of workshops and concerts that draws traditional musicians from all over the US and abroad. The festival is known for its jamming scene, and informal music jams pop up everywhere on the grounds of Fort Worden. These jam sessions are the primary way that many traditional musicians learn by ear. Musicians pick up tunes and pass on tunes in these sessions and share laughs and jokes.
I’ve been recording these sessions ever since I first started attending, and collecting bootleg tapes of the sessions from years past. I’ll share some share some of these tapes from the 2008 festival, which had some incredible jam sessions. My tapes aren’t professional since I intended to use them for practicing and learning tunes. But the recordings sound good and document master musicians in a relaxed atmosphere as they share music. I’ll alternate field recordings of jam sessions from the festival with professional studio recordings of the same bands, so you can really hear how special these impromptu recordings are.
Let's talk about the Saturday afternoon show: Fiddle Tunes From Across North America. If the weather is good (and it usually is!) we'll open the big balloon hangar doors at McCurdy Pavilion, which lets you enjoy the performances from your reserved seat inside, as well as on the lawn outside.
While the atmosphere is fun and relaxed, the music is truly top notch. Here's what you can expect:
Patti and Joel Lamoureux – 3-time Canadian Grand Champion Patti was the first woman in the history of Canada to ever win the prestigious Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship.
Kirk Sutphin and Riley Baugus – Old time music from North Carolina Kirk
and Riley live on the same road in Surry County, North Carolina, and
are the stewards of a two-hundred year tradition of Round Peak music.
Jose Moreno and Jesus "Chuy" Castillo – Tex-Mex
Don José, born in 1930, is one of the true interpreters of traditional Tejano music from the Texas-Mexico border.
Greg and Jere Canote – Old time tunes and song With fiddle, banjo, ukuleles and genetically matched voices, Greg and Jere Canote bring back fun, vintage American music.
Nightingale – Exceptional New England dance band
Nightingale is a highly sought after New England dance
and concert band. Jeremiah McLane - accordion, Keith Murphy - guitar,
and Becky Tracy – fiddle.
We've posted videos from many of this year's performers over on our Fiddle Tunes community site. Check it out. Here's a video of Patti Lamoureux to get you started...
