Happy Independence Day! The next two days--July 4 and July 5 (2008) are filled with public performances at Fort Worden State Park.
We hope you can join us for amazing performances featuring musicians and music from across the continent and beyond.
Complete program schedules and ticket information are available on our 2008 performance page.
[The Pine Leaf Boys in onstage performance]
Led by the incomparable Wilson Savoy, the Pine Leaf Boys--a Cajun/Creole band that is rising so fast they're scorching--will be leading a Cajun dance on Friday, July 4, at 7:30 pm at the Fort Worden Mule Barn Tent. Yes, there will be a bonfire and, yes, gumbo'll be for sale onsite. Tickets are ten bucks; youth eighteen and under get in free.
Information and tickets for this--and all--weekend Festival of American Fiddle Tunes shows are available by visiting our Fiddle Tunes performance page. (Watch for a Santa Claus appearance in this video at 2:48.)
[De Temps Antan in rollickin' onstage performance]
French-Canadian roots band De Temps Antan will give a mainstage performance at McCurdy Pavilion on Friday, July 4, at 1:30 pm. The band features André Brunet (fiddle, guitar, tapping), Eric Beaudry (guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, tapping), and Pierre-Luc Dupuis (accordion, harmonica, jaw harp), all current or former members of the internationally acclaimed group La Bottine Souriante. Tickets are available by following this link or by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117. Reserved seating's twenty bucks, with youth eighteen and under free with advance reservations.
De Temps Antan will follow performances that include such musicians as Wendy MacIsaac, David Maclsaac, Harold Luce, Adam Boyce, and Paul Bradley.
The music of De Temps Antan is a rich blend of traditional French-Canadian and Acadian songs, original compositions, instrumental pieces, and French-Canadian response songs, all driven by the energetic beat of French-Canadian ‘podorythmie,’ the foot-tapping that replaces drums in traditional music from Québec. The members of the band offer a fresh and vibrant perspective on the music of their ancestors—and on the joie de vivre that has come to define the music of their province.
"People ask me what my hobby is, and I tell them, well, I like to cook and hang out at home or read history, but really it's music," says Tim O'Brien with a smile.
So what if that's what he's done for a living for going on three decades? And what if he became regarded as a pre-eminent Americana and bluegrass musician by doing so? "It's my hobby. And everything the hobby does feeds the repertoire," O'Brien, who will be at this year's Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, says.
At this point in his career, nearly thirty years after moving to Colorado where he would form his landmark band Hot Rize, repertoire is a major part of the Tim O'Brien story. For in addition to his own prolific and successful songwriting, this child of West Virginia and the WWVA Jamboree has never stopped mining the American music canon for great material. He's a song sponge.
Songs collect and abide in Tim O'Brien's world as comfortably as family heirlooms. They come from around the world, particularly the American South and Ireland. They morph into new ideas and new songs that update old truths about the human condition. They find expression in O'Brien's clear-as-ice voice on stages, in recording studios and at home with circles of gifted musical friends. O'Brien's relationship with songs embodies the very essence of the folk music tradition, always aware that the branches of the musical tree need sap from the roots.
O'Brien was so full of songs when he approached his latest phase of recording that they overwhelmed one album and became two. And yet with Fiddler's Green and Cornbread Nation, his original intent has remained intact.
Continue reading "Cornbread Nation: The Bluegrass/Americana World of Tim O'Brien" »
Riley Baugus and Tim Eriksen traveled very different routes to traditional American music.
Baugus (pictured) grew up in the foothills of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, surrounded by and breathing the old-time Appalachian music.
Eriksen came to the old-time tunes by way of punk rock.
Tim Eriksen plays banjo, guitar, and fiddle, and is known primarily for his powerful voice and abilities as an innovator and leader within American shape-note singing traditions.
He started out playing Indian music on the vina, a seven-stringed traditional instrument similar to the sitar. He later became lead vocalist for the punk rock band Cordelia’s Dad.
Improbably, the band also played northern Appalachian music, and in 1995 compiled an all-acoustic album. They began going to more fiddlers’ and old-time music conventions, which deepened their love for the traditional mountain music.
“I just got more and more drawn into this nineteenth-century stuff,” Eriksen says.
But he found that not very many people knew the old songs.
Continue reading "The Journeys of Riley Baugus and Tim Eriksen" »
[Tim Eriksen in onstage performance]
Tim Eriksen, along with Riley Baugus and Fiddle Tunes Artistic Director Dirk Powell (on banjo, in this video) will lead a full-immersion workshop in the songs of the Southern Appalachian mountains the weekend of November 16-18. For workshop registration, follow this link to our secure online server or call 360.385.3102, x114. For tickets to the November 17 concert and dance in Fort Worden's USO building, visit our secure online server or call us at 360.385.3102, x117.
[Tim Eriksen playing guitar and singing I Wish The Wars Were All Over outside]
Tim Eriksen, along with Riley Baugus and Dirk Powell, leads a weekend workshop November 16-18 in the music of the southern Appalachian Mountains. The workshop's capstone will be a rousing old-time dance at Fort Worden's USO building. For workshop registration, follow this link or call us at 360.385.3102, x114. To buy tickets to the Saturday night, 7:30 pm concert and dance, follow this link or call us at 360.385.3102, x114.
[Riley Baugus (banjo), Dirk Powell (fiddle), and friends onstage]
If you're looking for a full-immersion fiddle tunes experience this autumn, Riley Baugus, Dirk Powell, and Tim Eriksen will lead a November 16-18 workshop the music of the Southern Appalachians--including string band tunes, country songs, and shape note singing. The weekend workshop will focus on learning to sing and play the traditional songs, with an emphasis on vocals.
Riley Baugus plays banjo, guitar, and fiddle, and is one of the foremost traditional musicians of North Carolina, where he grew up learning instrumental and vocal traditions from mentor Tommy Jarrell and others. Tim Eriksen also plays banjo, guitar, and fiddle, and is an expert in traditional American shape-note singing. Fiddler Dirk Powell is the Artistic Director of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes and one of the finest traditional American musicians of this generation.
"Come and celebrate!" says Powell. "Participants can study vocals with Tim or old-time banjo/fiddle with Dirk and Riley, then get together for group events that revel in the social aspect of the music. The setting is intimate and the feeling will be like that of a mountain family reunion of years gone by. We'll all be together in one house and it will literally be like a wonderful reunion."
For workshop registration, follow this link or call us at 360.385.3102, x114. To buy tickets to the Saturday night, 7:30 pm concert and dance in the USO Building, follow this link or call us at 360.385.3102, x114.
Thanks to a partnership with UpWest Arts, American guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke will perform on October 5, at 7:30 pm, at Fort Worden State Park's McCurdy Pavilion. Check out the Fort Worden Activities page or the Slide and Steel page for more information!
The weather in Port Townsend is magnificent. It pales in comparison to the music being generated, however. Here are a few snaps from the public 4th of July concert in McCurdy Pavilion. Hope to see you at the Friday night and Saturday afternoon shows!
Jenny and Mac Traynham.
Nightingale.
Carolina Chocolate Drops with Joe Thompson.
April Verch.
Fiddler Joe Thompson (center), who for decades single-handedly preserved the tradition of African-
American fiddle music, has won the National Heritage Fellowship award, the country’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts!
The award, which is presented annually by the National Endowment for the Arts, was awarded to twelve recipients in 2007. The awardees were chosen on the basis of artistic excellence, cultural authenticity and contributions to their field, and were chosen from 259 nominations.
On July 4 in Port Townsend, Thompson will give a performance of traditional African-American string tunes at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. He'll play with the Carolina Chocolate Drops (pictured), one of the finest string bands in the country.
The show begins at 1:30 at Fort Worden State Park’s McCurdy Pavilion, a WWI-era balloon hangar converted into a 1,200-seat concert hall. Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 and online at our secure Acteva site.
Thompson has upheld and represented the tradition of African-American country fiddling for more than eighty years. The tradition, representing some of the earliest string band instrumentation on the continent, melds African and Anglo instrumentation and styles. Born into a North Carolina farming family that dated its musical heritage to before the Civil War, Thompson was playing fiddle by the age of five.
Thompson's father was sought after by both black and white neighbors to provide music for local square dances. As soon as Thompson took up the fiddle, he and his brother, Nate, and their cousin, Odell, were in demand for local house parties.
Most of the tunes they learned have today become standards for Southern fiddlers and banjo players, but some were unique to the African American repertoire. Thompson punctuates his performance with sung verses and square dance calls, many of which are rarely heard today.
After Odell's death in 1994, Thompson considered giving up music but he began playing publicly again with younger musicians in the region.
In 1999, Rounder Records released Joe Thompson: Family Tradition, which focuses exclusively on his unique musical repertoire.
“Joe’s music is important,” says Centrum program manager Peter McCracken.
“He has essentially single-handedly preserved an African-American fiddle style. He is acutely aware of the tradition he was bearing, and he took it seriously. Joe’s music is instantly identifiable, recognizable, the culmination of multiple generations in his community blending Scottish melodies with African rhythms.”
Continue reading "Joe Thompson Wins National Heritage Award" »
Saturday, July 7
Mainstage Show, 1:30 pm
McCurdy Pavilion
Reserved-Seating Tickets: $20 ($5 for children 18 or under)
• Bertram Levy (Tango Fiddle)
• Paul Dahlin and Family (Swedish Fiddle)
• Randy Wilson (Southern Banjo)
• Paul Anastasio and Doc Denning (Western Swing and Cowboy Music)
• Jesse Wells (Southern Fiddle)
• Denis Maheux and Sans Ages (Quebecois)
Bertram Levy was the founder of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, and produced the first Festival, in 1977. He is active on the banjo, the mandolin, and on several other instruments, including the bandoneon. Most recently, he has immersed himself in the rich tango culture of South America.
Swedish fiddler Paul Dahlin is the American “taproot” to one of Sweden’s most venerable and widely admired regional music, the music of the province of Dalarna. In 1994, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Paul the National Heritage Fellowship for his contributions as a keeper and teacher of Swedish American musical traditions, Paul was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 1974, Randy Wilson traveled to Blackey, Kentucky. Joe and Gay Nell Begley ran a country store there and Wilson sat on the porch with an orange soda, listening to Austin Miller thump his foot on the porch and ring out tunes on his banjo. That was the beginning of Wilson’s rediscovery of his roots in the mountains. He learned the guitar, the dulcimer, and the autoharp.
Paul Anastasio has played in country and bluegrass bands and won a stack of trophies in old-time fiddle 
contests. He has played in all fifty states, but has retired from the road and returned to the Seattle area.
Doc Denning is known for his remarkable vocals, songwriting, and fiddle playing. His interpretations of cowboy music and western swing have led to performances with Roy Rogers, the Sons of the Pioneers, and Rex Allen, among others.
Jesse Wells has been attending fiddler’s conventions and festivals since an early age and has been greatly influenced by his father, Jamie Wells, an old-time fiddler. Jesse plays fiddle, banjo, guitar, banjo, and mandolin, and sings harmony vocals.
For twelve years, Jean-Paul Beaulieu was the leader of the legendary group Les Montagnard Laurentien. His clarinet and saxophone inspired many French Canadian folk musicians with his innovation in playing reels. In the late nineteen-forties, he was the first to play traditional tunes in a modern style.
Denis Maheux has shared the stage with such musicians as Sabin Jacques, Gaston Nolet, Normand Legault, Jean-Yves Hamel, and many, many others. He has toured for over thirty years with some of the biggest names in Quebecois music.
Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 or by visiting our secure online Acteva site.
Friday, July 6
Mainstage Show, 7:30 pm
McCurdy Pavilion
Reserved-Seating Tickets: $16 ($5 for children 18 or under)
• John White and Kenny Applebee (Missouri Fiddle Tunes)
• Daniel Lapp (Cape Breton Fiddle Tunes)
• Bonsoir, Catin (Cajun Tunes)
• Liz Carroll and John Doyle (Irish Tunes) (Watch a video of their fiddle-and-guitar stylings here)
John White’s fiddle style was developed while playing for square dances. While he is basically an old-time traditional fiddler, White has also had extensive exposure to Texas-style fiddling through contests and fiddler conventions.
A fiddler and guitarist, Kenny Applebee is adept at several guitar styles, including the traditional old-time Missouri backup that is preferred by many Missouri fiddlers.
Bonsoir, Catin
Christine Balfa Powell grew up playing triangle with her father, Dewey Balfa, and absorbed music and language from the thriving culture around Basile, Louisiana. She plays guitar and is the primary vocalist of the Balfa Toujours, a brilliant young band from Louisiana making a name for itself in traditional music.
Anya Schoenegge-Burgess incorporates a number of styles into her fiddle playing, including old-time and country. She grew up in New England and began playing fiddle and guitar at a very young age. She plays on a fiddle that she made.
Kristi Guillory found the accordion and began playing Cajun music when she was ten. She is obsessed with sad, pitiful Cajun songs, raunchy drinking ones, and the fantastical lyrics of old Cajun a capella ballads.
Yvette Landry is a talented and sought-after bassist. As the former Crawfish Festival Queen and runner-up for the Queen of Queens, Yvette brings a regal air and poise to Bonsoir, Catin and is often called the "Queen of Cajun bass.”
Jude Veillon began playing Cajun drums as a teenager. He has toured with The Mamou Prairie Band and Walter Mouton. Jude provides a rock-solid rhythm to Bonsoir, Catin.
Irish fiddler Liz Carroll has been amazing audiences around the world for many years. Her first solo album, 1988’s Liz Carroll, was chosen as a select record of American folk music by the Library of 
Congress. Her compositions have entered into the repertoire of Irish and Celtic music all over the world. In 1994, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Liz the National Heritage Fellowship for her great influence on Irish music in America.
Irish guitarist John Doyle (pictured) was playing professionally in the Emerald Isle by the age of sixteen. Shortly after, he moved to New York City. Recently, Doyle has accompanied fiddler Liz Carroll in widely acclaimed recordings and tours.
Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 or by visiting our secure online Acteva site.
Wednesday, July 4
Mainstage Show, 1:30 pm
McCurdy Pavilion
Reserved-Seating Tickets: $16 ($5 for children 18 or under)
• Mac and Jenny Traynham: (Songs and Tunes from the Southern Mountains)
• Nightingale: (New England Contra Dance Music)
• The Carolina Chocolate Drops with Joe Thompson (Southern Stringband)
• April Verch (Canadian Fiddling)
Mac Traynham plays clawhammer banjo. He was particularly influenced by Floyd County legends Denton Wimmer banjo and Ivan Weddle fiddle. Traynham excels on a slew of instruments including banjo, fiddle and guitar, and he often performs in a band with wife, Jenny. His new CD, I'm Going That Way, is on Copper Creek Records.
Guitarist Jenny Traynham’s beautiful singing has brought cheer to countless hearts. Jenny and her husband Mac have become a popular duo, known as the Southern Mountain Melody Makers, and have cut two albums, When the Roses Bloom in Dixieland, and The Sweetest Way Home.
Nightingale
Accordionist and pianist Jeremiah McLane’s second solo recording, Smile When You're Ready, was 
nominated by National Public Radio in their “favorite picks” of 1996. His musical contributions can be heard on over thirty-five albums.
Keith Murphy is a native of Newfoundland, a setting which has been the source for many of his songs over the years. He is well known for his Irish style of guitar playing as well as for his expertise on mandolin and piano.
Becky Tracy studied Irish fiddling styles with Brendan Mulvihill and Eugene O’Donnel and French Canadian fiddling with Lisa Ornstein. All these elements combined to give Becky her distinctive clarity of tone.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops
Dom Flemons, who engages audiences from the green Carolinas to the ruddy Southwest, has thoroughly
immersed himself in the traditional sounds of yesteryear. As a part of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Flemons uses his harmonicas for additional melody; his jug and guitar root the band in an infectious rhythm.
A product of the Carolina piedmont, Rhiannon Giddens fell into contra dancing and became inspired by the Roundpeak-style Old Time bands she heard at the dances; she worked extra jobs to buy her first banjo and fiddle, and hasn't looked back since.
Justin Robinson is the fiddler for the Carolina Chocolate Drops. He played classical violin growing up and met the legendary Joe Thompson, as well as the other members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, at the Black Banjo Gathering. He is interested specifically in the Piedmont music of North and South Carolina.
For decades, Joe Thompson has upheld and represented the tradition of African-American country fiddling. Thompson is a dynamic fiddler with a distinctive short bow action that brings to life old square dance tunes. Recently, he has played with and mentored the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the torchbearers for future stringband traditions.
April Verch is an energetic fiddler with the depth of a repertoire that ranges through material from Americana to simple country songs, and rollicking tunes from her native Ottawa Valley. She released Verchuosity, her first CD, in 2000, and has released several CDs since. She will be accompanied at the Festival by percussionist Marc Bru and guitarist Isaac Callender.
Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 or on our secure online Acteva site.
Guitarist Jenny Traynham and her husband, Mac, have become a popular duo known as the Southern Mountain Melody Makers. Mac plays clawhammer banjo and also excels on a slew of other instruments, including the fiddle and guitar,
The Traynhams specialize in the early country duet style of old-time country and mountain music. They draw their repertoire from a wide variety of sources from the Appalachian mountains of Virginia and beyond, including their home of Floyd County, in the southern Blue Ridge area of Virginia.
With strong backgrounds in religious and old-time music, they began singing together in 1979. Over the years their repertoire has grown to include ballads, sweetheart songs, western, and gospel numbers.
In 1986, they released a collection of old-time and gospel duets with guitars entitled The Roses Bloom in 
Dixieland. In 1992, they released The Sweetest Way Home.
The Traynhams teach at this year's Festival of American Fiddle Tunes and will lead off the Fourth of July Show, at Fort Worden's McCurdy Pavilion, at 1:30 pm, performing songs and tunes from the southern mountains. The show also includes New England contradance group Nightingale, the Carolina Chocolate Drops with special guest Joe Thompson, and Canadian fiddle sensation April Verch. For tickets, call Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 or visit our secure online Acteva site.
Since its inception in 1977, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes has become one of the largest celebrations of traditional American music west of the Mississippi.
This year, the Festival continues under the helm of Artistic Director Dirk Powell as hundreds of players of traditional American music come to Fort Worden State Park for a full week of workshop classes, band labs, tutorials, dances, concerts, open jams, parties, and informal and spontaneous gatherings.
These workshops lead into mainstage shows where thousands of audience members pack McCurdy Pavilion, a World War I-era balloon hangar converted into one of the west’s most distinctive performance halls, to listen to the masters play.
Performances will take place at McCurdy Pavilion July 4, 6, and 7. This is your chance to hear some of
the finest that Irish, Cape Breton, Quebecois, Swedish, and Cajun music—which make up much of the historic quilt of traditional American music—has to offer. In addition there will be full sets by performers from New England, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, eastern Canada, and Missouri.
Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 800.733.3608 or 360.385.3102. Tickets are also available here at our secure online Acteva site.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Wednesday, July 4
Mainstage Show, 1:30 pm
McCurdy Pavilion
Reserved-Seating Tickets: $16 ($5 for children 18 or under)
• Mac and Jenny Traynham: (Songs and Tunes from the Southern Mountains)
• Nightingale: (New England Contra Dance Music)
• The Carolina Chocolate Drops with Joe Thompson (Southern Stringband)
• April Verch (Canadian Fiddling)
Friday, July 6
Mainstage Show, 7:30 pm
McCurdy Pavilion
Reserved-Seating Tickets: $16 ($5 for children 18 or under)
• John White and Kenny Applebee (Missouri Fiddle Tunes)
• Daniel Lapp (Cape Breton Fiddle Tunes)
• Bonsoir, Catin (Cajun Tunes)
• Liz Carroll with John Doyle (Irish Tunes)
Saturday, July 7
Mainstage Show, 1:30 pm
McCurdy Pavilion
Reserved-Seating Tickets: $20 ($5 for children 18 or under)
• The Creole Cowboys (Creole Tunes)
• Bertram Levy (Tango Fiddle)
• Paul Dahlin and Family (Swedish Fiddle)
• Randy Wilson (Southern Banjo)
• Paul Anastasio and Doc Denning (Western Swing and Cowboy Music)
• Jesse Wells (Southern Fiddle)
• Denis Maheux and Sans Ages (Quebecois)
Bertram Levy, who is is one of the few accomplished bandoneonistas in North America, will give a special tango fiddle performance at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes on Saturday, July 7, at 1:30 pm. Although the bandoneon (pictured lower right) is relatively unknown in the United States, the instrument is the emblematic voice of the Argentinian tango. In 1989, Bertram Levy first heard the instrument played live by Astor Piazzolla. He was so moved by Piazzolla's music that he abandoned all his other musical endeavors to pursue it.
At that time, Bertram was in his late forties and had achieved an international reputation as a banjo and concertina virtuoso. He had been featured on more than a dozen albums and was chosen as banjo player 
of the year by Frets magazine. He has also been highlighted in several broadcasts of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. In addition, he created and directed what is perhaps the most prestigious instrumental folk music festival in the United States: the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes.
In 1991, Bertram began his bandoneon studies with Miguel Varvello in Buenos Aires and continued in Paris with Cesar Strocio. He founded the Tangoheart Sextet in 1999 to introduce Pacific Northwest audiences to authentic Argentinian tango. In 2005, he moved to Buenos Aires to study classical bandoneon at the Conservatorio Manuel de Falla with Rodolfo Daluisio and orchestration with Gabriel Senanes. He currently lives both in Washington state and in Buenos Aires, where he continues his studies with Daluisio.
Tickets to the Saturday, July 7 show, which will also feature National Heritage Fellow Paul Dahlin, southern banjo player Randy Wilson, cowboy music from Paul Anastasio and Doc Denning, southern fiddle from Jesse Wells, and Quebecois tunes from Denis Maheux and Sans Ages, are available by following this link or by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117.
FIDDLE TUNES WEEKEND
November 15–18, 2007
For the second consecutive year, the Fiddle Tunes party returns to Fort Worden in the fall! The Fiddle Tunes Weekend is a total-immersion workshop presenting many regional styles of fiddle music, particularly the songs of the Southern mountain region.
The program will be jam-packed with workshop classes, tutorials, and open jams, culminating in a faculty concert on November 17 that is free for participants. A public dance in the USO building follows the concert.
We'll taking registrations shortly. Stay tuned for more info very soon!
Continue reading "Coming Soon: Fall Fiddle Tunes Workshop" »
CHORO: THE SWEET LAMENT OF BRAZILIAN MUSIC
Workshop: November 8-11, 2007 (full)
Concert: November 10, 2007, 7:30pm
Join Mike Marshall (mandolin), Carlos Oliveira (six- and seven-string cavanquinho guitar), Andy Connell (clarinet and saxophone), and Brian Rice (pandeiro and other Brazilian percussion instruments) in this new Centrum fall offering.
The thirty-person workshop is open to all instruments. “There will be people of different backgrounds and abilities and we’ll be sure to match you up!” Marshall says.
Evening jam sessions, combined with relaxing Brazilian film and audio sessions, round out the workshop. Participants will receive free admission to the November 10 performance in the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater. On Sunday morning, November 11, participants are invited to join the faculty for an authentic Brazilian brunch, prepared by chefs who have relocated to the United States.
For Concert Tickets, visit our online ticket order page, or call our ticket office at 360.385.3102 x117. The music will start at 7:30pm on Saturday, November 10 at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater. Tickets are $16.
[April Verch fiddling--and dancing!--onstage]
Fiddle sensation April Verch will be at the 2007 Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, July 1-8, fiddling, dancing, and teaching. Learn more here or follow the jump to read more about her energetic style and deep repertoire.
In 1965, Jerry Holland's father saw a fiddle for sale in the window of a local laundromat. Thinking that it looked like "a pretty good fiddle," Jerry Sr. bought it for fifty bucks as a present for his son. Years later, 
Jerry Holland discovered that the instrument was actually an extremely rare violin crafted by Leopold Widhalm, an Austrian luthier who worked in Germany in the 1700s. To this day, no one knows how such a rare violin wound up for sale in the window of a laundromat. "I still play that same fiddle today," Jerry says. "If I were to lose it, that would be the end of my playing. It does what no other fiddle has done for me, and coming from my dad, it's something I want to leave to my son."
Jerry has released over a dozen recordings. He has also published two collections of fiddle tunes. Strongly rooted in the Cape Breton, Scottish, and Irish traditions, Jerry grew up with some of the last generation's greatest Cape Breton Scottish fiddlers.
Because of the remoteness of Cape Breton, its fiddle music and dancing kept to the old Scottish style, a tradition that Jerry was raised to respect and support. And as an active performer and recording artist, many of Jerry's turnes have entered the traditional repertoire around the world.
Jerry Holland will be at the 2007 Festival of American Fiddle Tunes teaching, and jamming. He'll perform in a mainstage concert at McCurdy on July 6. Click here to read an interview with Jerry; here to hear a sample of his music.
A piece of wood, a few strings, and a pair of hands. From these simple ingredients, entire musical traditions emerge.
One of America’s grandest celebrations of roots music, the Festival
of American Fiddle Tunes brings authentic bearers of musical traditions
to the stage, connecting you with the communities and cultures that
make up the quilt of American music.
The 4th of July Afternoon Show
McCurdy Pavilion, Fort Worden State Park
1:30pm; Reserved seats $16; 18-under price: $5
Purchase tickets (starting May 1)
1) Mac and Jenny Traynham - Songs and Tunes from the Southern Mountains. 2) Nightingale - New England Contra Dance Music. 3) The Carolina Chocolate Drops with Special Guest Joe Thompson - Southern Stringband Music. 4) April Verch - White-Hot Canadian Fiddling
Friday Evening, July 6
McCurdy Pavilion, Fort Worden State Park
7:30pm; Reserved seats $16; 18-under price: $5
Purchase tickets (starting May 1)
1) John White with Kenny Applebee - Missouri Fiddle Tunes. 2) Jerry Holland with Daniel Lapp - Cape Breton Fiddle Tunes. 3) Bon Soir, Catin - Cajun Party Band. 4) Liz Carroll with John and Sean Doyle - Irish Fiddle Tunes
Saturday Afternoon, July 7
McCurdy Pavilion, Fort Worden State Park
1:30pm; Reserved seats $20; 18-under price: $5
Purchase tickets (starting May 1)
1) Bertram Levy - Tango Fiddle. 2) Paul Dahlin and Family - Swedish Fiddle. 3) Randy Wilson - Southern Banjo. 4) Paul Anastasio with Doc Denning - Western Swing and Cowboy Music. 5) Jesse and Jamie Wells - Southern Fiddle. 6) Denis Maheux with Sans Ages - Quebecois
All shows subject to change.
National Heritage Fellow Liz Carroll and Irish guitarist John Doyle are among the headliners at the 2007 Festival of American Fiddle Tunes.
06/28/09-07/05/09: Festival of American Fiddle Tunes
06/28/09-07/05/09: The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes
