The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes: Artist/Faculty

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FACULTY

The heart of Centrum’s Festival of American Fiddle Tunes is its faculty. These are authentic bearers of North American fiddle traditions. Their knowledge, stories, musicianship, and commitment to the community are part of what makes this week such a special celebration of traditional music.

2008 Faculty (subject to change)

Artistic Director Dirk Powell learned traditional Appalachian music directly from his grandfather, yet grew up mostly away from the mountains in Ohio, giving him a unique combination of inside and outside perspectives. Powell has the ability to convey the essence of the tradition to people of all backgrounds, a quality which has led to work with artists such as T-Bone Burnett, Sting, Loretta Lynn, Jack White, and others.

IRELAND (new!)

Paul Bradley, currently from County Galway, is one of the foremost players of his generation in Ireland. His fiddle style is highly energetic and evocative; though favoring raw passion to technique, it is technically challenging, distinctive and distinguished.  Paul's solo album 'Atlantic Roar', received a five-star review in the Irish Times: "Key and style-changes show off not only his utter comfort with the instrument but also his thorough understanding of the music he plays." He teaches and performs annually at the prestigious Willie Clancy Summer School in County Clare. Paul is also a poet and a violin-maker and studied at the Newark School of violin-making in England. He lives in Galway. Visit Paul's myspace page.

VERMONT

Vermont currently hails Harold Luce as a cultural treasure. He's an old-style Yankee fiddler and dance prompter, playing and calling at the same time, much in the manner of his mentor Edwin L. Larkin, who dominated the local dance scene for the first half of the twentieth century. As a young man, Harold played many dances for Larkin. Today he carries on Larkin's tradition as a member of the performance group the Ed Larkin Dancers, but he is mostly known for fiddling/calling squares on his own. His repertoire extends  beyond traditional New England fiddling and includes Tin Pan Alley and  popular songs from the 1920's-1950's. Mr. Luce is Luce will be accompanied at the workshop by one of his protégés, Adam Boyce, on piano. Adam will also do some double fiddling with Harold on some waltzes and a few faster tunes.

ALABAMA

James Bryan might have the largest repertoire of Alabama tunes of any living person, and he pulls the smoothest bow of anyone in the South. He grew up on Sand Mountain, the son of an old-time musician who took him to visit every fiddler in the region, an area that gave us the Louvin Brothers among other country music luminaries, and later apprenticed with master fiddler Kenny Baker. His feel for the grace, stateliness and timing of old-time music, is virtually without peer.

Lee Stripling is the 85-year-old son of Charlie Stripling, the finest fiddler to ever come out of Alabama. Lee learned all of his daddy’s tunes, but he also learned the popular music of his day, western swing and songs from the Sons of the Pioneers. He will be accompanied by his little sister, Elsie Stripling Mordecai, a splendid piano player who still lives in Kennedy, Alabama.

Lee and Elsie will be ably assisted by W. Bruce Reid and Bonnie Zahnow during the festival. Bruce and Bonnie play many, many styles of fiddle music on multiple instruments, and regularly provide backup for Lee at Seattle area dances.

In addition to instrumental music, this quartet will also teach some four part gospel songs, a staple of Lee and Elsie’s upbringing. Although these songs are religious, Lee remembers this type of singing as more of a secular activity.

Jim Cauthen has played fiddle for twenty-five years. His playing was most influenced by Bob Douglas, Ralph Whited, and Henry Lee Hudson. An expert dance fiddler, Jim plays in two Birmingham old-time bands, the Red Mountain White Trash and Flying Jenny, and his playing can be heard on their recordings.

Joyce Cauthen plays guitar. She has authored the definitive tome on Alabama old time music, With Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow: Old-Time Fiddling in Alabama. Together Jim and Joyce have researched Alabama’s fiddling traditions and present the old-time music all across the country.

CAPE BRETON

David MacIsaac is a Canadian musician from Nova Scotia who plays the fiddle and guitar, specializing in the Celtic music style. In 1996 he was named Male Artist of the Year by the East Coast Music Awards, and also was named Instrumental Artist of the Year. His CDs include Nimble Fingers and Guitar Souls. Anyone who has spent time in Nova Scotia will attest that Dave is one of the most beloved musicians in Canada.

Wendy MacIsaac is a truly spectacular fiddler, piano player, and stepdancer from Creignish, Cape Breton. She has carried her music around the world: to Italy, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, eastern Europe, and all over North America. She began performing at the age of five as a stepdancer, and took up the fiddle when she was twelve. By the age of fifteen, Wendy was playing dances all over Cape Breton Island, developing the sound that makes her so recognizable today. She also has a strong reputation as a piano player and has accompanied just about all of the Cape Breton fiddlers of her generation.

OLD-TIME & BLUEGRASS

Mandolin ace Tim O’Brien is widely regarded as one of the pre-eminent Americana and bluegrass musicians in the world today. Thirty years after moving to Colorado, where he formed his landmark band Hot Rize, he remains 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.

For years Carl Jones and Beverly Smith have been an integral part of the traditional music landscape in America at festivals, on record, at contests and dances, and in various bands and formations. In their current partnership they bring those years of experience to the art of the duet—songs and tunes, old and new, done simply and with love. Beverly is in demand as a singer, fiddler, and dance caller. She has made numerous recordings, backing up fiddlers Bruce Molsky, Rafe Stefanini, Tara Nevins and Brad Leftwich, vocalizing with Irish musicians Mick Moloney and John Doyle, and also singing with bluegrass great Laurie Lewis. Carl has toured with Norman and Nancy Blake as part of the Rising Fawn String Ensemble, playing mandolin, banjo, and fiddle. He often plays as a duo with James Bryan, and is sometimes found pickin' as part of a trio with Bruce Green and Don Pedi.

Earl Murphy grew up on a farm in central Missouri. His father was a fiddler, and by age six Earl picked up the instrument and began to mimic his father's fiddle tunes. He won his first fiddle context in 1926 and began playing dances with his older brother Jack. In the nineteen-thirties, Earl moved to Idaho, where he learned much western swing music and in the nineteen-forties and -fifties he was a prominent musician in the honky tonks of Moline, Illinois. Since moving to Georgia in 1989, Earl has played with various bluegrass bands and is a regular at the Georgia State Fiddle Contest.

Earl will be accompanied during the week by Charlie and Nancy Hartness, who met at Fiddle Tunes in 1996. They have played with a variety of dance bands in the Pacific Northwest, including the Turtle Valley String Band and the Lizella Rockets. Since moving to Georgia a few years ago they have played weekly with Earl in his kitchen, often with Beverly Smith.

LOUISIANA

The Pine Leaf Boys have a tremendous respect for their place in the evolution of Cajun and Creole music, but you’d never know it from by attending one of their raucous dances. With unfettered youthful exuberance they render dance hall standards and Cajun classics, as well as many obscure two-steps and waltzes learned from their neighbors. Skillful multi-instrumentalists, they often switch instruments during their dances. At the workshop Wilson Savoy will focus on accordion, Cedric Watson on Creole fiddle, Jon Bertrand on guitar, and Drew Simon and Blake Miller on everything at the same time. The Pine Leaf Boys vow to lead four band labs in the afternoon during the week.

NEW ENGLAND

Fiddler David Kaynor began singing in bars and coffeehouses in duets and trios around the southern coast of Maine and northern Vermont in the nineteen-seventies. Known for his deep musicianship and teaching ability, Kaynor has taught and played at multiple festivals and old-time music gatherings around the country.   

NORTH CAROLINA

Chester McMillian (guitar), Nick McMillian (fiddle), and Kelley Breiding (banjo) make up the old-time stringband Backstep. They play music in the Roundpeak Style native to Mount Airy, NC, and made famous by the likes of Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham. Known for its driving rhythms and prominent melodies, Roundpeak music is just the thing to make you kick up your heels and dance. Backstep has twice captured the old-time band competition at the Mount Airy Fiddler's Convention, as well as first prize at the Fiddler's Grove Fiddler's Convention.

QUEBEC

The French-Canadian roots band De Temps Antan include 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. Their music 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.

MEXICO/ARGENTINA

Correo Aereo (Air Mail) play traditional and original music of Latin America, primarily of Venezuela, México, and Argentina. Together, Abel Rocha and Madeleine Sosin combine an array of string and percussive instruments with silken vocal harmonies. Abel plays harp, guitar, cuatro, and quinta huapanguera. Madeleine plays violin, maracas, bombo, and jarana. At the workshop, Madeleine and Abel will focus on two fiddle styles – the wild Huastecan fiddling from North central east Mexico, and chacareras and zambas from Argentina. If you have a quinta, or a nylon-stringed guitar, bring it – otherwise, this music translates beautifully to guitar and mandolin. If you want to learn some Venezuelan music and you have a Venezuelan cuatro, bring that too.

TUTORIAL STAFF

A staff of twenty-two tutors will provide introductory instruction on fiddle, banjo, guitar, accordion, singing, piano, and other instruments.