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.
Seattle musician and Fiddle Tunes regular Devon Leger has written a very interesting piece in Victory Music about the emergence of a new generation of participants and faculty at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. For all of you in the I-5 area, Devon offers this nugget:
"The Festival is now more successful than ever, but few people in Seattle
realize that the Festival also offers public concerts.
These concerts feature master musicians and are relatively cheap. So if
you’ve never heard of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, check out
their concert page and plan a fun outing to the Peninsula. These artists
are often impossible to catch outside of the Festival!"
Fireworks and The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes are traditions in Port Townsend during the summer. At Centrum, we do our best to make sure that the fireworks last all day.
For our July 4 shows at Fiddle Tunes in 2010, we are pulling out all of the stops. We have an afternoon show at 1:30pm featuring more than a dozen of the most accomplished and outstanding musicians from around the world. In the evening at 7:30pm, the fireworks begin in earnest onstage before we send you to the bluffs at Fort Worden to watch the real thing.
The concerts are a highlight of summer in Port Townsend, and we have great seats available. Tickets for our July 4 shows are available online,
or by calling 800-746-1982.
Sunday, July 4
- A Port Townsend Independence Day Tradition Fiddlin’ – Old
World, New World McCurdy Pavilion | 1:30 pm |
$18/$25/$36
Olof
Söderbäck and Peter Michaelson: Swedish Fiddling
Paul
Anastasio and Juan Barco: A Musical Tour of Mexico
Peter
Arsenault and Jacques Arsenault: Traditional Music of Prince Edward
Island
Joseba
Tapia, Arkaitz Miner, and Javier Berasaluce: Basque Dance Music
Laurie
Lewis and Tom Rozum: Bluegrass
David
Kaynor and Betsy Branch: New England Dance Music
Mike
Bryant, Joseph Decosimo: Old Time
Kevin Healy
and Keith Holter: Western Swing
Sunday, July 4
- Fireworks! Fiddle Grand
Finale McCurdy Pavilion | 7 pm |
$17/$24/$34
John Carty:
One of Ireland's Finest Traditional Musicians
Genticorum:
Canada's Young Quebecois Powerhouse Trio
James
Cheechoo and family: Music of the Moose Cree First Nation
Dirk Powell
and Friends: Fiddle Tunes Artistic Director and Multi-instrument
Virtuoso
With great regret we report that Charlie McCarroll, Tony Thomas, and Bobby Fulcher won't make it to Port Townsend this summer. We're working on them for next year, but in their place we've invited the legendary Mike Bryant and the National Old Time Banjo Champion Joseph Decosimo, from Tennessee.
Mike Bryant was born in 1954 Georgia, but has spent most of his adult life in upper East Tennessee. He’s perhaps most recognized for his work with his band, The New Dixie Entertainers, named after fiddler Earl Johnson’s 1930s-era outfit. Mike has twice won the prestigious fiddle competition at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival, in Clifftop, WV; he’s considered one of the preeminent old time fiddlers in the United States.
He’ll be accompanied by National Old Time Banjo Champion Joseph Decosimo, one of the new generation of young musicians connecting with older regional traditions of music. His playing is deeply rooted in the old time traditions of the Cumberland Plateau and reflects time spent studying under some of the finest older musicians of that region. Both Mike and Joseph play both fiddle and banjo.
We've also added Alison Hedlund to our intermediate tutorial staff in Swedish Fiddling. Alison discovered her true musical passion when she heard her first record of traditional Swedish music - you know, that blue and white one, featuring the music of Bjorn Stabi and Ole Hjorth - and started the band “Swedes for a Day.” Two trips to Sweden to meet her cousins, travel, collect tunes and attend music festivals were inspiring. She played with the Scandinavian Clover Blossom Band for 12 years, and is a member of various ensembles for dances and other Scandinavian events in Western Washington.
Kris Tucker, the Executive Director of the Washington State Arts Commission, has some very nice things to say on the NEA's "Art Works" blog about our 2010 Fiddle Tunes Poster, designed and printed by Pilar McCracken.
"In vivid red and somewhat quirky lettering and symbols, her poster
captures the heritage and atmosphere of Fiddle Tunes. It makes me want
to be there. And I’m already thinking of who I’ll hear, where I’ll stay,
and what other creative experiences I might come across en route."
Thanks for note, Kris, and we hope to see you in Port Townsend in July!
Centrum has contracted with visual artist and printmaker Pilar McCracken to design a limited edition 2010 Festival of American Fiddle Tunes poster. Each poster is handprinted on an antique letterpress using a combination of wood and metal type and woodcuts made by the artist. The edition will be printed on Crane’s Lettra, an archival, acid free, 100% cotton printmaking paper expressly engineered for letterpress. The finished print size is 15" x 24" and each print will be signed by the artist.
A total of 100 prints will be available at $45.00 each.
Here’s how to order: Email the Centrum order desk: info@centrum.org, and include this information:
Your full name
Your phone number
Your mailing address.
If you don’t have email, call 360-385-3102, ext 117.
We expect these limited edition hand printed posters to sell out quickly, so it’s important that you email us right away. We’ll reply to requests in the order they are received to get your payment information.
World Music From the USA: The Cajun Fiddles of David Greely and Joel Savoy By Michal Shapiro MARCH 29, 2010
Now that Spring has sprung, here's a dose of soulful fiddle music from two masters: David Greely, founding fiddler of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, and Joel Savoy of The Savoy Family Band and the Red Stick Ramblers. The duo was in town for GlobalFEST, at an "offsite event" at the Highline Ballroom.
This performance (no interview -- it doesn't need it!) is a happy reminder that there are still places in the USA that treasure their ethnic heritage and play homemade music to enrich life. It's easy to imagine these two making music on the front porch in the midst of a warm Louisiana Spring day. So relax and bask in the sounds of some sweet strings. Listen:
Our kind community members have also informed us that past and present faculty of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes were represented at the Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony in Vancouver.
View the Facebook video below and you will find Eric Beaudry on the right (from our 2008 and 2009 gatherings), and David Boulanger on the left, fiddling - David's on this year's tutorial staff.
We were pretty thrilled to see the amazing fiddler André Brunet, of De Temps Antan on the main stage at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. André and the lads were on faculty at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in 2008 and 09, and led our recent Québécois
fiddle intensive.
