During fiddle lessons this week, Violet and I both lamented that we're still walking on a musical cloud, hearing tunes in our heads, still tapping our feet when there's nothing to listen to. After hearing so much music round-the-clock for days, it seems kind of quiet and empty this week. I guess there's always a little bit of blues that come around after a really great experience, even though you're glad to be back home. At least we have some really good new cd's to listen to.
Here's a few more pictures from last week.
This is Violet "lobby-jamming" with the banjo picker from the Virgina band "Old Sledge", Delmer Holland's grandson (white hat), and Matt Kinman from North Carolina. You can't see me since I'm of course behind the camera, but for most of these jam sessions I played fiddle on the tunes I could play and the spoons on the ones I couldn't. Matt Kinman is a crazy-good fiddler (as well as guitar and banjo-picker), and eventually he picked up a fiddle to play and handed me his guitar, drawling, "Here, you wanna jine in an pick 'iss fer a while?" Sadly, I don't know the first thing about guitars, and had to decline, to which he smiled and said, "Girl, you need to be larnin'...yer sure missin' out."
.
Yeah, tell me about it...
.
One evening during all the crazy goings-on, I left Violet and Sterling listening to another old-time band to go hear Ray Wylie Hub
bard, who was performing in one of the bigger, very crowded, conference rooms where they were feeding live to XM Radio. I caught a second-row aisle seat because I had it on good authority from my brother that I didn't want to miss seeing Hubbard. It's hard to put Hubbard into a particular genre - he's kind of Texas Red Dirt country meets blues meets back-porch strumming meets rock. My brother was right for insisting I make a point to see him...unlike most of the performers at this conference, Hubbard has gained some modest popularity, and I was familiar with a few of his songs. But not just that, he was a heck of a performer, even with just himself and a guitar. I was really hoping to hear "Redneck Mother", but he said he was playing some of his "better songs" he'd written due to this "higher class" audience. That made me laugh out loud. So, he mostly sang ballads, but he did sneak in "Snake Farm", which I'm pretty sure is my new favorite song. Kind of makes me want to go get a tattoo of a python wearing a sailor hat eating a mouse. Not really...
bard, who was performing in one of the bigger, very crowded, conference rooms where they were feeding live to XM Radio. I caught a second-row aisle seat because I had it on good authority from my brother that I didn't want to miss seeing Hubbard. It's hard to put Hubbard into a particular genre - he's kind of Texas Red Dirt country meets blues meets back-porch strumming meets rock. My brother was right for insisting I make a point to see him...unlike most of the performers at this conference, Hubbard has gained some modest popularity, and I was familiar with a few of his songs. But not just that, he was a heck of a performer, even with just himself and a guitar. I was really hoping to hear "Redneck Mother", but he said he was playing some of his "better songs" he'd written due to this "higher class" audience. That made me laugh out loud. So, he mostly sang ballads, but he did sneak in "Snake Farm", which I'm pretty sure is my new favorite song. Kind of makes me want to go get a tattoo of a python wearing a sailor hat eating a mouse. Not really....
One of the events we participated in was the Fiddle Summit, hosted by Matt Brown. Fiddle Summit consisted of a bunch of fiddlers from very different genres and playing styles. This is Tennessee fiddler Delmer Holland (what better name for a fiddler) and his grandson showing off Delmer's old-time style, with Matt looking on. As you can imagine, Delmer and Violet hit it off like peas and carrots.
.
Delmer is quite an inspiration to me. He was a guitar picker who's Dad and other relatives played the fiddle, but he'd never had much interest in learning. When he was in his 60's their band needed a fiddler, so he took the instrument up and taught himself. Now in his 80's, he's an old-time fiddling whiz, winning competitions left and right. His story is a good lesson on "it's never too late." In addition - I couldn't tell by listening to him but he ONLY notes with his first two fingers! He said when he was learning, he could just never get the other two fingers to work...pretty amazing if you hear him play. (To hear him, youtube "The Blue Creek Ramblers").
The Fiddle Summit was our last scheduled appearance, and we spent the rest of our time jamming with other Old Time enthusiasts. Matt Brown writes about us on his blog:
.
Here's Matt Kinman at the Fiddle Summit. I was quite enamored with Matt's playing - you can't tell from a picture how he was flying all over that fiddle in some crazy cross-tunings while playing it in the real old-time style - with the instrument at his chest. This is the way Violet's Dad played, and how she first started playing. I can play a few songs this way, but certain parts of my anatomy make it difficult. That, and, I tend to get wild tapping my foot, which makes this style of playing practically impossible for me at this point.
.
Here's Violet, as she says, "showing out" at Fiddle Summit. She was quite proud of my fiddle, and insisted on playing it during the Summit. I didn't argue.
.
.
The Fiddle Summit was our last scheduled appearance, and we spent the rest of our time jamming with other Old Time enthusiasts. Matt Brown writes about us on his blog:
.
It's funny that he recognized that the "Old Timers" (one of the conference organizers called us all "The Old Time Kids") couldn't resist jamming at the drop of a hat, in any given area at any given time, unlike some of the other music genre performers who were a bit more refined and reserved.
While at the conference I was asked what spurred me to all of a sudden learn the fiddle in my 30's. I don't have a really good explanation for why I never started early, except that it didn't really cross my mind as something I could actually do. Kind of like when you're a kid wishing, "I wish I could go to the moon and live in a rocket ship and have a pet Martian." I'm sure if I'd asked, my folks would have done whatever was needed to get me playing, but as it was my heart wasn't really into the piano lessons they were paying for, and I was thinking much more about sports and boys and how to finagle my way into getting the latest "in" pair of jeans. I've always been drawn to the fiddle and stringband music, hid my bluegrass cd's under the driver's seat in my car in college, and always kept it in the back of my mind that I might want to learn someday - someday when I could stand the "un-coolness" of it. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere, age 30 smacked me right in the face, and I realized that I was either going to spend my life whining and wishing I'd played a fiddle, or I was really going to buckle down and do it. I had a false start in my 20's - the desire was there, but not the dedication it takes to learn a particularly difficult instrument.
While at the conference I was asked what spurred me to all of a sudden learn the fiddle in my 30's. I don't have a really good explanation for why I never started early, except that it didn't really cross my mind as something I could actually do. Kind of like when you're a kid wishing, "I wish I could go to the moon and live in a rocket ship and have a pet Martian." I'm sure if I'd asked, my folks would have done whatever was needed to get me playing, but as it was my heart wasn't really into the piano lessons they were paying for, and I was thinking much more about sports and boys and how to finagle my way into getting the latest "in" pair of jeans. I've always been drawn to the fiddle and stringband music, hid my bluegrass cd's under the driver's seat in my car in college, and always kept it in the back of my mind that I might want to learn someday - someday when I could stand the "un-coolness" of it. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere, age 30 smacked me right in the face, and I realized that I was either going to spend my life whining and wishing I'd played a fiddle, or I was really going to buckle down and do it. I had a false start in my 20's - the desire was there, but not the dedication it takes to learn a particularly difficult instrument.
I've been surprised to discover how many people find an interest in learning an instrument, a language, or an appreciation for a new sport or hobby far into adulthood, so I don't feel QUITE so "johnny-come-lately" as I have in the past. In addition, I have the hope that I can become a good musician in my lifetime, even though I didn't start as a kid - as long as I'm having fun.
.
.
By far, the best part of last week was the playing of music simply for the sheer joy of it, and not caring who was listening. When you can join in with other instruments, everything else in the world falls away and it's just pure happiness. I guess that's why I'm addicted. At one point in our jams, we'd attracted nearly 30 other players, and I was surprised to notice that not only had we attracted all those musicians, but quite a crowd of onlookers taking pictures, as well as a documentary film crew.
.
The best compliment I received all week, besides the person who told me my fiddle didn't look handmade (that had me walking in the clouds), was the lady who'd been playing fiddle her whole life, turned to me in a jam session and said, "Wow - how do you do that? You play JUST like Violet." I nearly melted into the floor.
I really look forward to having much more music in my future.
No comments:
Post a Comment