Black Creek coming up

Next festival coming up near us here in upstate NY is  The Black Creek Fiddlers Reunion. This year is dedicated to Doc Murphy, a much loved teacher of many fiddlers from this area.

There's a Facebook group here... http://www.facebook.com/groups/56744681265/ Check in for info and news.

I'm looking forward to working the Welcome Tent and leading the slow jam.

Pot luck dinner on Saturday.

Sacred Harp sing on Sunday.

Here's some recordings from 2007 to give you some idea of what goes on.

Stop by and say hello.

Lessons?

Hey, y'all, just to put it out there, I can teach you how to play by ear and learn tunes on the fly in a jam. You can learn lots about my philosophy and style by reading through the archived posts here at my Fiddle Jammer blog and the associated festival recording site. Give a holler to 'fiddlejammer' on Skype. I'll also be available in person at some summer festivals this year: Mt. Airy, Black Creek, Harry Smith, and Lake Genero. I can show you lots of tricks on fiddle, uke, mando, banjo, bass, and/or guitar.



Don't be shy.   :-)

Another 3 months of Aussie tunes coming up

The view from up / down here

Hey, back in the USofA. One week of jet lag done and gone. It was spring time in NY, and at the moment there is uber spring time going on down here in Athens, GA. Time to visit with the grandies (and catch up with some Athens old time) for a bit, then back up north.

Lots going on playing the big bull fiddle with the Shoestring Band coming up in April. And, along the lines of my resolution to sing more, I'm going to help out hosting the Strum and Sing evening at the Moon and River Cafe in Schenectady on April 16th.

Still hosting the Aussie Bush Band night each 4th Wednesday at the Old Songs Community Arts Center in Voorheesville. We'll be having some special guests from Tasmania visiting this summer, so we're working up our dance repertoire. This event is open to all skill levels and listeners. Sure could use a few more squeezeboxes. Hint. Hint.

Stay tuned.

Next stop...

Yarra Junction Fiddlers Convention

Workshop feedback from Fiddle Hell

Sandra L from Beverly, MA writes: "Today I was thinking about getting around to cross-tuning my fiddle - the advice you gave during FiddleHell weekend was bouncing around in my head. So now I've cross-tuned a fiddle - AEAE - and am having the absolute best time playing around. Everything sounds so BIG!  I can't wait to get together with the folks that I play with. Thank you so very much for the suggestion - and the confidence with which you gave it, which allowed me to ignore the many others who seem to think it is a no-good-very-bad thing to do to an instrument. (If they could only hear mine, they would realize that I couldn't have made the fiddle any happier.)"

It's a good day when there's email like that in my inbox. Thanks for taking the time to write, Sandra!

Evolving tune site

Hi all, I've been working towards improving my festival recordings site. Here's a link to the work in progress. It's just in the laboratory stage, a sandbox that I can play around in and see how everything works. My first thought was to keep it under wraps until it was ready, but what the heck. I think I have some friends who might be interested in the process, so have a look around and let me know what you think. The URL will change when the real thing is ready, fyi.