Fiddler`s Rag

Fiddler’s Rag
Santa Clara Valley Fiddlers Association
Celebrating 39 Years!
September 2012 (Vol. 40, Number 9)
Next Jam: September 2
A Little Self-Promotion
President’s Note
By Richard Brooks
On September 2 we’re back at the
Hoover School. Our August 5 jam
was another perfect-weather day in
the Rose Garden Park with a big
turnout. Peter Tommerup’s mountain dulcimer workshop
was a huge success, with sixteen attendees. Thank you,
Peter!
Beginners Circle
Tom Clausen will lead the beginners circle. Let him know if
there’s a tune you’d like to learn.
Featured Performer October 7
The ’bout Time! bluegrass band will be our Featured
Performer at the October 7 jam. Check them out at www.
bouttimebluegrass.com.
Rhythm Roundup, my band, will play bluegrass and western
swing at noon on September 28 at 101 California Street, SF.
It’s the People In Plazas series. Joining me are Jeanie and
Chuck Poling and Tom Drohan. RhythmRoundup.com has
a brief description.
Still Waiting
• I’m still waiting for someone to email a photo of me, Sam
Morocco, Chip Curry, Steve Kirtley, and Jim Dinkey
playing in the park on July 1.
• We are still waiting for a volunteer to be our newsletter
editor.
•
I’m still waiting for your ideas about:
1) attracting youths,
2) attracting new attendees,
3) retaining current members, and
4) increasing publicity.
Youth Fiddle Contest on November 4
In this issue:
Photo: Richard Brooks
Jaclyn Chiew volunteered to be our Youth
Fiddle Contest Chair. It’s a big job and she
can certainly use your help. Let us know
if you can help her before or during the
contest.
Page
President’s Note1
About the SCVFA/Contact Info2
’bout Time: Oct. Featured Performer2
New North Bay District 103
Article: Pioneer Fiddlers (Part Two)5
Two great guitarists at the August jam: Don Amick and Jonathan Horne.
’bout Time! Band – SCVFA’s
Featured Performer on October 7
On Sunday, October 7, the ‘bout Time! bluegrass band
will be the Featured Performer at the Santa Clara Valley
Fiddlers Association’s jam in San Jose. Their show will
start at 3:00 or 3:30 PM and last about 30 minutes. Visit
www.fiddlers.org for details.
The ’bout Time! sound comes from the blended harmonies
of Mark Searles (guitar), Pete Hallesy (banjo), and Linda
Williams (mandolin); duets by Linda and Dave Williams
(bass); and the rhythm guitar of Mike Omodt. Formed in
2005 by jumping ship from a Jack Tuttle jam class, they
are regular performers throughout Northern California.
Their venues include the South Bay Yacht Club, Vintage
Vehicles, Los Altos Relay for Life, Family Festival in
Palo Alto, and farmers’ markets.
Their traditional repertoire is steeped in the classic
songs of Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin, Lester and Earl,
and Ralph and Carter. But they also venture into newer
material from sources like AKUS, Lonesome River Band
and Lynn Morris. Their upcoming schedule includes gigs
at Mission Pizza in Fremont, and farmers’ markets in
Campbell, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale.
–– Dave Williams and Richard Brooks
The Fiddler’s Rag is published monthly by the Santa Clara
Valley Fiddlers Association and is provided to members of
the Association. The Santa Clara Valley Fiddlers Association (SCVFA), founded in 1973 in San Jose, California, is
a nonprofit, volunteer-operated organization dedicated to the
preservation, teaching, and enjoyment of traditional music.
The first membership in a household includes the Fiddler’s
Rag; additional members sharing the newsletter are steeply
discounted. To join the SCVFA, sign up at the jam or visit
www.fiddlers.org/join.
Check out www.fiddle.com
for hundreds of fiddle-related
links, excerpts from Fiddler
Magazine, videos, and more!
Officers and Chairs
President-Trustee Richard J. Brooks
Vice President OPEN
Treasurer Janet Johnston
Membership Pete Showman
Recording Secretary Dinah Showman
Newsletter Editor
Mary Larsen (OPEN)
Newsletter Publisher Charlotte Prater
Webmaster (Pete Showman, acting)
Playout Coordinator Paul Clarke
Youth Activity Coordinator Mary Kennedy
Youth Fiddle Contest
Jaclyn Chiew
Publicity Tom Clausen
Trustees
Seat 1: Pete Showman
Seat 2: Gorden Gibson
Seat 3: Paul Clarke
Seat 4: Charlotte Prater
Seat 5: Dave Williams
Seat 6: Tom Clausen
Newsletter banner art by Hilary Cole
To Contact the SCVFA:
Mail: P.O. Box 2666, Cupertino, CA 95015-2666
Email: president at fiddlers.org Phone: (650)328-3939
Newsletter Submissions & Comments:
Email: newsletter at fiddlers.org
Website: www.scvfa.org or www.fiddlers.org
Copyright 2012, Santa Clara Valley Fiddlers Association
Page 2
Fiddler’s Rag – September 2012
New North Bay District 10
meeting periodically in Lake County at a regular time to be
announced.
By Mark Hogan
Greetings from the North Bay Area. The California State
Old Time Fiddlers Association has a new district: District
10. We had our first general meeting and concluded all the
business necessary to officially become a member district
in the CSOTFA. The area we encompass includes Sonoma,
Mendocino, and Lake Counties.
On July 22, we met at the Cloverdale Historical Society
and elected our officers and board members. The officers
are Mike Drayton (president), Colleen Hogan (secretary),
Chris Carney (vice-president), Mark Hogan (membership
secretary), Katy Bridges (state-wide district representative),
Doug Laurice (treasurer), and an advisory committee of
Don Coffin, Gus Garelick, and Janet Duncan. You may
know Mike from the Road Oilers band.
The immediate goals of
the new district will be to
develop an interest in old
time fiddle playing among
the youth. The tri-county area
already boasts several events
which can help achieve our
goal. Within District 10’s
area, we have the Anderson
Marsh Bluegrass and Old
Time Festival slated to
return in 2013, and the
Cloverdale Fiddle Festival
which will be happening at
a new date, May 4-5, 2013.
We also have a very well
attended old time fiddle
jam at the Redwood Cafe in
Cotati, California from 4-6
pm on the fourth Sunday of
every month. We will also be
The Cloverdale Fiddle Festival (www.cloverdalefiddles.
com) will be May 4-5, 2013, and it is now more than an old
time fiddle contest. We added divisions for youth and adult
mandolin and guitar, and several workshops.
The fiddle judges for 2013 will be Janet Duncan, Blaine
Sprouse and Vivian Williams. We are extremely excited
about this. Janet Duncan is a well known dance fiddle
player and teacher in Sonoma County. Blaine Sprouse has
been the fiddle player for a number of high profile bluegrass
bands, including the Osborne Brothers and Bill Monroe
and the Bluegrass Boys. Vivian Williams first arrived on
the California Bluegrass Association stage as the fiddle
player in the Seattle, Washington-based bluegrass band
Tall Timber in the 1970s. She is the foremost authority on
Pacific Northwest Old Time Fiddle playing.
Photo: Richard Brooks
We are very excited about this new development within
the CSOTFA. We were previously part of District 9,
which went from San Luis Obispo County to the top of
Mendocino County. We hope by sectioning off a portion
of the aforementioned counties into a new district that we
can better serve the area. We already have over twenty new
members who were not previously CSOTFA members. You
don’t have to be a resident of the district to be a member of
our new District 10. If you want to join or participate please
call me at 707-829-8012.
Two members have local public radio shows in Lake and
Sonoma Counties devoted to bluegrass and old time music.
My show is on KOWS FM 107.3, currently from 3-5 pm
on Mondays. Don Coffin’s show runs on KPFZ 88.1 FM
in Lakeport, from 7-9 am with a rebroadcast on Saturday
from 5-7 am. Both shows can be streamed by going to their
respective websites, KOWS.com or KPFZ.com and clicking
on the live broadcast icon. [Ed. note: Gus Garelick also has
a radio show, called “The Fiddling Zone,” on KRCB.]
An old time jam at our August jam at the San Jose Rose Garden. Top L to R: Herb,
Rudy Posch, Sam Morocco, Dave Wunsch. Seated: Gary Breitbard and Jena Rauti.
Page 3
Fiddler’s Rag – September 2012
Photo: Richard Brooks
More Scenes from the August Rose Garden Jam
Playing bluegrass at the August jam.
Page 4
Fiddler’s Rag – September 2012
Photo: Richard Brooks
Photo: Richard Brooks
Old time jam. Left to right: John Durbin, Sydney Roberts, John Gregorin,
Warren Campbell, Tom Clausen, Steve Goldfield.
[This article, contributed by Steve Kirtley, tells the story of Texas fiddlers in the
area near Fort Worth, Texas in the mid to late 1800s. The fiddling ancestors of
Arthur Kee and Steve Kirtley lived in this exact area at this time, and may well
have known the characters mentioned in this story. Part I appeared in the July
2012 issue.]
Some Pioneer Fiddlers of
Parker County, Texas, Part II
By T. U. Taylor, Austin, Texas
The third old Parker county fiddler in this article will have to be known as the
“Unknown Fiddler.” I saw him only once. It was Christmas Eve night, 1870.
The saloon in Cleburne was crowded with good humored spirits; everybody was
happy, but nobody drunk. Egg-nogg was on the side board. For some reason the
unknown fiddler had landed in Cleaburne broke, hungry, homesick, and blue.
The egg-nogg was in a large bowl free to everybody. Monroe Wren was host.
The scene was in the middle of the block on the north side of the public square.
About 11 o’clock the crowds began dispersing and the unknown fiddler sat in a
stiff chair by the wall and anybody could see that he was unhappy to a degree. He
was offered many drinks, took some of them but these could not cure the dreadful
case of nostalgia of which he was suffering. He told of his grandfather’s home in
Parker and the next day they would all meet at a big dinner at his father’s home.
He almost began to sob and the whole crowd of frontiersmen were affected. And
some fiddler took up his old fiddle and began to play softly the “Drunkard’s
Hiccoughs.”
“I eat when I am hungry,
I drink when I am dry,
If a tree don’t fall on me,
I will live till I die.”
Then he swung into a chorus, new and heart-rending:
O-l-d Parker, O-l-d Parker,
God bless her old soul,
O-l-d Parker, O-l-d Parker
She is better than gold.
And when I die
And cease from toil
Oh, bury me deep,
In old Parker’s soil.
After the fiddler screamed out the chorus the last time his head dropped down and
he was sound asleep. In a few moments, a smile spread across his hungry face
and it took no stretch of the imagination to know that he was back in old Parker,
even only in his dreams.
There were several other verses that the unknown fiddler sang that Christmas
night in Cleburne, but I can recall only a few words. One verse paid tribute to the
“Parker girls with their yellow curls.” It has been two-thirds of a century since I
heard the unknown fiddler pour out his homesick sorrows.
[Originally published in Frontier Times, Volume 14, No. 9, June, 1937, Bandera, Texas.]
Page 5
Fiddler’s Rag – September 2012
Santa Clara Valley Fiddlers Association
P.O. Box 2666
Cupertino, CA 95015-2666
SCVFA Jam on the first Sunday of each month.
Location: Hoover Middle School, 1635 Park Ave.,
San Jose. The school is at the corner of Naglee and
Park. Cafeteria parking is on the Naglee side.
Damaged or Missing Issue? Call us,
or email to: newsletter at scvfa.org
Photo: Richard Brooks
Next Jam: Sunday, September 2, 1-5 pm
Hoover Middle School, San Jose
High fives from Peter Tommerup’s Mountain Dulcimer workshop at the August jam.