Champion Fiddler, Inspired Performer
This review of Old School Old Time was just too cool to not pass on. I am humbled by some of the kind words that Wendy McCall had to say about our album. “This entire album could be used in teaching up-and-coming Fiddle want-to-be’s. Vi Wickam is definitely one of the best out there and [...]
You heard it here first. Sleepy Jesus Rag by Peter Ostroushko is day 157 of a Fiddle Tune a Day. Some of you may be wondering how day 157 got to be after day 160. The answer is simple, really. I skipped it, and then I got a couple of days behind on posting the [...]
The first time I heard Calgary Polka was on Mark O’Connor’s album Soppin’ the Gravy, which I TOTALLY wore out when I was a teen. And, I started working on it when I heard Hanneke Cassel playing it in the warm up room (cafeteria) one of the first times I wen to Weiser. I remember [...]
To me, Faded love is the prototypical Bob Wills fiddle tune. It was one of the first Bob Wills style fiddle tunes I learned, and I still love playing it. Hearing those first three chops DA, F#A, and AA puts me into that song immediately. Do me a favor, and tell me your favorite Bob [...]
Robert Burns was a legend of a Scotsman. He was a poet and musician, and a rock star of the 18th century if ever there was one. My Love is Like a Red Red Rose (A Red Red Rose) is a stunningly beautiful melody, with words to match. I will let the song speak for [...]
Like many of these fiddle tunes, Cotton Eyed Joe started out as a singing song, and the fiddle tune developed from it, and it developed in different ways. Over time, I have heard a lot of different takes on Cotton Eyed Joe. There is even a recording of Cotton Eyed Joe on Youtube featuring the [...]
I first heard this tune on Matt Wyatt’s album, The Goodbye Waltz – back porch fiddling. I asked Matt about it, and he learned it off of a recording of Benny Thommasson playing it. I have added a little bit of my own variation to it. According to my sources, it’s an old fiddle tune [...]
When I first learned Black and White Rag, it was off of the 4 World Champion Fiddlers album that featured Jim “Texas Shorty” Chancellor, Mark O’Connor, Terry Morris, and Benny Thomas. Terry was the one that played Black and White, and I still think love the endings he put on the A Part (2 of [...]
Eighth of January is a great old fiddle tune, also recorded by Jimmy Driftwood as a vocal known as The Battle of New Orleans. I remember first hearing this tune on a Nitty Gritty Dirt band album that my dad used to play all the time. And what better fiddle tune to record on the [...]
