Fiddle Tunes at Centrum

Fiddle Tunes Almost Full

Just a heads up - the Fiddle Tunes workshop is filling at a unprecented rate, and we're approaching capacity. If you've been waiting to register, we suggest doing it today. http://www.centrum.org/admin/register.html

May 10 Swing Dance at the JFK Building

Get ready for some jump blues, western swing, and classical jazz standards from the 1930s and 1940s on Saturday, May 10!

Join us at 7:30 pm, as Fort Worden State Park’s newly renovated JFK Building comes alive with rock-steps, twirls, and dips. The cost is $10; tickets are available at the door or by calling 360.385.3102, x117. Tickets are also available online.

Leading the swing dance are Grammy-winning guitarist Mike Dowling, violinist Paul Anastasio, sensational Canadian vocalist/pianist Jennifer Scott and bassist Cary Black.

The dance is the public capstone to an intensive weekend workshop for swing musicians and vocalists, some of whom will join the band onstage.

Before embarking on a solo career, Mike Dowling worked and recorded with jazz great Joe Venuti, mandolinist Jethro Burns, and Nashville swing fiddler Buddy Spicher. Dowling is a popular swing instructor throughout the country. He has been called by Vassar Clements "one of the finest guitarists there is, anywhere."

Paul Anastasio studied jazz violin with the great Joe Venuti. His first job on the road was with Merle Haggard’s band, The Strangers. In 1992, a chance encounter with Mexican violinist Juan Reynoso turned his life upside down. He began to travel to southwestern Mexico to study Reynoso’s regional fiddling style, leading to a distinctive and virtuoso style.

Jennifer Scott is a Vancouver-born vocalist and jazz pianist specializing in jazz, blues, and world music. From sold-out concerts in San Francisco to exclusive local club performances, Scott’s performance experiences have been varied. Jennifer has appeared at Jazz Festivals all across Canada and in several of the United States.

Cary Black, a bassist, teacher, vocalist, and producer from Olympia, taught music theory and improvisation for six years at the Evergreen State College. He has made numerous radio appearances including the Grand Ole Opry and A Prairie Home Companion.

Earl Murphy in the New Yorker

First time Fiddle Tunes faculy member Earl Murphy, who won a fiddle contest in 1926, has a nice photo in the April 28 issue of The New Yorker. Nancy Hartness reports from Georgia:

"We had a great weekend with Earl playing at the Second International String Band Festival of Gordon County.  It was a good trial run for Fiddle Tunes.  Although Earl has been around a lot of musicians for years, I don't think he'd ever experienced the sense of community like that this weekend with the old time bands who were there. He especially enjoyed meeting Jim and Joyce Cauthen who will also be at Fiddle Tunes. He also enjoyed reconnecting with Rich Hartness and Tolly Tollefson who he'd met a year ago when they visited us here in Athens."

Here is a link to the photo of Earl and Art Rosenbaum from the New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/04/28/slideshow_080428_bilger/?slide=3#showHeader

The photo is part of an article by Burkhard Bilger about field recordings, old 78s, reissues, and the strange and obsessive people in the world of record collecting. The article's not on-line, you'll have to buy the mag if you want to read it, but it's worth it, it's a great read if you're a old time musician - of any age.

Tutorial staff complete for 2008

The tutor position began at Fiddle Tunes to help introductory level players. Later, it also became an opportunity to involve more regional musicians in the gathering, people who had a lot to offer, but for one reason or another weren’t invited to be on the faculty. It should be noted that over the last 30 years the level of musicianship displayed by participants and participant bands has soared. Participants have become tutors, tutors have become faculty, and faculty have become participants.

Today, the tutorial staff is comprised of an impressive and wide-ranging array of internationally known, seriously talented musicians of multiple generations. They’ve been selected by Dirk Powell to provide introductory level assistance to the styles of music offered by the faculty. This year it looks like this:

Tutorial Program Coordinator – Kevin Carr

old time fiddle – Sammy Lind

old time fiddle - Greg Canote

old time fiddle   - Erynn Marshall

"Mexican" fiddle – Michael Ismerio

Quebecois fiddle – Devon Leger

Irish fiddle – Eric Merrill

Cajun fiddle – Joel Savoy

Cape Breton fiddle – Cathie Whitesides

banjo - Jason Romero

guitar - Jere Canote

guitar - Adam   Dobres

guitar – Kelli Jones

mandolin – Caleb Klauder

Cajun accordion – Claudette Boudreaux

Quebecois accordion – Louis    Leger

piano – Daniel Steinberg

bass – Oliver Swain

singing – Pharis Romero 

  This year the tutorial sessions will be concurrent with the band labs. This will make both the tutorials and the band labs smaller, and will allow more individual attention.

Swing Intensive Registration Deadline Approaching

This is the final week to register for the Swing Intensive, taking place May 8-11 here at Fort Worden. This premium experience features you (we hope) and 15-20 fellow musicians working with Paul Anastasio, Mike Dowling, Jennifer Scott, and Cary Black. That's a pretty sweet student/faculty ratio.

We'll house you in Centrum artist cabins, and feed you some seriously good food. Visit our swing page to learn more. If you are planning on attending, we'll need to hear from you by Friday, April 11.

Centrum's Facebook Page

Whether you are a workshop participant, performance attendee, donor, volunteer, resident, or interested observer, we hope you will take a moment to visit our new Facebook page.

Facebook allows each of you to connect with us and extend your experience at Centrum. Upload your photos and videos. Talk about your past or upcoming workshops, review performances and readings. In large measure, 'our' page is 'your' page.

So take a look, and let us know what you think. We're exploring whether or not to create specific social networking sites for each of our major program areas. What do you think? (Now you have your first discussion topic on Facebook.)

Cornbread Nation: The Bluegrass/Americana World of Tim O'Brien

"People ask me what my hobby is, and I tell them, well, I like to cook and hang out at home or read history, but really it's music," says Tim O'Brien with a smile.

So what if that's what he's done for a living for going on three decades? And what if he became regarded as a pre-eminent Americana and bluegrass musician by doing so? "It's my hobby. And everything the hobby does feeds the repertoire," O'Brien, who will be at this year's Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, says.

At this point in his career, nearly thirty years after moving to Colorado where he would form his landmark band Hot Rize, repertoire is a major part of the Tim O'Brien story. For in addition to his own prolific and successful songwriting, this child of West Virginia and the WWVA Jamboree has never stopped mining the American music canon for great material. He's a song sponge.

Songs collect and abide in Tim O'Brien's world as comfortably as family heirlooms. They come from around the world, particularly the American South and Ireland. They morph into new ideas and new songs that update old truths about the human condition. They find expression in O'Brien's clear-as-ice voice on stages, in recording studios and at home with circles of gifted musical friends. O'Brien's relationship with songs embodies the very essence of the folk music tradition, always aware that the branches of the musical tree need sap from the roots.

O'Brien was so full of songs when he approached his latest phase of recording that they overwhelmed one album and became two. And yet with Fiddler's Green and Cornbread Nation, his original intent has remained intact.