Musical fireworks come to Fort Worden on the evening of July 4, 2014 for on of the Festival’s most popular shows. In this evening of music, we cross the continent and the Atlantic to showcase a wide variety of music.

Fiddles & Fireworks
7:00 pm – (early start) McCurdy Pavilion – Fort Worden State Park
Tickets: $28 and $23
Purchase tickets

Missouri – Charlie Walden and Patt Plunkett

After twenty plus years of playing traditional music together Patt Plunkett and Charlie Walden (aka Patt & Possum) have learned a thing or two about getting along musically.  So while some couples might bicker about the bills or where to go out to eat, these two battle over chord progression and set lists.

New England – David Kaynor and friends

David Kaynor began playing fiddle in 1974. His deep love of the instrument led him into many situations including country-rock bar bands, string bands, and contra dance bands around the Connecticut River Valley and elsewhere. He’s a fiddler’s fiddler and bring musical mastery and a great sense of humor wherever he plays.

Old Time – Foghorn Stringband

Foghorn Stringband is the shining gold standard for American stringband music, with seven albums, thousands of shows, over a decade of touring under their belts, and two entirely new generations of old-time musicians following their lead. Through all this, they’ve never let the music grow cold; instead they’ve been steadily proving that American roots music is a never-ending well of inspiration.

Irish – Dale Russ, Randal Bays and friends

Dale Russ started playing the fiddle in 1973 when first moving to WashingtonState from his native Connecticut. Although self-taught – and 100% Slovak – In 1990 he was invited to perform at the first Boston College Irish Music Festival “My Love is in America” featuring 16 of the finest Irish fiddle players living in the States. The concert was recorded and released by Green Linnet Records and won an award from the Smithsonian Institute as “Traditional Recording of the Year”. His playing is known for its balance of power and elegance. Randal Bays is an American musician who’s been playing Irish fiddle for more than thirty years. He’s now widely recognized as a master of that complex and ancient art, in particular the fiddle styles of rural western Ireland. Critics have said some pretty nice things about his playing… he’s “among the best Irish style fiddlers of his generation”, according to Fiddler Magazine.

Bluegrass – Blaine Sprouse, Peter Rowan, Patrick Sauber

Centrum is very excited to welcome two members of the Bill Monroe Bluegrass lineage at Fiddle Tunes in 2014. Guitarist and singer Peter Rowan joined Monroe’s band in 1964 as a guitarist and singer, and during his tenure as a Bluegrass Boy, the two co-wrote one of the spookiest bluegrass songs of all, “Walls of Time.”  Later Peter went on to play in a variety of rock and bluegrass bands, often working with other ex-Bluegrass Boys including Richard Greene (Seatrain) and Vassar Clements (Old and In the Way.)  In recent years, he has been performing and recording with the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, and lately Blaine Sprouse (yet another ex-Bluegrass Boy) has been playing fiddle with them. Fiddler Blaine Sprouse was also in Monroe’s band, and has continued to carve an impressive niche, performing with both Grand Ole Opry members and young turks of bluegrass, including many who would pick together regularly at Nashville’s world famous Station Inn: The Dreadful Snakes, The Sidemen, Nashville Jug Band and The Cluster Pluckers, with whom Blaine entertained for former president and vice-president Bill Clinton and Al Gore. With the addition of Patrick Sauber, a hotshot on bluegrass mandolin, banjo and vocals, Fiddle Tunes will have its strongest bluegrass presence ever!