Kate Powers, far left, and brother Ethan Powers, playing guitar, along with Bill Woods, with the bodhran, join workshop leader Ryan McKasson in concert at the Quimper Grange in Port Townsend.
THE WASHINGTON OLD TIME FIDDLERS ASSOCIATION
Although not as old as the glorious Olympic National Park, celebrating its 78th anniversary this year, the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association is every bit as delightful with its array of fiddle-style music. The Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association is a nonprofit organization that began in 1965 to preserve and promote old-time fiddling and related music. There are about 1,700 members statewide. Members belong to one of 17 geographic districts. District 15 encompasses Clallam and Jefferson counties, where about 100 bluegrass, old-time, Irish, Scottish, swing-playing musicians enjoy their craft. The active organization, both statewide and locally, performs throughout the year at various functions, including retirement homes, senior centers, clubs, religious groups and civic functions, to name a few. In fact, a few days following the Port Townsend gathering, three of the members showed up at Sequim Health and Rehabilitation to entertain the residents. It was the highlight of the residents’ day, especially for one Ardella Barney. Sitting comfortably in her wheelchair amid other fans, Barney clapped her hands and sang along to every old-time piece the threesome played. How did she know all the words? Turns out her late husband played the harmonica in several bluegrass-type bands when the two of them lived in Utah. The memory brought a few tears to her eyes but she was happy to have the fellas come to entertain. Steve Sahnow, playing a mean harmonica, Jack Reagon, on the guitar and Vern Sprague, fingers flying on the banjo, joked with the group and among themselves, teasing Sprague for being late to the gig. But most of all, they were pleased to entertain the folks and have the opportunity to do their thing. WOTFA offers plenty of activities for the old-time fiddling folks, such as fiddle, guitar and mandolin music workshops, campouts and a wealth of opportunities to jam, socialize and learn new tunes. The annual state convention takes place each July; this year it will be held in Moses Lake. (Full disclosure: I lived in Moses Lake for 20 years before coming to Sequim. My friends and I had a favorite watering hole whereby fiddle-style music was on tap. Pretty fun stuff, I must say.)
BACK TO THE GRANGE
To watch McKasson is to understand the joy of playing the fiddle.
26 LOP Summer 2016
During a performance after the workshop he presented, McKasson’s personality melded with his fiddle-playing. With each tune the perpetual toe-tapping would start with a slow cadence and gain momentum as the song progressed, until his foot was a-stomping up and down, up and down. And the smile on his face grew bigger and bigger in the same way. The workshop involved teaching fundamental fiddling techniques, such as flicks, cuts, swing the groove, all way over my level of understanding. CONTINUED ON PAGE 29
DID YOU KNOW?
The oldest and most basic instrument of roots music is not the guitar but the fiddle. For years the fiddle was virtually the only instrument found on the frontier and in the South it was used widely enough that as early as 1736 we find written accounts of fiddle contests. Though often thought of today as primarily a white instrument — and indeed many tunes and styles came over from Ireland and Scotland — there arose in the 19th century a strong fiddle tradition among blacks. Some of it started out as slave fiddling, in which talented slaves were sent to places like New Orleans to learn how to fiddle standard dance tunes. Blues composer W.C. Handy remembered his own grandfather in northern Alabama playing fiddle tunes in the late 1800s and a strong style of blues fiddle developed and persisted well into the 1930s. Native Americans and Mexican Americans also developed important fiddle styles in the Southwest. Fiddling has been associated with classic American heroes. George Washington had his favorite fiddle tune (“Jaybird Sittin’ on a Hickory Limb”), as did Thomas Jefferson (“Grey Eagle”). Davy Crockett was a “ferocious” fiddler (the tune “Crockett’s Reel” still is played today), and Andrew Jackson’s victory over the British in the War of 1812 still is celebrated with the popular “Eighth of January.” Though the fiddle was the main instrument in early country music in the 1920s, it gradually was replaced by the steel guitar and electric guitar. It re-emerged in popularity in the 1940s as bluegrass. Innovators like Chubby Wise, Scotty Stoneman, Kenny Baker and Benny Martin turned the fiddle into a driving vehicle for improvisation. — Source: PBS, American Roots Music