Holiday break Fridayyy !

Today we are going jazzy with this video I absolutely have fallen in love with from Justin Branum and Christian Howes (I've watched in more times than I can count!!). Lady Be Good is a standard jazz piece that's found its way into the fiddle world among folks who like to improvise. The standard way of playing these types of tunes is by establishing the melody (done by Christian in this video), before trading solo's over the chords of the piece. Here, Justin & Christian both display an elite level of musicianship as almost every phrase and note they play is either completely improvised or very dressed up/embellished. Hard not to have fun with this one, love that they even make each other crack a smile from the pure joy of each other's fantastic improv abilities. Notice the difference in how they decide to accompany each other - Justin plucks his string and plays double-stop chords as if he were playing a guitar, while Christian alternates between single-note bass-line notes and then later gets real groovy with some crunchy double-stops.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tPgAUaCJ4E&ab_channel=MasterFiddle

Hope to see you all tonight at the Open Door Fiddlers holiday session from 6-7pm tonight! If you're in the mood for some pub food while listening to fiddle tunes (with a few christmas songs thrown in!), Michael Burnyeat's monthly session is on tomorrow night at the Wolf & Hound from 8:30-late - I'll be there playing.

Cheers,

Kai

Hi All,

It's been a little while! Thought I'd use this opportunity to first let you all know that there is a Christmas session at the Wolf & Hound Irish Pub this Monday. Starts at 7pm, entry by donation (proceeds going to Great Vancouver Food Bank). It should be a good turn-out and I recommend you all come!

More info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1223084605206849/?ref=newsfeed

My feature today is Mark Sullivan, who I know a lot of you will know as my favourite fiddle player. Mark is the definition of fiddle feel/groove and it baffles me every time I hear him. His ability to dig into notes with his bow without having it sound over the top or scratchy is unmatched. He plays with so much emotion and is my favourite performer to watch live because of it. I was incredibly lucky to watch him perform every summer at Camp Calvin during the instructor concerts they held every night, and my friends and I would always make sure to get a front row seat whenever it was his night to perform - and make sure we were taking recordings of the entire thing. He's also a fantastic curator of tunes and has a diverse repertoire. Many of the tunes I've taught you all, I learned off of a phone recording from a Mark concert.

Here's a video from Camp Calvin of Mark playing the Clarinet Polka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjxoqVxdgeA&ab_channel=MarkSullivan

The smile! The foot stomping! Jeremy Rusu's accordion playing! Craig McGregor on guitar! It's an all-star group. Notice when he goes "SSS" - he's referring to the key change in the Clarinet Polka to the key of C major, informing the band so that they're prepared for it.

And here's one more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDPnigP2WMI&ab_channel=MarkSullivan

I'll never forget the first time I heard Mark play Hommage a Dorothy Hogan. I remember my friends and I obsessively listening back to the recording of this waltz clog that had an entirely different feel to it than any other tunes we knew at the time. Paired with Mark's buttery smooth shifts and vibrato. It's still one of my favourite tunes to this day.

Cheers everyone and hope to see you on Monday night!

Kai

Happy Friday everyone,

Today's inspiration comes from April Verch, an Ottawa Valley champion fiddle player and step dancer. This video is a live performance from Celtic Colours and I just LOVE the fusing of styles on display. April plays a set of Canadian fiddle tunes alongside an American old-time style banjo player and somehow makes it sound so darn natural. The usual "boom-chuck" accompaniment to Canadian fiddle tunes is replaced with this finger picking goodness and completely changes the vibe/feel of the tunes. It's such a treat watching April play because she's clearly always enjoying herself and her bubbly personality is simply infectious. Her bowing arm is also very easy to admire (look at how relaxed her wrist is) - she manages to use so much of her bow while still being clean and precise. That paired with some Ottawa Valley step dancing (while also playing at the same time near the end!!) makes this a gem of a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3uO17VqVZc&ab_channel=CelticColoursInternationalFestival

And guess what - April will be in town November 24/25 at the Kay Meek Arts Centre! You can get tickets here:

https://kaymeek.com/events?category=k23-verch-walters

I'll be at the Thursday night show and can't wait. Hope to see you all there!

Kai

Happy Saturday everyone, I'm a day late but I've got something to share 🙂

Today is the final day of the legendary Celtic Colours festival that takes place in Cape Breton every year. I've never gotten the chance to go and it's high on my bucket list. The number of incredible musicians and live recordings that come out of the festival on a yearly basis is unmatched. Lucky for all of us - they decided to live stream a lot of the shows and tonight is the grand finale! It features some of the world's finest traditional musicians including Mairi Rankin & Eric Wright. I had the privilege of instructing alongside these two at Kenosee Lake Kitchen Party and they are both electric musicians. Mairi is one of Canada's premier Cape Breton fiddlers, and Eric is one of few cello-fiddlers and is the rhythm and backbone of The Fretless. Here's a video of the two of them from Celtic Colours in 2018 to get you hyped: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGyzAKM-lxk

I absolutely love how full the sound is with just 2 instruments thanks to Mairi's incredible feel and power in her bow, and Eric's unmatched chopping and chording - look at that bow and smile !!!! It should not go unnoticed how on-time Eric is. Chopping (when you bring the bow down at the frog, onto the strings to create a rhythmic -chop- sound) can be a very challenging technique to master and Eric finds a way to stay perfectly on-beat, while adding all types of layers by chopping on different off-beats while also adding interesting chords. I hope to see more cello-fiddlers in the world, it's one of my favourite instruments and is perfectly complimentary to fiddle music - and also kills a good fiddle tune on its own.

Here's the link for info for the live-stream tonight: https://celtic-colours.com/events/the-grand-finale/

Happy Friday folks!

Many of you have seemed to really taken to Trent Freeman's EP that I recommended in IF #6, so I thought I'd share another album in a somewhat similar style. David Benedict is an incredibly skilled and tasteful bluegrass mandolin player from South Carolina. The album I'm sharing these two tracks off of is called The Golden Angle, which is filled with all original composition by David. It features 2 of the US' best fiddle players in Stuart Duncan, and Mike Barnett.

Track #1 "Dorrigo":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUgtw3WnYDc

https://open.spotify.com/track/4DWoo9umMnjvC3VdK6oLRA?si=7c3f4384b3cc446f

https://music.apple.com/ca/album/dorrigo-feat-missy-raines-ross-martin-stuart-duncan/1434611478?i=1434611483

I love the melody in this track so darn much. It's sweet and poppy and the way that the band comes in together in the B part the first time through and then near the end of the track just gets me every time. In between we have solo's from the entire band, starting with fiddle, followed by banjo, mando, and then finishing with guitar. We then have the mandolin, banjo, and fiddle playing around with the A part, intentionally playing it off beat from one another, creating a ripple effect, before playing the B part once more and going out.

Here's a live version of the track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0EVjHY6Ilc

Track #2 "8 is my favourite colour":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVFDShwkGG0

https://open.spotify.com/track/249dyd21OuBbmKiRiyeWhf?si=9885ab267e3943c5

https://music.apple.com/ca/album/8-is-my-favorite-color-feat-david-grier-mike-barnett/1434611478?i=1434611491

This track is a fun swing tune with a kind of odd melody that features one of the gnarliest fiddle solo's I've ever heard in my life. Mike Barnett plays a bunch of real slick and exciting double stops effortlessly and makes it all still musically tasteful. I've listened to it more times than I care to count and still, my jaw drops every time.

Friday! Friday!

Today I'm sharing a bit of a classic set courtesy of Calvin Vollrath. Calvin is one of my musical heroes and one of Canada's premier fiddlers. I attended his camp, Camp Calvin, from ages 9-20 (11 years straight!!). I'm sure many of you have heard me mention him or his camp before. It was a place of the greatest inspiration. It's where I formed my closest friendships, experienced the most intimate and mind-boggling fiddle concerts (which my friends and I would always snag front row seats to - by way of leaving our sweaters and nametags on the seats before dinner), and where I grew most as a musician. This video isn't from the camp, but it's a set that captures the liveliness of Calvin's playing, and is a reflection of a set he'd play as a closer to his show - there are some great essential fiddle tunes you should learn! I remember one year this "closing" set ran 18 minutes and my goodness, I could've listened to another 18 mins. I love the way he and Clinton Pelletier (on guitar) can still chat and joke around while playing. There's also some great shots of the classic EYES that Calvin makes when he's playing something challenging 👀😝.

Read the description of the video too, it's a nice write-up of the bts of this particular video series!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocCuKzITViY

A reminder that there is NO Open Door Fiddlers lesson tonight, as Michael and I are both heading to judge the Kamloops Fiddle Contest. Should any of you feel like you have 2 waltz/jig/reel's ready to compete with and want to head to Kamloops, I highly encourage you to! It should be a relatively casual and low-stress event so it's a good opportunity for anyone looking to compete.

Good morning and Happy Friday folks! Today I have a lovely live concert recording of a bunch of unknown to me Irish reels to share courtesy of Caitlin Warbelow, Johnny Cuomo, and Patrick Mangan. I discovered Patrick over the pandemic as he was fairly active online and fell in love with his style of fiddle playing. The almost carelessness in his technique is something to behold (lol) but boyyyyy can he play a mean Irish style. Something I've been really fascinated with lately is how Irish fiddle players implement slides into their tunes. It's almost like they emulate an electric guitar bending a string, like this subtle note that is slightly off-pitch and sliding upwards that they're able to put into any reel/jig effortlessly. It just creates this sense of always moving upwards that is super satisfying to my ears.

Anyways, I think this video does a good job showcasing what I think is my favourite type of show for fiddle music, a house concert. The way the performers are able to have a conversation with the audience rather than just talk at them. The fact that Caitlin, the PERFORMER, made cookies for the audience. The stories Patrick tells about the tunes and where he learned them. Boy I would've loved to be in this room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-jApAwHtVI

Speaking of concerts! Tonight, at the Rogue Folk Club (3214 W 10th Ave) - just up the street from the studio, Pierre Schryer, Adam Dobres, and Andy Hillhouse are performing. Pierre is a Canadian Grand Master fiddle champion, and a fantastic and very stylistically diverse fiddle player. It's a show worth checking out! I should've mentioned it to you all last week but it slipped my mind until I saw it in my calendar today 🤪. You can get tickets here: https://www.roguefolk.bc.ca/

Friday is here!!! For those of you who are new to this group, welcome!! This is a weekly email I send out that I coined "Inspiration Friday's", in which I share all things fiddle/violin or music related. This usually comes in the form of albums/tracks, youtube videos, or any live shows that may be happening. The last one I sent was February of 2021 so for everyone else, welcome back! I fully intend to stick to the weekly schedule this time around and I hope you all get some inspiration out of what I share - if YOU have any recommendations or find something yourself that you find fascinating, please do pass it along 🙂 If you do not want to be a part of this email list, please let me know and I will kindly take you off of the recipients list!

This week's inspiration was actually just released into the world TODAY! One of my absolute favourite fiddle players, Trent Freeman, who I looked up to and got the pleasure to watch compete in the BC contest circuit when I was a young kid, as well as being part of one of my favourite groups, 4 piece fiddle quartet "The Fretless", just released a 5-track bluegrass EP filled with sweet sweet original tunes. It features an incredible band, with clawhammer banjo, mandolin, guitar, and stand-up bass. I've already listened to it front to back 3 times this morning (it's only 18 minutes long!!).

Here is a video for the first track, with a live look into the recording environment in studio. I can only imagine how dang fun this would've been to record. Everyone in the band is a master of their instrument.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leCqy2_7E90

The arrangement of this track is so so so sweet. The introduction of the melody by the sweet tones of the banjo, and then the slow build with the rest of the band joining in. Then the second time through the tune, the mandolin supports the fiddle with a lovely harmony. The third time through the tune is when the solo's start, beginning with Trent on fiddle following the chords of the entire tune, then the mandolin takes a solo as well. The last 2 times through the tune, there are new variations introduced and the melody is established so the band just has fun playing the tune through a couple more times.

The second track features some nice droning and hook bowing. Third track is an awesome fiddle & banjo duet, one of my favourite pairings of instruments. Fourth track is sweet and slow with again some beautiful arrangements. Then it ends with Track 5 in cross-tuning, I believe the strings are tuned to G-D-G-D, so the bottom two strings stay the same, and tune down the A + E strings to G + D.

Here are the spotify and apple music links to the EP

https://open.spotify.com/album/6Ri7qUDY4pA32jvQCt6e4f?si=ERQ-o7uZSGW0E7Ytb8RIfA

https://music.apple.com/us/album/tunes-ep-vol-1-feat-allison-de-groot/1639746769

Or, if you want to support Trent directly, you can order the album on bandcamp, which allows you to stream through the bandcamp app, as well as download MP3's.

https://trentfreeman.bandcamp.com/album/tunes-ep-vol-1

Have a great day everyone, and I know I will see many of you tonight at the first Open Door Fiddlers group lesson!

Fridayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!

Today's inspiration comes in the form of humour! TwoSet are a hilarious duo of incredibly talented classical violinist's from Australia and they make hilarioussss YouTube videos. Here's one to get you guys started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slrHpGlxHQA&t=400s

Friday Friday Friday!!!!

Today's Inspiration comes from possibly the most talented group of fiddle players in Canada. The Fretless is a fiddle-oriented quartet, Ben Plotnick of Alberta, Trent Freeman of BC, Eric Wright (cello) from the US, and Karrnnel Sawitsky of SK. This video serves only as a taste of the wide range of fiddle styles they play masterfully. From the very nuanced and detailed arrangements, to the beautiful percussion by Eric's chopping skills, to the depth of the harmonies, there's SO much to enjoy from this group. Every single detail of every track they record (of which there are 4 albums for you to enjoy!) and play live is so clearly played with such care and passion and it beams through their music. Each player brings their own style and voice to the group so that each track feels fresh and exciting. This track is from their live album "Live from the Art Farm". I've seen these guys live many times and when I first heard they were releasing a live album I could not have been more excited, and I wasn't let down! Hopefully as soon as COVID is over they make a trip out to Vancouver once again. I could go on and on about these guys and each individual track for a lifetime, but I'll leave you all with a strong recommendation to check out all of their albums!

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5XRJXQlMQk

Happy Friday everyone!

Today's Inspiration Friday is a gloriousssss arrangement of a tune called "Keeping the Cats Happy". Brittany Haas and Lena Jonsson are absolutely wicked American-style fiddle players. This tune really showcases some of the American-style strengths, such as hook bowing and double-stops. It's also a great example of how to make just two violins feel full of sound without the assistance of the usual accompaniment (piano, guitar, etc). My ears couldn't be happier right now!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMjhSMwPdZg

Hi Everyone!

I've been thinking a lot lately about the importance of inspiration in your paths to becoming fantastic musicians, and the effect COVID has had on your ability to surround yourself with music. All it takes is one special moment, whether that be a busker you enjoy, a concert you attend, a jam session, etc. I'd like to help fill a bit of that void by sharing weekly videos I find on YouTube every Friday (or at least every Friday I remember to, lol). The aim is to share videos that I find truly inspiring and isn't restricted to any one style or instrument. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, I'd be happy to add them to the queue.

If anyone does not want these weekly emails, feel free to respond and opt-out!

And with that, here is your first installment of Inspiration Fridays!

Shane Cook (as many of you know) is a fantastic fiddle player from Ontario, and happens to be my personal favourite. He is a pure master of the violin as well as being very versatile in different styles. There's nothing quite like hearing and watching him live, so here's a live-ish recording of one of my favourite sets off of his album with Jake Charron, "Head to Head". I especially love how much he chuckles while playing which just adds to the personality of his playing, and shows how much he's enjoying himself. This video really captures the essence of live fiddle music. Toes tapping, and smiles all around. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6-EtjiA-T0