If you are interested in old instruments and the stories behind them, you’ll want to give this a look.

The first video featured Casey trying out instruments, trying to make his choice. In this second part, we see the winner (America’s Next Top Fiddle!), and enjoy a brief interview with Silakowski.

Casey was tapped to play fiddle on Béla Fleck’s Throw Down Your Heart tour earlier this year, along with a number of the African musicians who were featured in the film and CD of the same name.

While on the road with the show, Casey captured a great many images with his camera, with the best of them displayed on his web site.

Casey agreed to let us show a few of the photos here, but a trip to his site will let you see them all.

First off, he mentioned that their next CD is finished, and is being mastered next week. Zack wasn’t sure whether they would be releasing it with a label, or on their own, but does expect to see it hit in February of 2010.

He was also psyched about the band recently being featured on the NPR wordplay program, Says You!, taped August 22 in the Polk Theatre at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in downtown Nashville. They performed incidental music used during the show.

“It is a hilarious show, and we had a blast providing the music. We recorded two episodes, one of which has already aired (available for download purchase), and we expect the next one to air this weekend.”

Says You! airs at different times on their many radio affiliates, and you can check when it airs in your market online.

Zack also wanted to introduce their latest member…

“Christian Sedelmyer joined us on fiddle back in July. He replaced our former banjo player, Trevor Brandt. The transition was very smooth, and the fiddle really adds a new energy to our music.

He started playing violin when he was five years old using the Suzuki method, and he has a fantastic ear and understanding of music.  Christian’s background and approach to music is similar to ours, so he fit right in from day one. He is also a very able harmony singer, which is a big part of being a Drifter.  We are so glad to have him in the band.”

You can keep an eye on The Farewell Drifters’ tour schedule on their web site.

During the month of October only, you can order any Colorado Case Company branded soft case, case cover or rigid case in pink.

We will then donate 25% of the base case price to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. This money will be used to help find a cure for breast cancer through increased research and awareness.

In addition to this gorgeous pink color, we will be embroidering a pink ribbon on each case at no extra charge.

This offer is only valid through the end of October 2009. Full details online.

I never tried it myself, but know many pickers who swear by the practice, insisting that it helps new instruments open up faster, and offering a more balanced tone and response more quickly.

This is the concept behind ToneRite, a product developed by a trio of stringed instrument-playing engineers to provide a more direct, efficient method for accelerating this process.

The company was founded by Augi Lye, Ryan Frankel, and Hans Yeakel after Lye became frustrated that he didn’t have the time to play his new cello enough to break it in adequately. Augi had a background in acoustical physics, and enlisted Frankel (with his military signal processing expertise) and Yeakel (an industrial engineer) to assist in developing a product that could be demonstrated to deliver the goods.

Their first production model was debuted in 2007, and the new Luthier Model design was introduced at the IBMA convention last week.

The ToneRite sits atop, or rests against, the bridge of your instrument where it delivers a specific set of frequencies to the vibrating surfaces. The company’s testing indicates that a minimum of 72 hours of use on a new instrument generates dramatic results, and recommends 2 or 3 similar 72-hour treatments in the first few weeks.

Regular use for an hour prior to playing a few times each week is also recommended for maintaining the tone and responsiveness of an older instrument.

Grasstowne mandolinist Alan Bibey is a fan…

“The ToneRite supercharged my instruments to their max in volume and tone! One of the most useful new products I’ve seen in a really long time!”

ToneRite models are available for guitar, mandolin, violin, viola, cello and bass. Prices range from $150-$250.

Full details can be found on their web site.

Casey Driessen takes us along as he and Luke Bulla journey to Scottsburg, IN and the shop of noted violinmaker John Silakowski to check out some new 5-string fiddles.

Watch and listen as he tries to narrow it down – which one will he choose?

Click here to view the embedded video.

But lest you think the DVD itself is a joke, here is the real trailer, which offers a glimpse of what is actually covered in this 4 hour presentation, titled Become A More Complete Fiddler.

Click here to view the embedded video.

He takes Banks Of The Ohio and Pretty Polly and demonstrates them down in 3 different keys. Before going over them, Jim breaks down the scale and common positions for each key in turn. He shows where to find the melody, and where adjacent double stops are located, as well as licks and phrases that suit each song. He also goes over the different scales that inform these two songs, one in a diatonic major key, and the other based on a Dorian, “mountain modal” scale.

Attention throughout is given to both playing a melody-based solo and what a fiddle can do to assist the band sound in accompaniment. A booklet with transcriptions is also included.

The DVD will begin shipping next week (9/22) and AcuTab is accepting orders now. More details can be found on the AcuTab site.

Childsplay has an educational side to their endeavors, and will be releasing a series of free, online instructional videos for musicians interested in traditional fiddle styles and techniques.

In this first entry, Bonnie Bewick, who performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and teaches at the Boston Conservatory, offers advice about bowing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Disc 1 contains a good deal of instruction in the areas of technique, practice routines, ear training, transposing tunes to various keys, etc. Examples are given using familiar bluegrass tunes such as 9lb Hammer, Banks of the Ohio, and continues on disc two with Pretty Polly.

Following all that instruction, Jim then teaches several of his most requested tunes, to round out the program.

The video trailer for the project was just finished yesterday and we’ve got an exclusive look at it for our readers here on The Bluegrass Blog. This is just a short showcase of the techniques and tunes you’ll learn on this DVD.

Enjoy…

Click here to view the embedded video.

John adds: Is this April Fools Day and I didn’t notice?

He is on the cover of the September 2009 issue of Strings Magazine, and received a profile in the September 7 edition of The New Yorker’s Talk Of The Town column. Mark also graces the cover of this month’s International Musician, the monthly publication of the American Federation of Musicians.

All these articles focus on O’Connor’s upcoming instructional book series, the aptly-named O’Connor Violin Method, which he describes as follows:

“The music that I have collected for the O’Connor Violin Method includes some of the most endearing melodies in American music as well as some of the great folk fiddle tunes that have endured our 400 year-old history of violin playing. I have made it a specific feature of the Method to include musical literature that represents all of the Americas -Mexico, Canada and every region of the United States ‚Äì and all musical styles ‚Äì classical, folk, Latin, jazz, rock and ragtime. I have chosen and arranged material that will be both instructive and artistically enriching, and will help create the future classical violinist, folk fiddler, jazz musician – or all three!

The Method takes into consideration that, even at the beginning levels, learning music possessing a timeless quality is a healthy vehicle for engendering a lifelong love of music-making. Beginner tunes can be great tunes, and could very well stay with the student for a lifetime of playing and performing. In my own experience giving classes around the country, I often tell students that I have professionally recorded three of the first fiddle tunes I learned as a child. All three -  Soldier’s Joy, Arkansas Traveler, and Fiddler’s Dream, are presented early in this Method. I believe there are no throw-aways. The beginning tunes are built to last, providing a sturdy foundation and core for the novice. The tune that I have arranged to provide the most rudimentary studies for a beginning violinist – Boil’em Cabbage Down – is the first fiddle tune I learned as a child.”

The New Yorker also posted this video of Mark talking about the books.

It contains 10 new tracks – all Lamb originals – with Scott Vestal on banjo, banjo uke and synth banjo, Mike Bub and Scott Esbeck on bass, Jim Prendergast on guitar, and Kirby Shelstad on percussion. Barbara contributes vocals, fiddle, mandolin and a variety of percussion instruments.

She produced the project herself, which was recorded at Vestal’s Digital Underground studio.

The music is creative, quirky and… a little bit twisty. It draws on Barbara’s experiences in bluegrass and progressive acoustic string music, and ranges from fairly traditional bluegrass, old time and swing fiddle music to complex rhythms and experiments in looping -  sometimes all at once!

Here’s a video of her doing one of the songs, I Was Wondering…

Click here to view the embedded video.

The article only briefly covers O’Connor’s past, with the bulk of the content focused on his current and future projects. Among these are his continued involvement with music instruction at the college level, but also the development of a 10 part series of instructional materials entitled the O’Connor Violin Method.

The Suzuki-inspired series will, from the very beginning, expose students to a variety of North American fiddle and violin styles, including such traditional tunes as “Soldier’s Joy,” “Arkansas Traveler,” and “Fiddler’s Dream,” plus a number of O’Connor originals.

This is designed for beginners, even children, but not intended to be easy. If you want it, you’ll have to work for it. The songs are intended to not be “kiddie stuff” but rather tunes the student will want to continue to play after reaching musical maturity. With a focus on improvisation, and the ever changing landscape of American music, O’Connor claims to be a traditionally informed progressive.

I’m trying to build into the classical community, tearing down the divisions and tapping into that history of creativity, imagination, and playing style to amass an American classical music that can be taught to people in schools. That’s one of the reasons I have my string camps. We no longer have back-porch mentoring by grandparents playing the fiddle. This is the first generation of fiddlers who didn’t learn from their grandparents. So we need to figure out how to get this to work inside the classroom.

O’Connor offers many great insights as to why American music is the way it is. Regardless of your interest in the fiddle, if you care about traditional American music forms, you should take a few moments and read this article.

Below is a video of Mark O’Connor’s American String Celebration courtesy of Time.com.

One interesting new group to emerge from this primordial ooze is Folk Arts Quartet, a group that mixes elements of bluegrass, old time, Celtic and Canadian fiddle music into the traditional string quartet format. Their self-titled CD has just been released and they are getting very positive feedback for their live performances.

Folk Arts Quartet was formed by four young women who met while studying at the Berklee College of Music, where the string department faculty took an interest in the group and provided mentoring and coaching as their sound and repertoire were being developed. The music on their CD is drawn from traditional fiddle music in a number of styles, plus original compositions from the quartet’s members, in a m?©lange they call Chambergrass.

The current group consists of Ivonne Hernadez and Hannah Read on violin, Julie Metcalf on viola and Emma Beaton on cello. All have quite an impressive list of accomplishments for such young musicians, including solo CDs and competition wins to their credit.

The original group included Liz Davis Maxfield on cello, who is featured on the CD. Liz has just graduated from Berklee (as have Hernandez and Metcalf), and she has accepted a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Ireland for a year.

Beaton also performs with Joy Kills Sorrow, a young Boston-based progressive bluegrass band which highlights Emma’s voice and the several band members’ original material.

Here’s a taste of the music from the Folk Arts Quartet CD, a medley they call For the Boys, which includes Cold Fish, Eric’s and Cincinnati.

They perform with a far more relaxed persona than is typical for a string quartet, as this YouTube video from Folk Alliance ‘09 in Memphis demonstrates:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Casey Driessen has created a looped, all-fiddle version of Billie Jean as a Michael Jackson tribute.  Watching him stack the loops and then play the melody shows how well Casey has mastered the technology – as well as his instrument.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Childs is a fiddler himself, having imbibed the fiddle styles of his native Maine, and performed there with Old Gray Goose and the Moosetones as he was embarking on his luthiery training. He studied art at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and apprenticed under violin makers Anton Smith and Michael Weller.

With 31 years building violins behind him, he has built a loyal following among the players who get one of the five or six instruments he completes each year. The camaraderie is so strong that Childs began hosting annual get-togethers where he invited his customers to share tunes and fellowship. Since he began in 1988, these get-togethers have spawned a much larger yearly event, a non profit educational organization and five audio recordings featuring his violins and many of the artists who use them.

All of these endeavors fall under the aegis of Childsplay, a 501(c)(3) corporation which exists to…

“…create an instructive bridge between our audiences and the rich tapestry that is our heritage of traditional music and dance. Unencumbered by commercial or corporate agendas, we provide a direct link to human traditions of creative expression, cooperation, and community. Our audiences are inspired and encouraged to become active partners in traditional arts.”

The newest of the CDs, Waiting For The Dawn, was released on June 23. It has as a theme the interplay between the violin and the human voice, and the voice in question is that of Aoifé O’Donovan, vocalist with Crooked Still and Sometymes Why. The music is primarily of Celtic origin or influence and, as always, O’Donovan’s singing is compelling – riveting even – and reason enough to investigate this recording.

A number of Irish fiddle tunes are offered, often played in an ensemble setting using several violins, along with violas, cellos, guitar, accordion, bass, piano, banjo, flute and harp. All of the playing is impeccable, but still Aoif?©’s voice steals the show.

Here’s a video of her singing the Irish ballad I Am A Youth Inclined To Ramble at a 2008 Childsplay concert. The song is a high point on the Waiting For The Dawn CD as well.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Outside of the awkward and disjointed inclusion of Elvis Pressley’s Love Me Tender and Steve Earle’s Christmas In Washington, Waiting For The Dawn is a joy from start to finish.

CDs can be purchased online from Kagi.com, with downloads (with audio samples) available from digistation.com.

In my last letter, titled The Holy Grail, I told you a little bit about myself, my music, and how I fulfilled one of my dreams by meeting Alison Krauss while performing in Nashville last April. My band, No Strings Attached, and I have been very busy with touring, and recording new material. In addition to that, I just got back from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where I attended a performance work shop. The time I spent at Berklee reinforced what I have learned about music, particularly bluegrass music.

Chapter 2 – Less Is More!

Most of us have grown up with the statement, “less is more.” As I learn and grow musically – remember I’m sixteen – I am coming to understand that concept more and more. My dad and my band members, who are older and often wiser than me, have always stressed that, although I should set challenging goals, I should not over complicate those goals by trying to perform music that I am either not ready for or that does not display my strengths. That’s not always easy advice to follow for a kid who wants to perform like Alison Krauss or fiddle like Stuart Duncan!

Throughout my school years, I have witnessed students performing music that is far beyond their abilities, especially in the area of vocals. Few ten-year-olds can sing like Barbara Streisand or Ella Fitzgerald. Singing songs beyond one’s ability and/or age is not only detrimental to one’s reputation.  Doing so is also unhealthy for one’s voice, especially if his or her voice is developing. Whenever I see or hear a young singer performing these difficult songs, I thank my band and my dad for their sound advice.

While I was at Berklee, I performed at a few of the college’s gigs. I chose some bluegrass and folk style songs. Both the staff and the students really enjoyed my selections. They weren’t the most difficult tunes to play or sing, but they harnessed what I like to call, my voice’s “sweet spots.” Every voice has unique gifts and unique boundaries, and I’ve worked hard to discover mine. It is absolutely crucial for a singer to discover his gifts and boundaries himself, as no other person can do so for him.

Because of my personal vocal awareness, I am able to let the song be the star!

I was drawn to bluegrass music because of its versatility and simplicity. There are great songs for all levels and types of performers, from the basic strum chords to the very difficult flat picking and everything in between. It’s also true with the harmonies. You may not be able to blend like the Gibson Brothers, but with practice, you can achieve some nice vocals.

The “less is more” idea also applies to studio recording. Good acoustic music doesn’t require a lot of bells and whistles. I try to save my “Brian Wilson” producing for other music that I write and perform. I love listening to complex rock productions or performing intricate classical music pieces, but I always find that some of the best music is so appealing because it’s not complicated.

When I check in next time, I’ll talk about my tour and the challenge for a young, unsigned artist to work the media, especially the internet. It’s not enough to have good music; one must be knowledgeable on how to get it to the people who want to hear it. I find this aspect of the music business extremely difficult.

Good-bye for now, and thanks for checking in. My band and I will be performing at the Remington Ryde Bluegrass festival on Saturday July 11 in Reedsville, Pennsylvania.

Go to the festival web site to see the times. Please stop by, and say hello. We would love to meet you.

As a young man he recorded and performed with other acoustic string crazies like Tony Trischka, Marty Cutler and Andy Statman as a part of the Wretched Refuse String Band. He received a masters degree in music from Tufts University and was involved in the transcription and authoring of a number of fiddle books for Oak Publications.

Matt always had an interest in a wide range of fiddle styles, from the old time music that first caught his ear as a young boy, to the wide ranging world of jazz violin. He continued to perform and record across these genres, even as he became known as an authority on American fiddle music and a first rate educator.

In the 1980s, two events occurred which changed the direction of his musical life. He was asked by Bob Share, then provost of Berklee College Of Music, to help them launch a string department at the rapidly-evolving college in Boston. He was the lone instructor when the department was announced, and has served as its chairman this past twenty eight years, overseeing a faculty of 8-10 instructors.

Glaser also became acquainted with filmmaker Ken Burns, then not so much a celebrity as he is today, and played on the budding director’s first documentary film, The Brooklyn Bridge in 1980. When work began on The Civil War, Burns’ epic mini-series for PBS, Matt was asked to be a musical consultant, and was a featured artist on the award-winning soundtrack.

His fiddle, and that of Jay Ungar, was heard in the film on Ungar’s gorgeous tune, Ashokan Farewell, which may be the most widely heard piece of fiddle music in the past 100 years. He and Jay also performed together as Fiddle Fever for several years.

Now, with twenty eight years under his belt at Berklee, Glaser found that the job he had so cherished all these years was taking him farther and farther away from what excited him about the position when the string program was first established – that being actually teaching the violin. Realizing that administrative work had nearly removed him from the classroom, Matt approached Berklee president Roger Brown about a role change at the college, with the result being the American Roots Music Program, with Glaser at the helm.

Matt explained a bit about how this all came to be…

“Since he first arrived at Berklee, Roger Brown has been vocal about his desire to create a home for all kinds of American music that feeds into rock and pop – classic country, old time, bluegrass, blues, polka, western swing, gospel…. what have you. When I met with him to share my interest in possibly relinquishing the string chair, we began discussing the idea of creating the American Roots Music Program.

We talked about how the institutional structures of academia don’t always allow for us to accommodate new ways of thinking about music education. This new program will be outside the school’s structure of divisions and departments, and my duties will include designing curricula, developing theories of improvising in other genres besides jazz (roots music), faculty development, and facilitating discussion among the faculty about these things within the Berklee community.

I have always recognized that old time musicians, blues artists and swing musicians approach improvisation in ways that are different from jazz soloists, and we want to find a way to analyze and quantify these ways of improvising so that we can expose our students to this other way of thinking.”

Glaser says that other roots music faculty specialists – like Mark Simos, David Hollender and John McGann – will play a part in the various activities of the American Roots Music efforts. He plans to travel a good deal, to speak at and with other institutions, and with the media.

“This sort of thing is hard to codify and talk about, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth talking about. There is a ton of great indigenous American music worthy of study and I look forward to this opportunity to help Berklee explore and explain how its great practitioners go about playing it.”

He will also spend more time teaching violin, something that will redound to the benefit of the many string students at the school.

Glaser’s title will be Artistic Director, and he will have at his disposal a Board of Advisors made up of artists recognized for their mastery of these many idioms in Berklee’s broad definition of “roots music.” Grassers Ricky Skaggs and Don Rigsby are on the board, along with progressive string musicians David Grisman, B?©laFleck, Darol Anger and Edgar Meyer, western swing stalwart Ray Benson, Memphis roots rocker Doug Wamble, Irish fiddler Liz Carroll, Cajun fiddler Michael Doucet, fingerstyle guitarist Leo Kottke, old time artists Bruce Molsky, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, champion fiddler Fletcher Bright, former Nickel Creekers Sara and Sean Watkins, jazz/bluegrass/old time fusionist Charlie Haden, and – inexplicably – yours truly, John Lawless of AcuTab and The Bluegrass Blog. More are expected to be named soon.

With Matt stepping down, Melissa Howe has assumed the chair of the Strings Department at Berklee, effective June 1.

The ARMP will have its official rollout this December. Mark O’Connor will be at Berklee for a week and the new initiative will be presented to the media and the Berklee community at that time. This summer and fall will involve mostly preparatory work, with more visible undertakings starting to pop up next year. Glaser expects to see the new program producing concerts and hosting visiting artists in addition to designing and implementing seminars and symposiums.

“We are planning a symposium for sometime in 2010 to examine similarities and dissimilarities between jazz and country music. I am thinking of calling it ‘Jazz and Country: Kissing Cousins or Hatfield and McCoys.’ “

We hope to hear news about the Berklee American Roots Music Program for many years to come.

Kayla Ray, plays fiddle and mandolin with the bluegrass band “Exception To The Rule“. The day after her 17th birthday, our car was broken into while playing two concerts in the Dublin, GA area. A black canvas double violin case was stolen containing Kayla’s two antique ornate fiddles. She is heartbroken!

Kayla’s mother sent along a few photos and a flyer they are using to alert people. They are offering a $1000 reward for the return of these instruments. Hopefully the bluegrass community can rally and help this young musician recover her instruments without the need for a cash pay out.

Download a high resolution PDF of the flyer.

Fiddler Tyler Beckett from Owen Sound, Canada will perform with The Chpamans for the first time July 11th in St. Louis, New Brunswick, Canada after which he will be relocating to the Ozarks to join the band full time.

Mandolin man Jeremy Chapman tells us that it was a natural fit from the first time they met Beckett…

“We met Tyler when we were in Huntsville, ONT in Oct of 2008 playing at the Canadian Bluegrass Awards show. He was playing with a couple of bands Hard Ryde, and Traditionally Wound Bluegrass and we really liked his playing. We ended up jamming with him late into the night and told him if he ever wanted to move down to the states and play full time to give us a call.

Not long after he decided Springfield, MO was a good place for him, mostly because of the Bass Pro Shops headquarters, and the deer and turkey hunting. He came down for a few days of rehearsals in April, and we all agreed it would be a great fit with The Chapmans.

We’re all excited about the new sound that a fiddle in the band is adding, and it’s forcing us to rethink the way we play the same old songs with a new instrument being thrown into the mix. Plus he’s a great musician, which is always fun to be around.”

You can follow their 2009 summer schedule on The Chapmans’ web site and on MySpace.