I'm a fiddle player on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
I started playing the violin when I was 9. I grew up in Colorado, and didn't have much exposure to Celtic music growing up. In my early 20's, while in grad school in Pennsylvania, I dated a guy from Cape Breton. When I went home with him for Christmas one year, I was blown away by the fiddle playing. I bought a bunch of tapes (none of which I can listen to now, since I don't even own a tape player anymore!). The relationship didn't last, but my love of the music did.
After grad school I moved back to Colorado, where I played in a community orchestra. I kept listening to those Cape Breton tapes, although I didn't really try playing along too much (I did manage to learn King George IV Strathspey - which I thought was the coolest tune ever).
Then when I was in my early 30s I started getting transferred all over the country for work. At one point I was living in northern North Carolina and working in southern Virginia, and I decided if I didn't go to Swannanoa while I was there ( http://www.thesession.org/links/index/search?name=swannanoa ), I would always regret it. So I went both years I lived there, and took Scottish and Cape Breton fiddle classes. I got hooked up with the Triad Scottish Fiddlers and Friends, which has semi-regular sessions around the Greensboro-Winston Salem area.
A few years ago I moved to Cape Cod to be closer to my husband's family. Cape Cod has a fabulous Irish session scene, and I started going to the Irish sessions. I only miss my local session if I'm out of town:
http://www.thesession.org/sessions/display/1590
Bill Black (a.k.a. Zouki) and the rest of the session regulars have been very welcoming, and I appreciate Bill's willingness to put up with a classically-trained hack who didn't know any tunes long enough for me to learn how to play ITM better.
My first love is still Cape Breton music, and I like to throw in Cape Breton tunes at my local session. (I've even been asked on occasion if I'm from Cape Breton - but only by people who aren't familiar enough with the style to know I'm a total hack!). But I've picked up a pretty big Irish repertoire from my Irish session playing. I've also started to develop a fondness for New England fiddling and Contra Dance music, which has a lot of overlap with Scottish, Irish, French Canadian, and Cape Breton, but has a style all its own.
Tunes in fiddlebliss's tunebook: 7
| The Sawbriar | August 7th 2005 |
| Sessions | Session temporarily suspended | September 5th 2008 |
| Discussions | Re: Chin Rest for Fiddles/Violins | July 27th 2008 |
| Discussions | Re: How not to do an American accent - or any other, for that matter | July 22nd 2008 |
| Discussions | Re: collapsed wrist | July 22nd 2008 |
| Discussions | Re: How do you "lose" a classical sound? | May 5th 2008 |
| Name | Type | Key |
|---|---|---|
| The Boys Of Malin | reel | Amajor |
| Lad O'Beirne's | reel | Gmajor |
| Big John McNeil | reel | Amajor |
| The Mortgage Burn | reel | Amajor |
| Shingly Beach | reel | Gmajor |
| Cropie's | strathspey | Gmajor |
| The Ewe Wi' The Crookit Horn | strathspey | Gmixolydian |