Fiddling in Florida About the Florida Fiddler

Florida’s Neighbor, Georgia and Her Bow

By grassapelli on Friday, May 7th, 2010 | No Comments

There is a particular style of fiddle shuffle called Georgia bow. It’s very powerful for accenting the upbeats in a tune. Dance fiddlers will use it to really kick the beat.

Georgia being a neighbor, it’s no surprise that the bow pattern has drifted south to Florida. We use it here.
The surprising thing is….Irish like to use it, too! They must call it something else.

When I teach Georgia bow as a fiddle teacher, I like to use an old timey tune called Ebeneezer. It has a figure, or short pattern of notes that adapts well to the shuffle.

I recently posted a chart of Ebeneezer on 100 Fiddle Tunes.

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The Elusive Florida Fiddle Style

By admin on Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 | No Comments

If you went around the state of Florida right now, looking for evidence of a regional fiddle style unique to Florida, you may be disappointed. In the variety of styles of fiddling you hear, nothing seems to be common to all the fiddlers, or even predominant in the majority. But, there is an interesting little secret about Florida fiddling that I hope to reveal in this essay.

Let’s start by looking at the most influential three fiddlers who come from Florida, Erwin Rouse, Chubby Wise, and Vassar Clements.

Erwin Rouse wrote the most popular fiddle tune in the world, Orange Blossom Special. He was known as a highly entertaining fiddler, doing fiddle tricks and cutting up on stage. He said that the mega popular fiddle tune was based on an earlier blues song he wrote.

Chubby Wise was contemporary with Erwin Rouse and may have helped him put together Orange Blossom Special in its final form. That’s a matter of contention with folks. Chubby said he helped write it, and I believe he did.

What is not questioned is the part he played in developing the signature sound of Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys. Chubby’s bluesy style of playing leads on the fiddle remains popular in bluegrass to this day.

When Vassar Clements joined The Bluegrass Boys, he pleased Bill Monroe with his ability to play the Chubby Wise version of the band’s repertory. He went on from there to create a unique style that was his signature sound. It was unmistakable when you heard it. It was bluesy, rakish, jazzy and often a mind boggling display of musical genius.

These three titans of fiddling, taken together, suggest that blues is the common denominator of Florida fiddling. And yet, if you travel around the state, you will not find this to be true.

At one place you find a strong contingent of ardent Appalachian style fiddlers. In many places you find contra dance style the governing genre. And all over you find fiddlers in bluegrass bands playing classic bluegrass style.

Here’s another clue. I’ve noticed that most of the younger fiddlers have a pull towards Irish fiddling. They are playing the tunes and using the ornaments associated with the Irish folk music tradition.

While younger fiddlers are expanding into Irish fiddling, two preeminent Irish fiddlers, Eileen Ivers and Liz Carroll, are showing influence of American style fiddling.

When I heard Eileen Ivers in concert play Rights of Man I woke up to the new reality. Her extreme bluesy playing on this tune said, “Tradition doesn’t matter. If the music is in your heart to play, just do it.”

Despite some grumbling against this by traditionalists, the writing is on the wall. Blues and jazz, the uniquely American contribution to world music, must infect other traditions. It’s only a matter of time.

Similarly, Liz Carroll’s Potato on the Door could be a Texas style tune with Irish ornaments. When she plays her original tunes and even traditional tunes on her last three albums, you can hear her go “outside” briefly on many of them with a melodic or rhythmic jazzy lick.

Today we describe the combination of two musical styles as fusion. This term is so widely used for so many combinations, it cannot stand as a unique style unto itself. There is no one unique fusion that dominates a common genre as does rock, or folk, or jazz.

If we were allowed to apply the term fusion retroactively, we might say the three fiddlers described earlier were fusionist in spirit.

My conjecture, then, it that fusion is the key to Florida fiddle style. To illustrate the point, I could say I know two fiddlers in Florida who incorporate Stephane Grappelli into their bluegrass licks. It’s a fusion move.
Florida is such an amalgam of cultures and traditions, it is no surprise that fusion fiddling would find a home here. We are almost comfortable being the cutting edge of folk tradition.

Vassar Clements, Virtuoso Fusion Fiddler

By admin on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 | No Comments

On just a few occasions I was able to get right next to Vassar while he was playing. I watched and listened closely, just drinking it in. In conversation with him it was clear that his attention was on music, not on being the famous fiddler and carving out fame and recognition from a culture that gives fiddlers little regard anyway.

The first time was way back in the days that I began playing with a bluegrass band. This band was my first chance to move beyond a few easy folk fiddle licks and do some real fiddling.

It was with a violinist’s background and technique that I witnessed his impromptu demonstration in a record store in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was talking and just playing a few riffs when the session suddenly went over-the-top.

The casual atmosphere suddenly exploded with energy when Mike Marshal came breezing in with his violin case. He quickly opened it up and plunged into a lively twin fiddle version of Old Joe Clark with Vassar.

This was my introduction to twin fiddling. I was too astounded to even notice who was playing which part. It was flawless in its performance. I thought they might have rehearsed it. It was all spontaneous, of course. That’s fiddling.

Later that evening I was performing with the bluegrass band. As I pushed myself further into the Vassar zone, and out of my comfort zone, I heard the harmonica player say, “Rassel that thang!” And I have been ever since.

Vassar’s Signature Style
The glory of Vassar’s style is in his unique signature licks and the eerie, melancholy sound that no one else has matched.

The licks, though advanced and difficult, can be learned. The sound, his unique, instantly identifiable sound, is as personal as a vocalist’s sound. Mimicked and modeled by few, it’s equaled by none.

The comment about mimicking his sound is not disparaging. I would boast that I have modeled hi playing, but I can only confess to being a common lick thief. Only two players I know of come close to Vassar’s likeness. I envy their ability.

Vassar chose to drop the rhythmic shuffle style of dance fiddling early on. He focused on the melodic aspect of playing. “Instead of changing the bow to a shuffling thing, where I would have to give up some of the notes, I started using short and long bow strokes in order to get it clear and let it flow.”

When you listen to Vassar’s playing you will hear him move between a liquid, legato sound with notes connected in one bow to a staccato sound of each note having its own bow stroke. It all sounds intuitive and effortless. And definitely a fusion sound.

His philosophy about playing music was summed up when he said, “For me, the fun of music is in learning. I don’t want to play “Little Maggie” twenty years from now like I do now. I don’t mind playing the same songs but if I don’t learn anything, then I’m just spinning my wheel….The fun in music is always learning.
If I can stay out here where people can keep hearing what I’m doing, that’s what I want to do. I’d like to accomplish that and keep learning and never come to a standstill.”

Amen to that, brother.

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