You Can be a FiddleStar

I post things about fiddling. And how we can all be better at it.

<p>I love everything happening in this picture. My grandson is joyful and curious. My husband is a straight up baby whisperer. Duke the part chihuahua is giving fierce side eye. #sundaycoleday #grandson #nooneknowswhatthisdogis  (at Greenbrier, Tennessee)</p>

I love everything happening in this picture. My grandson is joyful and curious. My husband is a straight up baby whisperer. Duke the part chihuahua is giving fierce side eye. #sundaycoleday #grandson #nooneknowswhatthisdogis (at Greenbrier, Tennessee)

Posted 346 weeks ago
<p>Just under the wire, here’s a timely #tbt to Spring Break ‘94 (which we always capitalized and usually followed with a “WOO!”) since this year’s #baybridgeseries is wrapping up as we speak. @happilyknitting and @donyaelenia and I spent the entire week traversing California, having many adventures which involved reluctant hiking, pitiful campfire starting, grateful meal serving and urban Easter egg hiding at #glidememorialmethodistchurch, and a thousand other things. We closed it out at the Oakland Coliseum watching our beloved @athletics battle the @sfgiants We also met this guy who was the first to teach us how #rallycaps worked. Epic week. Epic. #springbreak #woo  (at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum)</p>

Just under the wire, here’s a timely #tbt to Spring Break ‘94 (which we always capitalized and usually followed with a “WOO!”) since this year’s #baybridgeseries is wrapping up as we speak. @happilyknitting and @donyaelenia and I spent the entire week traversing California, having many adventures which involved reluctant hiking, pitiful campfire starting, grateful meal serving and urban Easter egg hiding at #glidememorialmethodistchurch, and a thousand other things. We closed it out at the Oakland Coliseum watching our beloved @athletics battle the @sfgiants We also met this guy who was the first to teach us how #rallycaps worked. Epic week. Epic. #springbreak #woo (at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum)

Posted 346 weeks ago

I realized I might have been going a little heavy on the double stops lately so here’s a waltz called If Ever You Were Mine which has a melody that needs nothing other than its own beautiful single note self. I heard about it from a student who learned it somewhat from Natalie McMaster and also from just here and there. I think it’s really pretty and you should be proud of me for only shifting into 3rd position once. I had to show some real restraint there. #waltz #waltzes #fiddletunes #fiddle #airs #restraint (at Fiddlestar)

Posted 347 weeks ago
<p>Somebody’s got a case of the Mondays… #sirwinstoncup #bostonterrier #bostonterriercult #flatnosedogsociety #squishyfacecrew  (at Fiddlestar)</p>

Somebody’s got a case of the Mondays… #sirwinstoncup #bostonterrier #bostonterriercult #flatnosedogsociety #squishyfacecrew (at Fiddlestar)

Posted 347 weeks ago
<p>This #chicksinger selfie comes with a movie review. @aghoststorymovie at the @belcourttheatre led to a long discussion of patience and attention span and everything we’ve come to believe about our own abilities to sit in discomfort. We’re smiling here but it belies the melancholy and sadness we experienced in this truly unique movie. It’s the kind of melancholy and sadness that we all need to explore and talk about with the people we love. It’s important to sit with these feelings - let them wash over us - and watch them roll away. If you’re not a member of the Belcourt Theater, I highly recommend becoming one. Art still matters. Maybe now more than ever. And go see A Ghost Story. It’s difficult. And I mean that as a compliment. #nashville #matinee #beethovensninth  (at Belcourt Theatre)</p>

This #chicksinger selfie comes with a movie review. @aghoststorymovie at the @belcourttheatre led to a long discussion of patience and attention span and everything we’ve come to believe about our own abilities to sit in discomfort. We’re smiling here but it belies the melancholy and sadness we experienced in this truly unique movie. It’s the kind of melancholy and sadness that we all need to explore and talk about with the people we love. It’s important to sit with these feelings - let them wash over us - and watch them roll away. If you’re not a member of the Belcourt Theater, I highly recommend becoming one. Art still matters. Maybe now more than ever. And go see A Ghost Story. It’s difficult. And I mean that as a compliment. #nashville #matinee #beethovensninth (at Belcourt Theatre)

Posted 347 weeks ago

Good morning and welcome to not-nearly-enough of Pete’s Waltz but as much as I could fit in IG’s 60 second window. The talented and generous @petimar1 of Seattle wrote this gem and I loved it from the first moment I heard it. The melody is beautiful, the double stops are lovely, and the chord progression is enchanting. But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t wait the whole waltz just to play the little second position half step wingding you see there at the end. Try it. You’ll see what I’m talking about. Also, Eb and Ab never let me down. Good on ya, Pete Martin. (Full version will be up on the FiddleStar YouTube channel in a few minutes.) #waltz #waltzes #fiddle #fiddletunes #fiddlestar #peteswaltz #secondpositionhalfstepwingding (at Fiddlestar)

Posted 348 weeks ago
<p>Reppin @bluegrasspride with @frontcountrysf at @folkfightsback for LGBTQ love tonight. @roscoeplaysmando and @spacebassface didn’t wear their shirts because they were in the laundry but the intent was there. #folkfightsback #bluegrasspride  (at The Basement East)</p>

Reppin @bluegrasspride with @frontcountrysf at @folkfightsback for LGBTQ love tonight. @roscoeplaysmando and @spacebassface didn’t wear their shirts because they were in the laundry but the intent was there. #folkfightsback #bluegrasspride (at The Basement East)

Posted 348 weeks ago
<p>I got #sirwinstoncup a new bed last week and he seems to like it but he refuses to read the manual. #youredoingitwrong #bostonterrier #bostonterriercult #flatnosedogsociety  (at Fiddlestar)</p>

I got #sirwinstoncup a new bed last week and he seems to like it but he refuses to read the manual. #youredoingitwrong #bostonterrier #bostonterriercult #flatnosedogsociety (at Fiddlestar)

Posted 349 weeks ago
<p>Meet our new boy. This is Gretsch. He’s a cat. He seems loud and also really nice and super into head scratches. He lives outside with #busterkeaton (or as some people know him, #bkeats). We don’t know where he came from. We just know that he’s here now. Also, Adam named him. #newcat #orangecat #gretsch #porchcatsofinstagram  (at Fiddlestar)</p>

Meet our new boy. This is Gretsch. He’s a cat. He seems loud and also really nice and super into head scratches. He lives outside with #busterkeaton (or as some people know him, #bkeats). We don’t know where he came from. We just know that he’s here now. Also, Adam named him. #newcat #orangecat #gretsch #porchcatsofinstagram (at Fiddlestar)

Posted 349 weeks ago

In the early 80s, when I was coming of age in the “fiddle contest scene”, slow, dirge-like waltzes were all the rage. Many contests had not yet instituted a time limit and fiddlers were seemingly enamored with the idea of a less danceable approach to fiddling in general. At the tender age of 8ish, I was easily swayed by that philosophy and my waltzes veered toward whatever word is more dramatic than “languid”. Then I heard the beautiful Nancy’s Waltz and literally, for the first time, it occurred to me that fast, dance-oriented waltzes sounded really super cool. Virg Evans, a California fiddler who everyone loved, wrote this one (for his wife Nancy, I do believe). It just came to mind this morning - I haven’t played it in 20 years, I’d guess, but here goes. Put on your dancing shoes. #waltz #waltzes #fiddle #nancy #fiddlingisdancemusic (at Fiddlestar)

Posted 349 weeks ago

 1/25/13
I am excited to embark on a new chapter of my working life - I recently gave my notice to the Pam Tillis organization and will no longer be touring with her or Lorrie Morgan (on their awesome Grits and Glamour Tour). I must admit, I'm sad to be leaving. It's been an incredible four years and I have learned so much. Thanks to Pam, her amazing husband/manager Matt Spicher, and my bandmates, especially the lovely and talented Mary Sue Englund, with whom I spent more time over the last few years than I did with my husband. And I wouldn't trade a minute of it...