Like the cigar-box guitar we met yesterday, the cigar-box fiddle is a do-it-yourself fiddle fashioned from a cigar box. Not a mystery! But still beautiful. Let’s enjoy this video of a cigar-box fiddle in action.
Tag Archives | Fiddle
Fantastic Fiddlin’
Folk music was formed by fiddles. English and Irish immigrants brought their fiddles with them when they came to “the Colonies,” and as early as the mid 1700s you’d be hard pressed to find an American folk ensemble without one. “The fiddle” was always a bit less reputable than its classical cousin, “the violin”–in fact, the two instruments are exactly the same, the only difference is the approach of the musician. American fiddle players diverged from their European and even their Canadian fellows as they picked up African-American phrasing and syncopation. Watch this 2003 performance of “Orange Blossom Special” by Vassar Clements and the Del McCoury Band for an example of great country/folk fiddlin’.
Dennis Magee at Sady Courville
Yesterday we learned about the orgins of Cajun music, following the Acadians from “New France” to Louisiana, where we pick up the tale. The Spanish eventually relinquished Louisiana to the French, who in 1803 sold it to Thomas Jefferson and the fledgling United States. Throughout all this nation-changing the Acadians, eventually known as the “Cajuns,” became farmers, manual laborers and pretty darned great fiddle and accordion players, fusing French-Acadian music with some Celtic infuences and letting it simmer in the bayou heat. In that context, let’s enjoy this video of Dennis McGee, who was of Irish, Cajun and Native American descent. His playing helped fuse Celtic influences into Acadian music. (The music starts at 1:35).
