More Fiddling and Step Dancing

For those who can stand it, here's one more clip from our fiddling weekend. This is from the other concert featuring local talent, and it is shorter than the previous one. The five fiddlers and two step dancers all reside in the local area. I'd give their names, but without the spelling of one or two in front of me, I'll resist rather than risk making a mash of it.



Watch on YouTube

Out of the Woodwork

I am beginning to think that in these parts the surest sign of spring has not to do with robins or tulips but with fiddlers. After not being aware of many, if any, concerts for lo these many months, I have been receiving concert notices apace lately. On the weekend, we chose to go to two concerts. It's not something that one would normally do, but one has become more or less a spring-rite for Cuppa and me, and the other featured three very notable fiddlers that I didn't want to miss.

On Friday evening, we attended the Fiddle "n" Fame concert, the one with the three noteworthy fiddlers, in Pakenham. The fiddlers represented different styles. Andre Brunet brought us Quebecois fiddling, Louis Schryer more of an Old Time or Ottawa Valley style, and Troy MacGillvray represented Cape Breton (Eastern Canada).

They each did their solo thing, but the neatest thing is when fiddlers get together and feed off each other. I took the following video when they were doing this at the end of the concert. It's a long set (about six minutes) followed by a coupe of minutes with step dancing being added to the mix. I don't know if you will be up for the whole clip, but for however long that you do watch bear in mind that these three have never played together before.

In part, I attend such concerts to bear witness to the tradition that now only exists on the fringes of awareness. As a pathetic beginner fiddler, I also can begin to appreciate the incredible skill of such people. For me, such skill is worth supporting, and such traditions are worth keeping alive.

(Oh, I got the kids' Camcorder out of storage. It's new to me, but I dusted it off because it's zoomable, which makes it a much better tool than our little camera. However, it is taking some getting used to, as is trying to figure out how to work with the result. It works with a tape, a digital tape but a tape nevertheless, which makes it different and more difficult to work with. What with that and trying to figure out the appropriate software, it took me a mighty long and frustrating time to be able to post this clip.)



Watch on YouTube

Looking for the Bright Side

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

I'm pretty sure that I've used that song before. Maybe it was a different verse, however, and, anyway, it's so appropriate today that I insist on using it again, regardless.

You see, I'm in much discomfort. Just a few days after bragging to a neighbour about how wonderful my back has been for about a year or longer, it decided to go out. I hate it when that happens because I never know when it's going to come back, and it is really difficult to live without it. This morning, I am bound and determined to spend some time sitting at the computer, but even that is problematic because I can hardly tilt my head a fraction without sending spasms all the way down to my hips.

But I don't quite know what else to do with myself, so I'll force myself to sit here for a while. Yesterday, I read an Inspector Rebus mystery while trying to remain as immobile as possible. I have two more Rebus tomes on hand, and I'll get to them because there's not much else for me to do, but I don't feel up to another romp around the criminal underbelly of Edinburgh just yet.

I feel badly for Cuppa. It's her birthday week, and I am hardly fit to help her celebrate. Last night, we had planned to hear a female choir that is touring from Cornell University. Needless to say, we didn't. Fortunately, she has a good day planned without me. She's out to Tai Chi this morning, followed by lunch out for and with her fellow graduates from the beginner class. And she can go out to line dancing tonight while I assist Inspector Rebus in puzzling out (get it? rebus puzzle) another Scottish mystery.

When it rains it pours, however. Yesterday, I dragged my sore back to the doctor to see about my sore finger [sic] — the one that has plagued me since I took up the fiddle ... the fiddle upon which I must stop fiddling for now and perhaps forever. She has referred me to a plastic surgeon. Oh joy! How does that song go again?