Fiddler’s Fancy is a blog on fiddlers and fiddling lore, by me, Philip Martin, author of the book Farmhouse Fiddlers: Music & Dance Traditions in the Rural Midwest (Midwest Traditions, 1994).
To find out more about that book (“a marvelous, lovingly constructed tribute to a bygone era.” — Sing Out! “. . . a perfect marriage of photography and spoken history.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune) or to order it from Amazon.com, click here or visit the page on this blog (see tabs above) titled: “The Book.”
I’ve long collected and enjoyed the stories surrounding the fiddler and his (rarely, but with notable exceptions, her) role in society, and this blog is devoted to keeping some of my favorite stories in circulation.
I also run Great Lakes Literary, a consulting, editing, and marketing firm for individuals and companies who wish to publish books and booklets successfully. A full bio of me can be found there.
I admit to being a very mediocre fiddle player, a homespun, run-of-the-mill (at best) fellow who enjoys “scratching the guts of a cat with the tail of a horse.” I learned to play from old-timers in Wisconsin and Minnesota, notably Edwin Johnson, and with friends at Folklore Village, a rural folk center that was in my time based mostly in a one-room schoolhouse near Dodgeville, Wisconsin.
So I’m not a fancy fiddler, but a fiddler with fancy. And I know how to keep a beat.
That’s it for now. For more, read the blog!
