This page is about the October 1997 camp. Read my original fiddle camp page for my general impressions of Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp.
The staff included:
As usual, the week started off with the introductory first-night jam session. Mark was one of the first to pull up a chair and tune up, and he pretty much orchestrated the session. He went to great lengths to include everyone by playing along with people who weren't sure they knew the tunes, coaxing one shy adult-beginner to start off a tune, and stuff like that. It created a very hospitable atmosphere (I've pointed out in my other fiddle-camp memoirs how intimidating the first night of camp can be). Tony Ludiker was the volunteer accompanist, to his eventual chagrin. During one marathon tune Mark actually went over & gave him a break by playing the left hand while Tony continued to play the right hand.
Once again there were two grueling "fiddler's shuffle" days at the start of the week. I have to admit I'm starting to see a good reason for that despite what I have written before. Many of the instructors had plans which assumed they'd have more than one session with the same group of students. There is only so much you can do with a roomful of fiddlers in a one-and-a-half-hour session, after all. I do confess that on the second shuffle day I skipped a couple of sessions in the interest of not wearing myself out. But it's a "necessary evil", given the open nature of the schedule of most of the days at camp.
For the other class days I concentrated on Buddy Spicher, Darol Anger, and Tony Ludiker's classes. Buddy tended to do repertoire, taking requests from the class or pulling stuff out of his hat. We did a lot of tunes in that class. Buddy also walked us through his method of charting the chords to a song he's never heard before (while simultaneously making plans for lunch & that afternoon's round of golf!). Darol's classes centered on the vocabulary of jazz, the scales and chords and how they work. We did things like playing blues exercises (in all 12 keys), trading fours with Darol and with each other, and analyzing the chord changes of tunes. Darol presents this stuff very well, plus he never fails to crack me up. Tony's classes were pretty loose the times I went, almost like jam sessions. This is no coincidence, as he spent some time going over "jam session protocol" as it exists in the contest fiddling scene. And it gave the campers a lot of opportunities to play. Sometimes classes are conducted so you don't do much actual playing. On the "shuffle" days Tony taught us a couple of intricate tunes-of-choice. Tony spent a lot of his "off" time helping campers individually, recording tunes for them and helping them with their technique. Rachel's classes leaned heavily on technique. She also conducted some special sessions in heavy metal fiddling, a movement she is at the vanguard of. (It turns out she has a heavy metal album due out. Check her web site for more info).
As usual, the evenings featured the camp staff. Mark played some of
his new compositions one night. He played unamplified in the outdoor
pavilion. It was really great. The rest of the week it was cold, so all
the evening events were inside.
Buddy Spicher's band played
acoustically in the dining hall. I think it
wouldn't have been nearly as cool if they'd used a sound system. They
all stood in a semi-circle, with one microphone for the occasional
vocal numbers. The soloists would step to the front when their time
came, like in an old radio broadcast or something.
Rachel Barton gave a
fascinating recital. She played a whole set of the sort of "showoff"
pieces that are usually played only as encores.
What made it even more interesting was that she had anecdotes for all
the pieces, about the players who wrote them and the significance
of the pieces. It reminded me of the way fiddlers always have
stories about tunes & the players they learned them from. Guess
they do that in the classical world, too. Who knew?
Michael Doucet
rocked the place with the the help of a
Cajun band. I gathered they were from Nashville but didn't get
their names. Darol & Mark sat in with them on a couple of tunes.
Tony Ludiker played with Mark accompanying him on
guitar. He played "Say Old Man," "The Golden Fiddle Waltz" and a
few other things. I'm sure he appreciated having more time than
the usual four minutes!
Darol sat in with nearly everyone at some time or another.
The last night of camp Vic Wooten came out. Darol, Mark and
Vic played a few things together. They did "Blackberry
Blossom," "Sweet Georgia Brown," and an improvised thing. It's
the sort of thing I feel lucky to have been able to witness. Of
course, they did this just before "camper's night." We all had to
follow that act!
John Hartford came out and played one night. Author and
folklorist Dr. Charles Wolfe came out and talked a little about
the history of fiddling one night. I have read some of his
books so I enjoyed hearing him talk about fiddling.
A nice new evening feature was "fiddlers in the round." It was just what it sounds like: all the staff plus John Hartford and a couple of accompanists sitting in a circle, each playing some tunes. I'm a nut for that sort of thing. I find that most players do their best playing in that kind of setting.
Naturally the week was a series of once-in-a-lifetime musical events.
One of the most awe-inspiring things happened after supper one
night. I forgot exactly what started it, but Darol was standing
there with his fiddle, and Mark happened along. They started
playing, and it became more and more incredible. Absolutely
spontaneous, thoroughly amazing, and I'm glad I was there to
witness it. When they finally cooled off Dr. Tom Holzen, the
camp's resident plastic surgeon and sound engineer, said to me
"That's what fiddle camp is all about."
I would be remiss if I failed to
mention Darol's unwitting vocal debut. I guess you had to be
there, but suffice it to say that "Lady Be Good" will never sound
the same to me.
There were more campers this year than last, about as many as in '95. And it was a high-quality group, too. Lots of good players, nice folks one and all. There were quite a few returnees from the last two years, which is something I like. There were some terrific people among the campers: a doctor from Scotland, a full-time pro fiddler from Canada, an enthusiastic adult beginner from Canada (she bought a new fiddle one day and sat up all that night "breaking it in"), and many more players from all over the place. It was a great group of people to hang out with. Not that that wasn't true of the other times I've been, but this year it just seemed like a more cohesive group. A contributing factor may have been the weather. It was pretty chilly at night so people tended to congregate near the fireplace. Some people even camped out in the dining hall to stay warm. (I forewent that, sensing that the "slumber party" atmosphere would mean even less sleep than the meager amount I was expecting!)
Ok, so you're probably still wondering if I managed to learn anything this year. Once again, I went to fiddle camp with the vaguest intentions. One thing I wanted to do was to find out more about contest fiddling, the ins and outs of preparing for a big contest, from Tony. I failed miserably, not even managing to bring up the subject in class, although we had a couple of conversations about it. Nevertheless it was a productive week for me. One cool thing that happened was on the day after Rachel's recital (I mention that because it is probably not a coincidence.) I snuck off, as I usually do, to just play some tunes by myself. I always do this at camp, playing things I already know. It's sort of a "reality check" to clear out all the new stuff that crowds up my head, a way to remind myself that I can in fact play. So I was grinding through some weird tunes that I never play in public, and I started playing "The Banks." It's got that spiccato bow thing, you know, and in 10 years of trying I've never gotten it right. Well, that afternoon I did it. Just like that. It was just one of those moments where something comes together, I suppose. And I think it kind of sums up my week. I came away feeling good about my fiddling, and feeling inspired by all the people who were there and all the things that are possible with the fiddle.
Check out theQuotes of the Week, from the last
couple of years. I don't have any new ones from this year but I'm
working on it.
Add your own comments to
my camp scrapbook.
Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp
Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp
P.O. Box 110573
Nashville TN 37222-0573 USA
or telephone 615-377-6064
or check out Mark's
own home page.