Presents 140 of the most frequently played tunes in old time fiddle contests as well as the most popular bluegrass, square dance and country tunes heard throughout the United States. the performance length arrangements of contest tunes include standard as well as challenging variations on hoe-downs, rags, polkas, show pieces, and waltzes complete with suggested accompaniment chords. This encyclopedia of fiddle tunes and variations spotlights American popular fiddle music as played by the great fiddlers of our time.
If you are looking for exciting and challenging fiddle solos by one of America's hottest fiddlers, this book is for you. Contains Craig's outstanding fiddle arrangements on: Dueling Fiddles; Rocky Top; Black Mountain Rag; Tennessee Waltz; Faded Love; Cajun Fiddle; Jole Blon; Gardenia Waltz; Draggin' the Bow; Granny Does Your Dog Bite?; Black-Eyed Suzie; Wabash Cannonball; and many more. Presents 60 great fiddling tunes! the CD is sparkling stereo listening recording featuring Craig Duncan backed up by a top Nashville country rhythm section!
A follow-up book on Craig Duncan's popular Deluxe Fiddling Method containing 40 great fiddle solos in the keys of F, B-flat, E major, E minor, and A minor. Also features tunes in altered tunings, contest-style-breakdowns, ragtime tunes, and additional fiddling favorites. The split-track audio features full performances of the first 36 tunes in the book, split between fiddle solo and guitar accompaniment. The tunes Twinkle Little Star, Under the Double Eagle, andWhiskey Before Breakfast are not on the audio. Includes access to onlineaudio
Championship Contest Fiddling contains painstakingly detailed transcriptions of 44 fiddle tunes as they were played by thirteen champions of the National Old Time Fiddlers' Contest held in Weiser, Idaho. In addition to the tunes, the book includes excerpts of extensive interviews with these champions where they offer advice on how to play in the contest style, prepare for contests and deal with nerves, adapt and arrange tunes to make them your own, and play with drive, among many other topics. It is an indispensable resource for fiddlers seeking to understand contest fiddling better and prepare for fiddle contests, or learn some great tunes from the masters! Includes audio CD of the actual piece played during the contest.
With the warmth and humor we've come to know, the creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion shares his own remarkable story. In That Time of Year, Garrison Keillor looks back on his life and recounts how a Brethren boy with writerly ambitions grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the 1950s and, seeing three good friends die young, turned to comedy and radio. Through a series of unreasonable lucky breaks, he founded A Prairie Home Companion and put himself in line for a good life, including mistakes, regrets, and a few medical adventures. PHC lasted forty-two years, 1,557 shows, and enjoyed the freedom to do as it pleased for three or four million listeners every Saturday at 5 p.m. Central. He got to sing with Emmylou Harris and Renée Fleming and once sang two songs to the U.S. Supreme Court. He played a private eye and a cowboy, gave the news from his hometown, Lake Wobegon, and met Somali cabdrivers who’d learned English from listening to the show. He wrote bestselling novels, won a Grammy and a National Humanities Medal, and made a movie with Robert Altman with an alarming amount of improvisation. He says, “I was unemployable and managed to invent work for myself that I loved all my life, and on top of that I married well. That’s the secret, work and love. And I chose the right ancestors, impoverished Scots and Yorkshire farmers, good workers. I’m heading for eighty, and I still get up to write before dawn every day.”
"One of the most bizarre stories in all of popular music is the history of the 'Orange Blossom Special,' arguably the century's best-known fiddle tune. Here revealed is the tale of its feuding owners, Rouse and Wise, and Johnny Cash, who made the song a mainstream hit. This trio's disparate legacies are here told - and forever linked with the legendary diesel steamliner."--Publisher's website.
All the fiddle tunes on the CD the World's Hottest Fiddlers (C.M.H. Productions 8651; 2002), except one, are transcribed in detail for this book. These fifteen cuts, which include seventeen tunes, incorporate old-time standards such as Sally Ann as played by Kenny Baker, bluegrass standards such as Orange Blossom Special as played by Steve Thomas, Texas swing tunes such as Beaumont Rag as played by Johnny Gimble, and song tunes such as Blue Moon of Kentucky as played by Benny Martin. Other highlights include the complete twin fiddling parts for Benny Martin and Buddy Spicher's Down Yonder, and the twin fiddle parts for Johnny Gimble's Black and White Rag. Eleven other tunes are featured by fiddlers Barbara Lamb, Mike Hartgrove, Glen Duncan, Sonny Mead, Ramona Jones, Paul Warren, and Fiddlin' Red Herron.
From the author’s preface: “This book was conceived four years ago, almost to the day, at a time when I was teaching fiddle and mandolin in New York City. It was my idea then, with my students in mind, to compile a book of the most often played, most important and most interesting fiddle tunes from the various Celtic and North American traditions. The tunes were chosen by cataloging a large number of recordings by tune title. A tally was taken to find out which had been recorded most often. This established a foundation of material that could not be left out. To this list I added the names of other pieces which had not been recorded as frequently, but which I knew were played regularly and with respect. I admit to sprinkling the collection with a few lesser known tunes which happen to be personal favorites, but I am sure they will hold their own when placed next to the old war horses of the fiddler’s repertoire. . . . Although I started out with my students in mind this book has turned out to be the book that I’ve always wanted and I hope that it will serve the advanced player as well as the beginner.”
Stories, essays, poems, and personal reminiscences from the sage of Lake Wobegon When, at thirteen, he caught on as a sportswriter for the Anoka Herald, Garrison Keillor set out to become a professional writer, and so he has done—a storyteller, sometime comedian, essayist, newspaper columnist, screenwriter, poet. Now a single volume brings together the full range of his work: monologues from A Prairie Home Companion, stories from The New Yorker and The Atlantic, excerpts from novels, newspaper columns. With an extensive introduction and headnotes, photographs, and memorabilia, The Keillor Reader also presents pieces never before published, including the essays “Cheerfulness” and “What We Have Learned So Far.” Keillor is the founder and host of A Prairie Home Companion, celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2014. He is the author of nineteen books of fiction and humor, the editor of the Good Poems collections, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
