Doublestop Magazine

Folkways Fiddlin’

If you’re remotely interesting in fiddling, you need to check out UNC-TV’s Folkways episode on fiddling in North Carolina.

David Holt introduces four fiddlers who have created their own styles either from picking up the musical tradition of the region, differentiating from a basic style or combining the styles of several different musicians.

Each of the fiddlers goes into a fair bit of detail about their specific playing style, talking about what they’re doing with both the left and right hands. It is a lot of fun to watch these guys play and to pick up on the variations. It’ll knock right out of your head any notions about there being one right way to do things.

My only gripe: I’d love to see a HD version of the episode to better see those hands move.