"A dark engine drones the fiddle that makes the heart beat faster."
Ken Waldman, "The Galax Sound"

There is more than one way to skin a fiddle when you're playing traditional music. If you're making "art music" out of it, you'll want to make your interpretation sound as artistic as possible, whether that be musically perfect, or interpretatively interesting. If you're keeping it as "folk music," then you'll want to make it sound real, whether it be true to the original sound range or to yourself. Here are three old-time/traditional American releases that skin fiddles pretty well, while keeping that rough, front-porch flavor. They take different forks in the road, and each has a few glitches, but all succeed at being "real." All these folks are singing, or reciting, and playing for the love of the music.

Moving Lightly Through This World is just the sort of album you would expect from this couple, particularly if they are playing in the old white frame house on the album cover. Pennsylvanian-Californian Beverly Smith plays guitar, fiddle, and autoharp and has worked with Bruce Molsky, John Doyle, and Mick Moloney. Georgian-Alabamian-North Carolinian Carl Jones plays mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and banjo and has worked with Norman Blake and James Bryan. Smith and Jones often sing in harmony; Smith's voice is light while Jones' is twangy with a mountain accent. The resulting harmonies are pleasant and down to earth... more terrestial than celestial!

Many of the tracks on Moving Lightly are songs which first took a bow on old country recordings; some are from older or less commercial sources, while others are originals. The title track is a song in a bluegrass style by Jones. It's his best on the album and is about living your life in a kind and reasonable manner. Another of his compositions is "A.P." In autoharp-studded vintage country mode, this one is about A.P. Carter:

"Just before I was born
I was grazed by lightning's spark."

sings Jones. He composes well in the old styles, but his more contemporary compositions seem a little discordant; perhaps they need to season a little longer.

Some of the older pieces are especially nice. "Kitty's Waltz" and Jimmie Rodger's "Mississippi Moon" are two agreeable waltzes with words. "The Widow's Lone Daughter," learnt from a Library of Congress recording by Charles Ingenthron, will please British Isles enthusiasts with it's obvious structural ties to England; the duet is sung a capella into a single mike. "I'm Going To the West," taken from "Folk Songs Of Alabama, " is in smooth, pretty harmony and solos, but it is still more rugged than Connie Dover's recent version! Three old time crooked A tunes from West Virginia move along smoothly on Smith's fiddle -- and her bow, which she employs with a good deal of insight. The album itself moves along smoothly through alternating genres and remains interesting until the last.

The Druckenmiller family lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania. An earlier album, The Road Home, was intentionally recorded in their living room, but Morning Star arose in Bearswamp Studios. Like Moving Lightly, the album contains some tunes recorded by the Carter Family, and Betty even recites a poem written by Ken Waldman, reviewed below. The Druckenmillers are most excited about processing the honey of American tradition, and all the tracks are traditional, though some have been reworked, including A.P. Carter's version of "May the Circle Be Unbroken." A quote on the earlier The Road Home indicates that it's not just the songs that matter, it is the good people they have played with and from whom they've learned the songs.

Among the most pleasant tracks here are two crisp banjo solos by Tom: "Sandy Boys & Cluck Old Hen," and "Cold Frosty Morn," attached to betty's poetry recitation. All three play...Tom on banjo, Betty on fiddle, and son Nathan on fiddle and guitar, producing genuinely joyful and rousing contra-friendly dance sets, "Back Step Cindy & Sally Ann," and "The Library Set," with Bob Heyer joining on guitar on the latter. Of the songs, "I Truly Understand" is truly my favorite. Sung by Tom, it stands out particularly on the beauty of the song. Tom's lead and the harmonies sound best; Betty sings flat, and to my ears this often comes across as being merely off-key. Moving Lightly also contains several old religious songs; the nicest here is an upbeat "Canaan's Land ("Where the Soul Of Man Never Dies"), though the musicians probably prefer the more soulful title track "Bright Morning Star," and not without justification.

Ken Waldman's third album Music Party is subtitled "Alaskan Fiddling Poet Music From All Over." A review of his second, Burnt Down House (2001) is on my web site.

Several years ago I saw Waldman, currently a resident of Anchorage, in a hotel-room show at the North American Folk Alliance. He was exhibiting photos of a dreadful bush plane crash in the desolate Alaskan wilderness that he was involved in as a passenger. Then he recited a poem about the crash and played a little fiddle. "When I do shows in schools I show these pictures. The kids love it!" he said. I bet they do, but I didn't want to see them. Fortunately for squeamish adults, he's moved on to more aesthetic concepts.

Waldman is a published poet, and the verses on Music Party are extracted from his books. His poems, all about music and people who live to play and dance, are more like arranged short prose and are spoken over traditional and contra tunes in his ordinary front-porch voice. Topics include dance camps ("Dance Camp"), girl fiddlers ("Moonshine"), and instruments ("Instrument Auction"). On this album, few are specifically about Alaska; for many Alaska is waiting in the wings of imagination and others reference places like Galax, Virginia and New Orleans. But in the poem "Dance Camp," there is

"...the music
married to the sunlight
that shines past 11
in the Alaska spring."

Sometimes the verses are prettier when you read them in your own way in your head, rather than listening to Waldman's straightforward voice.

Waldman's fiddle was scratchy back in the hotel room. It's still scratchy on Dance Party, but his bow glides effortlessly as it makes the melodies that serve as a backdrop for poetry and then emerge into the spotlight. He's joined in places by Jerry Hagans on banjo and Eric Graves on guitar and the result is often informal and a little awkward, like at a real contra dance or jam. One nice tune is Waldman's own "Instrument Auction," in a style I can only describe as "snakey and a little tilty as well as containing a good whoompy lift on the first beat." Another is the traditional West Virginia tune "Elzia's Farewell,"which is reminiscent of the Horseflies with its quick, chunky, aggressive beat. The last few tracks, including "Elzia's Farewell," are bonus live tracks and have a definite aura de contra dance. Dance Party is certainly a unique and interesting album, and, like Waldman's last album, evokes a charming ideal world that many of us try to live in.

[Judith Gennett]