Don't Trust Me with a Paint Pen

Yesterday afternoon I was all set to write a post about the paint pen explosion during Super Saturday while I was trying to make an advent candle. I even took a picture of the nice candle that was the model so I could contrast it with what I made (and, by the way, am too embarrassed to give away).

But you know what? I want to write about the Mountaineer Week fiddle contest I went to last night instead. I'm not a fiddler and have no idea how to tell what makes a champion fiddler. I just like the music. More than that, though, I like how fiddling-- at least in West Virginia-- seems to be more about preserving family traditions than music. I took piano lessons and learned Mozart and Beethoven from published books. These fiddlers get together with other fiddlers and learn tunes that have probably never been written down. I sat next to the wife of one of the fiddle contest competitors and asked her how people learn the music. She said they just listen and play along until they get it. Kind of a musical storytelling oral tradition. Very cool.

I'm posting a You Tube link to Elmer Rich, who took second place last night. He took first in the senior division, though, and usually takes first every year for the whole thing. Don't get me wrong; the twenty-something guy who won was very good, but he didn't have the history Elmer has. I have no idea how old Elmer is, but when he got up to tell about the heritage tune he was going to play (which means that he learned the tune from another West Virginia fiddler), he said, "Well, I learned this tune from my uncle. We played it for Eleanor Roosevelt in 1936." The crowd almost audibly gasped. This man has some serious fiddle history. I kind of felt like I listened to history last night. I did some quick math and realized he PLAYED the fiddle a year before my dad was even born. So even if he was ten at that point, that would make him at least 82 years old.

Here's what I think is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=57tRYDnGSAQ. If it doesn't work, do a You Tube search under Harry's High Note- Elmer Rich, fiddle. He's really fun to listen to you, and you can get some West Virginia history, too.