Upper Midwest Folk Fiddlers Tunebook Now Available in Print!

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This book is the culmination of Clawhammer Mike’s years of research into the schottisches, polkas and waltzes of the Upper Midwest. The Upper Midwest Folk Fiddlers Tunebook includes 137 tunes that were mostly played by Scandinavian immigrants who came to the Upper Midwest. Most of these tunes were passed down generationally over the past 150 years. Along with the digital download of the book that includes standard notations, chords and tabs, you will receive midi-based MP3 files for each tune to facilitate your learning. These tunes are jam-friendly and in standard keys. You’ll be playing these old barn-dance tunes in no time!

Elmo Wick Tape!

Going through three big boxes of Minnesota fiddle tapes, I found this great one that I did not know existed. We already had a tape of Elmo playing standard, American, old-time tunes, but it was great to find one that concentrates on the Scandinavian immigrant music that he had done such a great job transcribing to paper.  For more info on Elmo and his transcriptions you can go to fiddlemn.com.

These aren't the best recordings of Elmo, but they do give life to some of the tunes we only had transcriptions for.  On Phil Nusbaum's field recordings, Elmo plays strong dance fiddling.  On this tape it seems like Elmo and Stan aren't always on the same page,, and Elmo is doing more 3rd position backup.  Although this provides some context for this tape, it doesn't diminish its importance to us who study the history of Upper Midwest fiddle music.

This recording is made available free for education purposes.  If you want to support me and the work that I do getting stuff like this out, you can Venmo:  @clawhammermike