Archie Teigan

Archie Teigan was born on March 10, 1911 in North Dakota and he died on May 19, 1993 in Brainard, MN. His family moved to the Brainard area when he was 10 years old. He started off on the regular fiddle and played his first dance when he was 12. Later in life he learned the Hardanger fiddle of his Norwegian roots. He had a man from Telemark, Norway build him one, and it took 2 years to complete. The wood had been aging for 100 years before it was made into his instrument, and it had a Viking scroll design. He liked it best when he played with just an acoustic guitar accompanying him.

I first heard Archie on a tape that Paul Wilson sent me. When I called Paul, he didn't think he had anything to offer me, but right after he hung up, he called back and told me about his Teigan tape. That tape ended up having some high quality stuff. Paul is also from Brainard and builds drone fiddles (his are pictured above). He is a founder of the great Scandanavian music festival Nisswa-Stammen. He is also a member of Ole Olsson's Old-time Orkestra.

Art Bjorngjeld

It was hard for me to imagine a bastion of Minnesota old-time music living in the suburbs, but after a long bus ride I arrived at Art's suburban home. As soon I walked in and sat on his porch that overlooks his woodsy backyard, it all made sense. The first thing I thought of was all of the wonderful music his neighbors must hear. Art started off our meeting explaining the differences between various 3 beat dances including the mazurka, the Hambo, a Polska and a Waltz. With each one he would actually get up and dance. He explained how the village dances eventually got lost here for more common dancing like the waltz.

Art's grandmother and grandfather both immigrated to America from Norway and met here in America. Art’s grandfather settled in a little town near the Canadian border in North Dakota. Art’s grandfather played fiddle a little bit, but it was his dad and his uncle Oliver who really picked up the music bug, and they both played accordion. About 10 other relatives played instruments and sang old tunes as well. Members of the family played for barn dances and house parties. They could play a wide variety of things from the old Norwegian tunes to the more modern country radio styles that were popular when radio first started.

Pa's Tune- One of his Grandpa's favorite tunes.

Art’s dad and two of his uncles eventually moved to Minneapolis and continued to play together. He points out that he heard just as much accordion as fiddle, and he learned a lot of his tunes from people who played accordion. Because of this, he learned his own way to bow a lot of the tunes. The tunes themselves are very old.

Art’s first musical adventures of his own included playing guitar in high school. Those were the days of the folk boom, so he was playing a lot of Peter, Paul and Mary and stuff like that. In college he saw Doc Watson a few times at the U of M and that led him back into more traditional music. He started playing bluegrass banjo and that became his love for a long time. It ends up that he played in Snake-Eyed Pete and the Sidewinders which eventually became the band my stepfather played in- the Sidewinders.

All through the years he heard his family play the old tunes at gatherings, and he was slowly absorbing it in. When he met Dick Rees he began to learn a variety of Scandinavian music, and they had a group named the Scandinavian Hot Shots. He has played with the Minnesota Scandinavian Ensemble for many years with Leroy Larson and can play the songs of his youth on fiddle and accordion.

Elmer Running's Tune- Elmer was a fiddling friend of Art's grandfather.

I will surely be adding a few of his granfather's tunes to the Minnesota repertoire.

Paul Dahlin and His Grandfathers Swedish Music.

Paul Dahlin is probably the most famous fiddler in town, but you may not have heard of him, unless you are Swedish or pay close attention to the arts. He was a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow in 1996, performed at some of the country's biggest folk festivals and put out recordings on prominent folk labels, such as Rounder. His story is well-documented on his website, where you can also buy his CD's. I felt really lucky to get to interview Paul for this project.

( Sorry about the darkness and quietness in this video. It was a rather intimate setting).

On my way to interview Paul, the first thing I noticed was how tranquil and peaceful his neighborhood in south Minneapolis felt. Upon entering, I noticed his makeshift woodshop in his living room. The first thing I thought of was how my Swedish stepfather would have felt very welcomed by this sight. That thought was reinforced later when I heard the story his family told him about going to America" You are going to America to work, not to play fiddle".

Luckily for us, he did come to play fiddle and taught his children, who taught the next generation, who taught the younger generation who are alive right now. Four generations of their family have fiddled here in Minnesota. I love the story about how Paul's son Daniel still goes to play with Paul's uncle Bruce and that Daniel is the one who really embraces the old tunes (along with writing some new ones).

This project of mine started with the questions as to where all the fiddlers went to. In my interview with Paul you hear about one great place they went to. Every Friday night they congregated at --- of Cedar and had a dinner and a lively dance. When Paul was describing it, I swear I was right there. I didn't remember until after I left Paul's house that my stepfather pointed out that old Swedish hall as we passed by there years ago.

Even though the traditions are firmly entrenched in his son, he uses the word "fragile" to describe the music's place in modern society. Thankfully, Paul and his family has been committed to teaching this music to hundreds of folks over the years through his partnership with the American Swedish Institute. This is one Minnesotan fiddle tradition that is properly preserved and nurtured.

My Teacher Don Paden and the Cotton Tapes

My teacher was the one who helped get my family into old-time and bluegrass music. He and my stepfather ended up being in the same band and my mom did sound. Don was the one who let me hear his Dock Boggs and Roscoe Holcomb records which influenced me greatly. He was always playing various instruments in class and singing old songs, but never too much with a fiddle.

Not so coincidentally, the great competition-winning clawhammer banjo player Adam Hurt had Don as an elementary teacher, too. Here is a quote from Adam, "I was first made aware of folk music by Don Paden, my homeroom teacher in a Saint Paul, Minnesota public school. Don played several folk instruments: mandolin was his favorite but he also played fiddle, guitar,and others. He regularly brought these instruments into his classroom, to show his students an art form that we had likely never known". Don's passion for the music was clearly contagious. The picture above is Don playing fiddle in String Fever Bluegrass band in 1990's."

I started going through and digitalizing all of the old Minnesota tapes that Dan Radford let me borrow on my last visit. I was not more than 15 minutes into the first tape when out comes, "our next contestant from Saint Paul is Don Paden, accompanied by Bill Hinkley", from the 1992 Cotton fiddle contest. What made it extra special is that Bill Hinkley is a local old-time legend who recently passed away.

Don Paden. Cotton, MN 1992.

Bill Hinkley. Cotton, MN 1992.

I am assuming that when it was Bill Hinkley's turn, Don was accompanying him. Don was a student of Bill's at the time. Here is a few of the selections that both men play.

Fiddle Flash Mob

When I first heard that we were going to have a fiddle flash mob here in Minneapolis, I was worried that we were going to be raided by the police (OK, not really). I am lucky enough to live in a place that has three old-time mountain music jams I can go to each week, and we don't even live near any mountains. Most of the tunes played at these jams are Appalachian, except for the occasional polka or Canadian tune.

Today's flash mob was organized by Pam Longtine and her husband Doug Heine. The premise was simple: city park, fiddles, potluck. A very simple and brilliant concept. The event was attended by about 40 people and a good time was had by all. We are are well accustomed to this kind of atmosphere. Normally we would travel hundreds of miles and pay lots of money to go to festivals, only to skip the stage and play with each other in the back 40. It is like a small extended family- everyone is always offering me food or alcohol.



Usually if a jam gets too big, the elder statesmen and women break off and start their own jam. They don't mean any harm, I think it is just what's comfortable for them. They were nice enough to let me record a few songs. One of these elder statesmen is John Wallace. He just got done winning the gambler's fiddle contest at the Minnesota State Fair. The rules are that the judges give you a tune and you have to successfully play it. If you can't play it, you are eliminated and the last one remaining wins. John has won this contest several times.

I could say equally great things about all of the local fiddlers in these videos. They are from left to right in the first video: Robin Fox, Pam Longtine (seen later in video to the left), Don Jacques, John Wallace, Roger Cuthbertson, and Erik Platt on guitar.

Dan Radford

Dan Radford has been playing fiddle for 75 years. He has been in symphonies, bluegrass bands, and Irish bands. He was lucky to have a symphony teacher who took him under his wing and taught him how to play. He then joined the army where he grew to appreciate hillbilly music but had no fiddle. He had his father carefully mail his fiddle, but when it arrived at the base it was in pieces. When he got it properly repaired he started playing with folks on the base, and he said they made some great music back then.

He has been in the same Irish band for 42 years. They have played all over the country, and he has won 1st place in many contests. Now that he is in his 80's he takes particular pride in talking about the young fiddlers he has mentored. He still enters contests but his hearing issues have made it so he doesn't place much any more. He really likes to tell stories of old days at the Yankton, South Dakota and Cotton, Minnesota festivals.


Dan Radford and Paul Andrews playing Ashokan Farewell at the 1994 fiddle contest in Yankton, South Dakota.

The house he built for he and his wife Orpha is one of the most beautiful open homes I have ever been in. It took him 3 months just to build his rock chimney that must be 30 feet high. One of his last construction projects was to build that 5,000 square foot house in Inver Grove Heights. Within moments of Orpha letting us in the door, he is showing us all the details of his house with great pride. He says he built the house by himself with the help of three other people. Their beautiful basement has a wonderful old bar that they reclaimed out of another building he was doing work in. Their beautiful music room is big enough to seat 44 guests for Christmas dinner. His wife of more than 25 years talked about how it gets harder to hold Christmas gatherings now that their extended family has hit 100.

Orpha is obviously very proud of what Dan has accomplished in fiddling and in construction. There are the fiddle trophies on the wall to prove it. She has organized a lot of old Minnesota tapes of fiddlers and fiddle contests. She has graciously let me digitalize a large part of this collection and I will be sharing a portion of it with all of you as time progresses.

Even though they live in the suburbs of Saint Paul, their home in Inver Grove Heights is in the middle of some beautiful country- hills and trees everywhere. As we left a giant falcon flew down in front of us and ripped a rodent out of a tree. Just the kind of setting you would expect to find a good fiddler.

You can buy some of Dan's Irish CD's at this website.

Trip to the Minnesota State Fiddle Championships.

I went to Cotton, Minnesota for the 30th annual Minnesota State Fiddling championships this August. The first thing you notice about northern Minnesota is the large pine trees and the super clean air. The air is a surprise every time I am up there. For those of you who have never been to Cotton, the festival is held an an old school house and a community center. I went up there hoping to find a half dozen older Minnesota fiddlers, but was not surpised to hear the same mantra I have been hearing, "You should have been here 15 years ago, they've all died." The two who I could've interviewed, Gilmore Lee and Lee Cowan live close enough to me that I didn't have to go up to Cotton to interview.

It was a beautiful day until the moment we pulled into Cotton. We finally caught up to the storm we had been seeing for hours and it proceeded to rain for most of the weekend. It was fun to meet the great Lloyd Laplant from northern Minnesota. He is a fine instrument maker whose instruments have a following throughout the country. He said he would try to set me up with some Minnesota old-timers to record, but he admitted that most have passed.

It seemed to be a well run contest, but I was surprised by the utter lack of jams. I hear this is different than in the days of yore. I sat my chair out in front of the school the first night and decided to jam by myself. The contingent of Thunder Bay, Canada folks seemed to outnumber Minnesotans. A couple of those folks were dismayed by the lack of jamming, but never made it back over to jam with me that night. As the night went on we enjoyed the presence of two young folks who worked at a music store in Fargo, North Dakota. They explained how they travel with their wares to all these small festivals and never sell very much, but hope their name gets out there. They seemed to just like the road trip and a chance to drink and share stories with strangers.

I finally convinced some Thunder Bay folks to jam with me under their awning in the rain. We played for several good hours and the only time I got a little lost was during some fast Canadian two-steps. Jack Hill was a great guy to meet, and he placed in the Senior division. We talked about everything under the sun, and it was a pleasure to see him the next week at the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Association hundreds of miles away. He has the same issues with losing feeling in his fingers when playing as I do and had to start bowing with his other hand which is amazing to me.



The only thing that saved the weekend besides the great jam Saturday morning was meeting 84-year-old Chester Enger of Hixton, Wisconsin who has been a mainstay at the festival for many years. He played a great archaic version of Life In The Finnish Woods. Afterwords, I went up to talk to him, and he told me the same three stories at least four times in about 5 minutes. He could remember tunes quite well, though. I asked if I could record some tunes from him and he gave me the best answer- Why would he let me record his tunes when he could go home and record himself. I guess that settled that then and there!