The Atlanta Pipe Band is particularly important to me, as I played fiddle as part of their most recent annual fund raising concert. You want to hear what a pipe band should sound like, see their recent win at the Loch Norman Highland Games.
Hoppin' John could not have been more different than the big established festivals. We had more fun at Hoppin' John than any of the festivals we went to this year (Note: anticipate having just as much fun at the upcoming Stone Mountain Scottish Highland Games).
The Hoppin' John convention was pretty small (hundreds rather than thousands of attendees). It took place at Shakori Hills in Silk Hope, NC. Shakori Hills is a sort of land trust (about 70 acres) as far as we understand, staffed by volunteers and funded by the likes of really cool bands like Donna the Buffalo. The 'vibe' of this festival was "5-star". We met the nicest people and the best Old-Time musicians we have ever had the pleasure to meet, hear and jam with. We particularly enjoyed the Civil War re-enactor fiddlers and banjo players and the "neo-jam-cajonish" contingent, who seemed to never sleep :-)
In addition to the competitions, which included a category for Alternative (e.g. "Jam-grass", jug band, skiffle, etc.), there were jam sessions going on all night as well as organized square and contra-dancing that went on at least until midnight.
We made several key contacts, including a potential Master Luthier for Rickert & Ringholz Musical Instruments and a guitar restoration firm to help us keep up with varnishing new instruments. We did not take too many photos, but we do have lots of great sound samples with permission to post them. We will be doing so soon.
Worthy of mention is that we saw and heard for the first time one of the bowed dulcimers of Ken Bloom, which we hope to carry in our online store in the near future.
Earlier we posted some photos of the Rickert & Ringholz tent at Galax, but we never wrote a review. Here is a brief review:
We're interested in other folks' review of Galax 2007, so feel free to comment.
Here are some pictures, accompanied by some fine fiddling on one of our antique-style cigar-box fiddles (who says that a cigar box fiddle has to sound horrible).
There are photos from...
We managed to get a vendor's booth at the 72nd Annual Old Fiddlers' Convention in Galax, VA. This is the oldest and largest true Old Time fiddlers' convention in the world. We will, of course, be selling various Rickert & Ringholz musical instruments, including our new Travel Violins and Cigar Box Fiddles. We will also be selling regular fiddles and octave fiddles, strings, etc.
Here's the big deal! We will be offering free on-the-spot repair services and loaner fiddles (when they can't be fixed on the spot) to all competitors.
Don may be competing in both the old time style fiddle and dulcimer competitions...still on the fence.
We sent some of our team members to Bonnaroo this year to check out interest in Rickert & Ringholz Musical Instruments among the various attendee niches. Their instructions were to seek out jam sessions and engage the musicians in information sharing discussion, epecially fiddlers, and to get photos with permission if possible.
We have not gotten a full report as of yet except that none of our crew was arrested and all made it home alive. They were a bit elusive re: pictures...we'll see in a day or two when they recover from all the hard work I am sure that they did :-)
