Here’s a tune I recorded — in a slowed down, spacier version — on my solo album a while back. I learned Melina (sometimes called “Old Melinda”) from an old recording of Russell “Casey” Jones, a fiddler who regularly played live on KFNF, the radio station in Shenandoah, Iowa where jazz bassist Charlie Haden (Ornette…… Continue Reading

For years I refused to put a pick-up on my fiddle and would only use a microphone onstage. I was such a hardliner about this that I would turn down any gig where plugging in was required. Because let’s face it, the direct signal from a fiddle bridge pick-up sounds pretty bad. It takes a…… Continue Reading

Thanks to everyone who came to my fiddle workshop at Blue Ox this weekend! Just in case “Scotland” isn’t permanently engraved in your memory, here’s a link where you can download the sheet music. https://1drv.ms/b/s!AmDZi7PxHuQLguE6mtld0dOxwGaCJA?e=cg8Zy0 The sheet music includes a harmony part that we didn’t go over in the workshop (but you might’ve heard me…… Continue Reading

Over the last year or so, for obvious reasons, I started looking for solo repertoire for mandolin, fiddle and violin. Surprisingly, at least to me, I came up with a lot of arrangements that worked pretty darn well without accompaniment. (And I’ll be posting some of those here and on my Youtube channel in the…… Continue Reading

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Time to hunker in the bunker and get to work on that new fiddle (and mandolin) album. Here’s a demo of a tune I’m planning to include on that album. It’s called “Abigail Mitchell.” I named it after my favorite Columbo villain, played by Ruth Gordon.… Continue Reading

Over the last week or so, it’s become clear to me — as I’m sure it has to you — that the spread of the coronavirus is going to completely change how we live our lives in the coming weeks and months. And the way I teach students will be no exception. The more I…… Continue Reading

Looking forward to working with all the talented young pickers at Grass Seeds Academy on November 16! Anthony Ihrig and I will be leading a special one-day session, working with kids ages 8-18. They’ll form small groups, pick a band name, put together a set list and we’ll help them put it all together. And…… Continue Reading

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If the viola is the butt of jokes in the orchestra, in the bluegrass and old-time fiddling world it’s a non-entity! Although the viola has three strings in common with the violin and is played in almost exactly the same way, it seems to have never occurred to most bluegrass and old-timers that a fiddle…… Continue Reading

June is shaping up to be a big month for fiddle workshops and fiddle camps. On June 8 and 9, I’ll be teaching a two-day fiddle workshop at the International Music Camp’s  Fiddler’s Weekend, on the North Dakota-Manitoba border. This is a workshop I’ve been doing for years and it’s always a lot of fun.…… Continue Reading

Grass Seeds Academy is one of the many things I love about spring. Every year on the first weekend of March, The High 48s (my band) teach this weekend-long bluegrass (and old-time) workshop for kids at the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Association’s Winter Weekend festival. The focus  of this workshop is on group playing, whether…… Continue Reading

  The High 48s are back for a second season of winter Bluegrass Brunches at the Aster Cafe, every Saturday from 11AM-1PM for the months of January and February! There’s no cover and they even have a parking ramp with underground tunnel access to the venue- so bring your family and friends out of the cold and…… Continue Reading

I’ll be back at the Aster Cafe with The High 48s every Saturday from January to March, 11am-1pm, with The High 48s. Come on down!… Continue Reading

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be hosting a workshop by Don Stiernberg at my teaching studio here in Saint Paul on May 2nd. Don will be in town with Robbie Fulks for The High 48s‘ CD release show that evening. In addition to being a great bluegrass picker, Don Stiernberg is a world-class jazz…… Continue Reading

Just got back from Nashville where The High 48s were working on the new album. We tracked it with Grammy-winning dobro player/producer/engineer Randy Kohrs at Slack Key Studios. It was three ten-plus-hour days of tracking, sandwiched between two fourteen-hour days of driving. We’re all feeling a little ragged right now, but happy, because the album…… Continue Reading

Thanks to Bluegrass Today, the bluegrass blog of record, for the nice write-up on The High 48s’ forthcoming CD. http://bluegrasstoday.com/the-high-48s-ride-the-train/ For those of you who are tardy to the party, we’re working on a collection of train songs, new and old, originals and covers. The album will be called Great Northern Railroad (after the title track, which…… Continue Reading

This winter, The High 48s will be traveling down to Nashville to record and album of bluegrass train songs with Grammy-winning producer, engineer and dobro player Randy Kohrs. The album will be a collection of High 48s originals along with some choice cover songs from the likes of Greg Brown, Robin and Linda Williams, Muddy…… Continue Reading

On May 10, The High 48s, The Roe Family Singers and Becky Schlegel will celebrate Mother’s Day weekend with a triple bill at the O’Shaughnessy Education Center Auditorium on the campus of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. We’re looking forward to this one! It’s not often that we get a chance to play on a bill…… Continue Reading

I’ll be teaching a fiddle workshop for kids on February 18, 1pm, at the Tapestry Folkdance Center at 3748 Minnehaha Avenue South in Minneapolis. The workshop is being organized by the Young Fiddlers Association, who put on a lot of great events for fiddlers between the ages of 8 and 18. Visit www.youngfiddlers.com for more info or…… Continue Reading

On February 9, I’ll be teaching a clinic for classically trained violinists who are learning (or are interested in learning) how to play fiddle. As a classically trained violinist/bluegrass fiddler, this is a topic near and dear to me. I’ll be giving lots of practical pointers on making the transition from classical music to fiddling…… Continue Reading

Tonight The High 48s went to Underwood Recording Studios in Minneapolis to record one more track for our soon-to-be-released album. For this song, we chose to abandon our usual method of working, which is recording over a click track (a metronome, basically) with each instrument isolated in its own room, on its own track, using headphones and…… Continue Reading

Anthony and I just booked a holiday show at the Three Crows Cafe in Delano, MN, on December 8 at 7:30pm. Although we only play a few duo shows a year, they’re some of our favorite gigs to play. These shows are always super spontaneous and super high energy (that’s just what happens when you…… Continue Reading

I had a blast teaching the fiddle workshop at the Lakes Bluegrass Festival in Pine River, MN last weekend. If you were in the workshop, thanks again for coming out — it was fun to work with you all! If you need a refresher on the tune we played, I’ve posted a recording below. Workshopee…… Continue Reading

Super psyched to be playing Red House Records’ Barnfest with the 48s down in Red Wing, MN on August 4, not only because it’s always fun to be the only bluegrass band at a non-bluegrass festival — we like to feel special! — but because we’ll be sharing the stage with some of our faves. Guitar…… Continue Reading

When: Friday, May 11 at 7:30pm Where: Dreamland Arts, 677 Hamline Avenue North, Saint Paul Tickets: $15, available at http://www.dreamlandarts.com/shows/detail.php?eventId=199 Info: Click here for directions and contact info Come on down to Dreamland Arts in Saint Paul to celebrate the release of In the Quiet Night: Fiddle Tunes from the Upper Midwest. After many years spent listening hard…… Continue Reading

MPR just aired a great (and long!) piece by Chris Roberts about The Minor Planets and our new album Shadow in the Water (download the first track of the album and hear it here). The piece is also available to stream here, on the Minnesota Public Radio website.  … Continue Reading

Our new CD dropped just about two weeks ago and now the reviews are starting to come in… Like a lot of our fellow musicians, Dana and I can be a little sensitive to criticism (there, we said it), so reading reviews tends to give us that standing-on-the-high-dive feeling. But this time, we’re pleased  to announce,…… Continue Reading

The Minor Planets is one of the many irons I have in the fire right now. It’s my countrypolitan collaboration with the amazing singer/songwriter Dana Thompson. We have a new CD coming out in January (and a CD release show scheduled — see the calendar page for the particulars), but in the meantime, we thought…… Continue Reading

Just got back from the Bluegrass in the Pines Festival in Rosholt, WI (near Stevens Point), and I’m physically exhausted but spiritually recharged. Outstanding picking (both onstage and off), good people and an almost magical vibe. Really. I love, love, love this festival. If you’re thinking about going to a bluegrass festival next summer, put…… Continue Reading

  Kenny Baker, longtime fiddler for Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, died of a stroke last week in Tennessee at the age of 85. Kenny’s passing didn’t make headline news [although the “newspaper of record” did finally publish an obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/arts/music/kenny-baker-bluegrass-fiddler-dies-at-85.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries] , and unless you were reading a bluegrass blog or heard it through the bluegrass…… Continue Reading

Getting a fiddle to sound natural and warm through a microphone is a problem that just about every fiddle player I know struggles with. So if you’re frustrated by the sound you’ve been getting either in the studio, know this: it’s not just you. Over the years, through (often painful) trial and error, I’ve a…… Continue Reading

Just found out that I’ve been awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant. So excited! This will help fund an all-instrumental CD I have in the works. For this one, I’ll be performing/arranging a collection of tunes from Upper Midwestern fiddlers across genres/traditions. I’m still collecting tunes, so if you have any suggestions, send ‘em…… Continue Reading

The High 48s have just released their third CD. It’s called Up North, and it features eight High 48s originals, two bluegrass classics and a song we picked up from the Irish band The Pogues, as well as some smokin’ guest appearances from Mike Compton on mandolin (www.mikecompton.net/ ) and Randy Kohrs on dobro (www.randykohrs.com).…… Continue Reading