Emcee Tex Ash, fiddler-wrangler Frank Eisenhauer and emcee Jack Link (L-R) stage-side, Weiser 2005.  Retired in 2006 after 43 years, fiddle week now finds Jack phoning in the one-liners from Seattle, WA.  Luv ya, Jack!

Documentary Film Update

Welcome to the Weiser Films Newsletter, Issue Number I, the 'Inaugural Edition'.  Celebrating one year on the web!  Tell your friends about us!

Work continues on the documentary film we're making about fiddle music and the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest® in Weiser, Idaho.

Just a little more filming to do this year.  If you see us, say 'hello'.  After the contest, we continue to prep for editing.  Updates in future Newsletters.

Pictured above, several of our favorite fiddle characters:  National Champion fiddler and music historian Vivian Williams, Old Timey-style musicians Tom and Katie Bonn, and guitarist/vocalist, bandleader and owner of the very cool guitar website, archtop.com, Joe Vinikow.

The National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest® is at the center of the documentary film we have been working on for the last three years.  Weiser is for many people, and for us, a wonderful opportunity to see friends, play music and enjoy life.  But, Weiser isn't the only fiddle contest out there! 

Two Fiddle Contests and one Jamboree, about which we have heard lots of good things:

• Grand Lake National Fiddle Fest, Grove, OK, June 7-9, 2007
• High Desert Fiddlers Country Music Jamboree, Burns, OR, June 14-16, 2007
• Fiddlin' On The Falls, Idaho Falls, ID, June 15-16, 2007

The two fiddle contests feature tough competition.  We hear they are great warm-ups on the road to Weiser and the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest®.  One of our favorite fiddlers, Ruel Teague (catch his rare harmonica style on the Player Of The Month page), tells us there's quite the good time to be had at the Burns, OR Jamboree.

Check out the Weiser Links page on www.weiserfilms.com for a growing list of links to these and many other fiddle contests, fiddler conventions and fiddle festivals around the US and Canada and around the world.

By the way, Weiser Films Fiddle T-Shirts will not be sold at this year's fiddle contest.  Order before June 10 to be sure you get yours in time.

New fiddle downloads from Tony Ludiker, 5-time Grand National Champion, including a breakdown, waltz and 'tune of choice' (in other words, the makings of a 'contest round':

Click:  Apple Blossoms    Lake Ponchartrain Waltz    Maynard's Rag

Since 2006, Tony has been playing with The Flying W Wranglers at a 'working mountain cattle ranch' outside Colorado Springs, CO.  Tony reports the Flying W's are the second-oldest western-style singing group, next to the Sons of the Pioneers.

Fiddlers and other musicians generally agree the best way to learn tunes and improve upon them is to play with other musicians.  Without taking a position on whether it's better to learn 'by ear' or 'by eye', we want to tell you about the following sources for fiddle transcriptions on the web.

Beginning with the newest, Utah fiddler Nate Olson has just finished his new book, 'Championship Contest Fiddling', which features 45 of Nate’s transcriptions of 15 contest rounds of the Grand National Division at the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest.  Nate's book and accompanying CD will be available for purchase at Weiser.

Five time Grand National Champion Tony Ludiker recently opened 'The Fiddle Tune Store', where his individual fiddle tune arrangements and transcriptions, and in some cases original compositions, are downloadable in PDF format for the sheet music and as MP3 files for the recordings.

Not to be overlooked are Pete Martin's several books of transcriptions including 'Texas Style Fiddle Transcriptions, Volumes 1 and 2', and 'Benny Thomasson Fiddle Transcriptions', and several other books on fiddle and mandolin transcriptions.

Last and most prolifically, Stacy Phillips has produced a number of fiddle books and transcriptions including 'Mark O'Connor - The Championship Years', among many, many others.

Whether you tackle none or all is up to you.  We'll see you at the fiddle contest!

New Orleanians and Irishmen alike are famed for celebrating the lives of departed friends.  It's not a bad tradition.  In that spirit, we would like to celebrate and commemorate the lives of four people who have left us entirely too soon, but who haven't left the 'family' of Weiser at all.

Tom Taylor (Jun '05) and wife Ruth lived across from Weiser HS and welcomed fiddlers and musicians onto their property and into their home for decades.  Ruth and Tom's son, Bill, are doing a fine job carrying on the tradition of fiddle week hospitality at 'the Taylors''.

Leroy 'Jinx' Davis (Nov '06), a founder of the Weiser Friends Of Fiddle and organizer of many of the Stickerville workshops, was one heck of a hard worker and all around inspiration when he came to Weiser 'to camp in the dirt' on his 'vacation'.

Keith 'Cherokee' Jones (Dec '06), a colorful founding member of a group of Weiserites known as the 'Vigilantes', who promoted Idaho's 1963 Territorial Centennial celebration and the town's relatively new annual fiddle contest, generally roamed the campground and warm-up room together with wife Pat, charming kids and seniors alike with his own brand of 'stoic' humor.

Vic Barter (May '07) and wife June, frequent front row attendees at the fiddle contest over the years, figured as 'the couple who came all the way from South Africa' in the stories many of us tell about Weiser and the people we've met there.  'June and Vic' traveled halfway around the world to come to Weiser, inspiring many of us with their grace and good humor along the way.

It was an honor to shake the hand of each of these men.  And a joy to laugh and hear and tell stories with them.  Raise a toast and a tune to each during Weiser.  They would never ask for that, but we all know they would love it.

Check out new links on www.weiserfilms.com:

Let us know if there's an oldtime fiddle contest or festival coming up, a fiddle association, or something or someone with a website related to oldtime fiddle music which we ought to include on our Weiser Links page at www.weiserfilms.com.

The FREE Weiser Films Fiddle T-Shirt drawing winner is Siegfried Vogt of Potlatch, Idaho.  Sieg was chosen at random among everyone who has joined the e-mail list or registered on www.weiserfilms.com.

Harmonica player, accordionist and attendee at Weiser for 35 of the last 36 years, the soon to be stylin' Sieg was somewhat startled to have won something.  We're glad he joined the e-mail list!  Enjoy the new Fiddle T-Shirt, Sieg!

Head to www.weiserfilms.com to join the e-mail list, register on the site or make a purchase to automatically enter the next FREE Weiser Films Fiddle T-Shirt drawing.  Winner announced in this space.

Welcome to the Weiser Films Newsletter, Issue Number I, the 'Inaugural Edition'.  Celebrating one year on the web and continuing to grow.  We'll provide in our second year more content with more frequent updates and posts to the Weiser Blog.

We urge you to tell your friends about us if you find our site worthwhile.  We aim to grow the audience for fiddle music and our eventual film.  Please help get the word out about fiddle music, www.weiserfilms.com and the documentary film we are making about fiddle music and Weiser.  Word of mouth from one friend to another is the best advertisement.

All editions of the Weiser Films Newsletter are archived on the Newsletter page of www.weiserfilms.com.

Thank you for your interest and support.  We will keep you up to date in future Newsletters, Weiser Blog posts, on the Home page and elsewhere on www.weiserfilms.com.