While not every fiddle tune is a dancing tune, there is no denying the power of fiddle music to get people out of their seats and get them dancing.

Each night during the workshop portion of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, the halls of Fort Worden State Park here in Port Townsend begin to vibrate with the sound of people dancing in time to the music of Scotland, Quebec, Louisiana, and New England.

Here's a clip of a dance session from Monday night...(and don't forget, tickets are on sale for our Friday and Saturdat big shows--there will be dancing there too, I suspect!).

We have more videos from the week over on our community site. Check them out, and stay tuned here, or on Centrum's Twitter page @ptcentrum.

It's Monday at the 2009 Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, and here's a great jamming scene from the porch of Building 204 at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. If you're part of this fine bunch of participants, let us know in the comments!

If you like what you're hearing, then don't forget our Friday evening Cajun Dance, and Saturday afternoon and evening concerts in McCurdy Pavilion. Tickets are available 24/7 online or by calling 800-838-3006.

If you are part of the week, you can help share your experience with others by using the following tags on Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and the like:

Twitter:  #fiddletunes09
Flickr:  fiddletunes09
YouTube: fiddletunes09

We'll be showcasing members' contributions here on the main site, as well as on our community site - centrumfiddle.ning.com.

Enjoy!

This is from Devon Leger, a fiddler who will be teaching next week at Fiddle Tunes:

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Since 2003, I’ve been attending the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend.  It’s a week-long series of workshops and concerts that draws traditional musicians from all over the US and abroad.  The festival is known for its jamming scene, and informal music jams pop up everywhere on the grounds of Fort Worden.  These jam sessions are the primary way that many traditional musicians learn by ear.  Musicians pick up tunes and pass on tunes in these sessions and share laughs and jokes.

I’ve been recording these sessions ever since I first started attending, and collecting bootleg tapes of the sessions from years past.  I’ll share some share some of these tapes from the 2008 festival, which had some incredible jam sessions.  My tapes aren’t professional since I intended to use them for practicing and learning tunes.  But the recordings sound good and document master musicians in a relaxed atmosphere as they share music.  I’ll alternate field recordings of jam sessions from the festival with professional studio recordings of the same bands, so you can really hear how special these impromptu recordings are. 

Devon Leger

On Saturday, July 4, the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes welcomes you to two shows - an afternoon set at 1:30pm, and a pre-fireworks bash at 7:30pm. (If you also come to the Friday night Cajun dance, we will give you an amazing discount- the whole festival for just $33!)

Let's talk about the Saturday afternoon show: Fiddle Tunes From Across North America. If the weather is good (and it usually is!) we'll open the big balloon hangar doors at McCurdy Pavilion, which lets you enjoy the performances from your reserved seat inside, as well as on the lawn outside.

While the atmosphere is fun and relaxed, the music is truly top notch. Here's what you can expect:

• Patti and Joel Lamoureux – 3-time Canadian Grand Champion
  Patti was the first woman in the history of Canada to ever win the prestigious Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship.
  
• Kirk Sutphin and Riley Baugus – Old time music from North Carolina
  Kirk and Riley live on the same road in Surry County, North Carolina, and are the stewards of a two-hundred year tradition of Round Peak music.
  
• Jose Moreno and Jesus "Chuy" Castillo – Tex-Mex
  Don José, born in 1930, is one of the true interpreters of traditional Tejano music from the Texas-Mexico border.
• Greg and Jere Canote – Old time tunes and song
  With fiddle, banjo, ukuleles and genetically matched voices, Greg and Jere Canote bring back fun, vintage American music.
• Nightingale – Exceptional New England dance band
  Nightingale is a highly sought after New England dance and concert band. Jeremiah McLane - accordion, Keith Murphy - guitar, and Becky Tracy – fiddle.
• Special guest from the Orkney Islands

Purchase tickets online, or on the phone at 800-838-3006.

We've posted videos from many of this year's performers over on our Fiddle Tunes community site. Check it out. Here's a video of Patti Lamoureux to get you started...

Friday, July 3, at 7:30pm we're hosting a grand ole Cajun and Swing Dance outside McCurdy Pavilion here at Fort Worden. (We'll move it inside if it rains).

The evening will feature some of the finest Cajun musicians in America - Jesse Lege, Joel Savoy, and The Red Stick Ramblers - onstage, and YOU dancing on Littlefield Green. (Purchase tickets online.)

The Red Stick Ramblers first emerged from Baton Rouge around 1999. Even early on, their live shows were inspired and infectious, equal parts unbridled, ramshackle energy and thrilling musical precision. Up and down the Gulf Coast, the Red Stick Ramblers quickly earned a reputation as a thrilling band as appealing to elderly Cajuns as they were to college kids out for a good time. Four albums later, the Ramblers are nationally sought-after, and we're happy that they are choosing to spend the week with us.

We've had an unprecedented demand for Fiddle Tunes registration, so we reworked our facilities bookings at Fort Worden and have now reopened workshop registration. We have room for 40 more participants, so please move quickly if you'd like to come.

We apologize for any confusion that this might cause. If you need to talk to anyone, call Peter McCracken at 360-385-3102, x127.