These two British Columbia fiddle tunes are part of Canadian fiddler, Daniel Lapp's album "Reunion".

Tune stories:

"The Blue Ribbon Real is an original composition which I named for my youngest daughter, Mary, when she was 9 years old. On the night of the city track and field championships I was returning from England and, regrettably, missed seeing Mary do one of the things she loves most – running! When I talked to her the next day she humorously relived the moment for me. Apparently, as a strategy to pace herself through the 800m run she ‘sang’ herself around the track. Her descriptions and reenactments of the peculiar and bewildered looks that her competitors gave her as they ambitiously passed her during the first lap were as entertaining as the story itself. She paced herself well and as the others began to wither she kept right up with her ‘tune’ achieving victory and the coveted Blue Ribbon. She got a blue ribbon also in the 100m that day and I can only assume that she was singing a fast hoe-down for this race!

The second tune "The Clyde Wells Reel" was written by 82 year, BC Fiddle Champion many times over, Bob Montgomery. I met Bob and his wife Joyce when I was a young fiddler in Prince George, BC. In the late 60’s Prince George was home to many of western Canada’s greatest fiddlers and they started the first branch of the BC Old-Time Fiddlers Association which continues to promote this music. Bob is a big part of this movement and has inspired many musicians, young and old, with his generous nature, his tremendous style and original tunes. The couple still attend workshops and contests but have long since retired to Oyama in the beautiful Okanagan where they host numerous passers by and impromptu sessions down in Bob’s musical basement."

To listen to more of Daniel's music, check out his SoundCloud Account tracks here: https://soundcloud.com/daniellappmusic and his website here: https://daniellapp.com/

Reunion

Blue Ribbon Reel/Clyde Wells Reel

This tune was composed by Canadian fiddler, Trent Freeman as part of his series "Improvised Interactions With Moss".

Tune stories:

"Nuchatlitz came to be through a series of improvised concerts I performed in July 2020. These concerts took place in various groves of old forest, and had only a few people in attendance, but it was standing room only for the trees."

To listen to more of Trent's music, visit his website here:  https://www.trentfreeman.com/.  Follow him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/trentfreeman/

Trent also has a few other great projects he is working on: The Fretless https://www.thefretless.com/ and Speakerface https://www.speaker-face.com/.

Nuchatlitz

This tune was composed by US fiddler, Ben Walden. Ben currently lives in Astoria, Oregon but has spent time living in multiple cities in the Pacific Northwest of the United States including Seattle, Washington, and Moscow, Idaho. 

Tune stories:

"I wrote Bark Beetle when I was living in Humboldt County, playing a lot of folk music, and attempting to master the fiddle. The song is about the climate change-related pine bark beetle infestation that has killed millions of acres of forest in the Western US since 2005."

To listen to more of Ben's music, visit the following links: 

https://benwaldenmusic.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/68e7BKwD0aFzBu9cLT92xk

Photo by Tristan Fell

Spiral Highway

Bark Beetle

Tuli Porcher is a Canadian composer from Victoria, British Columbia.

Tune stories:
 "I wrote this tune "27/5" with guitar player Tom Gammons, who is also in the band, Inn Echo. The story behind it is over Christmas break, Tom was home in Butte, Montana, and I was still on Prince Edward Island. I asked him to give me some Gm chords so I could write a tune. On the 27th of December 2019, he sent me chords, and I absolutely loved them so on the 5th of January 2020, I wrote the melody and together we called it "27/5."

To learn more about Inn Echo, check out this link here: https://innechomusic.com/

Winter's End

27/5

Dante and Eros Faulk are a musical duo from Olympia, Washington.

Tune stories:
"This tune has taken many forms over the last year since Eros wrote it, but it didn’t totally feel right until we recently recorded this version at our home studio. It spent a long time without a name (naming tunes is one of our biggest weaknesses!) but when we came across the word “entropy,” it seemed to fit the general vibe of the tune. The word is defined as "lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.” We felt like this definition is illustrated through this arrangement of the tune, which continually gets bigger and more chaotic. "

For more of Dante & Eros's music please take a look at the below links:

Purchase our latest album: https://greenmonkeyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mirage

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danteanderosfaulk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dante_and_eros_faulk/?hl=en

Website: www.danteanderos.com

Entropy

Go outside, walk, and listen. This channel accompanies walking routes in nature. As participants go on a walk in a beautiful natural space, they are presented with guide posters linking them to the tunes on this page. The first listening route in this series was created in August 2020 to celebrate West Coast fiddle composers and create immersive sensory experiences for folks on their walks. If you are stumbling upon this channel and haven't seen the guide posters, please consider going on an unguided walk of your own and listening to each tune on our West Coast Listening Route (playlist).  Each tune was submitted by the composers, with permission to share them as part of these listening routes. 

Active Listening Route Locations:
Santa Cruz, California - Lighthouse Point Trail
                                                                                                                                     
Let us know how your experience was by sharing comments about your route!

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