To celebrate Lake Champlain’s Quadricentennial, the Vermont music collective Big Heavy World, the Vermont Folklife Center, and the Vermont Historical Society have produced a two-CD set that chronicles our region’s musical history.
The compilation is called Thrufters and Throughstones, named for the special stones that help anchor the rocks in New England stone walls. The name is meant to symbolize the continuity of music in Vermont.
This week, Vermont Edition is exploring some of the music included in the collection.
Today, we explore the tradition of fiddling in Vermont and hear the song "Growling Old Man and Grumbling Old Woman" performed by the youth ensemble, The Fiddleheads from their 2006 CD, Fiddleheads 2006.
The musicians include Matt Bean, fiddle; Roland Clark, fiddle; Hannah Crary, fiddle; Eliza Done, fiddle; Catherine Fortier, fiddle; Sarah King, fiddle; Amy Malinowski, fiddle; Ian Muneshwar, fiddle; Maria Naumann, fiddle; Torrey Webster, fiddle; Brittany Wieland, fiddle; Mark Sustic, fiddle.
Album Liner Notes:
"Growling Old Man and Grumbling Old Woman" is a traditional fiddle tune heard in many fiddling traditions from Ireland to Scotland to Cape Breton to Quebec to Vermont. It is a popular tune for dances, fiddle contests and music sessions with a long history dating back to at least the 19th century. The first half of the tune (played on the fiddle in the low register) sounds the man’s part and the second half (high register) is the lady’s. In 1973 legendary fiddler Louis Beaudoin from Burlington recorded it on his debut recording on Philo Records and Ron West recorded it on Smithsonian Folkways "Mademoiselle, Voulez-Vous Danser?"