It is standing room only in the warren of rooms at Lasley & Russ Violins in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. A significant portion of the old time music community seems to have showed up for the party. It is the book release party for Roses in Winter, for which I photographed 12 old-time fiddlers whose bios and tune transcriptions are the content for this project. Robin sidles up to one of the old guys in the room. "I lived with you for two weeks," she says, to his great befuddlement. "In my kitchen. Your photos were on the wall. I’m married to the photographer." At that moment Brìd Nowlan, the author of the book, walks by with a camera and flash around her neck. "You mean her?" the old man responds.
The music was, of course, wonderful. These are people, guys mostly, who have been fiddling for some 60 or 70 years or more. Their playing is a window into kitchen sessions and old time square dances from the middle of the last century, and their individual styles are what is documented in the project. I visited with each of these musicians at their homes last spring to produce the photographs that hang on these walls now. They are 20x24 prints that, as a group, I’m quite proud of.
A little girl prances to her own beat as Carthy Sisco and Stuart Williams play. The tune switches to a waltz, and I embrace the child in ballroom position and exaggerate a waltz step for her to follow. She obeys for about a minute and a half, then has to resume her own dance to the music, by herself.
The show continues at Lasley & Russ (2406 NW Market, Seattle) through March 10. I will have another show at their shop for the subsequent month, of the music and dance of Ireland.
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