Welcome!

I  play traditional dance music of North America and Europe, especially Québec, Scandinavia, Ireland, France and the contradance music of Northeastern USA.  My instruments are fiddle, Norwegian Hardanger fiddle (hardingfele) and Swedish keyed-fiddle (nyckelharpa).  Click on the orange arrow below for short previews of 4 tracks from my two newest Scandinavian albums and 3 tracks from my earlier albums.

Scandinavian & Québec tunebook news: 

My 400-page Scandinavian tunebook Give a Coin to the Fiddler  came out in October 2024. It is geared toward fiddlers and players of nyckelharpa, Hardanger fiddle and other instruments, as well as to dancers and Scandophiles.  The book has all 140 tunes with the harmonies/chords from my five-volume Scandinavian Fiddle Tradition album series. I released albums 4 & 5 in 2023, completing the box set.  I recorded the albums in Ithaca over several years and in Sweden in 2015 (the link takes you to my photo diary of that trip). The tunebook has extensive background and stylistic information to help you learn to play these varied and beautiful tunes, which range from easy to challenging. It has a glossary, 13 maps and 350 photos as well. You can order your copy of Give a Coin to the Fiddler (the title of the first tune in the book) as a spiral-bound printed book or as a PDF eBook.

My 2001 Québec tunebook Danse ce soir!  with my co-author Greg Sandell is now available on this site as a print book (now finally spiral-bound!), and also via Melbay.com as an eBook. The book is 190 pages and includes 122 fiddle & accordion tunes, both traditional and composed, as well as stylistic information and background on the tunes and musicians who play/played them. The accompanying album is Danse ce soir! where Greg & I play 30 tunes from the book with Québec musicians Paul Marchand and Stéphane Landry. There are also a few tracks on my albums Gravity Hill and Cobbler's Dream, which include tunes from the book Danse ce soir!

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    Pols fra Innherred (Trøndelag) 2:26
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    Gjendines bånlåt (Oppland, Norway) 3:17
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    Harpar-Klas, gånglåt (Uppland, Sweden) 2:40
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    Sølve-Knut, springar (Hallingdal) 3:01
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    College Groves / Boil the Breakfast Early 3:03
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    Indifférence 3:12
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    Reel des poilus / Reel du pendu 3:51
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Lesson & Jamming News

You can study fiddle with me in many styles, as well as Norwegian hardingfele or Swedish nyckelharpa, in private lessons—either at my house in Ithaca, New York, or online from anywhere.  I love to teach at all experience levels, adults and kids age 10 and up.  I run two biweekly group sessions, an in person Northern tunes jam that focusses on Shetland, Québec, Cape Breton & Scandinavian fiddle tunes, and an online Norwegian music club for hardingfele players. There is a lot of material here on my site that is only available to my students & jam participants.  Contact me if you are interested in lessons.

Discover new music, read, watch & learn

You can watch videos, listen to tracks, read about fiddle music, and buy books, CDs, and downloads from my 10 albums on this extensive website.  I welcome you to spend some time poking around (sitemap below).