April Verch Concert and Canadian Fiddle Workshop

Posted by Jenny

After hammering away together for two solid weeks on a multimedia project, David and I knew we wanted to do a little something extra special for our nice, long, 3-day weekend as a way to reward all the extra effort we exerted. I checked around online, especially with Our State magazine and discovered that the April Verch Band would be in Oriental, NC on Saturday the 15^th. We put that on our list of ideas, thinking it could include a stopover in New Bern.

Then, on my way to Suzuki class, I saw a beautiful, lush green poster that caught my eye on a bulletin board in the music building. Lo and behold, April and her band were scheduled to play at the Turnage Theatre in Washington on Friday night, which made it convenient for us to go there after we got off of work; And, to make things even more special, they advertised that she would be presenting a Canadian fiddle workshop the next morning. Right then I knew what our plans for the weekend would entail and I ordered tickets as soon as I had the chance.

It was a great show, and we both highly recommend that you see them if you ever have the opportunity. April is a super nice person with a sugary sweet voice and she’s very enthusiastic about sharing her music, dancing, and culture; she’s a fantastic fiddler, and the guys playing with her, Cody Walters on bass and Clay Ross on guitar, are awesome, too.

The guitarist brought out a curious percussion instrument- a set of kosikas- which look like two egg shakers connected by a rope. I think some of the folks in the audience weren’t quite sure what to think of those- but I think they were quickly won over by his skill and intricate rhythms. Even David had never seen those before and he’s seen some really strange instruments given his Latin percussion background. Needless to say he’s got a new item on his wish list.

Here’s a brief clip of April’s Ottawa Valley Step Dancing combined with Clay’s kosikas set to Cody’s claw-hammer banjo.

After the show we got autographs on our poster as well as the CD and songbook we bought and headed out on our long journey home. Our late night was followed by an early morning so we could get back to Washington on time for the fiddle workshop. I wondered how many people would attend since I don’t always see a lot of fiddlers around at jams, but there actually were several fiddlers and violinists there of various skill levels.

During the first part of the workshop, April talked a bit about the regional styles of Canadian fiddling. Having been introduced to Natalie MacMaster’s music by David’s uncle Duane, I was pretty familiar with the Cape Breton style (which sounds much like Scottish music because the area was settled primarily by Scottish immigrants) but I knew nothing of French-Canadian or Métis style fiddling. And, interestingly enough, the Old Time music of Canada is not quite as old as the American Old Time music. It was all really quite interesting. I found an article in The Canadian Encyclopedia which explains a bit about Canadian regional fiddle styles if you’re interested in further reading. (I’m not going to spoil it for anyone else who wants to go to one of her workshops).

After that, she taught us all a tune called Jonah’s First Change. I learned that in dancing, the first change (or set of steps) is always a jig, so the tune could also be called Jonah’s Jig. I really enjoyed the workshop because I learned a bit of history, I learned a new tune, and April was a very kind, positive, and knowledgeable person to learn from. I highly recommend it to anyone else interested in fiddling!