"12 more times!"

Here's a short clip from the fourth annual Fiddle Hell (that's really what it's called!), a free gathering put on by fiddler Dave Reiner in Westford, Mass a few weekends ago. You may ask, "why do they call it that?" Well, if I had stayed for more than a few hours, I think I would have had a better sense of it: just fiddlers, lots of rooms going simultaneously...that's a lot of E strings! But it was great for the time I was there. Dave Reiner led a really thoughtful, descriptive workshop on back-up playing, and when I first walked in, David Kaynor was leading everyone in Soldier's Joy, as you hear in this video. The only reason he's shouting "3 more times" instead of "12 more times" at this moment is that he only has 3 minutes left of workshop time! David has been one of my fiddle mentors since I met him in 2002 and I've realized that a lot of what I love about fiddling comes from his attitude: fiddlers of any experience level can have fun (if they allow themselves to) by playing the same old tune at least 12 more times together over the course of many years.