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Randy Miller Randy's musical style is influenced by the fiddling of Paddy Cronin, Sean McGuire, Simon St. Pierre, and Jerry Holland, all of whom he has been fortunate to visit with and hear in person. These great players inspired him to learn the fiddle while acquiring his own style of bowing and ornamentation. Combining sounds from his adopted state of New Hampshire with Irish and Cape Breton Celtic styles, Randy plays "New Hamptic." An avid dancer steeped in the robust, pulsating contra style of the Monadnock region, Randy phrases the melody with a dancer's sensibility. He has performed throughout the U.S. and abroad at numerous venues including the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Star Hampshire Dance Weekend, Gypsy Moon Ball, Lady of the Lake, and the Shetland Folk Festival. In addition to private lessons, Randy leads workshops in New England fiddling and has been designated a Master Teacher of Contra Dance Music by the N.H. State Council on the Arts. Randy also collects and publishes fiddle tunes under the imprint, Fiddlecase Books. His latest CD, released in '05, is The Fiddler's Throne with Tom Hodgson and David Loney. |
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Tom Hodgson A native New Englander now residing in Cayuga, New York, Tom plays with high energy and compelling rhythm, while his choice of open guitar tunings and mastery of chordal improvisation bring a trademark sound and color to contra dance music. Tom credits his involvement in traditional music to David Kaynor who, in the late 1970s, welcomed him as a sit-in at the Kaynor family band's regular contra dance in Amherst, Massachusetts. He also cites his good fortune to have lived within the exciting music and dance communities of northern Vermont, the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, and the Twin Cities of Minnesota. In 1985, Tom first teamed with Randy on a tour of Europe with the Green Mountain Volunteers, a Vermont-based contra dance performance group. Soon after, Tom joined Kerry Elkin and Gordon Peery to form the innovative ensemble, Fresh Fish. In subsequent years, Tom has accompanied many of the leading fiddlers in traditional music, including Martin Hays, Donna Hebert, Laurie Hart, and George Wilson. In addition to his work with Celticladda, Tom is a member of Northern Routes, of Vermont, and the Ithaca-based band, The Contradictions. |
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Eric Anderson Eric says he does only one thing well - playing piano for contra dances, a subject on which he has become increasingly opinionated. From beginnings in a friendly Sunday afternoon jam band in North Carolina, through Cathie Whitesides' marvelous dance music workshops in Seattle and study under Terry Wergeland of Singularity, he's danced and played in dozens of small community halls across the Pacific Northwest, from Bozeman and Boise and Friday Harbor, Washington, to Reno and Monterey and Vancouver, B.C. You'll find him each May in the Roadhouse, the big dance hall at Seattle's Northwest Folklife Festival. When he's not dancing, he also plays with Alan Roberts and Sande Gillette of Seattle, with Lee Anne Welch of Saratoga, California, as Bandemonium!, and with Caroline McCaskey and her band, The Fiddlerats. Having teamed up with Randy and Celticladda, Eric's powerfully sympathetic piano playing can now be heard in Eastern parts. |
updated December 31, 2006