This is a great week for me as a couple of my projects come into being after a lot of work and planning. (It happens to be during the last week of classes, so things are very busy, but it is all worth it.)




 This Friday the compilation album I have been working on will be released. The cd is called Traditional Music of Texas, Volume 1: Fiddle Recordings from the Texas Folklife Archives, and it features 14 tracks from legendary Texas swing fiddler Johnny Gimble, Texas breakdowns and contest style fiddling by Ricky Turpin and Valerie Ryals, Texas-Polish fiddling by Brian Marshall, Texas-Mexican fiddle music of the Rio Grande Valley by Jose Moreno, and down home Texas style fiddling by Bill Gilbert and Mike Henderson. It is all great stuff. The Jose Moreno tunes are the most interesting to me, but the whole thing is fantastic.

 It sounds great, too. This project has been whipped into being in record time by a lot of work from me and Charlie Lockwood at Texas Folklife, so I am really happy to see it actually coming into being.

Go to the Texas Folklife webpage and you can hear Ricky Turpin playing "Sally Johnson" from the album.

And you can order a copy for everyone one your holiday list...

On Friday you'll be able to buy it as MP3s on CDBaby and elsewhere, as well.

This Friday will be the release party for the cd in Austin at the Texas Folklife offices, along with a retrospective view of 30 years of fiddle programming from Texas Folklife.  I will talk a bit, and there will be a jam too. More info about the night and the music available here.

Then, most exciting of all, the Festival of Texas Fiddling is coming up this Saturday, which I am really looking forward to.

Texas Highways magazine just put up a great article about the festival, available here.

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