Draggin' The Bow CD with Charlie Walden & John Stewart

All 31 tracks from my Draggin' The Bow CD. 


 Recorded in 1985. Download this track and the entire album from:

https://charliewaldenmusic.bandcamp.com/


When I was coming up as a fiddler in Central Missouri the older gentlemen I learned from played a wide variety of music. In addition to the standard hoe-downs and waltes, I heard lots of great rags, swing numbers, schottisches and 6/8 tunes. John and I have attempted to put together a program on this recording that includes some of that "other" music. 

One of the exponents of these other types of tunes was a fine player from Jefferson City named Jimmy Gilmore. We enjoyed hanging out with Jimmy because you never knew what he was going to play (or say) next. He was one of the few old-time fiddlers I ever met who would admit to being able to read music and was equally comfortable playing Sweet Georgia Brown as he was The Grey Eagle. Jimmy had a vibrato on waltzes you could drive a Mack truck though and a great sense of humor to boot.. This recording is dedicated to Jimmy Gilmore. --- Charlie Walden 


Thanks to my long-time musical collaborator John Stewart for providing the up-town and hillbilly guitar work on this recording.

Prairie Hill Contra Dance with Patt & Possum - March 3, 2016

Highlights from the Prairie Hill Contra dance at Pewaukee, Wisconsin, on March 3, 2016. Music by Charlie Walden - fiddle & Patt Plunkett - piano with Roger Diggle calling.

April 2016 Childgrove Contra Dance

Highlights of the April 10, 2016, Childgrove Contra Dance with Charlie Walden on fiddle and Patt Plunkett on piano. Ted Steels calling the figures.

1997 - Charlie Walden Raw Fiddle Cuts

Clips from a videotape I made for a friend in the late 90s. Just some old-time reels and hoe-downs.

1997 Bethel Fiddle Youth Fiddle Camp and Contest

Highlights of the annual Bethel Youth Fiddle Camp held in June each year in Bethel, Shelby County, MO.

Valentine's Day Dance 2015 with Patt & Possum

Here's a little excerpt from the Valentine's Day Dance 2015 at Fizz in Chicago. The event was the brainchild of Old Lazarus Harp - Folk Collective.

University of Chicago Folk Festival 2015 with Patt & Possum

From the Sunday afternoon square dance at the 55th Annual University of Chicago Folk Festival. February 15, 2015. Music by Charlie Walden - fiddle & Patt Plunkett - piano (aka Patt & Possum) with calling by Bill Sudkamp. Here renditions of Buck Fever Rag, Lucky Trapper, Jimmy Walker Two-Step and Forked Deer. PnP are joined on Forked Deer by a whole gaggle on fine Midwestern fiddlers - Genevieve Koester, Cliff Harrison, Megan Greene and the inimitable Chirps Smith.

Patt & Possum St. Charles House Concert

From a house concert in St. Charles, MO, on January 26, 2014.  Patt  Plunkett - piano and Charlie Walden - fiddle.

Pittsburgh Contra Dance 2014

Patt and Possum at the Pittsburgh Contra Dance on August 22, 2014.  What a great time we had.  Hotter than heck, but an energetic bunch of dancers and great calling by Cindy Harris!  Thanks Pittsburgh!

Dwight Lamb at Bethel Fiddle Camp 2014

Set of Danish accordion tunes played by Dwight Lamb at the Bethel Youth Fiddle Camp in 2014.  He is joined by fiddlers Liz Amos and Bill Peterson and Patt Plunkett on keyboard.

Danish-American Dance Party in Viborg, SD with Dwight Lamb

Program of Danish traditional music presented at Viborg, SD, on May 17, 2014, at the Danish Brotherhood Society's hall.  The occasion was Dwight Lamb's 80th birthday.  With Dwight Lamb and Mette Jensen on accordions & Kristian Bugge on fiddle. Many of these are "lost" tunes that Dwight had learned from his grandfather Chris Jerrup and which were no longer played in Denmark until revived by Jensen and Bugge.  

Clifftop 2012 Video Clips

Clips from Clifftop 2012 - Appalachian String Band Festival held each summer at the George Washington Carver Park near Fredericktown, WV.

St. Louis Folk School Square Dance 24-Jan-2014

Monthly square dance at the KDHX Folk School in St. Louis, MIssouri. Patt Plunkett calling. The band is Cuzzin Curt Buckhannon on mandolin, Emily Buckhannon on piano, Dennis Buckhannon on guitar and Charlie Walden on fiddle.

September 2013 Child Grove Dance - Charlie Walden with the Buckhannon Clan

Child Grove Country Dancers Sunday night contra dance.  September 29, 2013 in St. Louis, MO.  Patt Plunkett calling. The band is Cuzzin Curt Buckhannon on mandolin, Emily Buckhannon on piano, Dennis Buckhannon on guitar and Charlie Walden on fiddle.

Jam Session and Square Dance at Wien, MO. - 1994

Videotape from a Jam Session and Square Dance held at Wien (Chariton County in north central Missouri) in 1994. The event was sponsored by the Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers Association. Musicians present include Pete McMahan (Harrisburg), John Williams (Madisn), Kenny Applebee (Rush Hill), John White (Hallsville), Musial Wolfe (Boonville), John Stark (Carrollton), Howard Marshall (Fulton), Virgil Smith (Montgomery City) and Charlie Walden (Evanston, IL).

Charlie Walden Birthday Bash - THE MAIN EVENT

Video of the entire stream from my birthday bash on January 14, 2017.

Charlie Walden's Fiddlin' Tip #1

Tip #1:  Practice Effectively

Someone once asked a fiddler standing on a street corner in Nashville, "How do you get to the Grand Old Opry."  To which the fiddler replied, "Practice son. Practice."  How right that fiddler was!  No amount of theorizin', analyzin' or other such activity will get you where you want to be.  But deliberate, regular and well-planned practice will improve your playing no matter what your level.

I envision good practice having three components.  The first of these is passive and active listening.  Passive listening means hearing good recorded fiddle music all through the day.  This means putting on a fiddle tape or CD while you're eating breakfast, driving to work, making dinner, etc. 

Active listening is critical and deliberate listening to recordings a fiddler of your choice.   Listen to rhythm, bowing, melodic passages, chords.  Try to soak it all in.  Pay attention as if it were Monday Night Football, The Man Show or some other such engrossing TV programming.

The second component is to practice specific techniques that improve your left-hand and your right-hand. 

The third component is tunes.  You can learn these by ear or off the page or some combination.  Work on some easy stuff for personal encouragement and for a challenge always be working on something that is over your head.

In order to plan your practice use my Old Fiddlers Practice Log.  Print out a copy each week from the link or download it in PDF format and keep it handy.  Fill one out each week to plan your daily practice and then stick to it.

How To Play For A Square Dance

With square dance mania sweeping America like the swine flu (no, really, it is), more tyros are getting involved in playing music for these crazy kids. 


There are particular considerations when playing for a square dance that even an accomplished player may not realize. Following a few simple tips presented here will make your square dance playing more successful --- that is, the dancers will have more fun. By the way, the comments below apply particularly to Southern, Western and Midwestern-style square. For New England squares tunes suitable for a contra dance will work fine. Of course, these are generalizations for the less experienced player. If what you're doing now works by all means stick with it.

Let's talk about what makes for a good square dance tune. Watch this little video of the late, great, Bob Holt from Ava in the Missouri Ozarks. Bob spent most of his musical life with his fiddle tucked under his chin while playing for square dancers.

So what makes a good tune for a square dance? Well, it needs to be rhythmic, as Bob describes above, and have forward momentum. The tune should lead the beat as if the speed is increasing -- but it's not. The festival back-beat groove, while great fun in the campground trance jam, doesn't work so well on the dance floor.

It should have readily discernible A and B parts - either high and low (or fine & coarse as the old-timers used to say) or have significant and recognizable melodic differences. Stay away from crooked, navel-contemplating, droning, whippoorwill-in-the-forest type tunes and stick with the standards that have 8 bars per part so you end up with a total of 32 bars when the tune is played through one time. 

You can't go wrong with the Tommy Jackson repertoire. 

Tried and true square dance tunes are: Liberty, Sally Goodin, Mississippi Sawyer, Wagner, Ragtime Annie, Polk County Breakdown, Soldier's Joy and Arkansas Traveler. 

Be aware of the key of the tune. A seasoned caller will use patter calling - a rhythmic monotone set to the key of the tune. When in doubt ask the caller what key they like best. And remember that men v. women callers may prefer a different key. Finally, because of this patter avoid tunes that change keys between the A & B parts as this will disrupt the caller's flow.

As for tempo this can vary from region to region. I've seen dancers in the Ozarks cruise along at 140 beats per minute with ease - but that is pretty dern fast. Check these samples...

Cabool, MO Square Dancers with Bob Holt

Bible Grove Dancers (NW Missouri) led by Burrell Snyder. 

Classic patter calling!!

Lastly, a square isn't all about squares. Peppy square dancing is pretty strenuous, even for a younger crowd, so it's good to intersperse the squares with some couple dances like the waltz, schottische and two-step. Future blog post will discuss some of these other forms.

If you're looking for sheet music for some of these great tunes you can download for free HERE. Be sure to Subscribe to my YouTube channel, too.

Brunch & Missouri-Style Fiddlin' at KDHX Radio

Patt and I got to play for the final installment of the KDHX Brunch in St. Louis from 10:00 AM to Noon on Halloween 2015. Tasty eggs with cheese, biscuits and gravy with fiddle tunes on the side.  Thanks Kelly Wells for inviting us.

The tunes we played were Yellow Barber, Clarinet Polka, Turkey in the Pea Patch, Tommy Jackson Medley (with Acorn Hill Breakdown), Silver Dollar Waltz, Tomahawk, The Rustic Dance, a Medley of Midwestern 6/8'ers, Stars & Stripes Waltz, Marmaduke's Hornpipe, Listen to the Mockingbird, Hi-Lo Schottische, Echoes of the Ozarks, Good Neighbour Waltz, Buck Fever Rag, Beaumont Rag and The Waltz of the Wind.

You can find sheet music for a bunch of these tunes at my Sheet Music Download Page. 

Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel.

Patt & Possum @ Fiddle Tunes 2014