The summer of 1966, my parents went with friends to the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser, Idaho and came back very excited with what they had seen and heard. The next summer my parents decided I would go to the contest with them. That week in Weiser altered my life and kindled my lifelong passion for fiddling.

It was my first exposure to really great fiddlers – Sam Bush, Cyril Stinnet, Bill Long, Vivian Williams, and dozens more – and I thought they were amazing. We stayed at a little motel a few blocks from the contest site, and that entire week I’d go to the contest and listen for a few hours, then walk back to our motel and practice the handful of “contest” tunes I knew at that time. After that week, I was hooked.

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