The Montana Connection
Buddy hosts Calvin Vollrath, Mike Dowling, Buddy Emmons
Buddy has been teaching for several years at The Montana Fiddle Camp, held annually in early June in Monarch, Montana. At his first appearance in 2002, he met Calvin Vollrath along with his friend Mike Dowling.
Buddy hooked up with his old friend, Mike
Dowling, (pictured at left) who had moved from Nashville to Wyoming about a decade earlier.
The Montana camp features a variety of fiddle styles, but also
includes guitar, mandolin, piano and folk dance. Mike taught
swing guitar that week. Also teaching at the camp, was the highly
popular Canadian Fiddler, Calvin
Vollrath (pictured at the right). The three of them got together for jams, and quickly
came to appreciate each other's talent. At the evening concerts, they
teamed up for some fantastic music.
This
same talented trio was reunited at the 2003 Montana Fiddle Camp, where they
took their collaboration to yet another level, dazzling the dedicated campers
with intricate harmonies and swinging new rhythms. Of course it came up
that they should get together and record, and that's exactly what happened in
January, 2004. Mike flew in from Wyoming, Calvin from Alberta, and
joined Buddy at The Fiddle
House for a week-long session with one of Nashville's other top swing
players, the great steel guitar legend, Buddy
Emmons.
Rounding out the recording ensemble was top Nashville studio drummer Jim White, and from "Robinella & the CC Stringband", Taylor Coker on upright bass, and Buddy's long time collaborator and fiddler extraordinaire, Billy Contreras. Our good friend David Sines performed the engineering duties.
The result is fourteen tracks of some of the hottest string band swing you've ever heard. Soaring harmonies with twin and triple fiddles, solos by masters of improvisation, and a very delightful listening experience encompassing familiar swing standards and several original tunes. Look for this CD to be released in lJune of 2005, just in time for the upcoming fiddle camp season!
Buddy & Vassar
Since completing his latest CD release, "Nashville Fiddler ", Buddy has been working on several new projects, both as producer and artist. Buddy and his long time Nashville friend Vassar Clements, recently finished a new album released on OMS Records .
.... "...this is a fantastic fiddle album by two of the greatest on the instrument - Vassar Clements and Buddy Spicher. These two geniuses (the only appropriate adjective) worked on this project for over a year, with countless hours composing and obsessing over every detail. It is "high-level stuff!"
....
You'll hear a side of Vassar that you may not be familiar with, and that is his vocal performance, showcased on some great swing tunes. Here's a photo from the early 80's, about the time when they played "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" for and injured Charlie Daniels at the Grammy Awards, (and yes, Charlie won a Grammy that year).
details on Buddy's Recordings, visit the CD Store.