Class Description

We’re excited and honored to return to AFS in 2023, this time to lead the repertoire class. We look forward to sharing, teaching, talking about, and playing with people some of our favorite tunes. Over the years we’ve been attracted to tunes for lots of different reasons, but some of the characteristics that seem to draw us in the most are: a good groove, rhythmic bowing and flow, droney fiddle tunings, a beautiful or quirky melody, the occasional bluesy inflection, a personal connection to the tune and/or its broader history, and tunes that allow us, ultimately, to make them our own. Hopefully, in this class, people will find some new tunes and techniques they’d like to include in their own repertoire and carry forward in their own way.

We’ll present tunes from a few different regions, mostly the southeastern U.S., and source players who are old and young, living and deceased. We’ll also include one or two of Judy’s originals. Some will be in standard tuning on the fiddle, and others will be in “open” tunings that make the music flow and ring in a way we love. We’ll talk about how we came to know or create the tunes, why they appeal to us, and in the case of the old ones, how they’ve likely changed in our hands. We’ll also discuss some of the many ways players can develop their own repertoire and voice.

To introduce each tune, we’ll briefly talk about it and play it for the group. Then we’ll teach it, starting with the melody, but also demonstrating some of the fiddle bowings, guitar chords and bass runs, and banjo uke techniques. But, because the class welcomes all instruments, we’ll focus a lot of our time on playing together as a group rather than offering detailed instrument-specific instruction. We’ll balance our time so we can move through a few tunes a day, while also giving you enough experience with each tune that you can continue your learning process after the week is over. So, please come prepared to PLAY as a group and have fun! Audio/video recording is, of course, welcome and recommended, as are bringing a tuner and some extra strings. We’re also happy to provide fiddlers and others with advance info about the tunings we’ll use.

Bios

Judy and Jeff have a deep and abiding love of Southern traditional fiddle music and have taught at many camps, schools, and festivals throughout the U.S. over many decades.

They’re co-founding members of the alt-folk-rock band, The Horse Flies (www.thehorseflies.com), about whom the New York Times wrote: “The Horse Flies have figured out how to hold a hoedown in a physics lab.” Rolling Stone said, “They churn out swirling, addictive songs, blending tradition with invention.” The Flies toured extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe; recorded 7 albums, including some on Rounder Records and MCA; appeared on a number of national radio and television programs (Prairie Home Companion, All Things Considered, Mountain Stage, eTown, MTV); and played a long list of festivals and concert series, including Central Park Summerstage, Telluride, Vancouver Folk, Winnipeg Folk, Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folk Life.

Judy and Jeff have also created music for over 25 feature and documentary films (www.j2filmmusic.com), including two with The Horse Flies. And, in 2020, they produced Jake Blount’s album, Spider Tales, which received strong reviews from NPR, Rolling Stone, No Depression, Paste, The Guardian, Billboard, and more.

Judy’s been featured in Fiddler Magazine, was selected as one of their top 20 fiddlers in 2013, and was commissioned to create a new waltz to celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2019. She’s honored that a number of prominent players have recorded her original tunes (e.g., Jake Blount, Tatiana Hargreaves and Allison de Groot, George Jackson, Rodney Miller, The Moon Shells). She’s toured and recorded with Natalie Merchant several times and appears on two of her albums. She released an album of her original waltzes, Late Last Summer, with her father, pianist Dick Hyman, and she received an Emmy award for one of her documentary film scores. Critics have described her playing as haunting, gorgeous, sepia-tone, stirring, powerful, rousing, playful, impressive, and beautiful. (www.judyhyman.com)

Jeff plays backup guitar and banjo ukulele, and is a devoted fan of rhythm, groove, and drone. He also writes songs and sings. He’s been written about in Acoustic Guitar magazine and has had his songs and music used by Natalie Merchant, film director Oliver Stone (in Any Given Sunday), MTV’s Rock the Vote, and in the film, Buck. In his film scoring work with Judy he both composes and engineers.