Pa's Fiddle Primer

Charles "Pa" Ingalls, an old-time 19th century fiddler and the father of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the popular Little House on the Prairie books, is a central figure in those beloved books, and even though there isn't a single recorded track of his fiddle playing, he is still an influential musician, mostly through the 127 folk songs, fiddle tunes, and dance rounds his daughter portrayed him as playing and then embedded in the books. The Pa's Fiddle label has set out on an ambitious project to release versions of those 127 pieces played by world-class players on multiple CDs, of which this volume is a sort of sampler. How good a fiddler and musician Pa Ingalls actually was may or may not have been enhanced by a daughter's memory, but these facsimile renditions hint at the community utility of music in a time before radio, television, and the Internet exploded it into a whole new world of fast-moving commercial enterprise. Before that, there were local musicians. They played what everyone wanted to hear, transforming a summer evening with the single draw of a fiddle bow. ~ Steve Leggett