Let's hear it for Dave Reiner and sons and all the great teachers and players who convened for a great weekend of fiddling! Fiddle Hell is the creation of the late Dale Hopkins a fiddler. While a fiddler's idea of heaven, for the rest of the world perhaps, a day where all manner of players squeak and shriek their horsehairs on silk or catgut, is the definition of hell! See, fiddlers, even great ones don't so much mind the shrieks and squeeks of the less polished or beginners. We've all been there, or are still there, and share in a determined collective quest to tame those objects of our desire, our fiddlicious beasts, into sweet and purring tones or fierce and ferocious, but intentional, growls.

Especially appreciated was Eric Reiner's fiddle chops and improvisation workshop. This percussive technique pioneered by Richard Greene and Darol Anger is opening whole new realms of fiddling, even for the most trad of players, in any style.

Dave Reiner is a local hero of fiddling fame in these northern parts; a champion fiddler with two famous fiddle books, Anthology of Fiddle Styles and the newer release, Fiddling across America. These can be found on the racks of most music stores that feature acoustic music. you can learn more about Dave and the Reiner family band and Fiddle Hell at http://www.reinerfamilyband.com/fiddlehellmassac.html