Printer Friendly Version - Community Building Through Creativity

Emily May, left, from Deep River, with Rosalie Coleman, Guilford, at a recent random act of music (aka rehearsal) on the lawn of Memorial Town Hall next to the Madison Town Green.

Eighteen years ago, Charlie Shafer and some others from the North Madison Congregational Church were looking for a community project, something that would provide some fellowship for church members and some fun for the general public as well. They decided a concert would do.

That concert turned into a concert series called Fire in the Kitchen, featuring fiddlers and folk musicians from all over the world, including Grammy Award winners and artists who played at venues including Lincoln Center and Buckingham Palace. Shafer and his family, including his wife Stacy, and his two daughters, Erin and Emily, not only enjoyed the music, but also enjoyed hosting the musicians at their home.

Wanting to share what they were learning from the musicians, Shafer asked them to start offering free workshops about 10 years ago. Those workshops grew in popularity, drawing in musicians from all over New England. Some local folks started clamoring for more, for an opportunity to put what they were learning into action, and they thought about starting up a fiddle club. Riding his bike with some others in Haddam one day, Shafer looked up and saw the street sign.

Taking up an old southern tradition of naming fiddle clubs after a local landmark, he dubbed the club the Skunk Misery Ramblers Fiddle Club. They can be seen many Sundays, committing random acts of music (also known as informal rehearsals) on town greens from Guilford to Essex. A recent session drew performers from Guilford, Madison, Bloomfield, Portland, and Deep River. They play fiddles, mandolins, cellos, a three-roll melodeon or two, and even an upright bass.

The group draws crowds large and small, including some onlookers on that recent Sunday in Madison who said the impromptu concert left them wondering whether they should pick up their violin again, call it a fiddle, and try again after having abandoned playing many, many years ago.

Shafer says that’s part of the point, getting people to join in on the play and then looking for ways to let the fun grow. If people are having such a great time listening that they want to join in, they are welcome to jump in to the informal music sessions, he says.

He said the number of people take up the violin when they are young—whether because they like it or they (or their parents) think it’ll look good when they apply to college—is vast. And the number of people who drop it once they get out of college is pretty high too, he says.

“They play all the way through college and then they think they’ve got to make money and people give it up,” he says. “We’re all about, ‘Grab your fiddle and come on down.’ Join us, and we’ll slow things down, or break out in a smaller group to work with you, and work it over a bunch of times. Then we’ll email you some music and take it from there.”

Shafer is something of an expert at taking it from there. A home builder and custom carpenter by day, the fiddle club, workshops, and concerts are a 100 percent volunteer effort for him and his family, and they keep finding ways to make it grow. His latest initiative is setting up an online artists’ co-op called The Fretless Fringes with the goal of inspiring “community building through unbridled creativity and music education.

“It’s kind of an interesting offshoot. We have no idea whether it will work or not. It’s an artist-supported page. A lot of these younger artists don’t have agents and don’t have a great network of contacts. So this is a place where they can find out where they might be able play. Travel tips. Things to do when you’re on the road, trying to put a tour together,” he says. “It’s a co-op site, so we’re hoping the Colorado players put their Colorado stuff in and the New England players put in their New England stuff, like that. There’s no charge for it. Whatever they put into it, the artists, that’s what they’ll get out of it.”

Shafer said the last 18 years have been both interesting and fun for his family, and that they’ve been gratified to see fiddling take its place as a music form in its own right, not just the crazy little sister of violin playing.

“It used to be, historically, that fiddling was a term for musicians who hadn’t had any training, people who were self-taught. But over the last 10 years or so, that’s changed. A lot of these kids now went through Suzuki training. Then they were performance majors in college. They were going the classical route, and then they found this more liberating,” he says. “Nobody’s getting rich off of it,” he says, but for musicians who want to play, have fun, meet new people and tour the world—or even just the town greens on the shoreline on Sunday afternoons—it’s perfect.

At a recent informal session of the Skunk Misery Ramblers Fiddler Club on the lawn of Memorial Town Hall next to the Madison Town Green are, from left, Rebecca Zucconi, Ann Clemmons and her daughter Melinda Clemmons, and Stacy Shafer, all of Madison; Alan Fenrow of Portland; and Sarah Prown of Guilford.

Charlie Shafer, left, of Madison, with Sarah Prown of Guilford, her daughter Willow Coleman, and Patricia Jimenez-Betts of Madison. @SPN Cut credit:Photo by Pem McNerney/The Source

Ken Karpowicz of Bloomfield plays the three-roll melodeon during a recent practice session of the Skunk Misery Ramblers Fiddle Club on the lawn of Memorial Town Hall next to the Madison Town Green.

From left, Elizabeth Clemmons and her mom Ann Clemmons, Rebecca Zucconi, and Stacy Shafer, all of Madison, and Alan Fenrow of Portland play their fiddles on the lawn of Memorial Town Hall next to the Madison Town Green.

Rosalie Coleman of Guilford.

Ann Clemmons, left, with her daughter, Melinda Clemmons, at a rehearsal of the Skunk Misery Ramblers Fiddle Club.

An informal rehearsal of the Skunk Misery Ramblers Fiddle Club on the lawn of Memorial Town Hall next to the Madison Town Green.

Emily May of Deep River says she likes playing the fiddle with the fiddle club because it’s “more free” than her classical violin training. “It has more twists and turns,” she says.

In addition to their informal sessions, the Skunk Misery Ramblers also perform in parades and other community events.