More than two decades have passed since Lee Deyette and his wife, Mae, joined the Northeast Fiddlers Association. But the memory is fresh at hand.
“It was like instant friends. You didn’t have to prove yourself. You didn’t have to do anything. Just join up and you’re a member and you’re a friend,” said Lee Deyette, the nonprofit’s longtime president, who plans to step down this year. “It was pretty great, actually.”
The 52-year-old organization aims to preserve and promote old-time fiddling, and its monthly meet-ups in various Vermont towns boast a loyal following. Held in VFWs and the like, the Sunday afternoon gatherings are open to the public, with a donation box available for those who want to contribute. They attract scores of people, not all of them fiddlers. In fact, it’s not uncommon for fans to outnumber musicians by a good margin.
The most recent get-together, on April 2 in Montpelier, drew 18 fiddlers and a few other musicians, who played banjo, guitar, mandolin or piano. About 75 people came to listen, or, like Tunbridge resident Maxine Young, to dance.
A member of the Randolph-based Hilltop Cloggers, Young is a precision clogger, meaning she dances choreographed routines. She joined the Northeast Fiddlers Association some four decades ago in order to spend more time with her husband, the late Martin Young. With help from the fiddlers in the group, she later picked up mandolin, which allowed her to join in the songs. And, of course, she’s danced.
The group’s treasurer, she helps staff the welcome table at fiddle meets. When time allows, she slips on her dancing shoes and takes to the floor. Young’s held a number of different roles in the group over the years. But some things haven’t changed.
“I like the music. I like the people,” she said. “It’s like a family. We just have a really good time.”
During the meets, musicians perform solo or in small groups, each playing a few tunes, and the gatherings open and close with jam sessions.
The music is “99 percent old, traditional-style fiddling, old contra dance-type stuff, jigs and reels and two-steps,” said Deyette, whose family hosted kitchen jam and dance sessions when he was growing up.
A few fiddlers lead the jams, which might include classics such as the century-old Red Wing.
“If you’re new, you can stand in the back and you’ll figure out what key they are playing in,” Young said. “With a little general knowledge of music, you can pick out the notes.”
Like the tunes, the musicians’ ages span decades.
“We’ve had people, ladies in their 80s, who come up and are very good at what they do, and little kids who come and knock your socks off,” Deyette said. A good fiddler who can keep time will fill the dance floor.
But no pressure.
“We have some people that are just learning, and they are really unsure of themselves,” said Deyette, who describes his own playing as not very skilled. In that case somebody, perhaps a teacher, will go onstage and play with them, for “moral support.”
And enthusiasm is emphasized over expertise.
“We don’t care how good you are or how bad you are,” he said.
Like many seasoned organizations, the fiddlers association hopes to attract more young people to its ranks.
“A lot of our people have died or cannot play anymore,” said Roger Perrault, of Essex, Vt., a talented fiddler who joined the organization in the early 1980s. “We’re trying to keep it afloat.”
Luckily, they do have second generation coming back into the fold now, he said.
Young is also optimistic.
Some younger people are stepping up, becoming willing to take leadership roles, she said. “I think it’s going to be … really exciting.”
And the musicians are happy to pass their knowledge on to the next wave. Perrault, chair of the board of trustees, is currently working with two of his grandchildren on percussion, and with the eldest on violin.
Eric Tetreault,12, has a knack for playing by ear, Perrault said. But if he learns to read music, “the whole world’s in front of him.”
Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.
