Fiddles Flower In Oakland

By Robin Flower

Robin Flower, longtime OPEN EXCHANGE lister, offers Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin, and Once-a-Month Stringband.

I love traditional dance music from Ireland and the US. I am addicted to it and must play tunes everyday or I feel something is missing. For me, it is like breathing. I am very passionate about this music (evidently...) and I LOVE to teach it. One of my students said, "Robin, why don't you think about leading a group of players of all levels? No big deal, like maybe just once a month."

Absolutely, and Robin Flower's Once-a-Month Stringband was born! Turns out, we all had such an excellent time that now we often meet more than once a month, on Sundays, as well as playing season-ending house concerts.

The Once-a-Month Stringband core has been together for more than 5 years. The Stringband has learned dozens of fabulous tunes - reels, jigs, waltzes, swingtunes and original Robin Flower tunes that I arrange for all levels of our band members. If you can keep time, there is a place for you in the Once-a-Month Stringband. All instruments can play Stringband music; drums, horns, accordions, piano, whatever. (Listen to the great band from Canada, La Boutine Souriant, for a fabulous example of a powerhouse 10-piece band playing stringband music)

Each time the Once-a-Month Stringband comes together in my cozy house in the Glenview area of Oakland, we create art as well as community. We laugh a lot. Friendships sail out of my house on the wing of a beautiful tune. I feel satisfied. And very lucky.

How does one raise the money to record? Making a quality CD is an expensive proposition. My partner, Libby McLaren, and I came up with an age-old, tried and true, community-involving way. Like the bards of old, we seek patrons and matrons to sponsor each tune and they then are given the naming rights to that tune. For instance, the Irish harper, O'Carolan, had music-loving people who supported him and therefore many of his tunes were named in honor of his supporters. These tunes are called Planxties. So for these modern times, we use this same method. For instance, we have tunes with such titles as "Patsy's Pitchers," and "Mellie's Mandolin," "Andrei's First Waltz in America," and "Billy Tave's Hornpipe," "Bill Bender's,"and "Reverend Annie's Slip Jig Waltz" on our most recent CD, "Steelhead in the Riffles."

Many people name their tune after their child, spouse, or parent. When the recording is finished, people delight in seeing their name or their tune's title on the CD as well as hearing the title at concerts. Along with playing fundraising house concerts, and with direct donations and sales from previous CDs, we have been able to produce top-quality recordings for the past 20 years.

Involving our community in our music helps build strong bonds while encouraging people to support independent artists. Plus, it is a really fun!