Julie sits down with the extraordinary Kate Barnes, whose legendary piano stylings have been a mainstay of the contra scene for decades. She’s also a renowned English dance musician, and they talk in-depth about her beginnings in contra dance piano, improvisation, how the dance scene has changed over the years, and much more!

Part two of Julie’s conversation with David Cantieni – founding member of the bands Wild Asparagus and Swallowtail, who has been an important fixture of the Western Massachusetts contradance scene for many years. They go through David’s roots, his transition from classical oboe to traditional music, the excitement of the bombard and the influence of French tunes, how he has seen the dance scene change in the last 30 years, and a much more.

Part one of Julie’s conversation with David Cantieni – founding member of the bands Wild Asparagus and Swallowtail, who has been an important fixture of the Western Massachusetts contradance scene for many years. They go through David’s roots, his transition from classical oboe to traditional music, the excitement of the bombard and the influence of French tunes, how he has seen the dance scene change in the last 30 years, and a much more. They had so much fun talking, they just couldn’t stop, so this interview is divided into two parts!

Arthur and Julie have a lovely summer-night chat about his early roots, building communities through dance, and glorious New England tunes. And as piano players, they also geek out about piano styles, the difference between acoustic pianos and keyboards, and much more!

This episode, Julie invites Anna Patton, clarinetist from Elixir and other bands, to sit down on her porch and talk about life as a gigging musician, groove and beat placement, the clarinet as a contra dance instrument, and much more!

Julie takes to her porch to talk with Everest Witman, guitarist, mandolinist, and foot percussionist from Nova about his experience growing up in the contra dance scene, DADGAD guitar, contra vs. session playing, and we have a good old rhythm player geek out session about ways that rhythm players can support the dancing. They also talk about Everest’s current interests and Scottish music and ball folk, and the way that those scenes are similar to and different from the American contra scene.

The second part of Julie’s conversation with Charlie Pilzer about how he accompanies tunes, how that’s changed over the past few decades, what makes a great contra tune, music theory and more!

Julie interviews Charlie Pilzer at the NEFFA, the New England Folk Festival, in 2019. They talk about this history of the contra dance scene, Charlie’s diverse musical experience, and even dive into some music theory on what makes a great contra dance tune!

Julie interviews Dudley at Maine Fiddle Camp – filled with classic stories from Dudley’s long career as both a contra dance caller and musician. Diving into what makes the perfect contra dance band sound, tune. And medleys? Who needs ’em.