LIVE! at the Library—Fiddlers Bring Pioneer Music to Westport Timberland Library

Phil and Vivian Williams present their musical heritage program, "Fiddling Down the Oregon Trail" at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 18 at the Westport Timberland Library, 506 N Montesano Street. This Inquiring Mind series performance is free of charge and fun for all ages.

The Williamses (pictured left) will play the music of the pioneers and pass along some of the stories of the old Pacific Northwest. The audience will tap their toes to the same hoedowns, waltzes, reels and schottisches that people played after a hard day on the Trail and at Saturday night dances with friends and neighbors in their new communities.

Fiddle tunes came to the Northwest with Captain George Vancouver in 1792. The hand-cranked barrel organ he had onboard played 30 pieces. The Lewis and Clark Expedition included two fiddlers who played for Native Americans near the Dalles as the corps traded for horses needed to cross the Rockies. Journals kept by early travelers on the Oregon Trail describe singing, dancing and playing fiddles, banjos, accordions, guitars and flutes. One of the songs mentioned is "Old Joe Clark," a hoedown the Williamses play on a fiddle and an 1850s fretless banjo that may have come over the Oregon Trail itself.

To preserve the musical heritage of the Pacific Northwest, the Williamses have cofounded the Seattle Folklore Society, Northwest Folklife and the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association. They help keep the music itself alive with their performances.

For more information, people may call the library at (360) 268-0521.