Welcome to Get Up in the Cool: Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends! This week’s friend is Mark Simos, fiddler and professor at Berklee College of Music. I visited him in his home back in February when I took my Boston trip. I didn’t know Mark at all prior to our session, but both Mark Kilianski and Adam Hurt recommended him, so my expectations were high. And I wasn’t disappointed! Mark’s a fantastic fiddler and he has a lot of ideas about what music is and why it’s important; traditional music especially. So, basically the perfect Get Up in the Cool guest. It was nice to not feel like I was being self-indulgent when I wanted to wax philosophical about fiddle tunes, he was right there with me. But, don’t get the wrong idea, this is by no means an overly talky episode. Mark curated a great jam of great versions of great tunes, with an emphasis on effective, intentional simplicity. I’m really excited for you to hear it!

Tunes we’ll play:

Mark's CDs:

Mark's songwriting book, Songwriting Strategies: A 360º Approach

Mark's blog: 

Mark’s artist/songwriter site

The Singer Songwriter Handbook, which features Mark's chapter, "The Performing Songwriter's Dilemma":

Miles of Music camp:

Berklee’s Summer Songwriting Workshop (June 26 - 30):

California Coast Music Camp July 9 - 15:

Support Get Up in the Cool on Patreon:

That Radiolab episode I mentioned:

Support Get Up in the Cool