In part two of this podcast, bassist Jeff Harshbarger talks about his different approaches to using a bow with a bass. He also talks about a remarkable teacher he visits each year in France and the role physical spaces play in how music sounds.

Jeff Harshbarger is a bassist, composer, and band leader living in Lawrence, Kansas. In 2011, he was voted Best Bassist by Pitch Magazine. I first heard Jeff perform as a member of a quartet blending classical Indian violin music with western classical and jazz violin. Jeff brought to our conversation about the bass a deep understanding of not just music, but what it means to be fully human.

I have know very few songwriters whose songs move me as much as those composed by Carl Jones. A multi-instrumentalist as well, and that includes the fiddle, Carl has performed with some of the top folk musicians alive today, including his wife Erynn Marshall and fiddler James Bryan. I know you’ll enjoy his wit and insights into what makes life interesting and worth the effort.

Erynn Marshall grew up in British Columbia but her love of traditional fiddle music eventually took her to the mountains of southwestern Virginia where she lives today with her husband Carl Jones, an accomplished musician and songwriter. Along with keeping the fiddle traditional alive by playing the old tunes, she also composes wonderful fiddle tunes. Here she talks about her life as a traveling musician and her love for the violin she owns, even celebrating its birthday each year.

Inspired by Carol Rodland’s Rochester-based “If Music be the Food…” food drive concerts, violist Kim Kashkashian launched a concert series titled Music for Food in 2010 to help relieve food insecurity in the Greater Boston area. Working with a group of Boston-based musicians and guest artists, Music for Food has created over 500,000 meals through donations made at concerts for nearly 100 hunger-relief organizations. More than 160 international artists have performed at concerts worldwide that were organized by Music for Food. Here Kim Kashkashian and other members of the organization share the reasons they are committed to this worthy project.

Roland Feller grew up in Switzerland and attended the violin-making school in Mittenwald, Germany, before coming to the United States to work with Simone Fernando Sacconi in New York. He later opened his own shop in San Francisco where he is a much sought after restorer as well as maker. Here Roland tells of the challenges he endured in those early years of his violin-making education.

In this part of my conversation with Alasdair Fraser, he tells a remarkable story about how a young girl with a rare and potentially fatal disease was helped by listening to Scottish fiddle music. He also tells the story of how an unscrupulous producer stole his music composition to use in a major Hollywood film.

In my twenties, I spent a year living in Scotland doing my best to learn the fiddle music of the Highlands. Later I moved to Nevada City, California, where I had the good fortune to meet and become friends with Alasdair, regarded by many as one of the most accomplished Scottish fiddlers living in the world today. In part one of our conversation, Alasdair talks about how the violin helped him overcome a debilitating shyness when he was a child and how later he dedicated his life to bringing back a musical tradition that was often disregarded.

Laurie Lewis is a Grammy award-winning bluegrass fiddler and songwriter. For several years she owned a violin shop in Berkeley, California. Here Laurie tells how she wrote two songs about the violin: The Maple's Lament and The Bear Song. Her interview is followed by a folktale and music from Mongolia about the origins of the Mongolian horse-head fiddle. 

In part two of my conversation with tone wood expert Bruce Harvie, we discuss the selection and use of Pernambuco for making bows and the growing problem of tone wood tree poaching