HOW ROGER’S FAMILY PLAYS ASHOKAN FAREWELL.#4

Please read #1 first in this series of posts. In an earlier post I expressed my opinion that this beautiful melody is done a great disservice when pickers try to speed it up for a bluegrass jam or dance tune.  My daughter, whose rosin I can’t even carry as far as skill goes, and my self have tried to preserve the Scottish lament aspects of Ashokan Farewell.  About 20 years ago I took her to the first “Clark Day” event at the Pompeys Pillar National Monument. As a 14 year old she played Ashokan Farewell much as Jay Ungar described. The next year I recall a man saying he had come to Clark Day the previous year and he couldn’t remember much except this slight girl playing Ashokan Farewell. For several years I was the resident fiddler at Pompey’s Pillar (there was a fiddler in the Lewis and Clark expedition) and I always included it in my program.   Memorial Day weekend is a good time to write this post as we also have incorporated it into our memorial services. It seems appropriate to play this as a lament at funeral services for our beloved  family members and we have continued to do so.  I seldom play it any more, but have taken my fiddle to the gravesites where my 13 year old daughter and 59 year old wife lie and did my best to convey my feelings with Ashokan Farewell.  Perhaps you would like to consider similar uses yourself.  

You can probably still get the Fiddle Fever CD as well as a winter music CD entitled, “A Fiddler’s Holiday” by the Jay Ungar and Molly Mason Family Band.  Jay and Molly also wrote a gorgeous dance piece entitled, “Lover’s Waltz.”  I would suggest learning this beautiful waltz to play at dances and forget all about “Ashokan Farewell” for those venues.