Customer Reviews

The Crooked Stovepipe: Athapaskan Fiddle Music and Square Dancing in Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada (Music in American Life)

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I personally have just finsihed a course in college with the author Craig Mishler. I also completed a project by going to an Athapaskan Fiddling festival and that is when I read the Crooked Stovepipe. This book goes in great detail about Athapaskan fiddlers and dancers and there orgin. The author went to every village mentioned in the book and took notes and made observations. The author is a white man and has no realtion to the alaska natives which is intersting to recieve the observations from a white man. Mishler focused on the Upper river style of Athapaskan music and just slighty touched upn the down river music. This book is a great read and very interseting. It is intersting because it shows us that fiddling is not only down in Nashville on the Grand Ole Opry but it is done in many different cultures and parts of the world. For each culture there is there own style of music.

The first time my sisters and I were invited to dance in a square dance type reel at the Athabascan Old-Time Fiddling Festival in Fairbanks Alaska, we were lucky to have very experienced gentlemen to guide us through the movements. However, after reading this book, I have gained an appreciation for the fiddlers themselves, the culture around this form of fun and entertainment, and a strong desire to return to the festival each year.
The book itself shows the depth of a very rich cultural tradition and the author's participation and observations are so insightful that it breeds greater respect for something that is still "a bunch of fun!"