REBECCA KOEHLER, FIDDLER/COMPOSER

My sister Becky is one of my favorite fiddlers and talented tunesmith. Melodies find their way to her fingers as quickly as she can play them. One time she actually wrote a complete tune while talking on the phone with a person commissioning her to write the tune. The amusing flip-side is that she is incredibly s-l-o-w to give her tunes a title. She jokes that finding a name for a tune is the hardest part of composing and has been know to perform tunes with no working title … for years.

Here are two great reels she recently shared with the Fiddle Tune Video Library/365 Days of Fiddlers. These tunes have been played by fiddlers competing in the prestigious Canada contest circuit for the last 20 years.

Cheers & happy listening!
Gretchen (proud big sis)

PARKING in BOSTON (c. 1999)

This tune is as tricky as….parking in Boston! Anyone who has spent time in the city knows finding convenient parking is impossible. When you find spot, you grab it, no matter what…even if you are on a steep, one way street in Beacon Hill with faulty power steering and an alternator that will give you one shot to get in the !@#$ space because it is about to die (and you make it! and it dies!) and a tow truck is forced to pull your 1981 Volvo out of the spot sideways the next morning. #truestory She decided the twists and turns in this reel would match her adventure.

BIG WAVE BEACH (c. 1999) Becky lived in Boston, Massachusetts while earning her dental degree at Tufts University. She and her now husband Brandt enjoyed visiting the many beaches in nearby Cape Cod (near “the elbow” -for you New Englanders.) Not recalling the formal names of where they went, they referred to the beaches with names like “Big Wave Beach” and “Little Wave Beach.”

Becky played this tune in public for years without a title since Canadian contests don’t require you to submit tune names. A friend heard her play this reel, wanted to recored it, and asked her about the tune source. She told him she composed it, and realized she had never named it. The tune was written while she was living Boston, so she offered it a Massachusetts name.