When I was a young violinist in elementary school in the late 1970s, I found myself getting bored with the endless etudes and other mind-numbing lessons I was forced to endure. I liked the instrument, but the music was boring, and the grade-school offerings in orchestra weren't much better. I was thinking of quitting.

Then my parents took a rare couple's vacation to Williamsburg and, although I wasn't along for the trip, it altered the course of my future. While there, they spent an evening or two at Josiah Chowning's Tavern, and they enjoyed the nightly gambols, or wandering entertainments -- especially the solo fiddling of John Turner. When they discovered that he'd recently published a small book of Scottish traditional and original fiddle tunes, they bought a copy as a souvenir.

The Fiddletree Manuscript changed my life. It might sound dramatic, but it's true. Those 28 tunes -- many of which were simple enough for me to figure out even at such an early level, others which would confound me for several more years -- reignited my interest in the instrument, and I stuck with the violin through my senior year of high school. And, although I quit playing after graduation, I picked the instrument back up a few years later, decided it was a fiddle rather than a violin, and began a love affair with music that has lasted ever since.

The fact that I've been the fiddler in a Scots-Irish trio for more than 20 years should tell you how well it stuck. And, although I traveled to Williamsburg quite a lot as an adult in the 1990s, I never saw John Turner myself until a spontaneous trip down for the holidays in the early 21st century, where I saw him perform for a crowd outside the Governor's Palace. I even managed to find him among the thronging revelers afterward, and I was able to tell him how much he had unknowingly impacted my life.

Recently, I needed a few Scottish tunes for an event, and although I have a large collection of music books to rely on, I first checked the Turner book and found exactly what I needed.

So why have I kept this book for so long?

Because the tunes are fun. And it's a nice, varied collection of airs, jigs, marches, reels and strathspeys, from Nathaniel Gow's "Lady Cunningham of Livingstone" and Niel Gow's "Farewell to Whisky" (and, on the next page, Niel Gow's "Whisky Welcome Back Again") to Jamie Macpherson's "Macpherson's Lament" and Turner's own "Josiah Chowning's Strathspey." The book concludes, appropriately, with Turner's "A Fond Farewell," followed by a one-page explanation of Scottish fiddle styles.

There's nothing fancy about the book, beyond pages that are designed to look older than they are and a font and notation style that makes the manuscript look handwritten. It doesn't provide chords for guitar accompanists. It doesn't offer any historical information on the tunes included.

But it's fun, it's useful and it's steeped in good memories. I will own this book, and hopefully continue to play from it, as long as my hand can hold a bow. So, if you know anyone who is looking to spice up their fiddle experience a bit, see if you can track down a copy of Turner's The Fiddletree Manuscript. Sadly, they aren't easy to find, even on Turner's own website.

[ visit John Turner online ]