Senior Thesis - Chris Fisher

"Fiddle Tunes in Western New York and the People That Play Them" is my (very much a working) title. I plan on discussing not only the history of this music in the country but also the region. My intention is to find a group of people that are keeping the tradition alive in Western New York and record them in a podcast format. In the podcast, we will hear a version of the song played by these people and I will then talk about it, perhaps going into its history as well as discussing the relevance that the song has to this region. There are several notable scholars of this sort of music in the area, namely, the elusive Professor James Kimball. I have also attended several bluegrass jams in the area already to get a feel for exactly what sort of traditional songs are still being played. These have proven to be very useful, not only in terms of helping me learn more about the songs, but also in helping me build a network of people that could prove useful to this project.