Various Artists
Jun 14, 2010
"Pa's Fiddle Project," a music series featuring 127 songs that bring Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie" books to life, has announced a new website focusing on hearing and learning more about the music, in addition to information on the history of the project, lyrics, liner notes, musicians, producers and more.
Music is central to Wilder's stories and no professional recordings of this music have ever been available. "Pa's Fiddle Project" was launched to re-voice the unsung music of the books. Two CDs have been released so far, out of a projected 10-CD series, and one accompanying songbook, along with many talks, lectures, presentations, concerts, articles, lesson plans, interviews and programs. This summer the project will celebrate the release of its newest CD in the series titled "Pa's Fiddle; Charles Ingalls Wilder, American Fiddler."
The source of most music-making in the "Little House On the Prairie" books was Charles "Pa" Ingalls, an entertainer who missed few occasions to sing and play his fiddle, an instrument that accompanied the Ingalls family through times good and bad.
Courtesy of the Little House books, Pa Ingalls is perhaps the 19th-century American fiddler about whom we know most, including the names of many of the tunes and songs he played, where he played them, for whom and often why he chose them.
Musicians involved since the first CD include John Cowan, Alison Brown, Riders In The Sky, Andrea Zonn, Mac Wiseman, Judith Edelman, Elizabeth Cook, Bryan Sutton, Butch Baldassari, David Schaufer and more.
Check out more on "Pa's Fiddle Project" at www.laura-ingalls-wilder.com.
By Karen Goodner