COYLE — Spencer & Rains will play old-time music at Concerts in the Woods at 3 p.m. Sunday.
The matinee featuring Tricia Spencer and Howard Rains will be in the Laurel B. Johnson Community Center at 923 Hazel Point Road.
Admission is by donation. Sunday’s all-ages concert will offer complimentary cookies and coffee at intermission.
Spencer and Rains “are well known in the genre for their use of two-fiddle harmonies,” said Norm Johnson, series organizer.
“The style that we call old-time music originated in early American folk dancing when immigrant farmers gathered for square dancing or clogging,” Johnson said.
The style had origins in Wales, England and Ireland, but evolved with African and Native American influences and became popular in Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina and the whole Appalachian region, Johnson added.
“In these times when fiddlers can draw on every imaginable style and repertoire of music, Howard Rains and Tricia Spencer are that rare thing — contemporary musicians who have chosen to carry on the traditional music of their own region,” said Bruce Greene, a well-known old-time fiddler.
“They have brought beautiful, nearly forgotten fiddle tunes learned from older generations and older times into the 21st century, and they play them with skill, authenticity, attention to detail and feeling,” Greene said.
Spencer is a Kansas fiddler who grew up learning the tradition of old-time music from her grandparents. Rains is a native Texas artist and a fourth-generation fiddler who plays rare, old tunes learned from friends, family, mentors and old recordings. As much known for his painting as his fiddling, Rains has painted many of the great old-time musicians, both living and gone.
Together, the husband-and-wife duo are known for their twin fiddle harmony, a product of the influence of Midwestern Scandinavian fiddlers Spencer heard as a child. At the same time, Rains’ distinct repertoire reintroduces listeners to the pre-contest styles of Texas fiddling. Both multi-instrumentalists, they are steeped in tradition and are dedicated to the preservation, performance and teaching of old-time music, according to a press release.
For more about Spencer & Rains, see www.spencerandrains.com.
For more information about the concert, contact Johnson at 360-765-3449 or see http://www.coyleconcerts.com/.
