True to the music
Oklahoma fiddler sets his sights on championship but admits festival is one of the ‘finest’
By Johna Strickland
Argus Observer
Friday, June 20, 2008 11:16 AM PDT
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| Fourteen-year-old James Schlender (center with fiddle), Bozeman, Mont., competes in the first round of the Grand National division at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser. Accompanying him are Rod Anderson (left), Darin Meeks (center) and Terry Ludiker. Schlender advanced to round 2, which will be played this afternoon. |
Weiser — Under the bright stage lights, Jimmy Gyles sends the music coursing through his body to the point of expression in his fingertips as they dance along his fiddle strings.
His knees bend, as if to launch his body more fully into the tune. Sweat builds on his forehead. His right arm swoops the fiddle’s bow over the taunt strings. Smoke curls up from the bow’s rosin.
This is his moment. His four minutes to impress the judges. Should he fail, his bid for the Grand National title will be over.
Thursday afternoon Gyles, 49, competed in the first round of the Grand National division at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest and Festival in Weiser. It was his first Weiser appearance.
Gyles, who drove in from his Edmond, Okla., home, began his love affair with the fiddle 35 years ago. At the time, he had already won two national flat-picking guitar championships and other titles for his skill with the mandolin. But those talents couldn’t get him a spot in the Bluegrass Revue, a band he wanted to join.
“I wanted to play with them really bad, and all they needed was a fiddle player,” he said
He learned how to play in a month. The “one great drop-kick-you” band stayed together until they all graduated from high school, Gyles said. Gyles headed to Texas to play swing country. Fellow band member Vince Gill went west to California and eventual stardom in country music.
The music played on in Texas for Gyles. He worked with Opryland, Roy Clark and started his own band. He made it to many of the nation’s top fiddle contests, but never Weiser. There just wasn’t time. Now, though, Gyles has taken a sabbatical and brought his fiddle to Weiser.
“This is really the finest fiddle contest ... This is the finest competition (in) a cappella, Americana (fiddle) music. Period. There is no finer,” he said.
Gyles cites the professionalism of contest staffers as a component in the festival’s success. He said during a round of the Small Fry division a contestant failed to show because two different times had been posted. Officials allowed the fiddler to play at a different time, an unprecedented event at other contests, Gyles said.
“I think that was first class,” he said. “It is the people that make it the finest.”
Also, the volume as contestants play impressed Gyles. He said the sound is audible though not blaring, thus forcing the audience to be quiet and become a part of the music.
“It’s like reverse psychology,” Gyles said. “If you want to hear it, instead of turning it up, they turn it down.”
When he asked about the volume, Gyles said contest staffers told him it was intentional.
With cuts from round 1 still unannounced Thursday afternoon, Gyles was apprehensive about his chances as he nursed a blue slushie.
From the field of 20 Grand National hopefuls, five would not continue. Later in the afternoon, the judges decided to send Gyles on to round 2.
“The first round is the toughest, like on a golf course when you can’t get past the ladies tee,” Gyles said. “There are no second chances. ... If the fiddle betrays you, you have to eat that. It’s like the Indy 500.”
Also like the Indy, things change fast on stage. Gyles said he once spent months “getting each note just right.” Now he’s learned to play with flexibility.
“In contest fiddling, you have to adapt and not be so hard-headed that you can’t change,” he said. “You lose the sense of urgency to play it the same way (each time). If you want to win, you have to adapt, or else that’s it.”
By Saturday night, only five fiddlers will be left to vie for the title.
“(And) there will be 15 fabulous, disappointed fiddle players,” Gyles said, adding he didn’t think of himself as fabulous so make that 14.
Whether he fiddles Saturday night or not, Gyles said he will return to the “finest” contest.
“I’m gonna do my best to be back ’cause, you know, seriously, I’ve had such a good time here I haven’t even thought about the gas prices,” he said.
