Community Corner

The Music Man Brings Joy to Town

Folk music is alive and thriving in a converted Bethany barn

 

It's Friday evening and you're driving up Rt. 69 on the way home from dinner in New Haven when you come across a familiar sight; what seems like a hundred cars are parked on both sides of the road, and smiling people walk towards a well-lit house, some of them carrying covered dishes, others carrying instrument cases. If your windows are open, you may hear strains of music. For years you've slowed your car and gawked, wondering what causes this recurring traffic phenomenon in rural Bethany. Well, wonder no longer, as you are about to learn all about Music Night at the home of Bill Fischer.

If you park your car and hike to the converted barn, you will find a music-lover's fantasyland. Wander from room to room, each softly illuminated with yellow light, and be awed by groups of fiddle, banjo, drum, mandolin, guitar and penny whistle players. Then meander through a hall filled with young teens playing 1970s style arcade games (apparently this group is way too cool to partake of this style of music) and walk up the stairs to a great room packed with 60 or so contra dancers swirling to tunes played by a small orchestra of folk musicians. The man calling the dance is Bill Fischer himself, the host of this folk extravaganza.

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According to Fischer, the beginnings of his music night go back 19 years, but on a much smaller scale. About seven years ago, through word of mouth, the entire event took off and now anywhere from 150 to 200 people arrive ready to make music and dance.

"It started with small singing parties," Fischer said, "as well as parties for Solstice and Equinox."

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When he bought his home in Bethany, he did it with music in mind. The house was once a set of barns that had been rearranged and converted into living space. The huge loft, which hosts the contra dancing, helped make his decision to purchase the home an easy one.

According to Fischer, the musicians are a varied bunch.

"There are people here who are professional musicians," he said. "Some of them are Grammy winners. Others are of equal stature. Many of them are in professional bands that play out."

Yet musicians of all abilities are welcomed.

"People who are just starting out come and get tutored by the pros," Fischer said.

The music nobility includes 80-year-old Roger Sprung, who holds court seated on a high stool, picking away on his banjo.

"Roger is a very important part of the folk music renaissance in America," Fischer said.

Stacy Phillips, another regular, is a Grammy award winner.

Yet no matter how recognized each of these professional musicians is, they take time to tutor the novices.

"I went in with my banjo," said Rick George of Milford. "I'm a total newbie, and they reduced their speed so I could play with them."

George admitted he was a bit star-struck when he saw Roger Sprung.

"The banjo he plays is a prewar Gibson," he said. "It's the most coveted banjo there is. That's the sound that every banjo maker tries to achieve."

 

Star-struck, maybe, but very welcomed, none-the-less.    

"I went in a stranger, totally insecure about walking into someone's house," George said, "and the friendliness there was overwhelming. It's the way the rest of the world should be."

George added, "I've always said music brings people together."

The Lord of the Dance

If music gently draws people together, then dancing brings them slamming into close contact, at least the way contra dancing works at Music Night. By the end of a contra dance, every dancer has danced with almost every other.

Fischer said he always loved dancing, starting when he was a child. In 1980, shortly after he moved to New Haven, Fischer went to the Eli Whitney Barn and for the first time saw contra dancing, a form of folk dance that preceded square dancing.

"I was completely and totally absorbed by it," he said. "Within a year I was fledgling calling. It's clear to me that the time I spent in the Eli Whitney Barn influenced my purchase of this house."

Once the house was in place, the musicians for the dancing were easy; they were already there for Music Night. Fischer said there's a core of regulars and then it's "catch-as-catch-can" as the rest of them just pick up and join in.

While the masses of revelers may look like they've been contra dancing forever, Fischer said he'd estimate at least 25 percent are completely new to it each time.

Music Night is far from Fischer's only gig; he calls contra dancing all over New England, and said he recently has, "gotten into a groove of calling for people who are building barns and, before they clutter them up with stalls, call me in to call a dance."

He's even called a dance at a church that was being renovated and all the pews had been removed.

While Fischer is thrilled by the response to his monthly party, he's not surprised.

"People are drawn here because of music, dancing and socializing," he said.

And while he never knows exactly who will be there, he can always be sure they will come.

To learn more about Bill Fischer, visit his website at www.billthedancecaller.com.

 

 

 

 


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