With vigor, nuance and good humor, high-energy
tunes for contra dances and barn dances.
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Hear us Play!
Online Booking Form for Event Planners Photos for press: www.hopehoffman.org/publicityphotos.htm Hoffman and Berrier's dance music is often partnered with local food-related businesses and organizations through Free Grange Productions (www.freegrange.org), and CDs are available at retailers of Free Grange™ publications. |
A new CD, of live recordings of us playing at dances in Maine, is now available online and at Maine retailers. There are 28 tracks on the CD to enjoy!
A portion of the CD's production costs is funded by the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development Micro-Grant program. Audio
Samples:
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Hope Hoffman is known for her warm and personable fiddle performances from Presque Isle to Manhattan. She has been a professional musician in Maine for several years, sharing a rhythmic and lyrical repertoire including Irish, Scottish, French Canadian and Scandinavian tunes in addition to her new compositions and album of original fiddle music. Jim Berrier got his rhythm chops on guitar and harmonica accompanying longtime dance harmonica player Fred Légère at the Norlands Living History Center's barn dances (Fred's repertoire is based on Don Messer's). Later on, Hope played the Norlands dances as a solo fiddle.Then, one evening, Jim and Hope showed up to play for the same dance. Jim had forgotten his guitar so he played the spoons. The next time, he brought his guitar. So, a new duo was born!
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"FIDDLEDANCEMUSIC: Field Recordings in Maine 2006-2008"
Hope Hoffman, fiddle; Jim Berrier, guitar, percussion, harmonica
Live / contra & barn dances / original & traditional
The "liveness" of acoustic music, and of the social scenes it's played in, is presented warmly and skillfully with a real sense of theater -- listeners get a unique package of intricate improvisations, solid dance tunes, and plenty of good humor.
A natural and complex documentary fresh from the fields and old dance halls of Maine -- loaded with surprises and free-wheeling, robust traditional barn dance music.
Nuanced and vigorous fiddling is matched with bold, inventive guitar accompaniment, in a style founded on an older generation of dance musicians and flavored with each scenario's spontaneity.
These CD covers are printed with vegetable inks on recycled
paper.
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Track List:
Practicing
1 Rochester Schottische (trad.)
2 "tuning"
3 Haste to the Wedding (trad.)/Cock o' the North (trad.)/Irish Washerwoman (trad.)
4 "more tuning"
Dancing
5 Super-Insulated House (Hoffman)
6 Galopede (trad.)
7 Hole in the Bucket (trad.)/Dear Liza (Hoffman)
8 Mason's Apron (trad.)
Dinner at the Warrens' House
9 Neofa Farewell (Hoffman)/ "coffee in hand"
10 Arkansas Traveler (trad.)/Old Dan Tucker (trad.)/ "nothing against dogs"
11 Hole in the Bucket (trad.)/Dear Liza (Hoffman)/ "a little off"
More Dancing
12 Pays de Haut (trad.)
13 Year of Jubilo (trad.)
14 Galopede (trad.)
The Sumner Sessions
15 Cold Frosty Morning (trad.)
16 Neofa Farewell (Hoffman)
17 Flop-Eared Mule (trad.)/Mason's Apron (trad.)
18 Growling Grumbling Man and Woman (trad.)
19 Year of Jubilo (trad.)
A Field in Buckfield
20 Irish Washerwoman (trad.)
21 Flop-Eared Mule (trad.)
22 Eighth of January (trad.)/Cold Frosty Morning (trad.)
23 Swallowtail Jig (trad.)/ Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre (trad.) /Cock o' the North
(trad.)
24 Old Dan Tucker (trad.)
25 La Bastringue (trad.)
More Practicing
26 "what is grandfather's clock"
27 "washerwoman ringtone"
28 Rochester Schottische (trad.)
Portraits by Daryn Slover | CD photo & design by Hope Hoffman
< back to music page at www.hopehoffman.org
