Old-Time Fiddle Improvisation
From his backyard studio in the Loudon County foothills, decorated with a rainbow of fiddler’s competition ribbons and festival posters, Danny Knicely, mentor artist, shares his love of making music and playing with others with his teenage apprentice, Willie Marschner.
Danny and Willie used their Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship to expand the boundaries of old-time fiddling by developing Willie’s distinct improvisational style. Some people describe a tension between old-time music and spontaneity, and Danny recognizes the dichotomy. But he says, when it comes to fiddling, “you can incorporate both.”
Danny is a longtime friend and collaborator of Virginia Folklife. In 2015, he trained Jack Dunlap in mandolin and in 2018 he apprenticed with the great, late Bert Carlson in swing and jazz guitar.
Danny inherited his multi-instrumentalism, in part, from Arie Orven “A.O.” Knicely who played guitar, mandolin, and fiddle for more than 75 years, in bands and with his wife. Geography and generations of family playing connect Danny to fiddling—at one point, 18 people in the Knicely family played instruments.
“I learned music first from my parents and grandparents,” Danny said. “My grandparents lived between Harrisonburg and Staunton, in a little place called Mount Sidney. They called my grandfather ‘the Barber of Mount Sidney’ after the Barber of Seville.”
Don Leister, left, in a lesson with Danny at Big Indian Farm in Willis, Virginia on 6/25/21. Danny’s awards from fiddlers’ conventions.
In an interview with Virginia Folklife on July 19, 1990, A.O., who grew up without electricity, remembered how his $20 battery-powered radio connected him and his community to the stars of country music in Bristol and Nashville.
“We could have Grand Ole Opry music and popcorn, sweet cider, and so forth,” A.O. shared in the interview. “Sometimes too some of our neighbors would come in who didn’t have a radio.”
“The way I learned was just going to where the music is, being part of a community, and really absorbing the music.”
Danny Knicely, mentor artist in the 2023–2024 Folklife Apprenticeship Program
Like Danny, Willie grew up in a musical family and took up the fiddle when he was about six. His dad plays in the Fairfax-based band Accotink Rising.
“I’d often fall asleep next to the music,” Willie remembered. “My dad and his friends played in the evenings growing up.”
Willie and his dad Pierce at the 82nd Galax Old Fiddlers’ Convention on 8/10/17. Willie at Danny’s home in Taylorstown on 3/9/24.
Willie also plays guitar and mandolin, like Danny, but the fiddle is his favorite—he likes to “draw out the sound.”
“Every other instrument with a pick, its sound kind of goes away after a while, but with the fiddle you can keep it going,” Willie said. “I just like hearing the long notes.”
The two met when Willie was around seven or eight years old, as Danny was jamming in the campgrounds of Watermelon Park Bluegrass Festival, a historic venue along the Shenandoah River. According to Danny, hanging out at festivals is essential to learning how to play, more so than even one-on-one lessons.
The Cabin Creek Boys warm up at the 13th annual Watermelon Park Fest on 9/24/16. Dusk falls at the 13th annual Watermelon Park Fest on 9/24/16. Furnace Mountain plays for the City Stompers at the 13th annual Watermelon Park Fest on 9/24/16.
“The way I learned was just going to where the music is, being part of a community, and really absorbing the music,” he said. “It’s a good way to learn and a very traditional way to learn. You go to Galax [Old Fiddler’s Convention], you hear the same fiddle tune a hundred times, but it’s by a hundred different people, and it’s a hundred different ways.”
That’s also how Danny’s grandfather learned how to play: “I guess I’d say the most I learned was watching other people,” A.O. said in 1990. “And maybe someone would show me a chord here and there.”
During their fiddling sessions, Danny and Willie focused on the fundamentals of old-time tunes with plenty of room for Willie to explore his own interpretations.
“I don’t particularly teach things note for note,” Danny explained. Instead, he prefers to let his apprentice fine-tune his personal interpretation of the standards.
By working with Danny, Willie said he wants to “incorporate that rhythm. And then the notes can always get better. I think that’s what I really want to focus on. Learn the different styles and how to better express your take on the music as well as the boundaries of that genre to kind of create your own path for it.
“That’s what keeps it alive,” he continued. “That’s what makes old-time not so old.”
