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| Carthy Sisco Lee Stripling Jim Ketterman Jim Evans Glenn Berry Harry Johnson Jeff Anderson Marilyn Scott Gil Kiesecker Floyd Engstrom Stuart Williams Vivian Williams Author: Brid NowlanPhotographer: Doug PlummerAbout the projectExhibit ScheduleWA State Old Time Fiddlers Association Home PageArchivesHome
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In 1922, when Gil
Kiesecker was six, his father, Albert, taught him to chord on the pump organ. They brought
the pump organ by wagon to house dances around their ranch near Anatone, Washington. Gil
pumped the pedals and pounded out the chords to accompany his father’s fiddle. It was
hard work and sometimes a neighbor would pump the organ while Gil played the chords. Gil
learned to play the fiddle mostly by watching and listening to his father. "I always
could start a tune, and at about ten years old I was able to play enough of it to get
by," he says. In the old days, there was usually just one fiddler at a dance. Gil’s father would sometimes second another fiddler, playing the chords on his fiddle—"to make a little extra noise." Every January Gil and Albert would ride down to Joseph Creek, Oregon for the big annual dance there. They carried their fiddles high on their backs as they swam their horses across the flooded rivers. Gil went on to play drums, guitar and mandolin, as well as the fiddle. His driving dance rhythms and infectious manner ensure his popularity at shows and dances. He is now branching out into recording, with one CD already completed—‘Dance Fiddler from the Blue Mountains’ on Voyager Recordings—and another underway.
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