By Jeff Trippe

The fiddle is an important link – maybe the crucial link –  between musical generations in America.  In fact, it is the voice of the fiddle which takes us back much further than that, across ancient seas to our origins in the British Isles, Europe, and elsewhere.  Now and again, you’ll hear this essence in the playing of a musician who knows it intuitively:  a phrase of notes, a certain lilt, a driving passage, and suddenly the dark mysteries of other worlds – the Scottish Highlands, French Canada, Cape Breton – are opened to us.  Maine’s own Hope Hoffman, fiddler with the trio Kittlish, has captured much of this rich landscape on her new cd, Infinite Winter Squash, and yet, stunningly, many of these tunes are new, penned by Hope herself.

Generally, that’s how it works in folk music:  things get so old that they begin to sound new again.  Hope’s original works, such as “Sweet Pea,” “Those Little Crumbs,” and “Superinsulated House,” fit seamlessly into medleys with traditional tunes such as “St. Anne’s Reel” and “Flowers of Edinburgh.”  Her “8th of February” is as lively a piece as anything one might hear at an authentic New England contra dance (a format Hope knows well).  Her jigs, “Out the Window” and “Out of the Woods,” call heartily upon Celtic traditions; the pulse here is dead-on, and as do all accomplished violinists, she makes difficult passages seem easy.  The jig, after all, is a rhythm we all know as well as our own heartbeats, but as any aspiring fiddler will affirm, it is a form which takes a lot of playing and concentration to master.

With this music, if the fiddler is lucky, he or she may have an accompanist who also has these cadences and tempos in his bones.  Hope has two:  Larry Burkett on guitar and bouzouki, and Hugh McGinness on cittern and cross-tuned guitar.  These two fellows seem to have virtually flawless timing, and yet they can create that sense of drama, that suggestion of narrative which is so crucial to instrumental music, and especially dance tunes.  In certain sets, as is tradition in Celtic music, bouzouki or cittern doubles the medley with fiddle, so that the layered richness of the bowed string and the plucked string together elicits that immediate response even in the uninitiated listener:  “Yes, I know this sound.  Where have I heard this before?”

The same must be said of Hope’s waltzes, brand new pieces which still resonate in our DNA.  “Out on the Water” and “Neofa Farewell” convey an original sensibility, with particular passages which more hip reviewers might be inclined to call “edgy,” and yet she has captured the sweetness of the waltz, that faraway quality which speaks to our instincts for things which exist simply for the sake of their own beauty.  And although I have always loved fast-paced string instrumentals, I have to say that my favorite tune on this album is “Cows Go Sailing,” another new waltz.  Its lovely walk-down melody is wistful, until it begins to spiral outward and outward into the blue like…well, like cows who have gone sailing.  This is a highly original composition which is somehow both childlike and complex at once, a finger-painting done by a master illustrator, if you will.

Make no mistake, though.  Even though these tunes are performed with precision and clarity, they are live studio performances, and the spontaneity comes through.  This music must have a communal quality to it, as the players take visual cues from one another, plunge in together here, follow and respond to one another there.  Any hint of slick production programs would spoil things.

Sometimes, when traditions no longer serve us, they should be cast off.  In this case, however, we have a tradition which should be honored and preserved.  Hoffman, Burkett, and McGinness – also know as Kittlish – honor this music in the best way possible:  through a laudable mix of re-interpretation, contribution, and faithfulness.

You can catch Kittlish March 5th and 19th at 7 p.m. at the North Star Music Café.

Hope Hoffman will play for the Down East Friends of the Folk Arts contra dance at Fairfield Center on Sat. March 15 starting at 7 p.m.

Purchase the CD "Infinite Winter Squash" on Hope's webpage, on CD Baby, or at Royal River Natural Foods in Freeport, ME (a percentage of the Royal River Natural Foods sales goes to The Organization for Transformative Farming.)

For additional performances, visit www.hopehoffman.org