The fourth annual Festival of Texas Fiddling was held at the Twin Sisters Dance Hall in Blanco over the weekend. The best of Texas’ fiddle players came together, marrying multiple styles, including old time country, Creole and Tejano, to name a few.
Dan Margolies, president of the Texas Fiddling nonprofit and creative director of the festival, says, “Texas has the most diverse regional and ethnic fiddle styles.”
Ed Poullard, a festival attendee, was born in Louisiana, but has lived most of his life in Beaumont. He says he started playing the violin after his grandfather died and his dad inherited his instrument. He says he learned how to play from Creole and Cajun players.
“It’s an instrument that you can get such beautiful sounds out of,” Poullard says. ”But … it also makes some of the most horrible sounds you’ve ever heard in your life. And I’ve made them all.”
Like Poullard, Belen Escobedo says she was drawn to the fiddle at a young age.
“When they put it in my hands, it was easy to do,” she says. “I just held on to it. … It’s like breathing; it’s easy. I love it.”
A San Antonio native, Escobedo says she remembers playing the fiddle for her grandparents and watching them dance to her music.
“To me, that’s a wonderful memory,” she says.
Written by Morgan Kuehler.