Eric J Anderson -- contra dance piano

last updated May 26, 2017

Breaking news

Birthday next year will be April 8.
A one-page outline for a recent piano workshop at the FolkMADness 2017 dance weekend, Socorro NM, on May 27, 2017. YouTube is already up.

More news

Last birthday party was April 2, 2017. Wow.
I'm on staff this year (2017) at Fiddle Tunes.
I'm still working on pulling some materials together on Manmay La Kay, the crazy band from the Caribbean that made it to Fiddle Tunes a couple years ago:

Explanatory text (pdf, 2pp)
Long version (50m, 2+GB)
A 'trailer' version (6m, 400MB)
I'm going there on a boat.

A page devoted to a recent workshop at the Bear Hug dance weekend (Flathead Lake, MT), on September 12, 2015.
A page (with materials) devoted to a recent workshop at the Folk MADness dance weekend.
E-mail to 'ericdancepiano.com' is still black-holed. Try meanders@gmail.com or 'ericdancepiano' on Facebook (though I don't often post...). Or my snail-mail address.

Sound samples

...fiddle music...

From Eileen Nicholson and Continental Drift: a whole page of recently-recorded samples.
From Lee Anne Welch and Bandemonium!: a short excerpt (30s, mp3) -- a full-length two-disk set is available
From Caroline McCaskey and the Fiddlerats, an excerpt (1:40, mp3).
From the fiddler Karina Wilson: a full-length tune set (9:01, mp3) recorded live in Monterey CA in December 2013

Configurations

"Do you believe only two people are making all that music?" -- a camper at Bear Hug, as reported in the Missoula Folklore Society newsletter

You'll see me mostly fiddle-and-piano, and mostly with the same familiar faces:

Eileen Nicholson Kalfass of Syracuse NY and Continental Drift. We sometimes get to play with Terry Wergeland on accordion.
Bandemonium!, fiddle-and-piano with Lee Anne Welch of Saratoga, CA. Contra dance fiddling with a bluegrass tinge.
Alan Roberts, more fiddle-and-piano with a great and mostly old-time player from Seattle WA. We're sometimes joined by his wife Sande Gillette and Betsy Cooper from Kingston as "Southwest Passage" (so named because we used to all get on airplanes...).

Other bands and people I've played with --

The band 'Triangularity' with Susan Burke and Joe Micheals of Seattle. We played Halloween 2010 in Sacramento and Hayward, CA.
I used to play a lot with the Fiddlerats, fiddle and flute-and-djembe and that piano again. Young and lively contra dance tunes built around the spectacular Scottish fiddle of Caroline McCaskey from Stockton CA and now Denver CO. (She also plays saw.)
I've played several wonderful dances recently with Julie Smolin, a violinist and occasional fiddler from San Francisco.
I used to play a lot with Tom Hodgson (a fabulous guitar player from Ithaca NY) and Randy Miller in Celticladda.
I got to tour a few summers ago with Nor'easter, a great lively young band from Boston.

Schedule

I've put my schedule on a separate page. It's only as up-to-date as I am...

Find out more

Contra dancing is quite popular in Seattle and elsewhere, for good reason. Live fiddle music and a rocking piano, and newcomers always welcome.

If you want to play -- who doesn't? -- I've got some workshop materials on playing piano for dances that I'm happy to send you. Just drop me a line.

Also, as noted above, we hand out the Bandemonium! tape from 2006 to anyone who wants a full-dance-length live recording. Useful for calling, maybe too for the musical ideas. A sound sample (30s, mp3).