Greetings from Washington DC, which for the year 2007 will be home base for FiddleSticks.  If you've been following this newsletter it will be no surprise that 2007 is a different kind of year for the band, since we're scattered to the four winds: Becca the singer/flutist is living in Hawaii, Katie the fiddler's on a mission in South Africa, Liz is going to school at Berklee in Boston with her cello, and Marco and Andi are enjoying a sabbatical in Washington DC, together with their dulcimer, bodhran, and Xanny (age 4) and Zina (age 2).  

We're all off having fun, but our fans will have to make do with recordings for a while, and look forward to a reunion concert in 2008.

To make up for the lack of live performances, we've decided to launch our February FiddleSticks Fantastic Freebies CD deals.  Four ways to get great FiddleSticks recordings on the cheap!  Here's the story:

Deal Number One: Buy a "Recent" CD, and Get an Extra Disc Free!

That is, if you buy "Farewell to Nauvoo" or "Ampersand" or "Return to Nauvoo" you can have, for free, an extra unpackaged "Farewell to Nauvoo" or "Ampersand" disc.  Use the extra for your car, or your computer, or to give away. (We're helping save your soul, since this might help you avoid the temptation to BURN a copy to share!) And you can mix and match.  So, for example, buy an "Ampersand" - choose a "Farewell" -- or any other combination.  And there's no limit: Buy two CDs, get two discs! Three for three, etc!

CDs are $15 each, $2 shipping per order (and shipping is free if your total is $45 or more). 

To listen to the tunes and help you decide what to buy, go to http://www.fiddle-sticks.com/FSListen.html.

But wait, there's more!

Deal Number Two: Buy an "Older" CD and Get another "Older CD" Free!

We hate to admit it, but some of our best albums are sitting on shelves getting dusty.  We'd like to get them out of our garage and into your CD player.  So here's the deal: Buy any of our "older" CDs (including "Cat and the Fiddle" (2002), "Time and Again" (2001), "Cold Fusion" (2000), or "Playing Favorites" (1999)) and you can choose any other of the "older" CDs for free.  So, for example, buy a "Cat and the Fiddle" and get a "Playing Favorites."  Buy two, get two!  Again, each CD is $15, with $2 per order (and shipping is free if the order is $45 or more).

BUT WAIT, THERE'S EVEN MORE!

Deal Number Three: Buy ANY CD and get a TSSA CD for Free!

If you've been a FiddleSticks fan for long you know we contribute a tune every year to the annual Timpanogos Singer-Songwriter Alliance (TSSA) compilation CD.  These are wonderful recordings, featuring some of the best, most original, authentic music from around Utah.  Normally we give them away with each two CDs we sell, but right now, we'll send you a TSSA free with ANY Fiddle-Sticks CD order.  And you're already getting a deal.  How can you say no??  To read about the TSSA CDs, go to http://www.timpanogos.org/cds.  If there's one you particularly want, specify it in your order and if we have it, we'll send your choice (but we don't have all of them any more, so please list a second choice).

AND FINALLY, Deal Number Four: Andi Pitcher's Obsidian Rain

Before she joined up with the FiddleSticks family, Andi released her own celtic CD, called Obsidian Rain, with Kristen Washburn.  It's an album of original and evocative arrangements on traditional Celtic tunes on fiddle and hammer ducimer. Obsidian Rain defies categorization, but haunts the margins of Celtic and New Age and Fusion Folk.  And for this month, you can use it as a "wild card" in any of the above three deals... buy Obsidian Rain and choose any of the other freebies: the loose disc, the "Older" album, or the TSSA compilation.  You can listen to samples at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/apkw. 

WOW!  HOW DO I SIGN UP??:

Mail order: Send a check to FiddleSticks, 1008 Independence Ave. SE, Washington DC 20003.  Describe what CDs and what freebies or deals you want, and we'll send them right out to you.  (You can print out a mail order form at http://www.fiddle-sticks.com/FSOrder.html.)

Website: You can go to the website and order by clicking on the "buy now" link on the CD you want to pay for.... but the website doesn't know about the freebies, so at the same time you make the website order, send an email to order@..., identifying your order and describing what freebie/deals you want.

Paypal: You can purchase via PayPal (go to paypal.com, select "send money," and use email address order@fiddle-sticks.com for the PayPal payee).  Just be sure to describe in the notes what CDs and what deal you want, and provide your address.

Thanks! If you've wanted to add to your FiddleSticks collection, or replace those discs that got borrowed and never returned, now's a great time to do it at a super-affordable price!  Happy February!

(Thanks for subscribing to our FiddleSticks Newsletter.  If you don't want to be on the list anymore, please send an email to unsubscribe@fiddle-sticks.com.  But we hope you will stay with us!) 

FiddleSticks is a family musical group that performs folk songs and traditional tunes from the Celtic lands, from England, and from America. The band plays a lively mix of Celtic fusion tunes, with some bluegrass, American old-time, and Jazz vibes mixed in.  Featured instruments include fiddle, flutes, cello, bodhran (Irish drum), guitar, hammer dulcimer, accordion, and vocals.

FiddleSticks got their start in 1991 when the family lived in the Washington DC area, and since moving to Utah in 1996 they have entertained audiences throughout the state. They have performed throughout Utah, and have presented numerous concerts in the Mountain West, the Pacific Northwest, California, Maryland, and New England, the American Midwest including Nauvoo, and have even toured across Japan and Europe. Despite busy work and school schedules, the family band averages over fifty public performances a year, including various music and folk festivals, television and radio spots, numerous community, library, and school concerts, private parties and receptions, as well as performances at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, the Scera Shell, Kingsbury Hall, Capitol Theater, Nauvoo Arts Theater, Provo Freedom Festival, Sandy Amphitheater, and numerous shows over many years for the Utah Performing Arts Tour.

FiddleSticks’ music has been recognized nationwide,  including two Pearl Awards and numerous Pearl Award nominations.  They have released eight recordings. The two most recent are “Farewell to Nauvoo” (2006) which presents Mormon and Shaker folk tunes in a traditional Celtic setting, and “Ampersand” (2006) which features all new tunes on fiddle and cello, showing off the band’ s energetic and innovative playing techniques.  “Return to Nauvoo” (released in 2004), is a collection of American and Mormon folk hymns that has been far and away the best seller. Celtic albums include “Cat and the Fiddle” (2002), “Time and Again” (2001) “Christmas Cold Fusion” (2000), “Playing Favorites” (1999) and “FiddleSticks Sampler” (1998), which have been enthusiastically received by the band’s growing crowd of admirers.  

Recordings are available in local bookstores, by mail order, on CDBaby.com, on iTunes and Apeus (and other online sources), or on FiddleSticks’ web page: www.fiddle-sticks.com.