Tom Weisgerber earned the top prize Sunday at the Washington State Fiddle Championships and the $1,000 reward that comes with it. But when asked what he plans to do with the money, his response was predictably dismissive.
“I don’t know, pay some bills I guess,” Weisgerber said.
Roughly 80 fiddlers competed Saturday and Saturday at the championships at the Clark County Fair. Competition, however, played second fiddle to the celebration of friends and music.
“Nobody does this for a living. They just go and hang out,” said Luke Price, who placed second after winning the competition last year. “It’s just about making music, so it’s pretty cool.”
Price, of Portland, has been to several locations across the U.S. for competitions, including Nashville, Tenn.; Idaho and Texas. Each competition, he reunites with people he’s known since he started playing at 6 years old.
The fiddlers gathered for barbecues both competition nights, Weisgerber said. The fiddling continued at the after parties, and some even stayed awake until 4 a.m. after the first night.
“It’s kind of like a family in that sense,” Price said. “The competition is just an excuse to get together.”
About seven states were represented in the competition, said Aarun Carter, who helped run the championships with her mother, Denise Carter, and won first place in the young-adult division. Her mother has been the main organizer since 2017, when the competition was first added to the fair through the Washington Old Time Fiddler’s Association.
Aarun Carter of Portland said that when she performs, she tries to incorporate sounds played by some of her music heroes.
“People with a well-tuned ear would know what my history is,” she said.
Coincidentally, one of her music idols was on hand this weekend and placed third. Alita Weisgerber, also Tom Weisgerber’s wife, lives in St. Peter, Minn. A couple of years ago, she was a judge at the local competition.
After one performance, Alita Weisgerber bumped fists with Price, whom she was slated to compete with minutes later for the main prize.
“This is our church, so to speak,” she said.
While many of the tunes are much older than the fiddlers themselves, each musician makes his or her own adaptation. While Tom Weisgerber play aggressively, for instance, Price’s music has a more laid-back feel.
“Everything you do is about respecting that style and putting your own spin on it,” Price said. “In different places of the country, you’ll hear different versions of the tunes. It’s all about how you play it, how you play that day.”
On Sunday, Price and the Weisgerbers were part of a three-person round robin to determine the final winner. With three judges observing, they played their own take on five different types of tunes: breakdown, reel, polka, rag and waltz.
The dozens of onlookers tapped their feet and nodded their heads. Their most visceral reactions came when judges would give fiddlers low scores.
“We’re all playing for each other on stage,” Tom Weisgerber said.
