Next Sunday is Spider John's last Viking performance until at least Fall. Koerner will feature his main fiddler of many years, Chip Taylor Smith, old-time fiddler from Boston.
Correction to today's Star Tribune article on Spider John -- this regular gig is always about 7:30 pm to 11 pm rather than 6 - 9. John's hip surgery is April 6, then he's going to take some time off and then do his usual summer touring thing.
Spider John Koerner and Tony Glover play the Cedar Cultural Center Sat. April 2nd at the end of the "Been Here . . . Done That" film run. Tickets are $12 adv., $15 at the show.
I had the opportunity to "steal" Koerner's fiddler one night in Maidenrock during a gig of theirs at Ole's Bar. Learning we each played old-time, we stole the earliest opportunity (a break between sets) to play some tunes outside in the park a few hundred yards from the bar. The 15 minutes turned into 1/2 hour, and during a break, Chip thought he heard Koerner playing again. We went back in, to a crowd of 150 saying "There he is! There's the fiddler! There's Cindy! She took him! Cindy stole John's fiddler." Well, you know us fiddlers. Can't stay out of trouble. Koerner was up there playing away, unruffled. He goes to Chip, "Where were you?" and looks at me, and goes, "oh, yeah. She stole you from me," and laughs.
Needless to say, Koerner teased me about the "theft" for a long time. I had a great time playing with Chip, and Koerner kept me informed of how Chip was doing as he recovered from a car crash a few weeks later that could've paralyzed him. Now he's fine and I'll get another opportunity to steal him away from Koerner Sunday night. I told Koerner that I wouldn't do it this time, to which he responded, "I don't care!" So, I said, "oh! Well then I will!" He laughed.
He later played my requested song, Rattlesnake. For a time I was only requesting "Roving Gambler," then it was "Dodger," lately it's been "Rattlesnake.' Soon, I'll simply be requesting that he play somewhere around here again soon.
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