Fold Of Fiddlers Six Willcox Children Prepare For Regional Fiddle Contest

Members of the Willcox family take the phrase “the family that plays together, stays together” seriously. So seriously, they don’t just play once in awhile - they’re constantly fiddling around.

The six children in the Valley family range in age from 7 to 15, but there’s one trait they share: They love the fiddle. They all will perform at this weekend’s 27th annual Northwest Regional Fiddle Contest.

“The younger the child, the more it seems they want to play,” said Ray Willcox, father of the fiddling family. “There’s no pressure.”

“They wanted to play since they were little, ever since we car-pooled with someone who was a fiddler,” said their mother, Kathy.

Music is in the Willcox blood. Ray plays guitar, Kathy plays the piano and organ. In fact, all their children who have reached fifth grade play other instruments in their school band, too.

The fiddle, though, is always the focus after 3 p.m.

“There’s no practicing of school instruments at home,” said son Michael, through a mischievous grin. “It’s forbidden.”

Marcie, the oldest at 15, attends Gonzaga Prep. Twins Michael and Mark, 13; Meghan, 11; Maureen, 9; and Michelle, 7, all attend St. Mary’s Catholic School.

Despite their love of the instrument, all the Willcox kids admit keeping up their skills can be demanding. Marcie quit the fiddle twice before, only to return to it.

Since their parents don’t make them continue playing, what coerces them to spend 20 minutes a day fiddling on their own, in addition to formal lessons? It’s their own self-policing peer pressure.

“I kept up because all six of us play,” Meghan said. “If you stop, it’s kind of like you’re out.”

There’s another reason, too - especially for the twins. It’s competition.

“(Practicing) is tough, unless there’s a contest coming up,” Michael said. “I got 21st at nationals last year, and Mark got 22nd.”

That definitely got Mark’s attention.

“He beat me by one lousy point,” he said. “Lousy.”

“Lousy?” Michael returned. “It was hard-earned.”

Fiddling at competitions is a lot different than the performing the Willcox kids do for school or church groups.

“If you’re performing, you should smile at the audience. In a contest you don’t want to look at anyone,” Michael said. “You’ll lose concentration.”

For Marcie, that’s the only time she gets nervous. “I usually don’t get nervous when I’m performing, it’s when I’m being judged,” she said.

While they all will psyche themselves up to compete in front of 500 fans (and more than 100 other fiddlers) this weekend, no one starts out a seasoned veteran. The family remembers those first fiddle-offs well.

“Most of the kids did something crazy their first contest,” mom Kathy said.

“Yeah, like play the first verse three times and the second verse like once,” Meghan added.

Crowds tend to be forgiving, though. When Michelle was 5, she won the youngest fiddler award at the Northwest regionals. The spectators are just happy to see young folks playing at that age.

“The more you mess up, the more they like it when you’re real little,” Mark said. “They think it’s cute.”

Messing up isn’t something that happens often with the Willcox family anymore. The youngest two children are part of a performing group called the Junior Hoedowners. The oldest four are all graduates of that group, and are part of a new team for young, elite fiddlers called FiddleSticks.

Both those groups started out of a longtime Valley tradition.

Every Tuesday at North Pines Junior High School, the Willcox family attends a no-cost fiddle workshop at 7 p.m.

Their father said those workshops are what made his family the fold of fiddlers it is today.

“The whole thing started with the lady we car-pooled with five years ago, then we found the workshop,” Ray said. “It was magic.”

That magic was started 21 years ago by Frank Wagner, now a retired firefighter. He started offering the workshops at the request of the Washington Old-Time Fiddlers Association, and has been teaching youngsters ever since.

“I make certain they learn a song each week,” Wagner said.

“I don’t charge a thing. All I ask is that they teach others … teachers usually say their biggest problem is getting kids to practice. The parents of our kids say it’s getting them to quit playing all day.”

The Willcox children love teaching younger fiddlers, because they “like to play to be like the older kids,” Meghan said. Older children often aren’t as apt to learn from someone their own age.

“Littler kids are quicker learners,” she said.

But whether it’s competing, practicing or teaching, fiddling can get expensive for a big family. So far, ten fiddles have trafficked through the Willcox home. When they first took up music, the parents bought the fiddles. Now, the older children have to pay to maintain or upgrade their own.

They also have to fix their fiddles if they’ve been broken or dropped, which isn’t unheard of.

Nevertheless, the broken fiddles always get fixed, and the Willcox family keeps the bows flying. No matter what the repair cost, the children love the fiddle too much to go without theirs for too long.

“Kids love fiddle music,” Ray said. “It puts them in a spin.”

MEMO: This sidebar ran with story: FIDDLE CONTEST FACTS Fiddling is big here in the Spokane Valley. Ray Willcox thinks he knows why. “Spokane is a major center for fiddling,” he said. “I’m from Austin, Texas, so I’m familiar with that. But why Spokane? It was settled very late, so it may be that it’s the last gasp of old-time fiddling.” This weekend’s contest is a chance to see many of the area’s top fiddlers, from tykes to seasoned pros. All events happen at the Trent Elementary School auditorium, N3303 Pines Road.

Saturday Contest preliminaries (adult, young adult, and junior-junior divisions) - 8 a.m. Senior, senior-senior and small fry division preliminaries and finals - 12:45 p.m. Junior Hoedowners, FiddleSticks, junior-junior finals, adult finals, championship division preliminaries, young adult finals, showcase division and trophy presentation - 6:30 p.m.

Sunday Junior division preliminaries, championship round two, 9 a.m. Junior round two, championship division finals, junior division finals, trophy presentation, 12 p.m.