Fiddlers Take The Stand Prominent Spokane Attorney Among The 350 Competitors At The ‘Super Bowl Of Fiddling’

Most people expect to find Aaron Lowe carrying a briefcase full of court files.

But next week this defense attorney, who has been involved in some of Spokane’s most prominent court cases, will be cradling a fiddle in his hands instead.

And he will be nowhere near his most well-known environment - the courthouse. Instead, he will be kicking back in a place that has been dubbed “The Fiddle Capital of the World.”

The place is Weiser, Idaho - a small town perched on the border of Idaho and Oregon that annually undergoes a massive transformation for The National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest. This year it will run from June 15-21.

This is no ordinary fiddle competition. It is, according to organizers, “The Super Bowl of Fiddling.”

And, “It’s one big party,” says Lowe, who earlier this year defended Verne Merrell, accused of bombing and robbing several Spokane businesses. Lowe should know. He has attended the event every year since 1964.

In the span of just a few days, this berg - population 5,200 - will balloon to 20,000 with fiddle enthusiasts.

Some 350 of them - Lowe included - will be there to compete. But mostly, they will all be there to have fun. Because here in the Fiddle Capital of the World it is never silent.

“There’s music 24 hours a day,” Lowe says. “The young guys play most the night. Then the older guys get up about the crack of dawn and start up. You can find anything from reggae to jazz, to old-time music to whatever you want. It’s there.”

The National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, held at the high school, draws musicians from all over the world. Contestants range in age from 3 to 90 and compete for national titles and $36,000 in money and prizes.

Megan Frazier, a 23-year-old Post Falls resident who has played the fiddle since she was 5, has missed only one of the festivals in the past decade or so.

“My ultimate goal is to get top five in my division,” she says, explaining that three years in a row she took sixth place. “One of these days I might make it.”

She says she still gets nervous before she competes. “But I practice a song so much before I go that my fingers pretty much, thankfully, know where to go. If I think too hard about it I’ll mess up, so I just let them go.”

Weiser’s first fiddle competition was held in 1953 as part of the Annual Weiser Square Dance Festival. The fiddling was such a hit that it soon pushed out the square dancing and, in 1963, the whole affair changed names to the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest.

Lowe first began playing the fiddle when he was 10 years old.

“It can be very complicated but very simple in its sound,” Lowe says. “I just think it’s a true American art form.”

After high school, he played professionally with a band before heading off to law school.

In the 1980s, Lowe won fifth place in the national grand championship category. He also was awarded best accompanist 15 years in a row for playing guitar with the fiddlers.

With his legal work, and especially this year’s bombing trial, it has been difficult for him to find time for fiddling - much less preparing for a competition.

“It’s been a really tough year,” he says. “I try to play every once in a while even if I’m just watching TV, or before I go to bed I’ll break it out and play a tune or two. But I don’t really compete on the level I used to.”

That won’t stop him from attending the event. This year, Lowe will load his family into a converted school bus and take a road trip to the fiddle festival where they will camp with the throngs of other music enthusiasts.

It’s really the people he’s there for anyway.

“It’s almost like a big family reunion because people come from all over the country that you haven’t seen all year.”

Frazier agrees.

“I’m not going to compete as much as to see everybody,” she says. “Once you start going, you just hate to miss it.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NATIONAL OLDTIME FIDDLERS’ CONTEST

The National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest runs from Sunday through Saturday, June 21, at the Weiser High School Gymnasium. Competitions run from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 7-11 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets range from $3 to $12 and are available by calling (800) 437-1280. The schedule is as follows:

Sunday: Registration and general meeting. Monday: small-fry preliminary, adult preliminary and adult championship. Tuesday: junior-junior preliminary and junior-junior and small-fry championships. Wednesday: junior and national grand championship preliminaries and junior championship. Thursday: young adult and national grand champion preliminaries and young adult championship. Friday: senior-senior, senior and national grand champion preliminaries, and senior and senior-senior championships. Saturday: golf tournament, parade, barbecue, national grand champion finals.