Loneliness, music mix in ‘Fiddler’s’

“Fiddler’s Dream”

by Gregory Spatz (Southern Methodist University Press, 264 pages, $22.50)

If you’ve ever wondered about the connection between music and literature, you’ll find it in “Fiddler’s Dream,” a “high lonesome” novel about a young man and his quest to become a bluegrass musician.

In music, the high lonesome technique is based on a paradox: a falsetto that sounds more suitable and true than a traditional tenor in specific songs. It simultaneously expresses the notion of having deep familial roots despite a plaintive feeling of yearning loneliness.

This is especially appropriate for “Fiddler’s Dream,” the new novel from Gregory Spatz, a professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University, former Michener fellow and the author of “No One But Us” (Algonquin Books, 1995).

In “Fiddler’s Dream,” Spatz focuses on a young man who’s the epitome of lonesome. Jesse Alison, a Vermont teenager, lives with a distant mother who was abandoned by her country-music-composer husband many years ago. The mother often sits on the front porch and binge-drinks into oblivion while Jesse holes up in his room or roams the countryside.

Eventually, he finds a neighbor, Genny, who builds and repairs violins. And with her help, he begins to develop his musical talents and dreams of playing in the band of Bill Monroe, the legendary father of bluegrass.

When Genny packs up for Nashville, Jesse decides to make his move, as well. He has heard that his long-lost father lives near Nashville, and he also wants to meet Monroe, who he hopes will be a substitute father and mentor. But his musical idol has recently had a medical setback and may be near the end of his long career.

Throughout the narrative, Spatz, who plays fiddle with John Reischman and the Jaybirds, shows his knowledge of how the give-and-take of bluegrass works. And in the process, he details Jesse’s musical growth – how he learns the bluegrass way, always focusing on making the lead singer sound as good as possible.

It’s only a matter of time, however, before Jesse discovers that his dad has remarried and has a family in Mississippi. And it’s at this point that his yearnings for a father begin to take over the high lonesome tone of “Fiddler’s Dream.”

Yearnings, of course, are rarely satisfied in country music. And Jesse eventually learns, with “muted awe,” that his salvation lies with neither Monroe nor his father.

It lies within himself – and in his relation to music. Just like a high lonesome country song.