Tristan Clarridge is the 2002 Grand National Fiddling Champion. At fifteen, he is the youngest fiddler ever to achieve this honor at the annual Grand National Championship in Weiser, Idaho. His talented sixteen year old sister, Tashina, won third place.

Lucky for Happy Camp – they decided they wanted to perform at our Second Annual River Run and blessed us with two afternoons of some of the best music this town has seen. Their music is exquisite and exciting, and the honor of having them choose to come here was uplifting for all of us, bikers and Happy Camp volunteer workers alike.

If you missed their stellar performances at River Park, don’t despair. Their CDs are available for sale on the web at their website, Clarridge Fiddlers. Three MP3s from their first CD are available for download there – try before you buy – these fiddlers and their mom are great!

Thanks go to Jeff and Lisa Wade, owners of the Indian Creek Café, for providing meals for the Clarridge Fiddlers during their stay here.

Tashina playing the fiddle, Grand National Fiddling Champion Tristan Clarridge playing mandolin, and their mother, Janet, on guitar.

Billed as “The Son O’ Pop’n Jam” and as “an evening of music and popcorn”, the jam session on January 19 was an attempt to discover if there’s local interest in having a coffee house type evening in Happy Camp. I could not resist the opportunity to see who might show up and with what. My curiosity was not disappointed.

Wandering into the Family Resource Center an hour after the jam began, I found Robert Goodwin at the mike, playing his acoustic guitar and singing with a friend. About twenty people sat in the darkened back room, listening; the only light came from the stage where a drum set, keyboard, amps, mikes, and electric guitars were set up. Goodwin’s final tune was one he had written himself, and I heard Coreen Davis say it was the best song he had sung that evening. I agreed – it was awesome and heartfelt. It seems that the songs best suited for our voices are often the ones we write ourselves.

Next Coreen and her husband, Scott Hampson, played with a friend, Denise, on guitar, Scott on banjo. They did a few blue-grass mountain-folk tunes.. very entertaining. I had to leave about then, but later in the evening returned to find a group of about ten musicians still at it. There were several electric guitars, drums, two keyboards, and a bass guitar. The music was loud! We heard Dylan’s tune, All Along the Watchtower, in the Hendrix style, and something that sounded like Pink Floyd. Some of the musicians are very talented and some are beginners, but everyone was having a good time groovin’ with the music, deep into the night.