Tom Tuerff's Glob -- er, Blog, or something

I am a member of the board of Fiddler's Dream, a very popular non-profit folk music organization that does business out of a coffeehouse on the property of the Friends (Quakers) Meeting House here in Phoenix.

Recently, for reasons that can best be explained in one sentence -- namely: Some people don't like other people on the board -- Our board president of many years stepped down, and without going into details, resigned somewhat messily, treading on a lot of toes and opening a few cans of worms just for the heck of it.

In the midst of all this, rumors started moving through the folk music community, spurned on by a mysterious letter writer who pilfered the mailing list of the Southwest Acoustic Music Association, and put out a series of lies regarding Fidd's, members of the Fiddlers' Dream board, false hearsay regarding plans for refurbishing the stage, and tons more bad stuff.

Our new President, Nia Maxwell, is doing a bangup job trying to nip this shit in the bud.

However, obviously there are a bunch of people out there who are hearing nasty stuff about Fiddlers' Dream that simply isn't true. If you attend shows or play at Fidd's at all, and you're reading this, and you hear ANYTHING about "what's going on at Fiddlers' Dream," please tell these people to get ahold of me, or any of the current board members.

Out of the problems, however, have come some interesting letters. We recently got one from somebody who "used to play" at Fidd's but stopped when he felt that most of the talent who plays there is "not worth paying for." From the tone of the letter, this appears to mean "Not as good as he perceives himself to be."

For the record, I have a lot of clout in picking who plays at Fidds, at least when it comes to people we're not familiar with. I run the Thursday night open stage, and if I'm continually blown away by somebody 2-3 weeks in a row, then they're going to be asked to book time.

Sure, some people call, get booked and we don't know them from Adam. But that's what happens when you have to book 24 acts a month. And in the immortal words of Super Chicken, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.

I've said it a lot of times and I'll say it again. We don't guarantee audiences at Fiddlers' Dream. We just give you a place to bring people. If you don't bring the audience, we can't guarantee anyone will show up.

That said, it was nice to see a full house last Saturday when I played with Dick Charland and Ian McPherson. It was obvious that all three of us had done some promotion and it worked.

TT