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Angels laid him away...
Aug. 17th, 2005 01:05 pmR.I.P. Vassar Clements
By a significant margin, Vassar was the finest fiddle player I ever saw perform. His touch with the double stops would raise the hairs on your knuckles, and then he'd let rip with seemingly endless, lyrical runs. Then, in between songs, he'd huff on a pipe and let huge clouds unfurl into the rafters of the Warfield. I saw him with a reconstituted Old and In The Way, with Grisman and Rowan, in March of '96 and several times afterwards. He looked about 80 and played with the energy of a man 1/4 that old. Hard to argue that, at 77, he was taken too young, but...but.
By a significant margin, Vassar was the finest fiddle player I ever saw perform. His touch with the double stops would raise the hairs on your knuckles, and then he'd let rip with seemingly endless, lyrical runs. Then, in between songs, he'd huff on a pipe and let huge clouds unfurl into the rafters of the Warfield. I saw him with a reconstituted Old and In The Way, with Grisman and Rowan, in March of '96 and several times afterwards. He looked about 80 and played with the energy of a man 1/4 that old. Hard to argue that, at 77, he was taken too young, but...but.
