Category: Chicago

I first discovered singer/songwriter, roots fiddler Anne Harris, through her work with trance Blues innovator Otis Taylor, who I had seen play at the Doheny Blues festival more than a decade ago. Anne recorded and toured worldwide for nearly a decade with Otis Taylor. Long time readers of this blog know how central the Blues has been to my musical journey.

Earlier this year GoFundMe’s Heroes spotlighted Anne’s crowdfunding of her historic commission of a handcrafted violin by luthier Amanda Ewing, the first and only female African American violin maker on record in the United States, making this the first professional commission on record of a violin by an African American female luthier for an African American female violinist. The story got quite a bit of press coverage and I was excited to talk to Anne about her roots in roots music and her love of the violin and of our conversation explored many offshoots such as AI and being co-creators, electoral politics, empowering storytelling, and representation.

I did a bit of a search and found that throughout history and spanning cultures worldwide, there are many  folktales that feature a magical violin. From Elijah’s violin in the Egyptian Jewish folktale, the Scandinavian Fossegrim to Anansi, the fiddle playing trickster spider traced back to Ghana. It’s fascinating how Anne Harris’s journey into the world of the violin has a serendipitous connection to the beloved movie Fiddler on the Roof. 

“I started begging for a violin when I was three and my mother took me to go see the movie version of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. She tells me that I stood up out of my seat in the beginning of the film when Isaac Stern is shown in silhouette playing the overture, pointed to the screen, and shouted, “Mommy that’s what I want to do!”

Born in Ohio, Anne grew up in a loving family in a musical household within a vibrant musical community, and it was not a given that she ended up playing American Roots music as she initially was classically trained and wasn’t exposed to the violin in the context of improvisation and blues/roots music. In popular music seeing Black people playing roots and folk music was a rarity until recently.

“I grew up in a house filled with music, within a community filled with music, within a music-filled world. My dad was an avid vinyl collector, and both of my parents loved music of all genres. Those sounds were the sonic backdrop of my childhood. Blues, Gospel, Classical, Opera, Musical Theater, Folk, Pop, Jazz, Soul, Country, Rock, and much more. The radio, my older sister’s collection, my friend’s music… All of it was foundational to my musical development. And being immersed in such a wide variety of music was a gift for which I’m so deeply grateful. The things that really spoke to me came from different parts of who I was exploring as I grew. I loved Issac Stern because he worked impossible magic with his instrument. I loved Stevie Wonder because of his obvious genius- weaving those incredible tapestries of emotion, with sound, with story. Mahalia Jackson because her voice was a direct conduit to Spirit. I loved the Musical ‘Hair’ for its freedom, (I performed in an amazing version of it produced entirely by me and my friends!), and Musical Theater in general. I loved to dance so Prince, Parliament Funkadelic, Rick James…and many many more of course. But honestly, I never thought specifically about becoming a professional violin player, because although I was in love with the instrument, I was trained Classically, and I never saw myself adhering to that structure. I really loved the freedom that improvisational players had, like guitar players, and since I wasn’t really listening to Bluegrass or Old Time music, it simply never occurred to me that I could take my instrument into contemporary genres. If you don’t SEE it, oftentimes it is really hard to imagine it when you are young. Because most young people begin their musical explorations by imitating what they see that excites them. I never saw a Black person playing Blues or American Roots music growing up, and certainly never a woman.”

Prior to her work with Otis Taylor, Anne was playing and writing American Roots music, and listening to a lot of Irish fiddle and Old Time music, as well as a lot of International music.  Blues music was a pivotal turn in her musical journey as it changed her entire approach as a player. Anne was a musical theater major at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, and then moved to Chicago after graduating where she picked up her fiddle again, but this time instead of classical music, she became an improvisational player, and started working in various local indie and cover bands. It was that time that she decided to stop reading music and learn strictly by ear. Though Anne has worked hard to create a style and sound of her own, she credits groundbreaking fiddlers Papa John Creach, Sugarcane Harris, and Stuff Smith in influencing her development.

“These groundbreaking artists encapsulated for me what was possible for the instrument beyond the world of Classical music, or really even beyond Jazz as I was starting to play out in American Roots bands  and Rock bands in Chicago. But as far as Jazz players, Regina Carter really snapped my neck as well. Her versatility and soul are astounding.”

Playlist of Anne’s Music as well as a few of her inspirations mentioned above.

Another theme in folkloric tales regarding the violin are the creation stories of the violin itself. As referenced in the first paragraph of this blog post and story also features a magical violin origin story here is a video of a talking a little bit more about her and Amanda’s collaboration.

Visit Anne’s website to keep up and follow her on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, and Apple Music. Find out more about luthier Amanda Ewing here: https://linktr.ee/lovinglyamanda.