Orange Blossom Special

Advanced Tune Tuesday - Orange Blossom Special I can’t believe it! The end of the #2022advancedplayerschallenge is upon us and we’re going out with, well, a true classic. Orange Blossom Special is one of the most requested fiddle tunes of all time (You can’t believe how grateful I am y’all didn’t assign Devil Went Down to Georgia. 👿) and for good reason, really. It’s fun for audiences to hear and us fiddle players who play for the entertainment of others know this is what we signed up for. I’ve been through a million feelings about OBS over the years - I started playing it at five years old when I was in my first kids fiddle group (shoutout to the Shasta Old Tyme Fiddle Kids) and can remember very clearly when I was able to graduate from the single shuffle to the double shuffle. By the time I was a surly teenager I’d played it thousands of times and probably used a few of my early curse words whenever anyone asked me to play it. But these days, hey, I’m just grateful to get to play and teach the fiddle for a living so it doesn’t really get my dander up when people ask for it. Today, I just pulled it up on Strum Machine and kept an eye on how many rotations there were in their standard version and went to the double shuffle when it told me to. One take. I mean, I don’t MIND playing it but I don’t really wanna do it 30 times. When I decided to do all 52 of these I figured it was 50/50 that I’d actually complete it but as soon as I got started and began to engage with such positivity within the Fiddle Tune Video Library Facebook group, I knew I’d make it to the end. (Oh, and when I got sick with Covid and was stuck in London and my videos were late, you all checked in and worried about me which made me feel so loved - thank you!) I learned SO MUCH. This has been a truly incredible experience for me. I got way faster at charting songs and entering them into Strum Machine, I managed to eventually play some decent Scottish cuts, and I learned some completely unexpected tunes that are now among my favorites. And if something I played or talked about helped any of you in any way, then that’s just beyond my original expectations. Happy New Year to you all. ❤️