(Begin reading this diary entry.)
I found this handbill up at the Wisconsin Historical Society's online image repository as I poking around the web for info on Chetek for my previous entry. I don't think the Chetek Opera House exists any longer. The Rindlisbachers mentioned here were, I believe, Otto and Iva Rindlisbacher of Rice Lake which lies about 15 miles north of Chetek.
Otto Rindlisbacher is a figure that looms large in the history of Wisconsin folk music. Primarily a fiddler, although he played other instruments, his biography reads like that of the quintessential Wisconsinite from days of yore. He was a cheesemaker and lumberjack before running a tavern - the Buckhorn in Rice Lake. Rindlisbacher came to semi-prominence in folk circles after a group of which he was a member, The Wisconsin Lumberjacks, performed at the 1937 National Folk Festival held in Chicago. Alan Lomax would record him the following year.
For more information about Rindlisbacher, check out Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937-1946 by James P. Leary.
That's Otto and Iva in the upper photo, bottom row. Otto holds the accordion next to Iva who has a Viking cello.
Leary is leading the charge here in Wisconsin against the notion that American folkways (Americana) are the exclusive domain of the South. (Josh Garrett-Davis is another figure that comes to mind.) As a young man, he visited Rindlisbacher's Buckhorn Tavern and these visits proved highly inspirational to the budding folklorist.
Someone else greatly inspired by Rindlisbacher is Jason Busniewski, a Milwaukee-area fiddle player and self-described cultural activist who seeks to preserve the musical traditions of the upper Midwest. Busniewski has a YouTube channel featuring his playing. This is "Lumberjack Dance Tune". He describes it as "From the playing of Otto Rindlisbacher" so I am unsure if it was written by the man or if Busniewski plays Rindlisbacher's arrangement of someone else's song.
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