How Did The Fiddle Rascals Begin?
Brothers- Michael, Kelsey and Jimmy Sharp were in a performing group of young violin performers called “The Iron Range Singing Strings” in Minnesota. In the group they sang, danced and played different styles of music including Finnish, Gypsy and Western tunes. They toured with the group, led by their teacher, Helina Pakola, to places such as Finland, Sweden, Russia, Disneyworld, Hollywood and Australia. Because they learned western style, my brothers entered numerous Fiddle Contests and won awards. I want to add that my mom spent many hours overseeing my brothers practicing and also touring with them playing accordion and piano and my Dad Jerry videoed them.
When my family moved to Texas, my mom found a top winning fiddle teacher, who lived in Burleson Texas which was about 1 ½ hour drive. The teachers name was Jimmy Don Bates. He was a large man that chewed tobacco and he would spit the tobacco in a cup next to him. My brothers would be distracted in their lessons thinking it would tip over. Very Gross. My brothers also studied classical music with the “Suzuki Method”. They gave private lessons to a couple students along with my daughter Sharla at only 5 years old. We knew it would benefit the kids to play together so we started practicing as a group singing and playing Western songs once a week at my mom’s (Grandma Mary’s house). My mom took over leading the group much as Helina Pakola did.
At first the kids sang songs with actions while the older kids played accompaniment. To help the kids remember the words, small posters on a wooden stick were made with pictures. Some of the songs we sang were “I’m A Texas Cowboy, Big D Little A Double L, A, S, Deep In The Heart of Texas, and Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight?”. Our first performance was in The Colony, Texas Walmart next to the clothes racks. Then we made costumes that were turquoise and black and named ourselves “The Fiddle Rascals”.
As our skills improved, we added more fiddles, guitar, bass, drum, banjo, mandolin, cajon and accordion. With the kids improving in their fiddle lessons, competing and going to fiddle camps, we took on the style of Western Swing, performing many songs from the musical group “Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys “ who started their fame in the 1930’s. It’s hard to pinpoint a date of when we officially started, it was a gradual process from 1994. Sharla started taking fiddle lessons around age 7 or 8. I took Sharla out of school twice a month to drive her to Burleson to take fiddle lessons from Valerie Ryles who is honored in the Texas Fiddler Hall of Fame. As a teen, Sharla even competed in The National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser, Idaho and the Red Steagall Fiddling Contest at the Fort Worth Stockyards.
Presently the young Fiddle Rascals have grown to adulthood, some to college, marriage or relocation. We’ve had past students and friends in our group we would like to remember like the Dunlap Family, Benavides Family, Garcia girls and Gilmore Family. Individuals James, Jarron and Daniel Franklin, Emily Brady, Whitney Haddock, Eddie Lee Wilder, Kim Russel and Noel Watson.
Today we continue as a 4 generation, 15 member family band with our friend George Hatfield on the guitar. We range in age from 4 to 78. We also have a first class sound system, complements to my great husband who runs it, Bob Blake.