1974 recordings
1950 recordings
1948 recordings. Live at a dance.
Notes from Cecilia about her dad Walter:
Walter was originally from Warsaw, North Dakota. He lived on the river, crossing over by boat to play in the Big Woods area. He played some Polish tunes, but mostly Norwegian tunes. Old Man Hawkinson was a Norwegian from Oslo, MN. He taught dad how to play.
On the day JFK died, I had a concert at the school where I was teaching. We had a music recital. Walter came to it. I knew that he would never agree to play, so I snuck his fiddle in, and he was real surprised. He was the most nervous he ever was because he had not practiced anything. I told him to play Surveyor’s Reel and Berg’s Waltz, just like we did in so many contests. We could play them in our sleep.
There were no tune names. Dad would call out a key and start rattling off tunes without names. I never did know what he was going to play. We knew that he was dying, so we recorded everything he could remember in July of 1974. It was very hot. We were scared that he was only going to live for a few weeks, but he lived until the end of the year. The greatest gift I got from him was the music. No one could ever play the waltzes like he could. The only time Dad felt like he was the inferior fiddler in a jam was when he would play with some Canadians like Andy DeJaris or Don Messer. He was an extremely good businessman, an extremely good agent, but the music is the great gift he gave to us.
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| Walter Stoltman Photo: Maribeth Linder Boyle |
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| Photo: Maribeth Linder Boyle |
I really enjoyed these tunes, i grew up in nw mo. i had the opportunity to hear a fiddler here that lived up the road. he played left handed over the top. played at least 800, tunes. my sister lucy wrote them down, it was back in the sixty's they played all week long, his name was cyril stinnett. did your father know him by chance?
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