Album Notes

“Fiddler’s Dream” is the debut solo recording of fiddle/bouzouki player Greg Spatz.

Greg is known primarily for his deft and tasteful fiddle work with the all-star bluegrass outfit, John Reischman and the Jaybirds. His fiddling can be heard on all of the Jaybirds recordings, most recently the critically acclaimed “Stellar Jays.”

Greg’s bluegrass fiddle resume includes work with High Country, The Good Old Persons, Due West, Rob Ickes, Sally Van Meter, Mark Vann, Kathy Kallick, Frank Wakefield, and many others. Fiddler Magazine calls him a “world class fiddler” and Audiophile Audition says Greg is “One of the best and most underrated Bluegrass fiddlers in the business. His fluid bluesy virtuosic playing is flawlessly delivered time after time.”

“Fiddler’s Dream” collects into one volume music featuring the three groups in which Greg has had the privilege of working the past several years. In roughly equal portions: bluegrass fiddle originals and traditional fiddle tunes backed by John Reischman and the Jaybirds (with special guest Rob Ickes); twin-fiddle and Celtic-inflected vocal-bouzouki duets with his wife Caridwen Irvine-Spatz; and the eclectic old-time world-folk sound of Mighty Squirrel.

Greg has studied and played Irish music for many years now. Listeners will be delighted with the way he skillfully blends Celtic influences with a bluegrass attack to create his own, unique style of bouzouki accompaniment. Whether alone or with Mighty Squirrel, his bouzouki work is always the perfect complement to Caridwen Irvine-Spatz’s “expressive, flexible and utterly charming” voice (Audiophile Audition).

With three books of fiction to his credit (two novels and one short story collection) and over 20 short story publications (including a story in The New Yorker), Greg is widely known for his fiction writing. Here he also takes a turn at tune-writing with two original fiddle tunes, “Bash Bish Falls” and “Caridwen’s Waltz.” Other songs included on “Fiddler’s Dream” were chosen for their relevance to Greg’s critically acclaimed most recent novel, also entitled Fiddler’s Dream.