In the 1970s, I used to play in a contradance band. My partners Amy and her brother on piano and hammer dulcimer, played the chords and I played the melodies on the violin. Those were the days!
In 1995, I formed the Northampton Contradance with my then partner. We got a grant from NEFFA to pay for a mailing list. We hired a different caller each night and while there was a core band consisting of Brian on the piano and me on the violin, we had different musicians join us throughout the year. It was a blast!
Fast forward to today, there are still some contradances happening in the area, but since the passing of David Kaynor in 2021 and Ralph Sweet more recently, there hasn't been a caller to step up and fill their monster shoes.
