Grantee Partner Spotlight: Dennis Stroughmatt

A Q&A with Dennis Stroughmatt

Cultural Preservationist, Educator, Speaker, and Folk Musician

Mark: Dennis, your work over the past several years has included producing music camps for people of all ages, with emphasis on young people. Tell us a little bit about the music camps, what you cover in them, and also what seems to really resonate with participants?

We had 7 teachers come in, offering more intensive fiddling and guitar, as well as steel pan drums. So that was able to serve a demographic that we were missing with the summer camps. It was great to see all these people in their 20s, 30s, even up to their 60s in the camp. 

At the end of the day, we’d never done a jam session before at any of the camps. We wanted to try something – we brought in songwriters from southern Indiana, who’d won awards for their Bluegrass and old-time music. I said, “How about you host a jam at the end of the day?” It was supposed to last about an hour. We went an hour and a half – I had to cut it off, would have kept going. So, everybody walked away saying, “See you next year.” Now, everyone assumes we’ll do another adult-oriented camp next year. And I’m happy to do that. It’s inspiring people to come, people working on mountain dulcimer. I get the fun of teaching fiddling, different styles, ballads, and teaching some songs as well. We had people who came all the way from Vincennes, Indiana, the old French Creole town. So, we’re bringing in something that’s touching a lot of folks, but also something that I’m finding personally interesting and inspiring.

Matt: You mentioned starting these music camps partly in response to a decline in local music composing and performance in Southeastern Illinois. Similarly, did any participants in the camp mention anything about composing music with their families or in their communities? Like they took up music because of a family member, or learned fiddle from a next door neighbor who’d learned from Chlores Worlow. Or whether the camps, or the Roots‘N’Que festival might help to sustain or reinvigorate those orally transmitted traditions. 

There were a few in the camp who had actually played with Chlores Worlow; I had actually played with Chlores, and Chlores had actually taught me a few things on the fiddle, but also one of our instructors, Doug Hawf, also played with Chlores. 

Matt, you’ve met him when he came to the college and played with me. But what’s interesting – for the most part, anyone who has talked about traditions, some of it is new, from the families. Like there was this one family, the Bates, which had two sisters who were learning, one fiddle and the other guitar. Well, their grandfather has played bass for many years, and he inspired them, through their dad, to take up bass when he saw the children learning to play. They’re homeschooled, about 16 years old, and so them coming to the camp was fun. The one took the songwriting on guitar class, the other has now been on the fiddle for three years and is ready for advanced fiddling. I worked with her and she did a great job fiddling. It was new in her family, but something she wanted to take up. 

She didn’t know of any other fiddle players in the community, but she had heard about me and wanted to learn from me. I was honored. I think that’s cool. 

You might say that’s a lineal tradition right there. I didn’t learn a lot, studying with Chlores Worlow, but I played for him in a band when I was 16 or 17, and I’d heard and watched him a lot. So, I transmit some of those things and carry them on in our community. That’s what we do; it gets passed down. I thought of myself as the end of the line, but it is exciting to actually see others get interested now. Wow, I actually get to teach people. There is some of that. Not a great deal, but what’s left of those traditions here. It just needs a venue to move it forward, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re providing that. And that is in turn creating that – an interest in the community in creating the spaces for live music. 

Mark: It seems that forgotten or under-appreciated stories are a big part of what you touch on, in particular with regard to the French Creole culture of Illinois. I wonder if you could distill some of the culture and history you delve into in presentations, in other words, backing up a bit, what are a few of the basic things people probably don’t know about this culture?

It was about community, hanging out with friends. And being together. No going off on your own; it was all about doing things together. 

So, when I think of the French Creole cultural tradition, I think of the gatherings, of the bouillon or the fete. It’s the celebration of community. It's fun – and of course times have changed. People used to say, or some of the French Creoles would say ‘c’est pu comme ca’ anymore. “It’s not like that anymore.” The older folks would say, in the 90s, that it’s not like back in the 50s. Now I look back, and think it’s now not like it was back in the 90s, or 80s. I miss that part of it – it was so fun. I was learning the songs, and you’d stay up all night with these people who were literally in their 80s or 90s and playing euchre until 5:00 in the morning, and you’d wonder if they’re ever going to sleep, and they’d say, “yeah we’ll go to sleep when we’re dead.” Because the gathering, the playing music together, the eating, and drinking together, is what was important. The human connection. And so that’s a lot of what inspires me in general. To me, a gig is not just about playing music – it’s about being connected with people. I’m the first to admit – if I see someone watching their phone during a show, I’ll personally stop the show and call them out on it. We’re all here together, so let’s have fun together. 

It’s not just you and me, and your cell phone. 

Mark: Dennis, you personally grew up in Edwards County, but spent some 16 years elsewhere. How did spending significant time elsewhere impact how you view the area you grew up in? 

Well, I live in Albion, in Edwards County. Wabash and Edwards County are so small, takes two counties to make one. Growing up in this greater community, music was still a big part of things. I didn’t even realize some of things we did and what they meant at the time. It took going away to understand some of those things. 

For example, one tradition we had growing up in Edwards County was the chowder – we’d have these big soup chowders, beef, but not just beef, actually lots of stuff in there. It tastes so good. Big black cauldrons – in Bone Gap, Albion, Mt. Carmel, Allendale, Vincennes, and Lawrenceville. I think about those. I’d play those chowders as a kid. But I don’t remember staying up all night long. 

So, when I moved away, ended up spending a lot of time in Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, and elsewhere – Old Mines, MO., Festus, MO. I would go to these house parties. Remember Edwards County was a dry county. There was music - I’d go to church or play in bands, local events, chowders. But when I moved to Missouri –the music was more of a house type of thing. You don’t see those big events. Things didn’t happen at a festival; they happened in the house. Well, growing up, we didn’t have that much music happening in the house. All I remember as a kid, outside of these events, was like at my great uncles, who taught me guitar at age 5. I had these uncles who were all musicians. So, for them, there was music at the house. 

It wasn’t until I started spending time in the French communities where I saw how much more – how much music was part of the community, and how much gatherings were. They’d gather with black pots, but would have chicken bouillon, not chowder, and stay up all night long. This was weekly. 

I didn’t want to hang around at college, over the weekends, wanted to be in the French community with people 3-4 times my age. I thought they were way cooler. 

It was different from Edwards County or Wabash County but at the same time there were similarities, too. I could see some of those communal gatherings, just in a different way.

Mark: It is so fascinating to hear you talk about the work you do. How would you describe the goal of your work? In other words, why do you do it? What’s your dream? 

I want to see people playing music. Playing live music. Not just the French Creole music that I love to play. I also play Western swing music, too. There was a guy, Wade Ray, whose family was from White County. I met him in Sparta, Illinois. He was one of the best Western swing fiddle players in the world. I want people to enjoy music and the tradition of it, too, and how it brings people together. And if I can slip in some French too, that’s great. Then I’m happy. 

But I want them to enjoy it as much as I do, have that opportunity – because music, coming together, because playing music all night and never wanting to quit, well that’s way better than “Roblox,” the video game. It’s a lot more fun. I want people to have that opportunity. And if somewhere along the way I get to also preserve – which is a big part of what I do, the folks who taught me to play the French Creole music, they invested a lot of time in me, teaching me the songs, the language, and if I get to pass any of that along, so it’s here when I’m gone, then I feel like ok, that’s success. At least a little bit. 

Suggested Media

• The Time of the French in the Heart of North America, Charles Balesi, (1992)
• Folk Songs of Old Vincennes, Cecilia Ray Berry, Joseph Medard Carriére, Anna O’Flynn,  (1946)
• I’m Old But I’m Awfully Tough, Smithsonian, Featuring French fiddlers and singers from Missouri, (1976)
• Cadet Rouselle: French Creole Fiddle Tunes and Ballads from Old Upper Louisiana, Vol, 2 by Dennis Stroughmatt, (Swallow Records, 2008)
• La Belle Blondine: French Creole Fiddle Tunes and Ballads from Old Upper Louisiana, Vol, 3 by Dennis Stroughmatt, (Swallow Records, 2012)
• Idaho Red, Wade Ray, CD box set by Bear Family Records, (2012)

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