Not Just Fiddlin' Around:

Mark and Liza Woolever are traditionalists when it comes to making music

By Judy Bradford, South Bend Tribune, February, 1997
 
Spend an hour with folk musicians Liza and Mark Woolever and you get much more than some tunes. You get history, humor, stories, a fascination with instruments, the urge to dance and just an overall good time.

They've added to their repertory the old-fashioned way: by reading, by doing, by patiently teaching themselves.

No internet connection here.

"I guess I've always been an eternal optimist," explains Liza, 42. "I figure if we don't have a lot of gigs, then it's time for me to learn to play a new instrument or do my research."

That's why, at their concerts, she changes instruments after almost every song and shares interesting details about them.

Did you know, for example, that Queen Elizabeth I played the recorder? Or that the mountain dulcimer, an instrument built for two, was given to engaged couples so they wouldn't be doing the "hanky-panky" on the porch?

"As long as you heard the music, you knew they weren't getting into trouble," says Liza.

Mark can construct or restore instruments. He learned to play the harmonica while laid up with a broken leg. How he broke his leg is another story. We'll get to that later.

As their brochure states, the Woolevers play "all kinds of traditional music," and they live up to their publicity promise.

A concert might jump from a train song such as "The Orange Blossom Special" with its distinct whistle sounds, to "Lulu's Back in Town," a hit from 1935, and then back to Appalachian gospel music or an Irish jig. They can play Old English songs, American Bluegrass ballads and breakdowns, or folk tunes from around the world.

The brochure also says that they play "all kinds of acoustic instruments." Liza plays the fiddle, the mandolin, English recorder (including the soprano, alto, tenor and bass recorders), the ocarina which is a necklace whistle, the steel drum, clawhammer banjo and the mountain (courting) dulcimer. Mark, 52, plays acoustic guitar, the harmonica, various percussion instruments, the tinwhistle and the hornpipe as well as the mountain dulcimer.

They also say they can play "anytime, anywhere." Since they're not nailed down to 9-to-5 jobs, they can play day or evening. Liza has even designed a special belt with pockets for her small instruments so she can play anywhere, especially while strolling through malls or festivals or fairs.
"The strolling thing is something we really developed over this past year, because you can walk over to an exhibitor that isn't doing very well and play near him for a while to drum up some business."
Many art festivals are also going to informal atmospheres which require musicians to be mobile.
As performers, they've been all over Michiana, from school and libraries to symphony children's concerts and private parties and have had a wide variety of experiences.
One couple in Lakeville hired them to play for their house-raising. A library in Elkhart wanted them to do train songs so kids could "book a trip on the Reading Railroad." Retirement homes often ask for tunes from a specific decade.
"I enjoy it when someone gives us a theme like that," Liza says, because it might send her off to do some research.
The two have been married since 1986, but didn't start playing as a duo until about four years ago. They met in October of 1984 at an old-time folk dance sponsored by the Fellowship of Hope, in Elkhart, where musicians often gather to jam and, fortunately for the dancers, play for free.
"But actually, that night I was there to dance," Mark says. "I hadn't learned yet to play that kind of music much." But he had his guitar with him and Liza needed someone to play with, since the regular guitar player hadn't shown up.
"he was sort of covering up his guitar, so I raced over to him," Liza adds. "I needed someone to help me keep the rhythm. I was just starting out, and I was used to having the music right there in front of my face. If the rhythm is solid, I can stay in time."
Liza and Mark appear to be the kind of people who've grown up with traditional folk music, because they play it so well and so spontaneously. There's no shuffling around for sheet music. But actually, they grew up with the Beatles and with rock n' roll.
"As a girl, I pretended with my sisters to be the Beatles," says LIza, who grew up in Massachusetts. "I took my role as Ringo very seriously: I didn't have to do everything exactly right. They'd say, 'Can you get this harmony?' and I'd experiment with it. It was a free spirit kind of atmosphere."
Her mother was a skilled pianist, and her sister played the flute. They did all the traditional things that a musical family does, such as church concerts. But she learned to play the recorder with her sisters while sailing in the summers.
"It was more fun to play music together than to fight," she recalled.
Liza started to play the violin at age 12. She didn't pick up the mandolin until her late teens, when she attended Goshen college. She learned the banjo only a few years ago.
Mark, who grew up in Chicago and New Jersey, played the piano and clarinet as a child but didn't really seem entranced with music until his family purchased a snare drum. He took up the full set of drums a year later, and then the guitar.
Attending Valparaiso University in the late 60's, he played in a rock band called "The Chosen Few" that played the typical tunes from The Doors, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. Like Liza, he has slowly added to his repertory of instruments, and enjoys sharing their origins and history.
The couple has recorded a couple of their own tapes, and are getting ready to do another one.
They've also done back-up for other musicians, such as George and Michele Schricker, also of Plymouth. Liza has also designed covers for the tapes with her "doodle art."
Even Mark's broken leg has roots in folklore. He broke it while "birch bending" with friends one day. It's an old game the pioneers used to play, he explains, where you slide down tree branches. Except that when his turn came, the big branch snapped and swung around, hitting him hard.
For the first five months of his recovery, he learned to play harmonica while laying around on the couch in a hip-to-ankle cast.
The A-frame Mark built on a long, quiet country road has a lot of history too.
"Actually, the A-frame is an old design from the pioneers," Mark explained. "The snow just slides right off the roof, and then it builds up on the sides, blocking the wind." He did all the plumbing, electricity and insulation from their rustic A-frame.
And when he was laid up with that broken leg, he also built an addition to their garage -- after he got the walking cast on.