...yet ANOTHER question for the music fans and musicians here at DU...

[battleknight24]

I am a very big fan of The Dave Matthews Band and The Corrs; I recently have been checking out the music of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. What other bands out there have a violin player in addition to more traditional 'rock band' instruments?


Peace,

Battleknight24

[Rocinante]

1. John Mellencamp

did that stuff but I don't know if they play new songs like that now.

[punpirate]

8. Not to forget the `70s Hot Tuna albums...

... very prominent in the arrangements was Papa John Creech's fiddle.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. Not exactly an answer to your question but

have you heard Miri Ben Ari? She's a soloist and a hip hop violinist....really incredible..she RIPS!

[battleknight24]

4. Miri Ben Ari...

... is any of her music outside the 4/4 realm?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

6. IT's all over the map

Here's a site ..she's great..really intense

http://www.miriben-ari.com/

[OneBlueSky]

3. E Street Band now has a fiddle player . . . n/t

.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. Electric Light Orchestra

[LunaSea]

7. How bout rock bands built around violinists

Check out
Eddie Jobson (also playedwith the 70s band "UK")
Jean Luc Ponty

Even psychedelic sci-fi legends Hawkwind were adding violins back in the mid 70s.

[Pert_UK]

9. Stop listening to The Corrs. Start listening to The Wonder Stuff.

OK, so they may have split up a few years back but they've got some great tunes.

e.g.
Welcome to the cheap seats (feat Kirsty MacColl)
Circle Square
Mission Drive

all have decent fiddle parts.

P.

[battleknight24]

12. Hey... the corrs ROCK!

.

[Pert_UK]

13. The Corrs do many things, but ROCK isn't one of them.......

or "eat", judging by the look of the singer...

:evilgrin:

I mean, come on! Personally I dislike them but I can see how some people might enjoy their fiddly-diddly "traditional" Oirish music, but I think suggesting that they "ROCK" is going a little far.

:-)

P.

[battleknight24]

15. The first album rocked...

... Forgiven Not Forgotten... the best album they probably will ever record...

... their later albums have much more of a pop feeling... especially the slightly overproduced "In Blue"...

[battleknight24]

16. by the way...

... part of the reason I in fact do like the first album so much is becuase 6 of the 15 tracks are traditional Irish pieces...

[battleknight24]

17. Although I am a fan of a wide variety of music styles...

... I use the term "rock" very loosely... I think the Mahavishnu Orchestra 'rocks', but they're a fusion band...

[proud patriot]

10. Do you like Bluegrass ?

Lots of fiddle in bluegrass ..I saw the Corrs live once
they were great . Irish Dance music Rocks ..

[dudeness]

11. marshall tucker band

n/t

[Tom Kitten]

14. Camper van Beethoven...

first three albums are pretty darn good!

[Systematic Chaos]

18. I can think of two good ones....

My first pick has to be Kansas. One of the only decent American progressive rock bands.

Then, there's UK which released two studio albums in 1978 and 1979, and a live album in 1979. There is some incredible electric violin work on those recordings, especially in the song "Caesar's Palace Blues".

[carpetbagger]

19. King Crimson for a time

While the original sound (Court of the Crimson King/Wake of Poseidon) had flute, in the early-mid 70's Fripp put out a lineup with a prominent violin.

Then there's Baba O'Reilly ("Teenage Wasteland") by The Who.

Not counting synthesizer work, or Jimmy Page's bow on guitar thing, there's not a whole lot out there. I'm not totally sure why that is, but I have a feeling that it has as much as anything else to do with (1) synthesizer advances mimicing strings somewhat well, (2) the similarity between the violin and the human voice, and (3) difficulties with concert performance and amplification of the violin.

One additional point, only tangentially related, is that Elvis Costello did an album with nothing but him and a string quartet ("The Juliet Letters"). It's really a remarkable piece of work, both from Costello's lyrics, and what he's able to do with the quartet.

[ET Awful]

20. Leftover Salmon

Kind of a an electrified bluegrass/rock/jam band :). Very fun stuff.

[MoonGod]

21. Not a band, but there's always Laurie Anderson...

... she basically invented the electric violin. I personally find her stuff to be uneven, but there's some great tracks in there.

[Squeech]

22. Precursors to the Corrs

30-some-odd years ago in England there was a band called Fairport Convention. When they started out they wanted to do American-style folk rock in homage to the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane et al-- but then they discovered the folk music heritage of their own country, and adapted it to electric instruments. It was hugely successful-- the album called Liege and Lief spawned a whole new genre of "electric trad," and groups like Steeleye Span, who also have a prominent fiddle player. (Both bands still exist, albeit after gazillions of personnel changes.)

Singer/songwriter Richard Thompson, who's got a strong fan base on DU, was a founder member of Fairport Convention, and sometimes uses fiddle on his own albums.

There was an American band around the same time called It's a Beatiful Day founded by flamboyant electric violinist David LaFlamme. And there was Seatrain, with Richard Greene, but I don't remember much about them.

And don't forget the song "Sea of Joy" on the Blind Faith album, where they gave bassist Ric Grech a violin solo (actually two solos overdubbed together). Grech came from the moderately successful band called Family, and the first few Family albums have some really nice violin playing on them, up through the album Anyway. (After that Jon Weider, who'd replaced Ric Grech playing both bass and violin, quit and was replaced by John Wetton, who played only bass-- but went on to join the version of King Crimson with David Cross on violin.)

Do you care about viola, especially as played by John Cale in Velvet Underground?

[Drifter]

23. Jean Luc Ponte

is a great Jazz Violinist. Played with (discovered by) Frank Zappa in the late 60's (and perhaps early 70's). He has an album called "King Kong - Plays the music of Frank Zappa".

Check out the Frank Zappa "Hot Rats" album.

Cheers
Drifter

[Drifter]

33. Thought of another that ...

has played with Zappa.

On stage he introduces him a El-Shankar. I have one of his albums called "Touch Me There". I think Zappa helped with this album. Produced it and perhaps played on a track or two.

Cheers
Drifter

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

24. ELO

nt

[GumboYaYa]

25. Check out Theresa Andersson.

She is an Indie artist who plays Violin and Cello. She also has a sweet voice. If you like DM then you should like Theresa Andersson.

[Michael Daniels]

26. Roxy Music on their third through fifth albums

Eddie Jobson who replaced Eno after the second album used violin on a number of songs on Stranded, Country Life and Siren.

[Bridget Burke]

27. Shiva's Head Band!

A truly Psycho-Delic group from Austin--back in the day. A quick Google showed their leader, electric violin player Spencer Perskin, is still playing. This link:

www.outlawforpeace.com/spencer/

shows he's got a gig in October with the Elevators tribute band--as in 13th Floor Elevators!

(Help, I'm having a flashback--or maybe it's a hot flash?)

[Dogmudgeon]

28. Lisa Germano

She was the fiddler for John Mellencamp for many years, and in one of his performances on SNL, she got most of the camera time. She's an excellent violinist.

She's put out about half a dozen albums of dreamy, moody music, well worth the search if you're into it.

http://www.lisagermano.com/main.html

--bkl
... you make me want to wear dresses ...

[ProfessorGAC]

29. Jean-Luc Ponty

He was the band leader and primary song writer of a fusion band that prominantly featured his electric violin.

Some older stuff by Stephane Grapelli, jazz violinist, might attract you too!
The Professor

[ornotna]

30. Dixie Dregs

I know Jerry Goodman played with them a couple of times. If you like Mahavishnu you might want to check them out.

[SiouxJ]

31. You must get some Waterboys!

No one does rock violin as well. If you love violin "Fisherman's Blues" will give you goosebumps. It's a MUST have for violin lovers!

[xJlM]

32. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Is it folk, or rock, or country
Seems like everybody cares but us
So just leave us an early wake-up call
So we don't miss the bus

[bobthedrummer]

34. 70's band The Flock

in addition to all the other posts

[regularguy]

35. Old Jefferson Airplane.

.

[NashVegas]

36. Waterboys

Especially the era when Steve Wickham was their fiddle player. This is the Sea, Fisherman's Blues, Live Adventures of the Waterboys, all good.

[mitchum]

37. John Cale played a great deal of viola on the first two Velvet

Underground albums (and has continued on his solo records)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a great contemporary act that also uses violin and viola

[toddzilla]

38. shooting star..

great band from the late 70's/early 80's i think..