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Hot Sauceand LittleBlack CatsAA nd so, Ann Marie Calhoun of

Gordonsville is sitting in an Indianrestaurant in Sao Paolo, Brazil with

Ian Anderson and Doane Perry of the Britishrock band Jethro Tull. And they decide tohave a "hot off"…who can stand the mostheat in their food. "And they had these levelsof hotness you could get, and 10 was thehottest and so he ordered an 11."

Ian Anderson…remember him?…that wildlooking guy who stands on one foot and playsthe flute in that signature breathy/vocalizedstyle. And yes, he still does that, and yes, theband still plays their mega-hit, Aqualung, andyes, Ann Marie is the fiddle player in theband. She recently returned home toGordonsville from a two-week-plus tour of

Is it afidfiddledleor aviolin?violin?AA

ctually, in Ann Marie's case, it'sboth. "Same instrument, just dif-ferent styles," she says of this

musical instrument that she first pickedup at age three. "I don't even rememberlearning how to play; I was so young.I've just felt like I've always been able toplay."

Generally speaking, a violin is forclassical music; a fiddle is for everythingelse: country, old-time, bluegrass, jazz,gypsy. Ann Marie Calhoun does themall.

There's a good reason for that…herparents. Her mother, a classicallytrained pianist, was born in China,exiled to Taiwan, orphaned at age eight,and emigrated to the states at 18. Littledid she know, when she bumped intobanjo-pickin' "hillbilly" and documenteddescendant of Pocahontas, JamesSimpson at a church singles club, thatthey would marry and produce a childprodigy.

And so from the very get-go, AnnMarie had no problem making the crossover from violin to fiddle and backagain. "It happened all throughout mylife because my dad plays guitar andbanjo," she explains. "We listened tothat music all while I was growing upand I actually did a lot of fiddle contestswhen I was younger." Her youngerbrother, by the way, is an accomplishedguitarist. Her older brother plays bassand her sister plays bluegrass fiddle.The Simpsons became "a loosely-defined family band," that playedchurch picnics and the like near theirhome in Fairfax.

During the week, Ann Marie attend-ed Lake Braddock High School, in themuch-vaunted Fairfax County SchoolSystem… "lots of good classes, lots ofgood teachers and because of its prox-

imity to DC, I was able to train with afellowship with the NationalSymphony." By this time, her parentsdidn't pay for her violin lessons any-more; she was winning enough scholar-ships to cover instruction costs.Through the National Symphony shetook master classes from "anybody whosoloed," … violinist Itzhak Perlman, cel-list, Yo-Yo Ma, pop/jazz artist, BobbyMcFerrin, to name-drop just a few.

She even played with the NationalSymphony itself "somewhere in theback," soloed at the Kennedy Center,and attended the Interlaken Academy ofthe Arts in Michigan. But during thesummer, that violin quickly morphedinto a fiddle as she and her familycruised the county fair fiddle contest cir-cuit.

When it came time to go to college,Ann Marie made a career-defining deci-sion…NOT to go to conservatory, but toattend UVA instead. "I wanted to doother things and I wanted to study sci-ence in particular." Besides, in-state

tuition made UVA affordable. "In retro-spect it was one of the best decisions Imade for my musical career because itwasn't conservatory. If it had been con-servatory, I would have been on a spe-cific train and path to study classicalmusic." So this multi-talented multi-tasker double-majored in music andbiology, with a pre-med option, "to keepall the doors open."

The music department is small atUVA. Ann Marie was allowed to createher own program of independent study,"and got credit for pursuing differentstyles of music." She studied everything:Indian music, bluegrass, jazz andimprovisation from legendaryCharlottesville jazz guru, John d'Earth.She even played in a rock band. "It gaveme exposure to all different styles ofmusic."

Her first time in a recording studio,she played a commercial. "I'll never for-get, the theme song for Cracker Barrelrestaurants." She was amazed howmuch studio time it takes "to produce

three minutes of music."During her sophomore year, she

joined a bluegrass band called Walker'sRun, and that same week, the band'sguitar player, Brian Calhoun was quittingto pursue instrument building full time."When I met him, the guitar companywas first starting," she remembers. "Hetook down all his orders on a scrap pieceof cardboard that he had laying aroundhis shop. And sometimes he wouldn'teven use a pen; he'd just take a nail andetch it into the cardboard. He didn't evendo e-mail. He didn't have an emailaddress. He was just this kind of moun-tain man," she says affectionately.

Married in 2002, Brian and AnnMarie moved to a drafty renovated barn"that had no climate control" nearBarboursville. "So we basically saved allour money to have a down payment sowe could buy the house." By now, AnnMarie was playing withAmericana/New-grass band Old SchoolFreight Train and teaching atWoodberry Forest as well as directingthe school's string program. She decidedto leave the band because she wantedto teach more "and also to be at home,because I had just married Brian; I wasaway at work and then I'd leave fromwork to do more work and then I'd havea weekend where I'd leave to do touring.So I just wasn't at home."

That was three years ago. Now, she'sput the teaching on hold to concentrateon her performance career, which, fromthe look of things, is skyrocketing on aparallel course with Brian's hugely suc-cessful guitar making company.

Do they ever get together musically?"Every once in awhile we'll just dosomething little and fun," she smiles.They both play in the Arab-Appalachianfusion band Kantara which justwrapped up a mini-tour in Virginia andWashington, DC.

Asked what kind of music she listensto, she responds cryptically, "I don't lis-ten to music just for fun. I know thatsounds really strange; everyone alwaysthinks that's weird. I have all thesehuge holes in my musical knowledge oficonic figures. People will drop a name,and it means nothing to me because Idon't have a history with that."

Then she mentions Steve Vai, whoone of her fiddle teachers once said is"the best guitar player alive." She has anulterior motive here. "I'm listening to hismusic because I'm touring with him."

Top photo: Ann Marie Calhoun has called Gordonsville home since2003. She worked as a chemistry, and conceptual physics teacher

and string orchestra director at Woodberry Forest for five yearsbefore taking a leave of absence to pursue her musical perform-ance career. Above, dueling fiddle and flute, Ann Marie trades

riffs with Jethro Tull band leader, Ian Anderson. Top photo by Phil Audibert, bottom photo contributed

Ann Marie Calhoun on vacation with her immediate family in Hawaii.From left to right: her brother, Joe; her husband, Brian; her older brother,Richard; her mom, Theresa Chi; her dad, James Simpson; Ann Marie, andsister, Mary. Everyone in this picture can play one kind of instrument or

another. Contributed photo

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Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay, playing toaudiences in small arenas and large theatres virtu-ally every night.

"It's exhausting because you spend more timeon airplanes than you realize and you spend toomuch time traveling and too little time sleeping, thatit actually becomes pretty grueling." Ann Marie isfolded into an easy chair in the comfy and airy liv-ing room of her and husband Brian's two-story brickcolonial near Gordonsville. "On the other hand,"she continues, "it's so fantastic to see new parts ofthe world and it's so exhilarating to play for big audi-ences and very excited fans."

Besides the obvious musical connection, AnnMarie and the Jethro Tull band leader have twothings in common: "Ian Anderson likes little blackcats and I have two little black cats; and he likes hot

sauce, and so doI." One of AnnMarie's little blackcats is named"Runty." Shewrote a piece ofmusic of the samename, and IanAnderson liked itso much, herecorded it withher. "It was reallygenerous of himto play my owncompos i t ions, "she says grateful-ly.

So who won the "hot off?" Ann Marie claims itwas a draw. And then, as luck would have it, shefell ill the next day, although she insists it was nothot sauce-related. "I don't do well when I travel,"she rolls her huge almond-shaped eyes.

Like the time she wound up in an emergencyroom in North Africa. "You really appreciate howgood medical care is in the U.S., because I get sickwhen I'm on the road." In that particular instance,she and husband/luthier Brian Calhoun (see May24th The Insider), were touring with their Arab-Appalachian fusion band, Kantara on a statedepartment-sponsored musical diplomacy mission.

"It was SO different from the health care we havearound here," she continues. "You also appreciatehow much freedom we have as a people to chooseour religion, how the press is not censored like it isin other countries. Also, you appreciate how in theU.S. there're a lot of opportunities and equality forwomen, and you see that there's different culturalperceptions of women in different places that yougo." She pauses a beat. "I'm glad to be anAmerican."

Surrounded by family photos and heirlooms, AnnMarie settles back into her arm chair. Right now,she's grateful to be a long way away from airplanes,

busses and North African emergency rooms.So what is that wild man Ian Anderson really like,

anyway? "He's very, very normal," she insists."Everyone wants me to say he's a wild rock star,but he's very, very normal. He's really easy to getalong with; we have good conversations about justany topic. He's very well-educated. We tease himabout being a professor, because we'll go to a newtown and he'll just look out the airplane window andhe'll tell you about the history. He stays up to datewith current events. He's very conscious of thecontext of every performance, and the city and thepeople and their position in the world and what'sgoing on with them currently and in the past."

The Jethro Tull gig materialized last fall with, likeeverything else in this business, "a call out of theblue." The father of one of AnnMarie's fiddle students is a localdoctor who helped Ian Andersonpromote awareness of an ailmentcalled Deep Vein Thrombosis(DVT), a blood clotting conditionthat almost claimed Anderson's lifewhen he was touring in Australia.Ironically DVT is exacerbated bylong periods of time sitting in air-planes.

Anyway, the doctor put IanAnderson in touch with Ann Marie.They e-mailed back and forth; hesent her some sound files; shemade a demo in her living room,and included her tune named afterthe black cat; he liked it and senther a contract. "I just practiced athome and we had two days ofrehearsal at his home in London,and then we went to Israel fromthere and played our first show."Just like that.

The interesting thing is that Annhad just returned from the Kantaratour of Italy and North Africa, (Morocco andTunisia- where she fell ill and went to the emer-gency room). The Lebanon/Israel war was goingon at the time. "It was interesting because I wason both sides of the war during the conflictbecause I was on the Muslim side when I was inTunisia and then when I was in Israel I was on theIsraeli side."

In Israel, Jethro Tull had the entire Ra'ananaSymphony Orchestra backing the band up. Thetour started in Tel Aviv in September and ended upback in the states in New England in late October.Ann scrolls through her digital scrapbook…her laptop. There she is onstage, up front and center,trading riffs with Ian Anderson, flute vs. fiddle.Here's a shot of her shaking the German presi-dent's hand following an acoustic Jethro TullChristmas concert in Europe; another shot of her

and fashion designer Kenneth Cole, who nowdesigns her wardrobe; more band photos back-stage in South America.

Some folks would let that stuff go to their head,but not Ann Marie; today, she's expecting a fiddlestudent at 4:30. Of her students, she says, "I feelvery guilty about abandoning them when I go ontour."

Does she practice every day? "I actually don'tpractice as often as I should as a professional,"she admits a tad guiltily, adding in a stage whisper,"Don't tell my students." She explains, "I practicewhen I need to, if I have a new job or new music tolearn. I practice really intensely, like hours andhours a day until I learn it, like for three days. Andthen I just do 15 minutes here and there."

Recently, Ann took a leave of absence fromWoodberry Forest, where she has taught chem-istry, conceptual physics and directed the stringorchestra for the past five years. And while on theJethro Tull tour, she reflected on "where my lifewas going and what I wanted to do."

She reached a decision. "Right now is the timefor me to do music because teaching is somethingthat will always be there for me, but right now, Ihave to work on the momentum that I have withperformance. And I feel like this is a good time inmy life to be traveling and to be doing the sleep-less nights and the flights every day as opposed tolater on. It made sense for me to extend the leaveof absence and take more time off."

Time off??? It sounds more like time ON! Justrecently, Ann learned that rock guitar sensation,Steve Vai was holding auditions for a fiddle player.

She missed the deadline, but sent the artist's man-ager a video of her playing three of Vai's techni-cally challenging pieces anyway. "They were allreally, really difficult," she shudders. She had onlytwo days to practice. "My chances are not lookingtoo good," she figured…"one in a million. But themanager showed the video to Steve Vai, and Stevecalled me right after and asked me to be in theband."

And so, next month, Ann Marie Calhoun willleave her cozy home and guitar-making husbandin Gordonsville and she'll jet out to Los Angeles forrehearsals and then go on tour with Vai starting inParis and ending in Russia! Then it's back toAmerica with Jethro Tull for a tour to just aboutevery major American city.

"I'm something of a musicalchameleon," she admits. "I samplefrom so many musical traditionsand play with so many genres ofmusic, that people who see meplaying with Jethro Tull comparedto people who've seen me playingat fiddle contests, compared to thepeople who see me playing with aclassical orchestra; they have dif-ferent perceptions of who I am as amusician." Will she record a soloCD? Maybe, maybe not.

Back when she was still atWoodberry, the phone in her officewas jangling away one day, andshe picked it up on the last ring."Out of the blue," it's the DaveMathews Band people calling, ask-ing if she can put together a stringquartet to record a few tracks onthe "Stand Up" album. "It was areally neat experience," she says,adding that the studio, "wasextremely luxurious."

Throughout it all, she never hadpersonal contact with Dave Mathews. "Recordingis like that," she says of digital recording technolo-gy. But she had plenty of contact with DaveMathews' producer, Mark Batson, who shedescribes as "very different." No music was writ-ten out. "He would kind of dance instead of con-duct, and we all kind of improvised our parts." AnnMarie Calhoun's string quartet appears on tracks1, 2, 7, and 12 of the album.

"As a musician I love the challenge, kind of likeactors playing a new role. I love finding new chal-lenging music, learning the genre and being thebest I can at it. It's what makes music really inter-esting for me, not just doing the same thing that Iknow I can do every night on stage, but experi-menting and taking risks."

Experimenting and taking risks…hot sauce andlittle black cats.

Ann Marie Calhoun takes a solo as Jethro Tull keyboardist, John O'Hara directs the Ra'ananaSymphony Orchestra in Israel. This was Ann Marie's first show with the British rock band.

Contributed photo

Jethro Tull band members line up for a group shot backstage during their most recent tour of fourcountries in South America. From left to right: John O'Hara, keyboards, Martin Barre, guitar; Dave

Goodier, Bass, Ann Marie Calhoun, fiddle, Ian Anderson, flute and vocals, Doane Perry, bass.Contributed photo

Ann Marie Calhoun and Ian Anderson meet the President of Germany follow-ing a Christmas season concert in Germany.

Contributed photo