Paul Anastasio grew up in Bellingham, Washington. He started playing classical violin at nine, but soon got hooked on popular and folk music. He was fortunate to have been able to study with the inventor of swing jazz violin, Joe Venuti, in the late 1970s. Around that same time, he was hired to play fiddle in Merle Haggard's band, touring the U.S. and Europe for six months and performing on Austin City Limits in 1978. After that, he worked four years with western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. Moving to Nashville in 1984, he worked for three years with Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, and, later, two years with Loretta Lynn. In 1992 he returned to the Pacific Northwest, and currently lives in southwest Louisiana, where he plays in the western swing band, Stop the Clock.

Since 1996, Paul has been consumed with studying, transcribing, playing, and archiving the traditional violin music of southwestern Mexico.

Paul teaches vintage jazz, swing, western swing, improvisation, traditional country, and Mexican fiddling, both privately and at week-long workshops throughout the U.S.

Joe Venuti said, “You have to know chords,” so in both classes we’ll cover playing over chords. We’ll investigate the elusive swing eighth note phenomenon and Joe’s off-beat swing slurring and learn how to decorate basic melodies with syncopation, blue notes, neighboring tones, and more. We’ll apply these techniques to great old standards and have a lot of fun doing so.

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