Triple Fiddle is 
a female-fronted bluegrass band featuring Rachel Calvert, Jackie Rae Daniels and Maura Dunst. A great mix of new and long-loved songs. the EP will take you through the gambit of fiddle feels. You can check them out at the Cedar Cultural Center on June 5.
Please tell me about Triple Fiddle and how you all got together.
The original three fiddlers — Jackie, Rachel, and Maura — met at a “Lenz and Frenz” jam hosted by Jay Lenz of Pert Near Sandstone. Jackie had just moved to town, and invited Rachel and Maura to arrange a handful of tunes for three fiddles to perform at Caydence Records. Originally, this was a one-off project, but we had so much fun that we just kept going! We invited Hannah Hendrickson to join as our permanent guitar player and the rest is history! Jackie has since moved back to Nashville to start another exciting chapter. We miss her but are so lucky to welcome fiddler Tessa Nichols-Meade into the mix!
You are releasing your debut EP, Triple Fiddle. It’s a fantastic mix of new and long-loved tunes. How did you select which long loved songs to include?
It was difficult to select just a handful of tunes from our repertoire to showcase on the EP. After a couple of in-person meetings about the EP and group text exchanges, we ultimately ended up with a great set of songs that capture our sound, both as a unit, and the unique styles we each bring to the group individually. We wanted to make sure we showcase our triple fiddle harmonies as well as solo moments where each fiddler gets to express their own talents and creativity. We also wanted a nice balance of original music, well/known classics, and deeper cuts that we love to play. We also wanted a mix of instrumentals and songs featuring our vocals.
What was the inspiration for A Very Good Sandwich from the Burnett Dairy Cooperative? And where and how do you usually get inspiration for songs.
A Very Good Sandwich from the Burnett Dairy Cooperative was written by Maura Dunst. The inspiration truly was a very good sandwich from the Burnett Dairy Cooperative. She was going to a friend’s cabin near Siren, WI, for the weekend and stopped at the Burnett Dairy Cooperative store in Grantsburg, where she picked up some sort of hot Italian sandwich. She took it back to the cabin and dug in. And it was an incredible sandwich — just the right balance of all the ingredients, messy enough to require several napkins (a big plus for Maura), great bread. As she was eating it, a little melody popped into her head. She pulled out my computer, entered the melody into her composition software, and put “A Very Good Sandwich from the Burnett Dairy Cooperative” as a title placeholder, assuming that she would eventually change the name. But she never did!
I love the emotion of a violin – from funeral to barn dance, the strings can get to a person. When you create new songs does that power come into the creative process? Or more broadband, how do you write music together?
So far we haven’t really written music together, it’s all been music that we’ve written individually and brought to the group. In some cases we’ve figured out the harmony parts together, and it’s definitely a powerful moment when we lock those three parts in. Violin moves people in a way that is sort of indescribable. It moves us, too. We have pretty electric moments on stage when we all play together, and in our solos as well. It still gives us goosebumps when we play together! There is something really special about the voice of a violin and that is absolutely tripled in Triple Fiddle.
Please tell us about the EP release show.
Our EP will be officially released June 5, and we will celebrate that night at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, with headliners Turn Turn Turn. Tickets are available on the Cedar’s website, and we encourage folks to get tickets now in case it sells out! Expect a night full of twangy harmonies and fun! We will also sell physical CDs at the show along with other fun merch with help from a handful of volunteers from the wonderful nonprofit She Rock She Rock. We are jazzed to show off the artwork on our CDs (and some other fun merch items) created and designed by Beau Janke of Them Coulee Boys – it’s adorable!
Mostly Minnesota 