If you’ll be out and about for the Fremont Winter Feast and Holiday Market on Sunday, December 11, wander over to Fremont Avenue and sit in on the Old Time Jam session at Dusty Strings. It’s led by Sarah Comer, known for cultivating a new generation of old-time fiddlers in Seattle. The jam session is free, and you can come and go as you like from 1:30 to 3:30. Join in the fun with your own fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bass or other acoustic instrument — or just enjoy listening. A $5 donation is appreciated.
If you’ve never been to Dusty Strings, get ready for a real slice of authentic acoustic music mania. Enter from the street level on Fremont Avenue, then curve down the stairs into the depths of the building, where you’ll enter a melodic enclave of eclectic tunes floating from hundreds of new, used, rare and vintage acoustic guitars, electric guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, banjos, harps, hammered dulcimers and more.
In addition to selling the instruments, they also offer classes and private lessons in bluegrass, old time, blues and world music by some of the best working musicians in Seattle. The Old Time Jam session with Sarah is a good initiation into this secret cubbyhole of tunemasters tucked beneath the busiest street in Fremont.