Welcome to Festival Tunes!
In order to create a common jamming repertoire for this year’s festival, we asked some of our 2026 Twin Town Festival Staff to send in a tune in advance so participants could learn them prior to the festival. Below is a collection of six tunes (with a few more on the way so check back again soon!) Each tune is played at speed and also slowly so you can try and learn it by ear. If you want to slow it down further, you can use the settings/gear button on YouTube to adjust the playback speed. And of course, you can rewind and replay the videos as many times as you need!

On Saturday at the festival there will be a series of small, facilitated jams with festival staff. These will be an opportunity to jam on the festival tunes (and any other tunes you want) with a small group of people. Look for the sign up sheet at the registration table Saturday morning.

We also welcome you to play these tunes in any jams you want to throughout the course of the weekend!

On Saturday at 4pm, we’ll be doing a special Happy Hour jam to honor the life and music of Iowa fiddler Alan Murphy. Four of the tunes below are tunes we’ll play at that jam. Those are Marching Down Broadway, Uncle Herm’s, Boating Down the River, and Rugged Road.

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  • Shove That Pigs Foot a Little Farther in the Fire
    • 3/11/26

    Shove That Pigs Foot a Little Farther in the Fire

    Joe Z Johnson gives us Shove that Pigs Foot Further in the Fire. [Editors note: per the Traditional Tune Archive, the first known recording of this tune is from North Carolina fiddler Marcus Martin.]

  • Silver Lake Polka
    • 3/14/26

    Silver Lake Polka

    Silver Lake Polka in two keys with Lindsay McCaw and Joel Jackson (and a little cat friend). From Jesse Downs, one of last year’s Twin Town artists.

  • Doc Brown's Dream
    • 3/13/26

    Doc Brown's Dream

    Scrivner and the Bold Characters (David Scrivner, Emily Boldman, Hawkin Boldman, Mason Herbold) teach us this tune from Ozark's fiddler Bob Holt

  • Fox Family Reel
    • 3/12/26

    Fox Family Reel

    Fox Family Reel with Ruby John! Maybe from Andy Dejarlis, or John Arcand. Either way, definitely a Métis tune.

  • Marching Down Broadway
    • 3/12/26

    Marching Down Broadway

    Marching Down from Broadway with Marc Janssen. This is a tune Marc learned from Al Murphy, whose music we’ll be celebrating at the Happy Hour jam on Saturday, April 18.