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More info about the tunes in my player: Cuz Mapfumo, from the Boiled in Lead album, From the Ladle to the Grave, is a combination of a Thomas Mapfumo song called Shumba, and two Irish tunes by Cuz Teahan of Chicago: All My Grandchildren, and The Teahan Clan. They came together serendipitously one evening when I was exploring adding Zimbabwean rhythms to Irish jigs, by playing Cuz's tunes over the recording of Shumba. Imagine my surprise and joy when I discovered that, not only did it work rhythmically, but the jigs also fit nicely harmonically with Mapfumo's song. Boiled in Lead was Robin "Adnan" Anders on drums, Todd Menton on guitar, Drew Miller on bass, and myself on fiddle and Schwab electric mandolin. Guest artists include Laura MacKenzie on flute and tin whistle, Celso Maldonado on congas, Willie Murphy on sequencer programming, Rick O'Dell on soprano saxophone, Steve Tibbets on guitar, and Marcus Wise on tabla.

His Eva/Tracking the Owls comes from the CD Skyline to the Sea by Bob Zander, kalimbist extrordinaire. Mick Labriola plays hand percussion, Peter O'Gorman is on drums, and Andy LaCasse plays bass.

Sevan and Bandar come from the album Music of the Heart, by the band Robayat Sevan is an Armenian tune with improvisations from Maryam Yusefzadeh on vocals, myself on violin, Tim Sparks on oud, Tim O'Keefe on percussion, and Tom Lewis on bass. Bandar features Tim Sparks on chumbush.

Goliath is a song by Felonious Bosch. This was a work-in-progress mix which happened to push the wa-wa electric fiddle to the fore.

I work at the Minneapolis Public Library and play violin and tenor sax with various groups, including Boiled in Lead, Honeysuckle Rose, Felonious Bosch, Sunplug'd, Robayat, American Swedish Institute Spelmanslag, Voices of Sepharad, and Crossing Borders. I also sometimes play with Parisota Hot Club and Cafe Accordion Orchestra. My daughter and I are involved with the Young Fiddlers Association. My wife grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and went to the University of St. Catherine in St. Paul, and the University of Minnesota and my daughter goes to South High School.

I enjoy playing a wide variety of music including jazz, country, Irish, Swedish, Klezmer, Arabic, Balkan, etc. Minneapolis groups I've played with in the past include Infinity Art Unit, The Radio Rangers, Jan Reimer Band, Intuitive Bikers, Ethnic Dance Theater Orchestra, Yiddische Folksmenchn, Imp Ork, Electric Arab Orchestra, Shalita, Dusty Drapes and the Dusters, The Deadbeats, and You, Me, and Betsy. I love shows on KFAI radio like Fubar Omniverse and International Jazz Conspiracy, and I go to many great shows at the Cedar Cultural Center. I was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1950, grew up in Cheyenne Wells, Boulder, Denver, and Estes Park, Colorado, Sioux Falls South Dakota, and Minnetonka, Minnesota. I went to Hopkins High School, St. Olaf College, and Augsburg College.

The first band I played in after college was Infinity Art Unit, with my brother Peter Stenshoel ..boards, Stu Mathews on bass, Damon Mathews ..boards and saxophone, Kyle Huggins on guitar, and a couple of different drummers.

Next came Sky King (not the one headed by the Brubeck brothers), which featured Peter Stenshoel ..boards, Mark Freeman (who went on to Red House, and NNB) on guitar, Steve Almaas (who went on to Suicide Commandos and Beat Rodeo) on bass, and Jim Wilson on drums.

In 1976 I formed a band with fiddler Mike "Razz" Russell, guitarist/singer Frank Boyle, guitarist/singer Al Butler, bassist/singer John Hanson, steel guitarist Jay Braastad, and drummer Ron Hanson. We called ourselves the Radio Rangers, a name which had been used several times before and has also been used since we used it. We played Western Swing in the tradition of Bob Wills and Spade Cooley. We played locally and also on western tours of Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado. Later we added Marya Hart on piano, carrying an actual upright piano on the road with us in an old schoolbus painted red and black.

On April 5 and 6, 2008, I was honored to play with Sumunar Gamelan and Dance Ensemble at F.K. Weyerhauser Aunditorium in Landmark Center, St Paul Minnesota. I played two pieces with the Gamelan, Ladrang Turunsih (below) and Ketawang Sari (In David's Video's under my Photo above). I retuned my violin to match the tuning of the gamelan. Turunsih means "descendant of love" and is based on the azan the call to prayer by the muezzin, familiar in Muslim countries. The vocalist is Joko Sutrisno, the musical director of Sumunar Gamelan.