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John Specker was born in 1950. He grew up in Astoria, Queens absorbing early Rock 'n Roll and Motown beat. John started taking classical violin lessons at age thirteen. By age sixteen, John had quit his lessons to concentrate on the visual arts, starting at the Philadelphia College of Art in 1968. As a sophomore, he got the notion to get out his violin again, this time to play "Old Time Music".
From 1974 to 1977, Specker was part of the vibrant Old Time Music revival occurring around Ithaca, New York. Danny Kornblum writes of that time, "We wanted to take ourselves and our dancing friends to another level where the droning buzz of the fiddle and the chunk of the Banjo…hung in the air like a ball of fire. We played into that fire to make it grow and burn brighter.
But by 1978, Specker's band was burnt out he was broke - and so was his fiddle. He took a break to ice apples in Vermont, at that point effectively disappearing from the music scene, not quite realizing what a legacy he was leaving behind.
Starting in the early 1990's, Specker revisited Ithaca periodically, most notably to perform at the Grassroots Festival each July. In an article in 1991, the Ithaca Journal called Specker a "…revelation to those not on the old-time circuit, playing dark, driving and highly individual fiddle". More recently, a review in the old-time Herald Magazine [Winter 200/2001] stated, " John can be considered a pioneer of what is called the 'Ithaca Sound', and his influence…still carries on to the newer generation of Ithaca fiddle players". Currently, there is a reunion of sorts going on, with Specker actively touring with a new, multigenerational band combines talent from Vermont and Ithaca. An early 1990's flyer for Vermont's Champlain Festival proclaimed, " John's influence on other musicians is legendary, and he performs with an intensity that has to be seen to be believed."
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Old Bunch of Keys
Rockingham Cindy
Rockingham Cindy
Black Eyed Suzie Correctone Stringband
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