LOTS OF FIDDLIN' AROUND

Fiddler Geoff Seitz met guitarist Jim Nelson years ago at a square dance in Cape Girardeau. In 1985 they joined mandolinist Curtis Buckhannon to form the Ill-Mo Boys, the award-winning string band appearing hereabouts this weekend.

The St.Louis-based Ill-Mo Boys performed Saturday night at Trail of Tears State Park and will play again at 4:30 p.m. today in the picnic area at Bollinger Mill State Historic Site.

Originally, Seitz was a rock 'n' roll drummer and guitarist who ventured into country rock. Then he heard the album "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, a recording that attuned many young ears to the beauties of bluegrass back in the 1970s.

Seitz, who grew up on a farm, traveled to the Appalachians to look into old-time music. He took up the fiddle at about the same time. He took classical lessons to gain technique, and began learning how to make and repair violins.

Since then Seitz has won many fiddling prizes, including first place at both the 50th annual old Fiddler's Convention at Galax, Va., in 1985 and the Appalachian String Band Festival in West Virginia in 1993.

Though he continues to work as a percussionist on blues and rock recording sessions, Seitz says, "My real love is old-time fiddling. It's what I'm best at."

The other members of the band are equally accomplished. Buckhannon helped found the string band Cousin Curtis and the Cash Rebates. He also has played with the all-mandolin dance band Mahatma Gumbo and his own Red Hot Mandy Stompers.

Nelson, a Chicago native, is a folklorist who works at the Washington University Law Library in St. Louis. He has a large collection of 78 RPM records and is an important source of tunes for the Illmo-Boys.

The band specializes in Midwestern songs, though Seitz says the music "in a lot of ways is not any different from the stuff back East."

Differences, generally, amount to variations in the techniques used regionally, Seitz said.

Midwest fiddle playing will be a little more "notey" than Eastern playing, he said.

"Fiddlers in the Ozarks tend to play, in general, pretty peppy. Fiddlers from the northern part (of Missouri) possibly play a little slower."

The band has two recordings: "Timely Old Tunes from Ill-Mo and Beyond" and "Fine As Frog's Hair," both on Marimac Recordings. They will be available at today's concert.

The band finished second in a string band festival in West Virginia in 1993 and was picked third-best among 59 bands at the same festival in 1995.

The Ill-Mo Boys are named for the members' Illinois-Missouri roots. The town of Illmo, which was located south of Cape Girardeau until gobbled up by Scott City a few years back, was unknown to Seitz.

"We're in Ill-Mo all the time." he said.