Steve Schaffner fiddles through Cape in YouTube series

For Steve Schaffner, music is a way of life. When COVID-19 disrupted plans for events and other opportunities to make music for others, Schaffner, like so many other musicians, got creative.

He’s producing a series of videos on YouTube, “Fiddlin’ Around Cape,” which sees him with his trusty fiddle at a significant spot in or near Cape Girardeau, playing a classic tune and talking up the history of the place.

“I just get on my bicycle, put my fiddle in my iPhone stand, phone in my pocket, ride to the place, and make a video,” Schaffner said. He noted most of the sites he’s chosen so far have been places he’s known of since he moved to Cape Girardeau decades ago, and they pair well with standard tunes that sound good on the fiddle.

Schaffner taught orchestra in the Cape Girardeau School District for decades, and is now the director of the Southeast Music Academy at the Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus.

“I’ve always liked history, ever since I was a little kid,” Schaffner said, citing Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone as examples. When studying for his master’s degree at Southeast, Schaffner said, he found several key people in Cape Girardeau who could fill him in on the history of the place, and how it ties in with music — specifically the fiddle.

“The fiddle is our state instrument in Missouri, and a lot of other states, but I think it’s strongly identified with Missouri,” Schaffner said. “A lot of great fiddlers have come out of our area.”

Steve Schaffner plays fiddle while performing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" with Manitou on July 28, 2018, at Jackson Homecomers.BEN MATTHEWS

Schaffner said the ease of transporting a fiddle, especially in contrast to, say, a piano or pipe organ, made it a natural choice both for frontier settlers important to the history of the region, and for his idea to get out and make music while highlighting some of his favorite places.

“That makes it pretty cool,” Schaffner said.

He pairs tunes to places by thinking of associations a given spot has, he said — Irish folk tunes go well with the Katy O’Ferrell’s Publick House Irish restaurant, for instance, and “America the Beautiful” was an obvious choice to perform against a backdrop of the Avenue of Flags.

Schaffner is in a musical group, The Jumper Cables, with Ben Belanger, who teaches guitar at Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School, and the duo recently teamed up for a video. Recorded in front of Port Cape Girardeau restaurant while the duo performed “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue,” Schaffner said it’s really taking off on social media, and he’s happy to see that.

It’s funny what connects with people, Schaffner said, but he’s taking this opportunity to put a little bit of effort into bringing history and music together, and connecting with the audience while he’s at it.

Find Schaffner’s videos on YouTube by searching “Fiddlin’ Around Cape.”

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