Last year this New York City native embarked on a quest to capture the fiddling lure that has evolved in Weiser for over a half century. On a two-week vacation from his 15-year job as a finance manager, Greg began his documentary last June. During the following months, the Weiser project lured Greg’s full-time attention and Wall Street was left behind.

Greg’s own story that prompted him to embark on this new career may be as interesting as the story he is attempting to tell about Weiser. What would possess this 50-some-year-old New Yorker to make such a life-changing decision? Before last year, this guy hadn’t even witnessed fiddlers on the contest stage in Weiser.

Today Greg is well-known and respected among many in the "fiddling community" that reveres Weiser’s fiddling lure with a mutual respect.

At age 17, Greg left New York to attend college in Colorado. After one semester he decided college could wait as the lure to experience the West firsthand drew him in. Picking up jobs, picking up rides and picking on his guitar led Greg to his first Weiser Fiddle Festival in 1977. The Weiser lure brought him back in 1978 again. But it wasn’t until 2002 and 2003 that the Weiser lure struck him again, and this time with vengeance. Greg’s passion to find the source of the Weiser lure and relate it to the world has started a new chapter in his life.

"The project has become so much more rich," said Greg as his eyes danced with delight. "I have 175 hours of footage shot. It’s been a good year and I have learned a lot."

Traveling to the homes of fiddlers from Texas to California, and throughout Northwest, Greg has continued to "track down" the story for his documentary.

Following up on interviews he and his cousin/assistant Maria Fitzsimmons of Boston made during the 2004 contest, Greg has had the opportunity to experience many of these fiddlers in their home environments.

"I interviewed Phil and Vivian Williams here and then in their home where I spent hours and hours and hours talking with them," said Greg as he reviewed the travels of his past few months. "I’ve taped Gary Lee Moore, Tim Carter, Star McMullen, the Hargreaves, the list goes on and on. I went to the Texas State Contest, the Northwest Regionals, the Wenatcheei Contest. I interviewed Joe Venico of archtop.com. I was in Idaho two weeks in May. I’ve spent time with Tom and Katie Bonn, Gary Huntington, Wes Wesmore-land, the Ludikers, Texas Shorty..."

Greg’s thorough documentation of Weiser has also included a city council meeting, Elk’s Lodge Flag Day ceremony, and from the "wild blue yonder" with pilot Frank Thom-pson to capture the Oregon Trail.

"I’m in with my bare hands and up to my shoulders," laughed Greg. "I’m still learning. I still make mistakes all the time. I have a better sense of it though. The toughest thing is to learn how to think in pictures."

The significance of incorporating the landscape of the area in his project was one point brought to his attention. Vivian and Phil Williams’ knowledge of the importance of the fiddlers on the Oregon Trail lent itself to be a perfect component of the film’s landscape since the Oregon Trail passed through Weiser.

"It’s a significant component of the entire story," said Greg. "It’s a story of people, relationships and music situated in a specific place."

Greg is also learning from other filmmakers including a documentary of an asparagus festival in Michigan.

"The attention to the real characters and their obsessions and eccentricities made me think again about my cast of characters and how these people would look on screen," explained Greg.

"I have to be straight forward as I possibly can be. It’s not my task to make people look foolish; and I won’t. It is my task to tell the story so it will resonate. To resonate it has to go beyond eccentricities.

"I’ve learned so much about musicians," continued Greg. "It’s amazing how hard these people work at their music, and how much discipline and fortitude they have. It pays off if they want to make that investment. They become better musicians and a master of their art. Music is a form of expression and by working at it in a focused and diligent way, they attack it as a problem that has to be solved. Each obstacle that is overcome adds to their degrees of a foundation to express themselves. I had never really thought of it that way before."

The Weiser documentary is a work in progress and Greg admits it is far from completion and financial backing also remains on Greg’s list of challenges to resolve. He recently sub-mitted a clip of the Weiser project for consideration in an upcoming film industry conference in New York.

"I had to edit the stuff down to make the submission," said Greg. "It was a practice run at editing for me. If accepted it would mean that those people who are there, people who are further up the food chain in films, would see it."

Another avenue Greg is taking for financing his Weiser film project is grant money.

"As a self-financed guy I have enough money to do what I’m doing but not to finish the film," admitted Greg. "I’m not doing this film to make a lot of money or to go to Hollywood. That’s the last thing I want to do. I want to be able to keep a roof over my head and travel around the country. I’m not looking to cash out – I’m just looking to find a way to do this thing and still pay the rent."

This past winter Greg again visited Weiser to learn more about the local characters involved in fiddle week. One snowy January afternoon he dropped in on Tom and Ruth Taylor. Tom suggested he and Greg take a drive and they ended up going up Jenkins Creek Road. On the way back Tom suggested they drop in at his old place where John Hoff lives. Soon, John was leading the New York visitor down the snowy driveway to his barn.

"It was serendipity to ride with Tom Taylor out where he just happens to know this guy and we go out to the barn in the freezing cold and he begins stripping layer after layer of tarp off this piano, and then begins playing this rockin’ piano music. It was a once in a lifetime experience," laughed Greg.

Greg has placed several "thank you" ads in local publications in an attempt to extend his gratitude to all those who have supported his documentary project.

"It is to thank the many people who have shared parts of themselves with me and in some instances allowed me to stay with them, share their meals and even did my laundry," said Greg. "I really want to thank these guys."

As for the future, Greg says he plans to have a simple web page up and running this week to keep everyone updated on the progress of his documentary.