Everett street fiddler Fred Weisz taught, played with top names in bluegrass

EVERETT — Maybe you threw some change into his violin case when he performed at noontime outside the Sno-Isle Food Co-op. Or perhaps you heard his fiddle tunes on summer days outside the Snohomish County Courthouse.

Keep the memories. Fred Weisz — beloved in national bluegrass music circles — is gone.

Weisz, 71, died Wednesday in Everett, where he had lived for decades, optimistically keeping his physical and mental illnesses in check. Services were Sunday at Temple Beth Or in Everett.

In a note posted Friday on www.mandolincafe.com, the famous mandolinist David Grisman paid tribute to Weisz and called him his oldest friend.

“We met in seventh grade in Passaic, New Jersey, and had a lot in common, losing our fathers too young and sharing a deep love of music, lasting all our lives.

“Fred taught me my first guitar chord — D, as well as many other things about the aesthetics of music and musicianship, spoken and unspoken. He was a talented musician who cared about every note that he (and everyone else) played. We spent countless hours after school learning to pick and sing, listening to folk and bluegrass music which we loved so passionately.”

With Grisman and many other well-known musicians, Weisz played in bands such as the New York Ramblers and the Even Dozen Jug Band in venues such as Carnegie Hall and on the “Hootenanny” TV show in the 1960s. Weisz played with Grisman at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966.

Weisz went on to join Charlie Gearheart’s Goose Creek Symphony as a fiddle, bass and banjo player. In 1970, he and the symphony appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to back up country singer Bobbie Gentry.

Musician Barry Brower, formerly of Everett, first met Weisz in the mid-1970s when he was performing in Arcata, California.

Eventually, the two of them made their ways north to Snohomish and Skagit counties and in 1989 they formed a band they called “The Grand Ol’ Ospreys.”

“We were the ‘birds of play,” said Brower, who now lives in Anacortes.

About that time Weisz began to struggle daily with a mental illness akin to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The medication he was prescribed initially took a heavy toll on his violin skills and his speed, causing tremors that disabled both hands.

In a 2007 Herald story, Weisz said the bad reaction to the medication robbed him of years of playing and his sense of rhythm.

Some days were worse than others and he never regained the lightning speed with which he played. But the more Weisz performed, the better his playing got.

After moving to Everett, Weisz’s doctor prescribed a different medication that allowed him to get out his fiddle once again. Weisz made a lot of new friends in Everett and held onto his old hippie pals from his days in Skagit Valley.

In his online post on Friday, Grisman said that his friend Fred “had a tough life with many trials and tribulations, but through it all he always looked at the bright side and spread much joy to all who knew him.

“I don’t think I ever heard him complain about anything except being out of tune! His friendship was, and continues to be, a true inspiration to me and I will carry his spirit with me for the rest of my days.”

Brower said his friends appreciated Weisz’s lovable optimism.

“He was gentle, unassuming, modest, kind, sweet, gracious and humble,” Brower said. “And this came out ad infinitum at the funeral as people talked about Fred.”

Then some of Weisz’s friends got out their instruments and played a few bluegrass tunes.

“And wouldn’t have Fred loved to have been a part of that jam?” Brower said.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.

Correction: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect age for Weisz.