Dixon's Violin - You Need To Experience This Music

 Published in the Lowell Ledger 5.17.23

Dixon’s Violin captivated a full house of music lovers at Sound Check last Friday night. Who or what is Dixon’s violin? Great question – it is a musical experience provided by Ann Arbor musician Dixon and his violin. What or where is Sound Check? It is the great music venue tucked inside the Lowell United Methodist Church at 621 East Main Street. If you appreciate local and regional music in a quiet, intimate performance space with great sound then this is the place for you. (www.facebook.com/SoundCheckLowell)

Back to Dixon – he just goes by the one name. When considering Dixon it is a hard call to talk about his music or his personal journey first because the two are so integral to the Dixon experience. (Excuse me while I flip a coin.) Music wins the toss.

Dixon's Violin making beautiful music in Lowell.

Dixon approaches his musical performances in a manner unlike anyone I have ever experienced or worked with. Most artists have a set list: a list of the songs they will be performing at a given show. Some artists have a lot of flex in their list, but Dixon flies without one. In fact, he begins every concert with a piece of music no one has ever heard before – not even Dixon! The key word here is “improvisation” which is defined as: “a piece of music created without preparation”. This is Dixon’s wheelhouse.

Dixon is a classically trained violin player who started his musical journey with the pursuit of perfection. Each note of a piece was to be played in a particular manner and the key was to practice those particulars to the point where playing a specific concerto or symphonic movement was dialed into the musician so completely it could be replicated at any time. There is a place for such a playing style and Dixon walked away from the place to one of his own making – dare we say he Dixonized playing the violin?

Five strings of electrified violin.

First, he plays a five string electric violin which allows him to plug into amplification as well as a host of “goodies”. As he told the audience last night, “Once I stepped away from classical music and started playing with all kinds of musicians I began to notice most of the guitar players did things with their feet.” Dixon started to incorporate various kinds of effects pedals that let him treat the sound of his violin with delays and echoes as well as making short loops of sound that allowed him to sound like more than one player.

Fast forward after more than a decade of performing and the rig Dixon uses to affect his violin is purely Dixon. For this to make sense, we need a little dip into his personal story. He was a busy computer geek writing code and spending way too much time working before he chucked it all to travel the country with his instrument of choice. After adapting guitar pedals to his violin, he began to hear things in his head that he could not replicated with his equipment, so he wrote “thousands of lines of code” and created his own piece of high tech wizardry that allows him to hold crowds of people spell bound while he generates a symphony of sound from one five string instrument.

Dixon's very own stompbox!

After his many years of performing, he has certain phrases and melodies that he re-visits and re-plays. However, he begins every show with a song no one has heard before. You really need to hear it for this to make sense. Dixon coaxes so much from a violin, you need his reassurance that nothing you hear is prerecorded. He might start with some percussive plucking to lay down a rhythm or perhaps a bed of soaring, lovely drawn out notes will serve as the base layer. He even whacks the violin with his bow to create drum sounds. All of this might sound like the net result would be anything but pleasant, but nothing could be further from the truth. The room of people was with him from start to finish. Check the links at the bottom and try a little Dixon for yourself.

Interspersed with the music, Dixon takes us on his personal journey of walking away from work and music that “kept him in his head” to his journey of performing his heart music to people all over the country. He has done more than one TED talk and played many festivals and musical venues from sea to shining sea. Dixon is a delight. He greeted people warmly during intermission and stayed way after his performance was over to meet people and sign merchandise and give hugs. He is currently on his HumanKindness Tour. Hop on your computer and learn more about him, listen to some music and make arrangements to experience his music in person. You will not regret it. Www.Dixonsviolin.com will provide a great entry point for you.