SHELBYVILLE (AP) — There was no fiddler on the roof, but there were fiddlers just about everywhere else Feb. 17 as the Illinois Old Time Fiddlers Association gathered for their monthly meeting in Shelbyville.

The Lions Club building in Forest Park pulsed with the foot-tapping rhythms of country and square dance tunes that stretched back to the days of the pioneer farmers who first broke the prairie. The theme of the association is to keep the roots music alive by passing on the skills needed to play it, and the 45-strong membership ranges from men and women in their 90s right down to 11-year-old Dylan Haugh from Mattoon.

He was sitting up on stage with his fiddle and playing at the elbow of his grandfather, Mike Haugh, 62, who is teaching and guiding the fifth generation of the family to find joy in sawing out tunes.