House lawmakers in Austin passed a bill on Thursday that would require all bands that play in the state to include a fiddle player.House Bill 42069 won initial approval Tuesday, and then received a final vote Thursday, passing 127-19. It now heads to the Senate.
The bipartisan legislation, co-sponsored by Texas Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism chair Douglas K. Ershaw, would force any "musical act consisting of more than 2 members to include a fiddle player, as God intended."
While it was unclear how this would affect musicians in genres that don't generally include fiddle, Ershaw insisted that the law would also provide for bands without such an instrumentalist, forming a Fiddle Corps of unaffiliated players for assigning the lacking groups a fiddler free of charge.
Bill co-sponsor Charles E. Daniels of Delta County explained "While we agree that many bands with great lead guitarists can pick it hot, that's just not good enough for a Llano man."
"Whether you want your fans to two-step, do-si-do, headbang, or do The Bust Down, in the Lone Star State from now on, sir, you've gotta have a fiddle in the band." smiled Ershaw, seemingly assured that the Senate would finalize the bill and that Governor Abbott would codify it into law.
At press time, music stores across the state were reporting a shortage of rosin.
