LINDAJOY FENLEY HAD NO IDEA what to expect when she decided to track down Juan Reynoso in 1996. Deeply inspired after a year of wearing out an obscure cassette, she drove southwest from Mexico City through Toluca before descending deep into the hottest part of Mexico in search of this fabled fiddler. She ventured to the arid mountains where the states of Guerrero and Michoacán meet to form a wide basin alongside the Rio Balsas. The land known as Mexico’s Hot Lands, or Tierra Caliente, is the home of many a broad-brimmed sombrero well suited to the sweltering climate. Even in the winter, highs often top 100 degrees; old men begin to shiver when the needle drops below 80.

Her efforts paid off. “My first impressions were feeling like I’d gone into a time machine, that I’d gone back at least 50 years,” remembers Fenley, who eventually found herself wandering the regional capital of Ciudad Altimirano with Reynoso as he sought work and tips with Cástulo Benítez de la Paz, a guitarist and close friend. Fenley recalls that just a few years earlier many people in Mexico City “believed and told others that Juan Reynoso was dead. He was forgotten.”

After her encounter, Fenley called Peter McCracken, then director of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington, to tell him about Reynoso. To her astonishment, McCracken already knew of Reynoso and loved his work. Within months, don Juan and his band boarded an airplane bound for Fiddle Tunes. In 1997, Reynoso received the Premio Nacionál, Mexico’s highest arts honor bestowed by the government. Now almost ten years later, Fenley has started a concert series in Mexico, and Tierra Caliente is gaining an international reputation for its powerful music. The recognition can not come too soon—the youngest masters of this regional fiddling style are in their late 70s, and most of the great players are in their 80s or 90s.

Except for a few rivals, everyone acknowledges that Reynoso is the most expressive and emotionally evocative Calentano violin master alive. At the age of 93, don Juan can still make an entire concert hall weep. Even hearing the maestro tune or sing a few bars of a forgotten melody can send shivers down the spine. Don Juan had received a lifelong invitation to Fiddle Tunes, but in 2005 he was unable to attend due to declining health. The maestro is also scaling back lessons to the dozens of gringo devotees who have come to his door.

Fortunately for future generations of Calentano fiddle virtuosos and even casual observers of the soulful style, Reynoso has a disciple who has managed to fill volumes of manuscripts and video tapes.

Paul Anastasio first heard Reynoso play at Fiddle Tunes in 1996. One of America’s most renowned swing fiddlers and former student of jazz great Joe Venuti, Anastasio soon found himself astonished in the front row, clutching a DAT recorder and recording the performances that he would later release on his Swing Cat label.

Now, for weeks at a time, Anastasio places his Seattle life on hold and journeys to Tierra Caliente.

Determined not to let the style fade away with each remaining master who departs, Anastasio intends to compile the recordings and videos from his lessons into DVDs for distribution. For now, he is still collecting material at a feverish pace.

With each visit, he adds to the library of several hundred melodies, some discovered in personal archives or collected from literate masters, while most have been transcribed and sometimes harmonized in lessons with Reynoso.