Old-time music in a rut?

Subject: RE: BS: Old-time music in a rut?
From: Ebbie
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 02:28 PM

I do know that audiences, whether in concert or in nursing homes and festivals, like vocals better than just one instrumental after another. (An audience of musicians, rather than a cross-section, may have a different take on it) In one group I was in, the leader, a fiddler, wasn't interested in songs, only tunes. We rarely got the listeners actively involved.

Then the group members shifted, and with the new members on board, we started doing songs primarily, with an instrumental medley from time to time. Big difference- not only is our own enjoyment deeper, the audience dances!

I buy some CDs and tapes that are strictly instrumental but by far most of the ones I buy are vocals.

Subject: Old-time music in a rut?
From: Jim Krause
Date: 14 Dec 01 - 02:16 PM

I've been playing fiddle in an old-time string band for ten years, or so I guess. And lately I've been wondering if the genre isn't getting into a rut. It seems that I hear new groups taking up the music, playing fiddle tune, after fiddle tune, after fiddle tune. Then I go back and listen to some of the old groups from the twenties and thirties, and realize that perhaps half or two thirds of their recorded material was made up of vocal selections. Consider the Skillet Lickers, the Bogtrotters, or Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers.

The vocal tradition continued on into the sixties and seventies with groups like the New Lost City Ramblers, the Highwoods String Band, Any Old Time String Band, the Hotmud Family (who were really great vocalists) and others.

What are your thoughts?
Jim

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I removed the BS: designation from this thread. This is a music discussion, and the BS: designator should not be used for music discussions. There are people who use a BS: filter because they come here looking only for music discussions.
-Joe Offer-