BS: Old Timey: definition there of...

Subject: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: richardw
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 03:30 PM

Would anyone like to attempt a defination of Old Timey?

I'm trying to "label" some music.

richard

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 05:05 PM

AAgghh! How about---lots of the same tunes as Bluegrass, but played more slowly and with simpler arrangements? And it's gotta be over 50 yrs old, 75 is better. Find the can opener, we got worms here!

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: tar_heel
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 05:16 PM

the instruments are the same except for the banjo.a clawhammer banjo is used in the old-time band,as opposed to th five tring finger picking banjo.also most of the fiddle tunes are done with the fiddle tuning to the "a"chord or"d"chord. many of the songs are sung to a slower pace. also other instruments may include the autoharp and dulcimer.

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: Alice
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 06:28 PM

This might help you A website on Old Time music - click here

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 07:35 PM

Hey, thanks for the link, Alice! I discovered how much fun old-time music is when I went to the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, WA in 1989, and attended Bruce Molsky's band lab. I'd never played my guitar with other musicians before, and it was a big kick to be the rhythm section of a real band! After that I found some friends to jam with in Seattle, but soon moved away. I miss those sessions a lot. I keep hoping to find some old-time musicians here in Hawaii, but no luck so far.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Apr 00 - 07:52 PM

An article by Mark Humphrey, which has been reprinted on David Lynch's homepage, is a brief and fine introduction:

What is oldtimey

In case the clicky thing doesn't work, the URL is:

http://www.oldtimemusic.com/otdef.html

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: The Shambles
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 03:15 AM

Bluesgrass is to Old Time, as Walmart is to Ike Clancy's store, in 'The Waltons'.

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: Amos
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 01:40 PM

That is one beautiful essay, thoughtful and well-informed, and well written too. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: The Shambles
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 04:55 PM

Ike Godsey's store I mean. Ike Clancy was the Old Time influenced member of the Clancy Brothers.

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 05:53 PM

Although they didn't invent the term, Old Timey was popularized as a term by the New Lost City Ramblers. It was their attempt to indicate the style of music that they were playing and to present it to a wider audience than just the folk officianados of the Fifties and early Sixties.

Bluegrass obviously came from Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass boys.

Old-Timey can be thought of as early country music from the twenties at one time labeled "hillbilly" music. I think that much of the traditional ballads accompanied by banjos and guitars would fit into that category. The string band music pre-Bluegrass would be what the label intends as well. There is always alt.country.oldtime on the BBS that can help you define it furthur.

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Apr 00 - 07:12 PM

Someone once described bluegrass as 'oldtime music in overdrive' - might have been Neil Rosenberg.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: GUEST,Rich(stupidbodhranplayerwhodoesn'tknowanybet
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 06:30 PM

Once upon a time there were these poor farmers living in Ireland. Times eventually got to be so hard for them that they had to leave their native land in big, overcrowded, leaky boats. It was a very long trip on those days. (Some people are still arriving even now) At any rate, During the long trip in those leaky boats, the music of the Irish and Scots-Irish Immigrants got watered down! Furthermore, When they got to America, their financial situation wasn't much better, and they ended up being in the bottom of American society, working on the railroads. With them was another of the poorest ethnic groups in the country at the time; the freed slave. Well these people of African descent, thought the watered down music of the Irishman was the funniest thing they'd ever heard so they played their own version of it. The Irish workers thought THAT was the funniest thing they'd ever heard so they played a version of that! And so it came to pass that watered-down Irish music put through 2 generations of ridicule became what we now know as Old-Time music. Finally, if you take your instruments and tune them to absolutely perfect then bang them on the floor right before playing, that's old-time music.

Sorry, I couldn't resist

Rich

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 09:05 PM

There is a distinction to be drawn here. Someone said it has to be at least 50 to 75 years old. Now the distinction:

The Subject relates to "Old Timey", not "Old Time". "Old Timey" is music that resembles "Old Time" music, in instrumentation, feel, whatever, and could have been written a few months ago. Indeed, I've written several "Old Timey" banjo pieces/songs, but "Old Time" is not something you write, it's a branch of traditional, passed-down music.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: Caitrin
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 09:24 PM

Well, heck. Who knew there was an actual definition to "Old Time" and "Old Timey?" I thought it was just anything older than my grandma! ;)

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: richardw
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 10:48 PM

Okay, so what is Old Time music?

Lots of folks seem to confine it to the southern Appalacians in the early 1900s.

Where, for instance, would Stephen Foster and Root fit in?

richard

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: ddw
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 12:54 AM

Richard — IMO, Foster and Root would related to old time music about the way the Beatles did to folk music. They would with the same notes and similar instruments, but there's a whole different feel to their music.

I think when I hear the term "old time" music it conjures up The Carter Family and a lot of the early Grand Ol' Opry people like Uncle Dave Macon or The Greenbriar Boys. I might even throw some of Woody's and Jimmie Rodgers's stuff in there — at least musically, if not lyrically — along with some of the Ozark fiddlers and even some of Doc Watson's simpler stuff. I don't necessarily connect it with great technical expertise on the instruments, but it still has a lot of musicality. And a lot of it is definitely "folk" music in its purest form.

Admittedly, the boundaries get blurred if you try to put too fine a point on it, but I agree with an earlier post about the instrumentally defined difference from bluegrass. The latter also uses a lot of blues-influenced chord progressions that don't usually show up in old-time music.

Damn! Outta worms. I'm goin' home...

david

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: Stewie
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 02:52 AM

doesterr

I not so sure that your distinction holds up. Granted that the traditional stuff is mainly called Old Time, it has also been called Old-Time, Olde Time Tunes, Old-Timey, Oldtimey, Old Familiar Tunes, Hillbilly, Mountain Music, Traditional Country etc. More often than not, current performers of the music are called old-time musicians even though a proportion of their repertoire may be original or material recycled in a new form. Whatever it's called, it's great stuff.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: BS: Old Timey: definition there of...
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 12 Apr 00 - 09:01 AM

My quick definition: the country music of the 20s and 30s, originally recorded on old 78s, played with non-electrified instruments. Mostly white music originally but a LOT of crossover with blues. (that leads, if questions are asked, to stories of Leslie Riddle and A.P. Carter)