There are so many great and beautiful aspects to old time music- but I understand how it's an aquired taste. My first old time music fix was listening to The New Lost City Ramblers. I liked a lot of their songs but at first I didn't hardly understand the fiddle tunes. I looked up a lot of the original recording artists they mentioned and listened to them - like Uncle dave Macon, Charlie Poole, Grayson and Whitter, The Skillet Lickers, The Delmore Brothers and more and gradually got myself an education and understanding of the music. I started playing banjo and picking up songs and fiddle tunes from there, and gradually many tunes got worked into my soul. The first time I arrived at an informal old time festival I got out of my car and walked right into the most powerful presence of fiddle music with banjo, guitar and bass I have ever heard - a sound that penetrated my veins. It was exciting, spirited, beautiful and complex and played with sheer love and drive - I became addicted to the quality and the aspects of that music and since then I am constantly still learning great things about it. Old time music can be very complex or very simple - often in it's simplicity the listener doesn't realise the complexity of it until they try to play it themselves. It's an understanding - an education. Once you get it, you're hooked.
Often people ask me what kind of music I play and I try to explain it like this: something like bluegrass but an earlier style related to folk music. It's terribly hard to explain unless they hear it.
In Toronto old time music concerts are few, but are respected by the audience and presenters when they occur. Folk festivals are for the most part not hiring old time musicians unless they are very well known or have big fiddle bands with good looking fiddle playing ladies in them (not to dis them - they are very good too!) and traditional music in general is gradually dissapearing from these festivals in favor of the modern singer-songwriter. This is the age of the singer/songwriter- it's what sells to the buying younger generation for the most part.
At Clifftop - in the hottest old time spot, you'd swear that the music is everywhere and is part of a huge resurgence- and it is true that there are so many good recordings available now and many young people are learning to play really well, but the old time scene is still really pretty small and unknown for the most part.
I have high hopes for the music- I can see the enthusiasm and ability of new players, new tunes are now being made up all the time, and the singer songwriter craze will give way to performance opportunities of traditional music more in the future.
By the way a Canadian friend of mine has released a CD of all new old time Canadian tunes, and it's one killer great recording! Check out Brian Pickell's website and his "Fresh Canadian Fiddle Tunes" CD if you are interested. http://www.brianpickell.com/music/
Arnie Naiman