Square dance music has lots of rhythm and beat to it. Old Time fiddle and banjo music recorded at the dawn of recording and beyond captured nineteenth century musicians playing very rhythmic music that evolved quite traditionally. Plus there are a whole bunch of non-dance ("crooked") tunes with lots of rhythm. I'm citing the earlier recordings because as recording and radio evolved, a small number of popular musicians had an incredible impact on the ensuing evolution. For example, the impact that Arthur Smith had on fiddling, changing the direction away from traditional playing by slicking up tunes, becoming less rhythmic, more notey, etc. I think he set a model that most bluegrass fiddlers (e.g., Kenny Baker) largely adhere to, obviously to varying degrees of success. The older recordings help to validate the claims by later musicians (e.g., Tommy Jarrell, Buddy Thomas, etc.) that the way they play is the way it used to be done...that is, with much more (albeit subtle) rhythm. Older recordings of gospel music to me reveal more subtle rhythm, too, in the voices. I'm thinking of a couple of recordings made by Alan Lomax of the Bright Light Quartet ("Straighten 'Em", "The Prayer Wheel"). I love that stuff.

I think that while more contemporary music like bluegrass, "folk", rock, etc. there is more emphasis on the beat and losing rhythmic subtlety. I'm not saying there is no rhythm...I'm saying this from my own experience of learning to cross pick guitar. When I cross pick a tune, I have to shed the rhythm and stick to the roll pattern, much the same way a bluegrass banjo player must.

I once attended a workshop by Art Stamper, whose father, Hiram Stamper, was a nineteenth century fiddler. Art played a tune the way his father played, and then played it the way he would play it in bluegrass style. To hear one man play in BOTH styles just blew me away.

Great topic, Jerry...

-Greg