Non-traditional Old Timey Music?

Subject: Non-traditional Old Timey Music?
From: Duane D.
Date: 29 Dec 98 - 01:56 AM

While I have been a fan of traditional folk music of all kinds for many years and of old timey music, in general, I have been somewhat disturbed by the extremes presented by the old timey practioners. Dress codes, for instance, of what you can and can't play and how you can and can't play it. I've been to several old timey jam sessions over the years in the NJ/NY metro area and have been welcomed playing my guitar, as long as it is my 6 string and only with a flat pick. I also play other instruments and I prefer fingerpicking. I DO respect the concept of maintaining traditions, but the stuffiness sometimes disturbs me. In the old days, before this type of music had a name, people gathered and played whatever instruments they had. I've heard stories of a hammer dulcimer player wandering into an old timey jam session and contentedly playing along for a half dozen tunes, only to have the fiddle players retuning, in unison, a 1/2 step up, continuing playing, and leaving him in the dust. I've often thought about working out an arrangement of the Hangman's Reel on English concertina, or bowed psaltry, or pianolin. Can anyone out there point me in the direction of readily available recordings on tape, cd, or vinyl of traditional old timey music played on non-traditional instruments? Regards, Duane D. :)

Subject: RE: Non-traditional Old Timey Music?
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Dec 98 - 07:50 AM

Hi Duane! Did you get my reply to your hammered dulcimer message? Hope it helps. You may be about to get one started here...remember the Holy Grail of wood line? I'll tag along for awhile, should be interesting! Pat/catspaw49

Subject: RE: Non-traditional Old Timey Music?
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 29 Dec 98 - 09:10 PM

Duane, PLEASE don't get discouraged! the strongest traditions are the ones in which new ideas are constantly being tried-- and sometimes the seed falls on fertile ground. Specific suggestions The NEFFA festival held I believe 4th weekend in April every year in Natick MA is a hotbed of both trad and non-trad oldtimey and Irish and lots of other things. Specifically, every year Drew Smith leads a "string, wind, reed" jam in which tunes are played on rather surprising instruments. OTOH there is the old-time music festival at Galax which states in the rules that an old-time band shall consist of 3 to 7 people and shall include a fiddle a banjo and a guitar. It helps if your application has a return address from the right zip code too (100xx often brings instant disqualification without notice to the contestant) I once asked one of the judges if they realized that the Carter Family, under their rules, was not an old-time band and was told, w no sense of humor, that since they didn't have a fiddle, that they weren't. That's one way of keeping the tradition alive. On still another hand there is Clifftop, the weekend before Galax, which always includes a Non-Traditional Band Contest which has been the source of incredible inventiveness and fun for lots of people, myself included. Your specific request-- trad OT music played on non-trad instruments is a little harder. The Mando-Mafia of Charlottesville VA does some wonderful stuff. Every year at the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Festival several people do things on an autoharp that I would never have believed possible. And a good hammered dulcimer player ADDS to a session. I can go into my tape collection & get some catalog numbers and addresses but suspect that my fellow Mudcatters will shortly overwhelm you to the point where you don't need me.

Subject: RE: Non-traditional Old Timey Music?
From:
Date: 30 Dec 98 - 05:59 AM

It sounds like you got into the wrong crowd Duane. It seems some people have to be competitive even when they are having fun. I think music is the place for cooperation rather than competition.

By the way. Who says old time guitar requires a flatpick. Roscoe Holcomb played with his fingers. The only people who seem to insist on a flatpick are the Bluegrass fans, and I would call them middle-agey rather than old timey.

Murray