Contemporary Old-Time String Bands
Nelson
I am new to this group. Over the last year or so I have discovered
that I am not so much a bluegrass fan as I am an old-time fan. (I
play mandolin and guitar and am a huge Bill Monroe fan, though).
I started out by listening to The Skillet Lickers, the Monroe
Brothers, Eck Robertson, Fiddlin' John Carson and maybe a few others.
Can anyone refer me to string bands working now that play old-time or
old-time inspired music? The best I have found so far seems to be The
Foghorn Stringband.
Also, what old-time bands would you guys consider must haves?
Thanks,
Nelson
Tom from Texas
and mix in some of their own songs with older music.
--
Tom from Texas
(The Tom Risner Fund for Deserving North Texas Guitarplayers is not liable
for any slander, hurt feelings, pointless moaning, or achy-breaky heartache
any post under this name should cause. Yall want easy cash or sympathy...
ye can kiss my grits!!)
"Nelson" <nelsonpe...@knology.net> wrote in message
news:b2288935-627a-4191...@w41g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
Lyle Lofgren
You didn't say where you live. We could maybe direct you to a good
band likely to be playing near you. Unfortunately, some talented
bands were only temporary conglomerations, and exist only as a CD or
two. I recommend subscribing to the Old Time Herald
(www.oldtimeherald.org), even to the point of ordering back issues.
The magazine has excellent reviews of current performers.
There's a lot more variability in old time music than in bluegrass, so
you might want to explore some to broaden your musical dimensions --
i.e., Cajun, Zydeco, Southern African-American, etc. If you like the
sort of hell-for-leather music that Foghorn plays, I understand the
Freighthoppers have re-formed, although I haven't heard them
recently.
Here's some other currently-active groups that I enjoy. The list is
far from inclusive, just names that popped into the top of my head. I
apologize to any great groups that didn't happen to rise into
consciousness -- I should have been able to mention 3 times as many as
I list below. Also, some of the public radio stations in the Southeast
have OT programs you can listen to on the internet. I used to have a
list of some, but they disappeared into digital oblivion when my hard
drive went to that great toxic waste dump in the sky. An even broader
example of old-time music is the Secret Museum of the Air archives at
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/SM. By the time you're done listening to
those programs, you'll be familiar with traditional music from around
the world.
(listed in alphabetical order:)
Bob Bovee & Gail Heil
Bruce Molsky
Eric & Suzy Thompson
Mike Seeger
Orpheus Supertones
Red Mountain White Trash
Stairwell Sisters
Tom, Brad & Alice
Tracy Schwarz & Ginny Hawker
Welcome to the newsgroup.
Lyle
Lyle Lofgren
> those programs, you'll be familiar with traditional music from around
> the world.
>
> (listed in alphabetical order:)
> Bob Bovee & Gail Heil
> Bruce Molsky
> Eric & Suzy Thompson
> Mike Seeger
> Orpheus Supertones
> Red Mountain White Trash
> Stairwell Sisters
> Tom, Brad & Alice
> Tracy Schwarz & Ginny Hawker
>
> Welcome to the newsgroup.
>
> Lyle
Just as soon as I pressed "send," I remembered the Carolina Chocolate
Drops. Not to be missed.
Lyle
Lyle Lofgren
One more recommendation: The New North Carolina Ramblers.
Lyle
joebob
Hello Nelson,
To discover and appreciate this rich musical tradition will take some
time. Let me suggest that you ....
Watch some Old Time Music Videos
http://www.oldjoebobclark.homestead.com/OldtimeVideos.html
and then go to the band homepages page
http://oldtimemusicanddance.homestead.com/bandhomepages.html
which will get you to their websites which often have audio provided
by the bands.
Enjoy!!
http://www.myspace.com/old_joebob_clark
*********************************************************
The Old Time Music & Dance Community Website
http://oldtimemusicanddance.homestead.com/
Many useful links to pages with Old Time content such as -
Bands | Old Time Music Videos | Dances |
AudioFiles | Photos | Events & Festivals |
Friends of OTM | Old Time Jams | Submit URLs
And More....
*********************************************************
OTKellie
The Old 78s
The Brandy Snifters
Dean
Well, the Carolina Chocolate Drops have been very popular the last few
years and put on a great live show. They have two CDs out. I can also
recommend Dirk Powell, Bruce Greene, Dan Gellert and Rafe Stefanini.
The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers are still playing, albeit without some
of their original members. But they are still a treat to watch. I've
seen the Freight Hoppers twice this year. David Bass and Frank Lee are
a powerful combination.
If you go online to County Records, they have a sizeable old-time
music selection from which to choose. Best of luck.
Peter Feldmann
Well folks, I have reviewed some of the suggestions so far, and some are
better than others. But if you REALLY want to get contemporary, take a
look and a listen to a few other suggestions:
The Hen Cackle Entertainers...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v_3C99BLZ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osm9-cqMOK0
The Gap Tooth Mountain Ramblers...
http://www.bluegrasswest.com/gapposter.htm
You just can't GET more contemporary than this! (I understand that us
So. Calif. folks are anathema to the Old Time Herald crowd, whose
reporter, writing a survey of OT music on the west coast a few years
ago, covered Seattle, Portland, Arcata, Berkeley, and then made a quick
jump to Phoenix AZ while holding his hands over his ears.) I figure he
just had to stop for gas at least once....
--
Peter Feldmann
BlueGrass West
PO Box 614
Los Olivos, CA 93441 USA
+1 805 688 9894 // 805 350 3918 (cell)
www.BlueGrassWest.com
Lyle Lofgren
Gee, Peter, we didn't know there was any old time music in Southern
California since the Ash Grove closed. (Wait! Don't hit me with that
Mastertone! I was just kidding!)
Lyle
Peter Feldmann
> Gee, Peter, we didn't know there was any old time music in Southern
> California since the Ash Grove closed. (Wait! Don't hit me with that
> Mastertone! I was just kidding!)
>
> Lyle
Lyle, we just do things differently here in Southern California. Life
works in mysterious ways . . .
I recall waiting for a return flight to Santa Barbara on a business trip
at the San Jose airport a few years back. All of a sudden, on the
intercom, came a voice announcing: "Will Riley Puckett please pick up a
white courtesy telephone?". It was repeated. Damn! I should have
picked up and found out if it was Gid.
--
Peter Feldmann
BlueGrass West!
P.O. Box 614
Los Olivos, CA 93441 USA
+1 (805) 688-9894
http://www.BlueGrassWest.com
===============================
David Sanderson
> Lyle Lofgren wrote:
>
> > Gee, Peter, we didn't know there was any old time music in Southern
> > California since the Ash Grove closed. (Wait! Don't hit me with that
> > Mastertone! I was just kidding!)
> >
> > Lyle
>
> Lyle, we just do things differently here in Southern California. Life
> works in mysterious ways . . .
>
> I recall waiting for a return flight to Santa Barbara on a business trip
> at the San Jose airport a few years back. All of a sudden, on the
> intercom, came a voice announcing: "Will Riley Puckett please pick up a
> white courtesy telephone?". It was repeated. Damn! I should have
> picked up and found out if it was Gid.
That Great Airport in the Sky, yes....
I tend to take a somewhat skeptical view of neo string bands, I'm
afraid, and would recommend especially to novice listeners that they go
back to the best of the early recordings as part of the basic learning
process. What I hear in contemporary groups tends to be technically
good on instruments, weak on singing, and weak on variety and
expression, tending to play too fast. This is enough of a gross
overgeneralization to offend all sorts of folks, and I don't intend to
get involved in a discussion of the issues, it being my own impression
based on forty-odd years of listening to this stuff.
So I still go back and listen to Charlie Poole, Uncle Dave Macon's best
material, and so on. I continue to be resentful that we don't have more
of Kahle Brewer's wonderful playing, full of unexpected musical ideas.
Tommy Jarrell was his own person in many ways, and if you want to
understand the melody/rhythm relationships in old-time fiddling you have
to listen to Tommy. And so on.
Not that these cautions stop me from playing the music shamelessly and
never as well as I might wish, music being among other things a
continuous pursuit of unattainable excellence of one sort or another.
Scott Fitzgerald was not a musician, but one might well quote the last
line of "Gatsby" as our collective maxim.
--
David Sanderson
East Waterford, Maine
Frank Hoppe
Hi Nelson,
I've been enjoying Chance McCoy & the Appalachian String Band quite a
bit. One person whose opinion I respect says it's ok but Chance
doesn't sound like he's sinned enough. Maybe that's my problem,
too. ;-)
For the flat-out o-t that Foghorn does, I suggest trying to find
recordings by the Highwoods Stringband, the Red Hots and the Bubba
George String Band--definitely not purist recreations but way
energetic get high and dance in the mud old-time.
But for a truly psychedelic experience, check out "Indian War Whoop"
by Hoyt Ming and His Pep-Steppers.
Frank in L.A.
Lyle Lofgren
Amen! The "Indian War Whoop" is on the Folkways Anthology of American
Folk Music, published by Smithsonian-Folkways. It's well worth the
cost of the 3-CD album (with voluminous notes), because you'll never
get tired of listening to it or know it so well you won't learn
something new the next time you play it. An astral experience.
Lyle
joebob
YouTube ... ya gotta luvit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNLTr5oC3iU
.
*********************************************************
The Old Time Music & Dance Community Website
http://oldtimemusicanddance.homestead.com/
Many useful links to pages with Old Time content such as -
Bands | Old Time Music Videos | Dances |
AudioFiles | Photos | Events & Festivals |
Friends of OTM | Old Time Jams | Submit URLs
And More....
*********************************************************
=========================
> Lyle- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
tonythomas
> On Jul 21, 6:56 am, Nelson <nelsonpeddyco...@knology.net> wrote:
>
> I've been enjoying Chance McCoy & the Appalachian String Band quite a
> bit. One person whose opinion I respect says it's ok but Chance
> doesn't sound like he's sinned enough. Maybe that's my problem,
> too. ;-)
>
Having met and picked a bit with Chance, I can testify that he knows
how to sin and likes to sin. He makes me wish I was young enough to
sin as he does.
He has got some good music.
I just think poeople should listen to the old stuff first just to find
out what it is, so they can view the new stuff in reference to it.
I love a lot of the new string bands, but I listen to very few of them
because there is so much of the old stuff to hear. I cannot dictate
what other people should do about anything, nor do I wish to confuse
my own tastes with what people should do.
I am interested in the old music as a product of culture and history
that no longer exists and recognize that whatever we do, we are not
reproducing it because we do not come from that context.
The OTM revivial which I date from the late 1950s has been going on
longer than the amount of time that the original commercial recordings
were made in the 1920s through the 1930s. Many of us who got into it
as teenagers are retirment age and older, as old or older than some of
the great old time musicians and blues singers who we "rediscovered"
in the 1960s.
Despite the general pressure of many of us to stick near the old
tradition, whatever social and economic forces that are represented
amongst the nearly 60 years of OTM revivalism probably have more to do
with our playing than simple reproduction of the traditional music.
Still, that might be good stuff, just not the :"real thing" but still
goood gooood music.
I especially like some of the musicians like Chance who are young
enough to be sufficiently sinful to play OTM the proper way. In the
1960s, a certain attitude about being old timey developed based on the
near senility of many of the great old players. There was an
unconscious and conscious apping of how old people act as part of the
routine of being an Old Time Music shtick. We forgot that the old
musicians and singers we found hadd gotten into the music as hormone
filled teenagers, wild giirls and boys knowledgeable of opportunities
to fornicate, imbibe white lighting, and "take a wiff on me," and not
the oldsters they had become.
Tony Thomas who is feeling particularly old today and who was supposed
to call Social Security today about how much can I make and still get
my check.
Bill Martin
news:d9WdnQzHFtcNifbX...@giganews.com...
>
> process. What I hear in contemporary groups tends to be technically good
> on instruments, weak on singing, and weak on variety and expression,
> tending to play too fast.
I have to agree, especially about the singing. Still, there is some
interesting stuff being done. You might check out Greg Clarke of Portland,
Oregon. He's not widely known but his singing is often top notch old-time.
And Maggie & Patrick Lind of Portland, unrecorded, but more in the Molly
O-Day vein.
And as for Lyle's list, he needs to add The Brandy Sniffers, and move them
to the top of the list in my opinion.
Bill
lincn...@netzero.com
I left out a big part of North Eastern dance band music styles when I forgot Celtic. Lots of Celtic tunes are included in most these dance bands repertoires.
lincn...@netzero.com
I haven't read all of the posted answers to your question. So I hope I'm not repeating any info from others. One area of Old Time String Band music that regularly gets overlooked, and was overlooked in the 1920s and 1930s when the focus was on recording Southern string bands, is North Eastern dance bands. Most commonly playing for Contra, but also Round and Square dances. If you look up the name Larry Ungar there are a number of bands he's connected with. There's also Canal Street String Band in Buffalo, NY. There's Wild Asparagus, I'm not sure where from. There's also the resource of the New York State Old Tyme Fiddler's Association (NYSOTFA). They can provide some good info on North Eastern fiddling traditions.
As long I'm on this topic, I'll take time to name a couple of groups I play with: The Wastrels (String Band) and Millers' Wheel. These are Central/Western NY string bands. Since NY is generally a cross roads, bands around here often assimilate a mix of styles (Southern, Contra, Country Blues, Cajun, etc.). So that's what you'll find with these last two bands I mentioned.
Hope you've been finding lots of good music in your explorations of Old Time.
And, further good luck to you,
Lincoln
On Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:56:01 AM UTC-4, Nelson wrote:
Uncle Bob
Regards,
Uncle Bob
jeff...@vt.edu
Paul O'Connor
Highwoods String Band (from some years ago)
The Tallboys
Boiled Buzzards
The Haints
The Eelpout Stringers
Joseph Decosimo
Murphy & Marckx
New Ballards Branch Bogtrotters
Old Buck
Uncle Earl
Run of the Mill String Band
Sugar Pie
Troublesome Creek String Band
... and check out the youtube videos of the Clifftop festival.
