musician profiles

INTERVIEWS & TUNES

00:27:55

Tricia Spencer: interview + tunes

Rachel Krause
Like all performers and teaching musicians, Tricia Spencer’s life looks a lot different this year. While she’d typically be in the middle of festival...
00:18:34

Swedish oldtime fiddler Agnes Brogeby: interview + tunes

Oldtime Central
I'm from Sweden. I grew up in Stockholm, but now live in Gothenburg in the south of Sweden. I've been playing oldtime for about...
00:14:17

Clarke Buehling: interview & tunes

Oldtime Central
My first exposure to old-time music was probably when Hobart Smith came to perform at my high school outside of Chicago. Within a few...

festival profiles

NOTES FROM THE FIELD

Online Old Time Banjo Festival Part 2: An interview with the organizers

Oldtime Central
Back at the beginning of May, we gave you information about the Online Oldtime Banjo Festival, hosted by Brad Kolodner and Cathy Fink. ...

Virtual Banjo-Fiddle Frolic: interview with Allie Lee

Oldtime Central
Frank and Allie Lee have put on their Banjo-Fiddle Frolic for the past two years to great success. This year they've decided to add...

Online Old Time Banjo Festival, hosted by Cathy Fink and Brad Kolodner

Cathy Fink
The First ONLINE OLD TIME BANJO FESTIVAL will take place Saturday and Sunday, May 2-3, 2020. Brought to you by hosts Cathy Fink (2018...

book reviews

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY, THAT IS THE QUESTION

Oldtime on the Prairie: a review of Farmhouse Fiddlers

Benjamin Smith
Between 1976 and 1985 fiddler and ethnographer Philip Martin conducted extensive interviews with more than 100 older-generation fiddlers and musicians in his local south-west...

Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance

Benjamin Smith
A friend once quipped that the name of the main Facebook page for the music we all love should be retitled, "Dedicated to Narcissistic...

Banjo Billy’s “500 Fiddle Tunes: Old-Time Archive”

Emily Elam
When I was nine years old, my fiddle teacher sent me to a workshop from the “Famous Fiddlin’ Banjo Billy Mathews.” Having played less...

oldtime voices

PERSONAL STORIES FROM THE COMMUNITY

Antisocial Media

Benjamin Smith
These 19th century cowboys dancing to fiddle tunes, posted to a Facebook group, is but the latest case in point. A kindly member of...
00:02:12

The Bones and Musical Repatriation

Dom Flemons
Dom Flemons, quoted frequently in last week’s article by Timothy Jones on rhythm bones and old-time music, here tells his story of discovering bones,...

The Cabin: tradition & place in Romney, West Virginia

Steve Ritz
Traditional Appalachian musicians from Hampshire County, West Virginia and the surrounding area are fortunate to have a great venue where they can share their...

community profiles

SEE HOW THE NEIGHBORS LIVE

00:09:51

Instrument Maker Finds Life Calling In The Scraps Of The Past

Steve Ritz
“I use gourds, coffee cans, beer cans, cigar boxes, gas cans, cookie tins, frying pans, copper pipe, and anything else I can find that...

Creating a Safer Space in Traditional Music

Oldtime Central
In October of this year, a small group of active traditional musicians established a new Facebook group called "Traditional Music Today." In the few...

Old-Time on the Danube: Why We Play

Richard Osban
Musical communities are interesting studies in human psychology. You find them in just about every population on Earth: groups of people who come together...
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