Musician Profiles

I once heard a fiddler call John Morgan Salyer “the foremost genius, the Mozart of Old Time”. I can’t really argue with that. Salyer is known for crooked tunes, percussive bowing and a unique...

I'm one of the many oldtime musicians out there who got truly infected with a love for clawhammer banjo and oldtime fiddle as a result of the classic recordings of Tommy Jarrell and Fred...

Hi! I’m Hilarie Burhans.  After a childhood spent all over the world, my family moved to Athens, in the Appalachian part of Ohio, when I was in 10thgrade. I guess I was eager to put...

Can you tell me about your path to oldtime? "The first time I heard clawhammer banjo was Leonard Podolack playing on an album by The Duhks, a band from my hometown of Winnipeg, Canada. I’ll never...

Most every moment playing oldtime is lost to eternity, and that, perhaps, is a great part of its joy. As we sit with friends old and new, we dig into the now, riding the...

Alan Murphy is one of the greats of Midwest fiddling and one who deserves to be known well beyond the region. Born in Sibley, Iowa in 1945 and raised in Iowa City, Murphy came from...

I met Chris through the kind of serendipity + hospitality that has characterized most all of my experience in the oldtime community. Chris was in Germany touring with The Fugitives, a band he's played...

Co-authored by Mark C. Campbell & Rachel Krause Mark C. Campbell is an oldtime musician based in Richmond, Virginia. Mark grew up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where folk music and Shape Note hymns...

This personal remembrance of Jon Bekoff was written by his friend Ms. Moonshine on the occasion of his death five years ago today and originally published on the blog Old Time Party. At her...

Although oldtime guitar is arguably one of the most underrated and overlooked instruments in the tradition, Cameron Knowler is quick to point out that strong, engaging back-up is crucial to the “nutrition” of any...