Define "Old Time" Music

[MorrisrownSal]

I don’t see him post any more, but Rich Gionatti I believe is in a jug band. That’s what I think of when I hear the term Old Time Music.

Murph get some Byrds on? Some old Dylan? Old rockabilly even?

[Murph]

I did;

Shady Grove

Blue Ridge Mountain Blues

King Of The Road

Dark Hollow

Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad

It was a small turnout, and the weaker players are always the loudest, but I did meet a mandolin player who knew some old stuff, and he fell in love with my old Gibson mandolin that was once owned by Scotty Stoneman and has a "STONEMAN" sticker in it. He knew of Scotty and even took pictures of it.

It was worth a few hours of my time and I'm glad I went.

Thanks, all.

[QuestionMark]

5 minutes ago, Murph said:

I did;

Shady Grove

Blue Ridge Mountain Blues

King Of The Road

Dark Hollow

Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad

It was a small turnout, and the weaker players are always the loudest, but I did meet a mandolin player who knew some old stuff, and he fell in love with my old Gibson mandolin that was once owned by Scotty Stoneman and has a "STONEMAN" sticker in it. He knew of Scotty and even took pictures of it.

It was worth a few hours of my time and I'm glad I went.

Thanks, all.

Cool!  Glad it went well!  
 

QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff

[fortyearspickn]

Solo with mando?

Blue Ridge Mountain Blues is a keeper’

[Murph]

8 hours ago, fortyearspickn said:

Solo with mando?

Blue Ridge Mountain Blues is a keeper’

I don't get the question?

I didn't play any mandolin, because a mando player came, I DID bring my old 1933 Gibson mando though, and he dug it.

HE played several mandolin breaks in several songs.

I did play my resonator on a song or two, and even played banjo when a guy did "Wagon Wheel."

[MissouriPicker]

I wonder what “old time” music was to folks in The Dark Ages.  Maybe some Viking war chant or Hunnish dirge.

[Murph]

8 hours ago, MissouriPicker said:

I wonder what “old time” music was to folks in The Dark Ages.  Maybe some Viking war chant or Hunnish dirge.

And, I actually knew this was gonna be a small event, 4/5/6 players and some audience. So I figured "King Of The Road" would be okay, and it was. Heck, a guy did wagon wheel! It's hard to get people to do ANYTHING these days.

Buncha slackers....

[fortyearspickn]

So ...   it wasn't a Hootenanny ? 

[kwalker201]

Out of the 4/5/ or 6 I bet you were the best of them!

[Sgt. Pepper]

18 hours ago, MissouriPicker said:

I wonder what “old time” music was to folks in The Dark Ages.  Maybe some Viking war chant or Hunnish dirge.

Hitting something with a stick, not sure if there is an thing more basic that that to make a sound.

Like Ian Dury sang "Hit me with your rhythm stick - Hit me hit me - Two fat clicks - Hit me with your rhythm stick - Hit me"

[tpbiii]

On 4/17/2022 at 7:12 AM, Murph said:

I did;

Shady Grove

Blue Ridge Mountain Blues

King Of The Road

Dark Hollow

Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad

It was a small turnout, and the weaker players are always the loudest, but I did meet a mandolin player who knew some old stuff, and he fell in love with my old Gibson mandolin that was once owned by Scotty Stoneman and has a "STONEMAN" sticker in it. He knew of Scotty and even took pictures of it.

It was worth a few hours of my time and I'm glad I went.

Thanks, all.

I really like this kind of discussion!  I am in my Texas home right now, and I actually did  some kind of jam or band practice (side man for my daughter's DEAD GIRL SONG band -- mostly finger style guitar, harmonica and flat picked guitar) every day.  A nice week after a long lockup in Georgia.  One called itself old time, one Cajun, and the rest bluegrass -- all were organized as a song circle -- the bluegrass sessions had more breaks.  Lots of breaks.  None of these would pass for bluegrass in North GA.  I really like bluegrass jamming rules even if it is not bluegrass.  This is my article on bluegrass jamming. 

https://barnwell.ece.gatech.edu/rolesx.htm

Soo

What model is the 33 mandolin?  Since it belonged to Scotty, maybe F5 or similar?

Which version of Shady Grove -- Doc Watson with the minor, or the straight bang and go almost one chord older version.  The first is a fine finger style version which is oddly not well known in bluegrass circles but very well known to folkies.

Did you get harmony -- on the whole song?  On the chorus?   I actually did blue ridge mountain blues once this week, forgetting that the chorus changes -- that makes it a bit of a jam buster for bluegrass harmony singers who like an unchanging  chorus.   Did you sing harmony?

In the Cajun session, I mostly played rhythm guitar and harmonica and hung on.  Not too good a fit.  In the old time, rhythm guitar and clawhammer banjo and a bit s singing -- only an approximate fit for bluegrass style harmony.  I often go out with my dear friend Dr. Kelly Moore -  an excellent singer and clawhammer banjo player.

This week all of those songs showed up somewhere except KING OF THE ROAD.  I often sang harmony if appropriate, and I did lead on DARK HOLLOW once.  I do that in D  -- high lonesome.  What about you?

Alone and retired, for me this is as good as it gets.🙂

Here is Kelly doing A ROVING ON A WINTER'S NIGHT -- from an online JAMULUS sessions a few weeks ago.  JAMULUS is good, but live s better.  As they say, she can sing tenor to a dog whistle.

Like I often say

Let's pick,

-Tom

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by tpbiii

[Murph]

35 minutes ago, tpbiii said:

 

Soo

What model is the 33 mandolin?  Since it belonged to Scotty, maybe F5 or similar?

 

 

 

 

 

It's an A-00 I bought from George Gruhn back when he was still on Broadway.

He even wrote me a letter to go with it, for future generations, mentioning Scotty.

Chris Thile knows who Scotty was and tried to steal it once.

Just kidding.

 

 

[Murph]

42 minutes ago, tpbiii said:

 

Which version of Shady Grove -- 

 

 

 

 

I'm a huge fan of the Garcia / Grisman version. I do it in Dm, about the same speed, but I have a special needs student who will invariably speed it up and just stay in Dm during my breaks (he has dexterity issues as well) and he was there that night and did it...

So, we'll call it an alternative version...

[tpbiii]

I got this 34.  I wonder what the differences are.  For the banjos, it was really only the adjustable truss rod.  For guitars, the bracing. too  I found this one at a local SAM ASH -- someone had sold it to them.  Go figure.

Here is my daughter playing in a show in 2012

 

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by tpbiii

[Murph]

Wow, that's almost identical, mine has the Gibson "open book" headstock, and the binding around the oval hole is single.

The tailpiece cover looks the same.

Ebony bridge.

[tpbiii]

53 minutes ago, Murph said:

I'm a huge fan of the Garcia / Grisman version. I do it in Dm, about the same speed, but I have a special needs student who will invariably speed it up and just stay in Dm during my breaks (he has dexterity issues as well) and he was there that night and did it...

So, we'll call it an alternative version..

Yea, I remember that CD -- I think I have that CD somewhere.  Seems like they did a bunch of  folk songs in Jerry's  basement -- just the two of them on guitar and mandolin.  Not too up tempo. 

I don't have any presentable recordings of my late wife and me doing either version.  Odd, because we did it a bit for 50 years, but there was no plan.  I have an unpublished version I found in an obscure collection I did after my wife died -- trying to see if there was anything left of the solo  me.  I don't worry about presentable anymore.

 

Here is any even worst recording.  Some n the umgf  wanted to here the two versions open finger style on a particular 1934 0-17 Martin.  I should have been wiser, but like I said I don't worry about such things anymore.

Best,

-Tom

Edited April 28, 2022 by tpbiii

[Murph]

Cool videos, Tom.

John Prine surely had an old soul.

[Murph]

On 4/28/2022 at 7:13 AM, tpbiii said:

Yea, I remember that CD -- I think I have that CD somewhere.  Seems like they did a bunch of  folk songs in Jerry's  basement -- just the two of them on guitar and mandolin.  

I think it's a great album. Garcia/Grisman : Shady Grove.

Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings recently did an album of traditional stuff entitled "All The Good Times Are Past And Gone" which is mighty fine, as well.

I really like under-produced projects with just a few instruments.

Actually did one myself.

 

 

[tpbiii]

3 hours ago, Murph said:

Actually did one myself.

Nice mandolin😉

[Murph]

38 minutes ago, tpbiii said:

Nice mandolin😉

 

That's actually Owen Malone playing my Gibson mandolin on that song. I'm playing my Gibson J-15.

In the picture he's the one on the left holding the guitar.

We swapped instruments a lot on that project, and wanted it to sound like 2 guys sitting on a porch.

I play mandolin on this one.

 

[Dave F]

I love the simplicity when two talented artist get together and nothing is over produced.

I remember when Eric Clapton did the MTV Unplugged  in it's third season and I was blown away. After that performance  I started watching "Unplugged" performances from artist that I would had never given a listen to. That also got me where I wanted to go acoustic.

Here's two of my favorite collaborations.

Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow

Mansions For Me

There's More Pretty Girls Than One

Memories Of Mother And Dad

Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies

Talk About Suffering

Will The Roses Bloom

Tennessee Blues

The Old Crossroads

Have You Someone In Heaven Awaiting

Here Comes My Baby Back Again

There Goes My Everything

She Called Me Baby

I Gotta Have My Baby Back

Nobody Wins

Loving Her Was Easier

I Really Don't Want To Know

For The Good Times

[tpbiii]

9 hours ago, Dave F said:

Here's two of my favorite collaborations.

Very familiar with the first -- not the second.  We did hundreds of such songs, but were essentially not interested in making recordings in the usual commercial sense -- music is something we did with others, basically on the fly.  The ON THE FLY part of the process it what drove us -- different every time.  Different instruments, different voices, different keys,different  rhythm, etc.  During the great pandemic, I did some online multitracking -- beats nothing.  Here is an example.

 

Cellphone audio.

Here is an early JAMULUS live jam-  I have 120+ from last year.  A true jam -- the fiddle player does not know the song. Lots of small flaws -- internet distortion, internet timing, usual real jamming issues, ... -- but a real jam for people in two States (TX, GA) and another country (NS, Canada) -- three time zones.  Beats the hell out of nothing.  And it does have the fascinating no rehearsal  spontaneous leads that makes this stuff so compelling.  At least for us.  A jam can be so  much more compelling than highly rehearsed because of the extra dimension of the musical interactions.

Let's pick -- maybe on line

-Tom

 

[kwalker201]

The live jam session is really cool

[Dave F]

20 hours ago, tpbiii said:

Very familiar with the first -- not the second. 

..........................................

 

During the great pandemic, I did some online multitracking -- beats nothing.  Here is an example.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Here is an early JAMULUS live jam-  I have 120+ from last year.  A true jam -- the fiddle player does not know the song. Lots of small flaws -- internet distortion, internet timing, usual real jamming issues, ... -- but a real jam for people in two States (TX, GA) and another country (NS, Canada) -- three time zones.  Beats the hell out of nothing.  And it does have the fascinating no rehearsal  spontaneous leads that makes this stuff so compelling.  At least for us.  A jam can be so  much more compelling than highly rehearsed because of the extra dimension of the musical interactions.

Let's pick -- maybe on line

-Tom

 

The second one is a very basic setup of  Ernie Ford – lead vocals, Glen Campbell – acoustic guitars, harmony vocals, Chuck Domanico – bass fiddle doing some popular songs from the 50's and 60's.  I found it very enjoyable, but I've always liked Ernie Ford.

You Jamulus looks like a lot of fun. I wouldn't mind trying it.

I always enjoy your videos and your perspective on vintage instruments. Looks like you get a lot of enjoyment from it.

Maybe we will pick!

-Dave