Old Time Resources on the Web

Here are some great places to visit on the web if you are interested in learning about or hearing Old Time music.

Old Time Music Home Page
The Old Time Music Home Page site is full of information about famous fiddlers, recordings, events, and links. It also includes a searchable directory of old time musicians by locale which is a great resource if you are trying to find someone to jam with or someone to learn from. In addition they have a new Independent Old Time Music store with some great CD's for sale.

Honking Duck
The Honking Duck site features digital recordings of hundreds of old time music 78's that you can listen to. You can find recordings by tune title or band name. One of my favorites is Dykes Magic City Trio's "Callahan's Reel" - great syncopation on the high part.

Sugar in the Gourd
Sugar in the Gourd is a streaming MP3 Old Time internet radio station created and run by John Salmon. You can listen to Old Time music and see a list of what has been playing, with clickable links to buy the CD a tune came from.

Old Time Herald
The Old Time Herald is a magazine that covers old time artists and recordings, and is the best place to find ads for old time events such as festivals and workshops.

Hetzler's Fakebook
Hetzler's Fakebook is a great resource for midi renditions of Old Time and Celtic fiddle tunes. These renditions make it easy to hear the notes (of the particular tune version represented).

County Sales
County Sales is a great place to buy Bluegrass, Old-Time, Country Western, and Cajun music CD's, cassettes, books, and video.

Elderly Instruments
Elderly Instruments is another great source of all of the above plus new and vintage musical instruments, parts, and accessories.

Carolyn

PlayList for Palm

PlayList is a program I created for the Palm PDA. PlayList is almost totally based on Andrew Low's List, a simple database for the Palm, but I added a feature for playing musical "tune hints" when a particular text-based Palm music format is found in the Notes field of a database entry.

I created PlayList for those times when nobody in a jam can remember how to start one of the hundreds of old time fiddle tunes. When this happens, if I have the tune in my "Oldtime Tune Hints" PlayList database, I can use the Palm to play a little bit of the A and B part to refresh our memories. In addition, I use PlayList to view normal List databases I have created of Bill Wisdom's old time tune list from the Wisdom Jam in Bryn Mawr, PA., and another list of many old time recordings and their tracks.

The PlayList program and its databases, and also plain text files of the old time tune list and recordings list can be downloaded at my website Computers, Clawhammer, and Cats .

Carolyn

Lost Recordings of Old Time Music

Some incredibly good old time recordings have disappeared. I'm not talking about old wax records and field tapes - these are modern recordings that can no longer be found except by sheer luck.

So keep an eye out for these great recordings next time you are browsing the sales table at a festival or concert. Occasionally a small stack of these will turn up somewhere, especially if one of the artists is performing or teaching at that event.

"Living Black and White" by The Heartbeats Rhythm Band, Marimac 9048, cassette (1991)
Tara Nevins, Rose Sinclair, Beverly Smith, June Drucker

"One Eyed Dog" by Dirk Powell, John Herrmann, Tom Sauber, Yodel-Ay-Hee 008


"A Moment in Time" by Brad Leftwich and Dan Gellert, Marimac 9038, cassette


"Ida Red" by Ida Red, Yodel-Ay-Hee 024, CD
Polo Burgiere, Nadine Marinelli, John Herrmann and Meredith McIntosh


"Old Time Music Dance Party" by A.Robic and the Exertions, Flying Fish 415, cassette
Bruce Molsky with Mike Seeger, Paul Brown and others

"Cool As Grits" by Cool as Grits, cassette
David Bass and I think Ken Inoue, Kazumi Inoue

"Red Prairie Dawn" by Garry Harrison and the Mule Team, CD (2000) This recording is quite new but I think it was self-published - Garry - MAKE MORE!

"Fly By Night String Band" by Fly By Night String Band, Fretless 146, LP, 1970's? This is older and may have only been released as an LP. Bill Christophersen, Kevin Krajick, Scott Kellogg, and possibly Scott Ainsley

A message to the artists...
Please Re-Release These Great Recordings!!!!

Carolyn

Photo: Max the Big Black Cat

Photo: Amy, Blue Point Siamese

Photo: Marco, Lilac Point Siamese

Meet the Cats

I have posted pictures of our cats.

Max is a male Big Black Cat. Max was a stray that showed up as a scrawny sick kitten at my fiance Andy's parents home. They took him to the vet and fed him outside for a while and then brought him in. Andy adopted him and he eventually grew into a very big and friendly cat. At my fiance's old no-pet apartment, Max liked to climb through the blinds and stand between the white blinds and the window glass. He used to wrestle some with my ankles, and also liked to bear hug on arms, but he has slowed down in his old age. This picture with the pumpkin was taken several years ago. Max was 19 years old when I started this blog. We lost Max this year due to several fatal health problems which could not be treated. We miss ya big guy.

Amy is a blue point Siamese female. We adopted her from the local SPCA when she was 2 years old and Max was 5. Amy was a very interactive cat. She had things she liked us to do in every room and she would let us know what she wanted. She did everything with us. Out on the deck she would not get on the chair until we put a cushion on it for her, and sometimes she also would also want the umbrella opened. At night she would sleep under the covers next to me. She talked a lot and had many distinguishable words including a definite "No" and a mournful low pitched "morrr row" which meant she was trapped somewhere. At the age of 15, Amy unexpectedly developed acute kidney failure, and she succumbed to her illness during the 2003 holidays. She said "morrr row" for the last time as she exhaled her final breath. It was very sad. We loved Amy very much. This is a picture of Amy in her cushioned deck chair. She loved to lounge on the deck in nice weather. She was a graceful, wonderful cat and we miss her.

Marco is a lilac point Siamese male. We were searching for a female blue point to fill the gaping hole left by Amy's passing. Then during one of our many trips to the local SPCA we found Marco. He was not a female, and we were not sure how Max would accept him, but he seemed very nice and he needed a home, so we adopted him. Because he had sniffles I took him directly to our vet. She put him on a prescription, then he came home where he was segregated in a den due to the cold. Despite many vet visits and treatments, he almost died of the cold when he got so congested that he would not eat or drink for a week. We had to force feed him and hydrate him under the skin with ringers solution. Then finally after a prescription change, his cold cleared up and he started eating and drinking on his own. When Max and Marco finally met, they acted like they had always known each other. I think Max thinks Marco is Amy. Marco likes to chase kitty teasers and though he sleeps alone, he does like to cuddle and purr. He is tough to take pictures of because he usually closes his eyes when he sees a camera. He is a cuddly guy and he is now 7 years old. Since Max passed away, I think Marco misses his buddy, as we all do, so we are starting to look for a new friend for Marco.

Carolyn

Good Tunes and Good Friends

As the year 2004 draws to a close, I would like to raise a toast to my fiance Andy, and the fine friends that we play music with, all of the wonderful old time tunes, and all of the family members who have appreciated our renditions of same.

Now if I could just learn to play old time fiddle. I have tried approaching this from many angles including the purchase and restoration of several fiddles hoping to find the magic fiddle that would make my fingers always fall in the right place and my bow glide nimbly on the strings. I have tried taking week-long lessons down south in the summer hoping for my end-of-week expertise to stick. I have listened to hundreds of tunes so I have the tunes in my head.

But the fiddle refuses to be so easily conquered. It appears that if I ever want to play fiddle, I will actually have to practice - a lot. I will have to suffer the screeching dissonance of a bad fiddle player, myself, practicing right in front of my own ear, and not far from the ear of my fiance. Sounds like a plan for 2005.

But before I go practice, a few more toasts are in order.

A special toast to my dear mother who we all loved very much, and who lives on forever in our hearts and in my family's holiday feasts and traditions.

A hearty toast to my departed witty friend Jim Fessenden who left his father's fiddle to me, in an old black wood case, unexplainably marked with my own initials in old gold paint.

A warm lap somewhere to our sweet departed Blue Point Siamese cat "Amy" who enriched our lives for many years but did not make it to see this one.

And a final wish for all that the year 2005 will bring a lessening of strife and disasters and destruction in the world, and be a happier and more secure year for all.

Carolyn