So, What's Old-time Music?

By: caraherl Mood: elated Date: 12/07/2007 09:09:50 Music: None

Ok, so we aren't really a bluegrass band.  We are an Old-time string band. 

Someone might ask, "What's the difference?"  We have the same instrumentation, though different techniques, the same harmony (sort of..), our repertoire is certainly overlapping and most people can't tell the difference.  We know the difference and you know the difference but Joe and Sally Walmart and Clarke and Shella Golfset don't.  If you try to explain it, their response is something along the line of "Whatever!"

Falling Branch Band is social group of four friends who like to play and sing string band music.  We prefer music from before circa 1950 for some reason or other.  Our lead instrument is the fiddle, our banjo is open-back clawhammer, our guitar is vanilla rhythm as is our bass.  We prefer to stand when we perform and we love to sing four-part close harmony.  We are a vocal band that also includes fiddle tune instrumentals taken from the traditional fiddlers of the Appalachian Mountains.  Our vocals depend heavily on the likes of the Carter Family and Charlie Poole, etc., but we might throw in a swing tune or a bluegrass standard tune when no one is looking. 

So, again, what is the difference between Old-time and Bluegrass?  The banjo style, the fiddle style, and to a certain extent the selection of tunes. 

But as Sally Walmart said to me at the Picken's Maple Syrup Festival last Spring - "Whatever"!

Les Caraher

(Guitar, Autoharp and Jokes)