Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, contra dance, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle and plucked string instruments, most often the banjo, guitar, and mandolin. Together, they form an ensemble called the string band, which along with the simple banjo-fiddle duet have historically been the most common configurations to play old-time music. The genre is considered a precursor to modern country music.
Thomas Jefferson Jarrell was an American fiddler, banjo player, and singer from the Mount Airy region of North Carolina's Appalachian Mountains.
Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. Traditional Appalachian music is derived from various influences, including the ballads, hymns and fiddle music of the British Isles, and to a lesser extent the music of Continental Europe.
Donald Wesley Reno was an American bluegrass and country musician, best known as a pioneering banjo and guitar player who partnered with Red Smiley, and later with guitarist Bill Harrell.
Charles Cleveland Poole was an American old-time musician and leader of the North Carolina Ramblers, a string band that recorded many popular hillbilly songs between 1925 and 1930.
Brad Leftwich is an American old-time fiddler, banjo player, singer and teacher of traditional old-time style. He is originally from Oklahoma but has resided in Bloomington, Indiana for most of his life. He performs solo and with his long-time musical partner and wife, Linda Higginbotham, and with his band, The Humdingers, which also includes Sam Bartlett and Abby Ladin.
Bruce C. Molsky is an American fiddler, banjo player, guitarist, and singer. He primarily performs old-time music of the Appalachian region.
Dan Levenson is an American old-time musician, storyteller, writer and educator. Specializing in Appalachian music, he sings, dances, and plays the five-string banjo, fiddle, and guitar.
Round Peak is an unincorporated community in Surry County, North Carolina, United States, near Mount Airy with an elevation of 1,280 feet. It is located in the southern Appalachian Mountains and gives its name to the Round Peak style of old-time music practiced in the area.
DeWitt "Snuffy" Jenkins was an American old time banjo player and an early proponent of the three-finger banjo style.
James Benton Flippen was an American old-time fiddler from Mount Airy, North Carolina. He was one of the last surviving members of a generation of performers born in the early 20th century playing in the Round Peak style centering on Surry County, North Carolina. His contemporaries included Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, Kyle Creed, and Earnest East.
Riley Baugus is an American old-time guitarist, banjo player, fiddler, singer and instrument builder from North Carolina.
County Records was a Virginia-based independent American record label founded by David Freeman in 1963. The label specialised in old-time and traditional bluegrass music.
Old timefiddle is the style of American fiddling found in old-time music. Old time fiddle tunes are derived from European folk dance forms such as the jig, reel, breakdown, schottische, waltz, two-step, and polka. When the fiddle is accompanied by banjo, guitar, mandolin, or other string instruments, the configuration is called a string band. The types of tunes found in old-time fiddling are called "fiddle tunes", even when played by instruments other than a fiddle.
Kyle Creed (1912–1982) was an influential musician and banjo luthier of 20th century Appalachia. Along with Tommy Jarrell, and Fred Cockerham, he was a central figure of the Roundpeak-style old-time music that began to find an outside audience in the 1960s, and his clawhammer banjo playing came to shape banjo practices in the Old-time music tradition.
DaCosta Woltz was an American old time banjo player from Galax, Virginia. His band, DaCosta Woltz's Southern Broadcasters played Appalachian old-time string band and square dance music and recorded in the late 1920s. Ben Jarrell, of Surry County, North Carolina, and father of influential fiddle and banjo musician Tommy Jarrell, played with the Southern Broadcasters. DaCosta Woltz was a promoter of patent medicine, the mayor of Galax, and a first-rate banjo player.
Earnest East was a fiddle, guitar, and banjo player. East began his music career as a member of the Camp Creek Boys, and later founded his own instrumental band which he called the Pine Ridge Boys in 1966. In 1969, the Pine Ridge Boys released their first album, titled "Old Time Mountain Music", on the County label. Their second album, "Stringband Music From Mt. Airy" was released in 1981 on the Heritage label.
William Preston McKinney known as "Old Man" Pet McKinney (1846–1926) was an American Old Time fiddler and singer and civil war veteran from Round Peak, North Carolina. During the American Civil War he fought in the 45th Virginia Regiment. Later as an old man he was a well-known musician in the Round Peak. He influenced several musicians in the area, notably Tommy Jarrell whom he taught the tune Sail Away Ladies. His granddaughter Corinna Bowden was also a musician and a friend of Tommy Jarrell.
Carroll Best was an American bluegrass banjo player and music educator. He was briefly a member of The Morris Brothers in the mid 1950s. He was the winner of several regional banjo contests before being awarded the widely recognized Bascom Lamar Lunsford Award in 1990. He is credited for developing an influential melodic three-finger banjo style, which he taught as a member of the faculty at the Tennessee Banjo Institute. This style influenced the work of musicians Tony Trischka and Bela Fleck. His work was featured on radio broadcasts for NPR and The Grand Ole Opry, and on the television program Hee Haw. He released two albums while he was alive, and a third album of his work was released posthumously in 2001. He is listed as a historic artist by the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, and was given the North Carolina Heritage Award in 1994.
