Old-Time Music
The umbrella label for pre-bluegrass rural American string music: fiddle-and-banjo dance tunes, breakdowns, ballads, and songs played in the old, communal style. It favors ensemble interplay over solos, steady danceable rhythm, clawhammer banjo, fiddle drones, and Carter-scratch guitar, with loose group singing. The aesthetic prizes tradition, community, and the tune itself over individual virtuosity or commercial polish.
History
"Old-Time Music" is the term used by record labels in the 1920s (often "old-time tunes") and by later revivalists to describe the body of traditional Southern string-band, fiddle, and ballad music that predated and gave rise to bluegrass. It was first widely recorded after Fiddlin' John Carson's 1923 success and the explosion of string bands, fiddlers, and ballad singers who followed, with the Grand Ole Opry and regional barn dances spreading it on radio. It encompasses the Skillet Lickers, Charlie Poole, Uncle Dave Macon, and The Carter Family alike.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Soldier's Joy — Gid Tanner and His Skillet LickersSpotifyYouTube
- Drunken Hiccups — Tommy JarrellSpotifyYouTube
- Cumberland Gap — Uncle Dave MaconSpotifyYouTube
- Sail Away Ladies — Uncle Dave MaconSpotifyYouTube
- Sally Ann — The Highwoods String BandSpotifyYouTube
- Single Girl, Married Girl — The Carter FamilySpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Bill C. Malone, "Country Music, U.S.A."
- Charles Wolfe, "The Devil's Box: Masters of Southern Fiddling"
- Smithsonian Folkways recordings