Not just old-timers love old-time music
A roots music festival appeals to all ages and has plenty of strings attached: fiddle, banjo, guitar, etc.
By LOGAN NEILL
Published April 1, 2005
SPRING LAKE - Looking back, Ernie Williams recalls the nervousness he felt the night before the first Florida Old Time Music Championship 24 years ago.
He and fellow promoter Jim Strickland had worked for weeks putting the event together. They had put up posters in music stores around the Tampa Bay area, handed out fliers at folk music concerts and talked up the festival to anyone who seemed remotely interested in old-time music. Still, they had their doubts.
"As much as we enjoyed this type of music, we wondered if anyone else really cared about what we were trying to do," Williams said. "There were plenty of successful folk and bluegrass festivals in Florida, but there had never been a festival devoted entirely to old-time music."
To Williams' and Strickland's surprise - and great delight - a couple of hundred people made the trek to the Pioneer Florida Museum in Dade City and were treated to a day of music from some of the state's top-notch players of old-time music.
So began an annual Florida musical treasure that kicks off today and runs through Saturday at the Sertoma Youth Ranch in southeastern Hernando County.
"I think the thing that's most amazing is how many younger people are attracted to the music," Williams said. "It's become very multigenerational the past few years."
For the uninitiated, old-time music is commonly referred to as the essential American roots music, with a stylistic tradition that dates back to the early southern Appalachian settlers. Performed primarily on stringed instruments like guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin and dulcimer, early forms of the music combined the elements of English folk songs, African-American gospel and Celtic dance music.
Although not as commercially mainstream as country and bluegrass, old-time music nonetheless has been featured in many films, including the recent O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Cold Mountain.
Williams, himself a clawhammer-style banjo player, thinks the exposure has attracted more interest in the music in recent years and has allowed it to become part of the interpollination process that has led to genres such as Americana and alternative folk.
"The sound is something that I think every person can relate to, no matter what style of music they've grown up listening to," Williams said. "It's a very real music to your ears, filled with emotion."
As always, Williams expects the two-day event to attract some of the South's renowned stringed instrumentalists and singers, competing in categories such as old-time-style banjo, fiddle and mandolin; finger-style guitar; hammered and Appalachian-style dulcimer; Autoharp; harmonica; and rhythm instruments (spoons, washboard, tub bass, jug, etc.).
In addition, the festival will feature music workshops and performances by the old-time music and dance duet of Pete and Ellen Vigour from Albemarle, Va.
AT A GLANCEWHAT: 24th Florida Old Time Music Championship.
WHEN: Starts at 7 tonight and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: Sertoma Youth Ranch in southeastern Hernando County. From State Road 50 east of Brooksville, turn south onto Spring Lake Highway. Take Spring Lake to Church Road and turn east. Take Church to Myers Road and turn south. The ranch will be on the west side of the road.
ADMISSION: $5 today; $8 Saturday. Weekend tickets cost $12. Free for children under 12. Camping is available on the grounds for an extra fee.
INFORMATION: Call (813) 991-4774 or (352) 588-4734.