OTDL - New Tunes, Good Reading and Good Listening

Hey friends,

This is Old Time Download – where I share what I know about Old Time music, what I'm working on, what I'm listening to, and more to inspire your playing.

As always, I love hearing from you all. Feel free to respond directly to this email and let me know if anything here resonates.

What's new

My band, Big Chimney Barn Dance, just got back from playing the Subdued Stringband Jamboree and The Tractor Tavern in Seattle. What a treat that whole experience was and getting to play with The Lottie Dotties at the Tractor was particularly special.

Big Chimney is still sharing our latest album (which you can find here if you'd like to support us) but we're just starting the process of releasing a six track EP. Stay tuned.

What I'm sharing on YouTube

Tunes I Like Ep2 - Come on Old Paint, Get Up That Hill. This is an original by Bach Bui (sorry I mis-attributed this to Ethan Hawkins in my video) and I shared Ethan Hawkins's recording of this tune in the last newsletter.

This one took me a while to internalize, but once you get the melody in your head it just kinda falls out.

What's inspiring me

being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage - on starting, doing, being, and becoming.

If the article has moved behind a paywall, try this.

Relevant to anyone learning the fiddle but also anyone in general. From the article...

Watch a child draw. They create fearlessly, unselfconsciously, because they have not yet developed the curse of sophisticated taste! They draw purple trees and flying elephants with the confidence of someone who has never been told that trees aren't purple, that elephants don't fly. But somewhere around age eight or nine, taste arrives like a harsh critic, and suddenly the gap opens. The child can see that their drawing doesn't match the impossible standard their developing aesthetic sense has conjured.

and...

Learning anything as an adult means reclaiming this beginner's privilege. It means giving yourself permission to be bad at something, to create things that serve no purpose other than your own discovery and delight. The beginner's mind understands that mastery emerges from play, that excellence grows from experimentation, that the path to creating something great runs directly through creating many things that aren't great at all.

What I'm listening to

In The West. (Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music) by The Horsenecks.

Powerful fiddling. Top notch singing. Excellent songwriting. So much original music. These pals have created something pretty great here and you should give it a spin. A couple of my favs to start you off here and here.

What I'm working on

More ambitious tunes. Example: Michael Cleveland's Sunday Drive (tuning AEAC#).

For most of my fiddling life I was afraid to approach much beyond the canon of OT tunes I'd hear within my community. I sure did learn a lot but I'm working to branch out more these days.

Aside: I grew up near Lloyd and Chris Douglas who are playing banjo and bass alongside Michael Cleveland in the linked video. I remember them being in my world as a kid and it's fun to see where they've taken their careers as I've come to understand exactly what kind of musical wizards they are.

What I think you (and I) should spend more time on

Tone. No matter your instrument, good tone is key. The term "tone," however, is vague and it can be hard to know where to focus. On the fiddle, a concrete place to start is with intonation (playing in tune).

I love these cello drone videos and they can be a real help. Playing in the key of G? Find a G drone. F? There's a drone for that too. You might not always hear that your intonation is off but, if you pay attention, over time your ear and your finger positioning will improve. Plus, it sounds cool.

That's all for now. Thanks for being here and you can reply directly to this email if you have any questions.

Carter

P.S. If you know anyone who might enjoy this newsletter, feel free to forward it on 😄