3 15 121 http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/287/newsletter-49-02-2023-04.pdf c83ee30715e9dc338deda64c21aa5193 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 49, Number 2, April 2023 �Table of Contents Page 3 2023 AFTM Camp Jam Page 6 Austin Contra Dance Page 9 Beth Chrisman at Sagebrush Page 12 Old Mill Music Festival Page 17 Save the date Page 18 AFTM Scholarships Page 19 About the AFTM Page 2 �AFTM Camp Jam 2023 Part of a hot country jam on Friday afternoon The AFTM Camp Jam, 2023 edition, took place on Saturday, March 18! A good time was had by all, though unseasonably cold temperatures kept attendance lower than had been expected. Austin area musicians found out that chilly weather can be overcome - with campfires, shelters, and hot picking! Many thanks to the weekend's jam leaders, including Marynell and Gene Young, Lee and Janita Thomas, Tim and Angie Wooten, Tom Duplissey, Matt Rogers and Ken Picou, and to board member James Seppi for putting it all together! Page 3 �The Cajun jam featured triangle and accordion, of course! Always a good turnout for the old time jam! Page 4 �AFTM board member, James Seppi (L) and a friend contribute fiddle licks Two pickers trade tunes in the sunny campgound at Camp Ben Page 5 �Contra Dance in Austin! A recent Austin Contra Dance at the beautiful Hancock Recreation Center Austin, TX enjoys a weekly contra dance event with a long, though not particularly well documented, history. It is believed that the tradition of dance at the Hancock Recreation Center goes back as far as the 1940’s, perhaps earlier! Presently, the Austin Contra Dancers gather every Wednesday at 7:30 pm at the Hancock Center for two hours of dance, featuring experienced dance callers and live music supplied by a string band! Beginners are welcome, and expert instruction is provided. The principal dance callers are Rich MacMath, Marc Airhart, and Dale Rempert. Reel Times recently visited the Contra Dance event at the Hancock Center and photographed the evening’s enthusiastic activities! The Hancock Recreation Center is located at 811 E 41st St, in Austin, TX Page 6 �Page 7 �Page 8 �Beth Chrisman and Friends at Sagebrush! Beth Chrisman, great friend of the AFTM, had a Tuesday residency in March at Sagebrush in South Austin, which culminated in a showcase of fine Austin area singers. Camille Lewis, Judy Painter, Rose Griffith, and Beth herself traded songs for two hours, and thoroughly entertained the sizable audience! Page 9 �Judy Painter described herself as the "Folkie" of the four women Camille Lewis performed some wonderful songs, composed by her and her husband! Page 10 �Beth sang some of her own compositions, including "Bad Attitude", a crowd favorite! No one enjoyed the evening more than Rose Griffith! Page 11 �The Old Mill Music Festival, 2022 An old time jam circle at Old Mill Written by Jeanne DeFriese, AFTM board member, old-time musician! On a recent November weekend in deep east Texas, nearby threats of severe weather failed to dampen the joy and high spirits of old time musicians playing music and square dancers dancing. The Old Mill Music Festival in Kennard carried on just fine, while storms and tornadoes swirled about several miles to the north on that Friday night. Festival founders and producers Lloyd and April Wright deftly rescheduled the planned concert programming to the next day, instead highlighting the fine jamming and exuberant square dancing and dance band music occurring under shelter, while the storms skirted the festival site and waited until late to crack open the skies and rain clouds. Page 12 �The next morning came clear and sunny as workshops, concerts, jamming and dancing continued all that day and into the night. All sorts of of workshops were scattered around the site, an old sawmill once owned by April’s grandfather, and the source of the festival’s name, Old Mill. Singing rang out from the Burner, a huge conical, open-topped metal structure once used to burn sawmill waste, and now holds the distinction of the best acoustics ever for shape note singing and jamming. The stage was packed all day with band after band of wonderful music that Lloyd and April find during their travels to festivals and music camps. Festival headliners Tricia Spencer and Howard Rains returned to the place of their meeting ten years prior to bring fine fiddling, guitar playing, singing, and old tunes of their Texas and Kansas roots, while Rachel Eddy brought her outstanding solo show with fiddle, banjo, and fine vocals to the stage. Austin-based Rosebud brought vintage country songs via the lovely voice of Rose Griffith, harmonizing with her dad Robert and accompanied by the fine musicianship of accompanying band members Nancy McClintock, Beth Chrisman, Tim Wilson, and Gary Mortensen. Country Willie brought another take on vintage and original country music with fiddling by Beth Chrisman, and The Hillsiders, another Austin-based band, returned to Old Mill Festival with impressive bluegrass tunes played with great drive and fine vocals and musicianship (Andi Huff, Hunter Hollingsworth, Devon Canady, Dom Fisher). As always, the fine family band of Lloyd, April, Margaret, and Hollis Wright never fail to endear themselves to the audience with fine old time tunes and songs, expertly played and sung. The Vanderveer Brothers wowed with precision, high speed hammered dulcimer and instrumental skills; Stephen Seibert demonstrated clearly how one person with a dulcimer and a fine voice can closely hold the attention of an audience. New this year was a foray into the world of Cajun music with the local Cajun Prairie Tri-eaux, complete with dance instruction. This author must confess though, that her favorite things throughout the weekend were the high energy dances and the outstanding square dance band. The calling of Dana Hamilton, the old time dance band of Rachel Eddy, Lloyd Wright, Tricia Spencer, Howard Rains, and Margaret Wright, and the enthusiasm of all the dancers all weekend was such a joyful thing to witness and experience. The Friday night dance kept the attention focused on music and fun and not the storms; the Saturday night dances were even better! The Cajun dance instruction and music by Cajun Prairie Try-eaux was a fun addition to the Old Mill dance floor, while the same square dance band described above was even more intense and tight than the night before! This band, and the exuberant caller, brought such energy and drive that the dances went late into the night. Commendation is expressed especially to all the young dancers for their enthusiasm and willingness to try all the dances, and for teaching each other.It was quite evident that a fine time was had by all. Page 13 �This wonderful weekend festival was rounded out with a sweet little merch booth, great food from 2 food trailers, and a very interesting array of items for a raffle. Margaret Wright’s renowned homemade pie auction won the most attention, and was a much-anticipated highlight and fundraiser for the festival. The Old Mill festival site is lovely and well-kept, plenty of room for camping, with a few RV sites, and nice bathroom facilities. The site is a fun place to explore; the woods have paths, and the old sawmill machinery remains, a prominent reminder of the logging and milling activities that supported the economy of this part of Texas. Past sawmill operations there, which ceased in the 1960s, provided lumber for Lloyd and April’s home, as well as for several small houses, which are available to rent on Air B&B during the festival. Lloyd and April attended the Austin String Band Festival about nine years ago, and loved it so much that they decided to pattern their own festival after it. It is very much a “sibling” in style and substance, but with the influence of its owners that targets well its east Texas setting and long-time dulcimer/old time music fans to make it distinctly their own. It’s a sweet, small festival that’s much beloved in their community, and is definitely an event that fans of the Austin String Band would enjoy very much. It’s very highly recommended!! The Old Mill Festival is usually held on the first full weekend of November, check out their fine website at https://oldmillmusicfestival.com; they also have a Facebook page. Margaret Wright led a spirited dulcimer workshop Page 14 �Dom Fisher, Andi Huff, and Devon Canady of the Hillsiders Howard Rains and Tricia Spencer Page 15 �Howard Rains and Tricia Spencer's workshop focused on guitar backup Jamming continued well into the night! Page 16 �Save the Date(s)! Back in December, 2022, the AFTM had the opportunity to program the evening's music at KOOP-FM's Lonsome nights at the Sahara, in East Austin. We'll do it again on July 26, 2023! And of course, the Austin String Band Festival will return in October this year's dates are October 20 through October 22, and we'll be at scenic Camp Ben McCulloch, as always!! Page 17 �2023 AFTM Scholarships AFTM Scholarships Each year the Austin Friends of Traditional Music makes available a scholarship to promising musicians and dancers who wish to further their studies of old time music and dance. 2023 Scholarships The Austin Friends of Traditional Music (AFTM) is now offering to pay tuition, housing, and meals for attendance at the Swannanoa Gathering Old Time Week, July 16-22, 2023 (Swannanoa will only allow fully vaccinated persons to attend). This is a one-week training opportunity for traditional musicians. Alternatively, an applicant may select on-line musical training from the recommended list of providers on our website, or may propose an alternative training opportunity for board approval. The musical training may be for any instrument (or voice) but must be traditional in nature. Scholarship amount The amount of financial assistance is limited to $1,070 for the Swannanoa Gathering Old Time Week, or $200 per scholarship for on-line training. The board may decide to provide less than the maximum assistance. The scholarship will consist of a one-time tuition payment on behalf of the selected applicant (s). If the scholarship amount is insufficient to pay the total required tuition, any remainder of the tuition cost and any other costs associated with the training are the sole responsibility of the selected applicant. Scolarship requirements To be considered for a scholarship the applicant must be an AFTM member and provide: the name and address of the applicant, the training entity’s name and contact information, the amount of tuition requested, a brief written explanation of the applicant’s current musical skill level, why the applicant wants to take the on-line musical training, and how the training would benefit the applicant. AFTM memberships can be initiated or renewed online at the AFTM JoinIt page. Application information may be e-mailed to AFTMTexas@gmail.com. Page 18 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor, Events Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, At Large Dan Foster, At Large Matt Welch, At Large Tom Duplissey, At Large Rich MacMath, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Membership info Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 49 Number 2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2023-04 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 49, Number 2 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/286/newsletter-49-01-2023-01.pdf 77e2b8aaad664d7106a77f8972668854 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 49, Number 1, January 2023 Thanks, Jeanne! �Table of Contents Page 3 Jeanne DeFriese - An Appreciation Page 5 15th Annual Austin String Band Festival Page 12 The Festival of Texas Fiddling Page 15 Lonesome Nights at the Sahara Lounge Page 19 Hold the date! The 2023 AFTM Camp Jam Page 20 The Carper Family at Sagebrush Page 21 AFTM Scholarships for 2023 Page 22 About the AFTM Page 2 �Jeanne DeFriese - An Appreciation Thank you, Jeanne, for 15 years of fantastic Austin String Band Festivals! I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the things that Jeanne DeFriese has done with love and passion as she headed up the Austin String Band Festival, and to thank her from my happy heart! Jeanne has served the Austin Friends of Traditional Music with much passion and devotion for many years as the Festival Director and Events Coordinator; now she is passing the baton to Gary Mortensen who will lead a team to plan and execute the Austin String Band Festival for the next 2 years. Jeanne gave this position her all, visiting traditional music festivals all over the country where she met with many musicians and dance callers. This personal presence gave her an ability to bring in a vast array of talent through friendship to the music festivals you have all enjoyed so much over the years. This has resulted in our Austin String Band Festival becoming a well respected and much loved event outside of Texas and in parts of the country where traditional string band music gets more audience. Performers from Louisiana, Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, New York, and New Mexico, to name a few, have been represented at AFTM events, sharing the stage with our very talented local bands and other bands from all parts of Texas. The musical connections our members have made through Jeanne have grown us all. We have had opportunities to jam with some fantastic musicians, learning new tunes and styles, and we have shared tunes and songs from our home with them. Much of this occurred at some well-planned workshops held at the Austin String Band Festival, led by our guest musicians. Jeanne arranged these workshops and they have been a big success! Page 3 �So much goes on behind the scenes to produce a music festival; it can be stressful as well as fun. There is the consideration of providing the best sound engineers (Pink Sound) to give the performers wonderful sound with short set up intervals. Jeanne cleverly set up mini-sets to occur during the stage changes; this feature introduced new performers to our audience. She considered travel arrangements and housing for participants from out of town, often offering her home and wonderful cooking. She spent hours arranging and providing transportation to and from airports and festival grounds. She juggled the schedule on short notice to fill gaps as needed. She set up audience participation events, like “dance ‘til you drop” on festival Fridays. She added activities for children to make the 2-day event family friendly and festive for all. Jeanne has had considerable help from the board members and a host of volunteers over the years. These special people deserve standing ovations. I could write on and on about all of them and never express enough gratitude. Thanks, Jeanne, for sticking with AFTM through everything, both the good and the difficult times. You gave your all for many years crafting a very fine and well-loved string band music festival right here in Central Texas! Angie Wooten, AFTM Board Member Page 4 �The Austin String Band Festival Fifteenth Edition! Mira Dickey and Northfolk performed on Saturday afternoon After taking a two-year hiatus courtesy of the COVID pandemic, the Austin String Band Festival was back in a big way in October, 2022! Beautiful warm, sunny days and balmy evenings made this year’s event particularly enjoyable, and the combination of wonderful performers, extensive campground jamming and socializing, and lots and lots of dancing made for a fabulous weekend at Camp Ben McCulloch, just outside Austin! in the next few pages, we look back on the wonderful 2022 edition of the Austin String Band Festival! Page 5 �Georgia Canfield, Angie Wooten, and Sharon Sandomirsky work on "Farther Along" The campground was filled with jamming! Page 6 �Reba and Chuck Middleton looking good in their ASBF T-shirts! The Women of Western Swing played on Saturday night! Page 7 �Plenty of kids' activities on Saturday afternoon The joy of dancing! Page 8 �Mark Lewis, Molly Johnson, and Ben Hayes played a great mini-set! Mark Pluta, Ginger Evans, and Jamie Stubblefield played before a roaring faux fire! Page 9 �Two dancers cut loose, to the tunes of the Women of Western Swing Howard Rains and Isaiah Sibi played "The Beaumont Rag" Page 10 �This year, as we did after the 2019 ASBF, the AFTM sent out a questionnaire about the festival to our mailing list, and we picked one of the responses at random to win a free admission to the next ASBF! In 2019 the winner was Will Grover, who happily cashed in his free admission this year. This year's winner was Steven Crow, who'll get a free admission to the 2023 ASBF! Will Grover Steven Crow Page 11 �The 8th Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling! Six time Grand Champion fiddler, Katrina Nicolayeff, played an exhilarating set! On the first Saturday in December, many AFTM members made the trek to the beautiful Twin Sisters Dance Hall outside of Blanco, TX. This year's festival was (again) blessed with excellent weather and phenomenal music! The next two pages feature some photos from this year's Festival of Texas Fiddling. Page 12 �Epi Martinez and his mother, Cruz, made spirited Conjunto music! Luke Bulla played a fantastic set of fiddle tunes and songs! Page 13 �Musicians take the stage at the wonderful Twin Sisters Dance Hall Austin Derryberry played a fine set of old time tunes! Page 14 �Lonesome Nights at the Sahara Silas Lowe and Beth Chrisman get things going at the Sahara Lounge! We at the AFTM were excited when our friends at KOOP, Austin's Community Radio, invited us to participate in their ongoing monthly event, Lonesome Nights at the Sahara! This event, sponsored by Thundercloud Subs, take place at east Austin's Sahara Lounge, and the AFTM was able to feature two of our members' groups on a balmy December evening, between Christmas and New Year's. The Two Goats String Band, originally scheduled to perform, had to cancel at the last moment due to illness and one of the members being stranded due to the airline crisis. On very short notice, the talented duo of Silas Lowe and Beth Chrisman agreed to take the spot, and played a great set of originals and cover tunes, all very country! Christy and the Plowboys played the second set, joined by the wonderful Maryann Price. Their performance included (somewhat) obscure fiddle tunes, and songs by the likes of the Georgia Wildcats and the Austin music legend, John Clay. The turnout was excellent, and a good time was had by all. Thanks, KOOP, for giving us the opportunity to share our traditional music with a wider audience! Page 15 �KOOP's Dennis Campa and Max Yancy get the DJ turntables up and running Silas Lowe and Beth Chrisman in action! Page 16 �Maryann Price's new pair of brushes got everyone's attention! Christy and the Plowboys were joined by Maryann Price Page 17 �Maryann Price seemed to enjoy being a Plowboy! Dan Foster, Lee Thomas, Christy Palumbo Foster, and Janita Thomas felt right at home at the Sahara Lounge! Page 18 �March 18, 2023 - Hold the date! Return of the AFTM Camp Jam! After the pandemic year of 2020, and the uncertainties about COVID rearing its ugly head once again, our regular 2021 Austin String Band Festival at Camp Ben McCulloch was "reimagined" into a different kind of event, without regular stage shows, merchandise, or admission fees! The result was a casual, comfortable gathering of like minded pickers, and jamming and socializing were the order of the day! We called it the AFTM Camp Jam and the response was so positive that we wanted to hold the event again in the spring of 2022. Alas, all the weekends in 2022 at Camp Ben had been reserved for other events, and there was no Camp Jam last year. Looking ahead to next year, the AFTM has reserved Camp Ben McCulloch for Saturday, March 18, 2023! As with the 2021 Camp Jam, there will be no admission charge, though Camp Ben will charge campers their usual fees. So, mark your calendars and plan to join Austin area pickers for a weekend of music and good times in the beautiful setting of Camp Ben McCulloch! Page 19 �The Carper Family performing at Sagebrush in Austin in October Since Melissa Carper, Jenn Miori-Hodges, and Beth Chrisman got together back in 2010, the Carper Family has been a great favorite of Austin area acoustic music fans. This wonderful trio played classic country tunes alongside brilliant original compositions, all three women sharing lead singing duties, and combining for exquisite three part harmonies! In the past few years, we haven't been able to see them perform often, due to the many individual projects the members have been working on. So, it was great news when it was announced that the Carper Family would hold a Tuesday night residency at the Sagebrush in south Austin. Many AFTM members attended these Tuesday performances in October, and the music was as wonderful as ever! Page 20 �2023 AFTM Scholarships AFTM Scholarships Each year the Austin Friends of Traditional Music makes available a scholarship to promising musicians and dancers who wish to further their studies of old time music and dance. 2023 Scholarships The Austin Friends of Traditional Music (AFTM) is now offering to pay tuition, housing, and meals for attendance at the Swannanoa Gathering Old Time Week, July 16-22, 2023 (Swannanoa will only allow fully vaccinated persons to attend). This is a one-week training opportunity for traditional musicians. Alternatively, an applicant may select on-line musical training from the recommended list of providers on our website, or may propose an alternative training opportunity for board approval. The musical training may be for any instrument (or voice) but must be traditional in nature. Scholarship amount The amount of financial assistance is limited to $1,070 for the Swannanoa Gathering Old Time Week, or $200 per scholarship for on-line training. The board may decide to provide less than the maximum assistance. The scholarship will consist of a one-time tuition payment on behalf of the selected applicant (s). If the scholarship amount is insufficient to pay the total required tuition, any remainder of the tuition cost and any other costs associated with the training are the sole responsibility of the selected applicant. Scolarship requirements To be considered for a scholarship the applicant must be an AFTM member and provide: the name and address of the applicant, the training entity’s name and contact information, the amount of tuition requested, a brief written explanation of the applicant’s current musical skill level, why the applicant wants to take the on-line musical training, and how the training would benefit the applicant. AFTM memberships can be initiated or renewed online at the AFTM JoinIt page. Application information may be e-mailed to AFTMTexas@gmail.com. Page 21 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor, Events Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, At Large Dan Foster, At Large Matt Welch, At Large Tom Duplissey, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Membership info Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 49 Number 1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2023-01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 49, Number 1 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/285/newsletter-48-04-2022-10.pdf 1b524348e2c8aaf2fad0e08b49600165 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 48, Number 4, October 2022 T h e 1 5 t h A n n u a l AUSTIN STRING BAND FESTIVAL Oct. 14-16, 2022, Camp Ben McCulloch, Driftwood, TX Women of Western SwinG • Spencer & Rains Belen Escobedo & Pan Filo’s Güera • The Hillsiders Charles Thibodeaux & Austin Cajun Aces Christy & The Plowboys • Chansons et Soûlards Northfolk • Rosebud • Mayday Mayday • Funion Creek CAMPING • JAMMING • WORKSHOPS • GOOD EATS AFTM.US �Table of Contents Page 2 Table of Contents Page 3 About our cover and festival poster Page 4 The Fifteenth Austin String Band Festival! Page 5 Spencer and Rains Page 6 Women of Western Swing Page 7 Belen Escobedo and Panfilo's Güera Page 8 Mira Dickey and NorthFolk Page 9 Christy and the Plowboys Page 10 Charles Thibodeaux and the Austin Cajun Aces Page 11 The Hillsiders Page 12 Rosebud Page 13 Chanson et Soûlards Page 14 Funyun and Mayday Mayday Page 15 Performance schedule Page 16 AFTM Merchandise Page 17 Hold the Date! AFTM Camp Jam 2023 Page 18 About the AFTM Page 2 �Our Cover and Poster The cover of Reel Times features the beautiful poster created by Howard Rains for this year's ASBF, and the design contains an image of the Texas old time fiddler, Teodar Jackson and his son T.J. AFTM board member Dan Foster has written an introduction to Mr. Jackson and his music. Teodar Jackson (1903-1966) was an old-time fiddler with deep roots in Texas. He was born in Gonzales County where his family had farmed since his grandfather emigrated from Mississippi sometime after 1850. African Americans numbered roughly a third of the county's population in the 1880s. Communities like Wesley Chapel, Monthalia and Canoe Creek were small rural sanctuaries where many musicians came of age to the sound of old-time fiddling at dances and country suppers. By the 1940s the family had moved north to the Austin area, settling in the St. John's community where Mr. Jackson remained a fiddler for many years eventually becoming known among young white music enthusiasts in the 1960s as ‘T-olee’, but always known to family as ‘Papa-T’. Familiar square-dance tunes, blues and rags made up a large part of his repertoire, but in addition he played a number of set-pieces, dance tunes that hint at something perhaps much, much older, otherwise lost to our ears, until his playing was recorded by Tary Owens in Austin, 1965. Coming out of retirement in 1965, Mr. Jackson was embraced by the young crowd at the heart of the nascent Austin music scene in the mid-1960s. Like his friend the Navasota songster Mance Lipscomb, he was idolized, playing for many rapt, if largely white, audiences in venues like the Id Coffee House and The Eleventh Door . He and his son, TJ, were featured at the 1965 KHFI-FM Summer Music Festival in Zilker Park. According to Jim Langdon's Nightbeat column in Austin American Statesman in 1966, Mr. Jackson was expected to be featured in the upcoming Newport Folk Festival up in Rhode Island. Unfortunately, a heart attack would intervene and send him off for a stay in the hospital instead. But for that lamentable setback, Teodar Jackson might now be as well-known and remembered among folk music fans today as Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, or Bukka White. Mr. Jackson's condition began to worsen and on March 12, 1966 the community came together for a benefit concert. The event was well publicized and reportedly a resounding success featuring Janis Joplin, John Clay, the 13th Floor Elevators, Bill Neeley, Kenneth Threadgill, Powell St John and others. Unfortunately his condition failed to improve and Teodar Jackson passed away on May 2nd 1966. Mr. Jackson is buried next to his wife, Ora Lee Jackson, in the historic Burditt Prairie Cemetery just south of the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. At this year's festival, a limited number of CDs of Teodar Jackson's music will be available for purchase at the merchandise booth! Page 3 �The Austin String Band Festival Fifteenth Edition! When beautiful October weather returns to central Texas, it’s time for the Austin String Band Festival, and this year’s festival will be the fifteenth annual! Come for the day or camp for the weekend at beautiful Camp Ben McCulloch just west of Austin, and listen to bluegrass, Tejano, old time, Cajun, and western swing music on stage, as well as dancing to live bands on Friday and Saturday nights, workshops all day Saturday, and campground picking all weekend! Linda, of Texas Street Crepes will bring her food trailer and will be serving delicious crepes, omelettes, and croissants in the morning and an extensive menu of sweet and savory crepes throughout the day! That’s October 14, 15, and 16, so mark your calendars if you haven't already! On the following pages, learn about the artists who'll be performing at the 2022 ASBF. Page 4 �Spencer and Rains Tricia Spencer & Howard Rains are both fiddlers, guitar-players, and singers who preserve and build upon the traditions of their home states of Texas and Kansas. The husband and wife duo are known for their distinct twin fiddling and close-knit vocal harmony. Both multi-instrumentalists, they are steeped in family musical tradition and are dedicated to the preservation, performance, and sharing of old time music. They are also both artists, Howard in watercolor and Tricia in pen and ink, and their artwork weaves in closely with their music. Page 5 �The Women Of Western Swing The Women of Western Swing is an all female western swing band based out of Austin, Texas. Keeping the traditional Texas dancehall style of music alive and thriving, they feature two and three part instrumental harmonies, tight arrangements, and rippin' solos! The Women of Western Swing are Sophia Johnson on guitar, Georgia Parker on upright bass, Katy Rose Cox on fiddle, Rose Sinclair on steel guitar, and Karen Biller on Drums. Page 6 �Belen Escobedo and Panfilo's Güera Belen Escobedo plays rare and beautiful fiddle tunes in the Tejano (TexasMexican) tradition. Growing up on the South side of San Antonio and working as a professional fiddler since she was a teenager, Belen has preserved a unique style of fiddling that has all but disappeared from the Texas borderlands. Belen has a vast and unique repertoire, including tunes she learned from her grandfather’s whistling and a huge range of borderlands tunes from both sides of the river. When Texas Folklife and the Festival of Texas Fiddling honored her with the 2017 Texas Master Fiddler Award, they praised her for “single handedly keeping alive” the tradition of conjunto fiddle, a style whose roots predate the arrival of the now dominant accordion in the region. Today Belen Escobedo is the foremost practitioner of this fiddle-led art form that expresses the deep roots of Tejano culture. Backing up Escobedo are her husband, Ramon Gutierrez, on tololoche, the Tejano upright bass, and Bradley Jaye Williams on bajo sexto, a Mexican type of low-pitched twelve-string guitar. Belen’s first album Panfilo’s Güera was released by Spring Fed Records in May 2018 to much acclaim. Page 7 �Mira Dickey and NorthFolk In NorthFolk, Mira Dickey brings together talented musicians specializing in various northern folk music traditions to take the audience on a journey from Scandinavia all the way back to North America, making stops in Shetland, Scotland, and Ireland on the way. The band is keen to share their love for traditional Northern folk music and will introduce the audience to some lesser known types of folk music as well as more common types. In addition to being informative, the dazzling talents of these musicians will make for an entertaining and lively show; we hope to have the audience tapping their feet by the end. The band features Mira Dickey (Norwegian Fiddle) as leader, with Ian Files (Swedish fiddle), Sarah Lynn (Scottish Fiddle), Kevin Kane (Irish guitar), and Evan Powell (Keyboard). Page 8 �Christy and the Plowboys From Texas' Violet Crown of the Hills to the banks of the rippling Yadkin River in Happy Valley, North Carolina, Christy & the Plowboys play music borrowed from old 78-rpm records or picked up brand new wherever oldtime fiddling and singing is allowed! Christy Palumbo on guitar is joined by Dan Foster on fiddle, Jerry Hagins on banjo, and Phil Spencer on doghouse bass to bring you a selection of choice tunes old and new, closeharmonies from the hills, songs from a lost Austin and assorted surprises all the way from back east to way out west. Raised on the banks of the old Mississippi, Christy Palumbo grew up charmed by the big Victrola down in the basement and the undiscovered joys of sweet music from distant times and places. Her partner, Dan Foster is a rabid tune collector influenced by Texas fiddlers like Bill Northcutt, Gordon Starrett, and others.Teaming up with Austin's trend-setting clawhammer banjo master, Jerry Hagins, and the incredibly versatile and adventurous bassist Phil Spencer, Christy & the Plowboys will serve up a set of vintage fun from a past that you might not have known you had! Page 9 �Charles Thibodeaux and The Austin Cajun Aces x Charles formed a traditional Cajun Band in the Spring of 2004 for a group of Mardi Gras enthusiasts and they have since thrilled audiences throughout the State of Texas. They continue to Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler —Let the Good Times Roll in Austin! Page 10 �The Hillsiders From the shade of Austin’s live oak trees, bustling coffee shops and sloping back yards, four musicians paved their creative path playing the music they love. Every string they played and note they sung as individual artists prepared them for the four-piece band they are now. The Hillsiders have brought their respective talents to form a quartet able to heartily portion dulcet melodies and harddriving breakdowns. Merging old-time and bluegrass genres, they hold firm in their esteem for songs longhanded-down and the artists that created them. Fans of Ralph Stanley, Doc Watson and Larry Sparks, The Hillsiders can’t help but put their own musical stamp on the classics. Page 11 �Rosebud Born out of a love for the traditional country music of the 40's, 50's, and 60's, Rosebud plays acoustic renditions of classic country tunes made famous by Hank, Loretta, Buck, Tammy and others. All the members of Rosebud come from old time and bluegrass backgrounds, and have applied their traditional sensibilities to the material they perform. The father-daughter vocal harmonies of Robert and Rose Griffith are not to be missed! Page 12 �Chansons et Soûlards Life in Cajun country is rewarding, but often hard. Cajuns frequently rely on family, friends, and music to make it through those tough times. Chansons et Soûlards plays the French dance hall music of South Louisiana. Music that you can drink to, cry to, and dance to! Page 13 �Funyun Creek Funyun Creek string band consists of Mark Lewis, fiddle; Beth Chrisman and Joe Dobbs, guitars; Jerry Hagins, banjo; and Amanda Jo Chisholm, upright bass. The band is named after a small tributary that runs from Alaska to Austin by way of Terlingua. Mayday, Mayday Mayday Mayday is made up of Everett Wren, fiddle; Jerry Hagins, banjo; Ethan Azarian, guitar; and Ginger Evans, bass. They’ve been playing together since May 1st, 2022 but separately since before the turn of the century! Page 14 �2022 ASBF Performance Schedule Friday 10/14 Main Stage 7 PM 8 PM 9 PM Funyun Creek Old Time square dance, caller Sharon Isaac Charles Thibodeaux and Austin Cajun Aces Lively authentic Cajun dance music Spencer & Rains Old Time square dance with old Texas tunes, caller Rich MacMath Saturday 10/15 Main Stage 2 PM 3 PM 4 PM 5 PM 6 PM 7 PM 8 PM 9 PM 10 PM 11 PM Rosebud Classic country singing of the '40s, '50s, '60s Christy & the Plowboys Music borrowed from old 78s and fiddlin’ picked up new Chansons et Soûlards French dancehall music of south Louisiana NorthFolk (Mira Dickey & Friends) Scandinavian and Celtic Folk Belen Escobedo & Panfilo’s Güera Pre-Accordion Fiddle-led Conjunto Mayday Mayday Old Time square dance, caller Rich MacMath & Friends The Hillsiders Hard-driving Bluegrass with old time influence Spencer & Rains Distinctive fiddling, guitar, & close-knit harmony Women of Western Swing Outstanding traditional Texas dancehall style Crazy Square Dance Come find out what kind of late-night fun this is! Page 15 �AFTM Merchandise We'll have a brand new 2022 ASBF t-shirt this year, featuring our cover poster design they're being printed as we go to press! We've also got timeless AFTM accessories, featuring a design by Britt Irick, Austin artist (and fiddler, and banjo player)! Page 16 �March 18, 2023 - Hold the date! Return of the AFTM Camp Jam! After the pandemic year of 2020, and the uncertainties about COVID rearing its ugly head once again, our regular 2021 Austin String Band Festival at Camp Ben McCulloch was "reimagined" into a different kind of event, without regular stage shows, merchandise, or admission fees! The result was a casual, comfortable gathering of like minded pickers, and jamming and socializing were the order of the day! We called it the AFTM Camp Jam and the response was so positive that we wanted to hold the event again in the spring of 2022. Alas, all the weekends in 2022 at Camp Ben had been reserved for other events, and there was no Camp Jam last year. Looking ahead to next year, the AFTM has reserved Camp Ben McCulloch for Saturday, March 18, 2023! As with the 2021 Camp Jam, there will be no admission charge, though Camp Ben will charge campers their usual fees. So, mark your calendars and plan to join Austin area pickers for a weekend of music and good times in the beautiful setting of Camp Ben McCulloch! Page 17 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Dan Foster, At Large Matt Welch, At Large Dan Thompson, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Membership info Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 48 Number 4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2022-10 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 48, Number 4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/284/newsletter-48-03-2022-07.pdf f116e3a54e6703981bf91845b947003f PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 48, Number 3, July 2022 �Table of Contents Page 3 The 2022 Austin String Band Festival Page 4 2006 Reel Times cover Page 5 2006 ASBF poster Page 6 The Browning Hangar Old Time Jam Page 9 The 2022 ASBF Scholarship Page 12 The Live Oak Fiddle Camp Page 16 The 2023 AFTM Camp Jam Page 17 Shows we've seen Page 19 About the AFTM Page 2 �The Austin String Band Festival 2022 Last year would have been the fifteenth annual Austin String Band Festival, but the uncertainties caused by the pandemic prevented us from holding a proper ASBF. Instead, we held our first (and totally successful!) AFTM Camp Jam! This year, we plan to hold the fifteenth Austin String Band Festival planning is well underway for this event, and performers scheduled so far include - Spencer and Rains Women of Western Swing Belen Escobedo and Panfilo’s Güera The Hillsiders Rosebud Christy and the Plowboys Gee Dang Mira Dickey and Friends As in past years, there'll be dances, workshops, kids' activities, and tons of campsite jamming. The ASBF takes place at Camp Ben McCulloch, just a bit southwest of Austin proper. The ASBF is held on the third weekend in October, and this year the dates are October 14 through 16, Mark your calendars and we'll see you at Camp Ben! Check out the next two pages and see how the Austin String Band Started! Page 3 �Here's Reel Times from 2006 Page 4 �Here's our poster for the first ASBF Page 5 �The AFTM Browning Hangar Old Time Jam! As the hot June sun beats down outside, the assembled musicians play old time tunes in the shade of the comfortable Browning Hangar, in Austin. What was the Patterson Park Old Time Jam has changed its name and moved (just across Airport Boulevard) to a new home! The jam is now known as the Browning Hangar Old Time Jam, and will offer a more comfortable setting for jamming, especially in the summer months. The Browning Hangar is located in Mueller Lake Park, and is one of the three remaining structures from the old Austin airport, which ceased operation in 1999. The Browning Hangar Old Time Jam will take place on the third Saturday of each month, from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm, the same schedule as the old Patterson Park Jam. Page 6 �Page 7 �Page 8 �An AFTM Scholarship story! Vanessa Gordon at left, in an intimate fiddle class with the great Scottish fiddler, Hanneke Cassel Each year the Austin Friends of Traditional Music offers scholarships to promising musicians and dancers who wish to further their studies of old-time music and dance. This year, Vanessa Gordon was awarded an AFTM scholarship, and she attended the Live Oak Fiddle Camp near Hallettsville, TX! Though she has lived in Texas since 1997, Vanessa grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, where she started playing the piano around age six, and violin at twelve. She really enjoyed the classical music she studied, but also became interested in traditional and improvised music styles. Vanessa moved to southern California in the early 1990’s, where she played in a jazz infused world music group. She continued to be interested in other genres of string band music and attended Follows Camp, a California bluegrass festival, where she met her husband! Page 9 �Hanneke Cassel's class of six students at the Live Oak Fiddle Camp, may, 2022 Since moving to central Texas, Vanessa has played Texas dance music with The Cornell Hurd Band, Americana roots music with Karen Abrahams, contra dance music, Scottish country dance music, and she enjoys fiddling or playing piano at Irish Sessions. It was through the AFTM that she discovered Appalachian Old Time Fiddling. Vanessa has enjoyed attending fiddle camps like Alasdair Fraser’s Valley of the Moon Fiddle Camp in California, and the O‘Flaherty Irish Music Retreat in North Texas. The Live Oak Fiddle Camp starts on Memorial Day each year and Vanessa attended this year, working with great fiddle instructors including Bruce Molsky, Hanneke Cassel, Tatiana Hargreaves, and Casey Driessen! Here is Vanessa’s report on her experience at the Live Oak Fiddle Camp Page 10 �Over Memorial Day weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Live Oak Fiddle Camp, near Hallettsville, Texas. It was more like a Fiddler’s retreat than a camp; the location is on a working ranch and the accommodation and meals far exceeded my expectations. Fiddle students came from as far as Washington State, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Canada! They were from a variety of musical backgrounds including bluegrass, Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, and Old Time Fiddling. Several students have been Texas Fiddle contest winners. All the fiddle instructors were not only top-level fiddlers, but also excellent teachers! As there were only six of us in my class, there was ample time to ask questions. As I have spent a lot of time learning Old Time Appalachian fiddling from Bruce Molsky online through Peghead Nation, his classes were of particular interest to me. With Bruce, we worked on bowing patterns for “Candy Girl” based on the playing of Uncle Bunt Stephens. We also worked on singing and fiddling, and specifically different bowing patterns / rhythms to play while singing a medium tempo tune. Hanneke Cassel taught us a Cape Breton reel and a strathspey, and showed us the type of bowings and ornaments we might use, plus we each found back-up chords to play on 2nd fiddle. Tatiana Hargreaves gave us feedback on playing 2nd fiddle on various tunes, and Casey Driessen taught us “ Gold Rush”, a standard bluegrass tune written by Byron Berline, and the basics of “chopping.” The evening concerts and jamming sessions were amazing! People were all nice, friendly and welcoming. I certainly hope to attend again. I’d like to give a big thank you to the AFTM for sponsoring my scholarship, I really appreciate it! Thank you also for getting my scholarship approved on such short notice! Vanessa Gordon Page 11 �The Live Oak Fiddle Camp Casey Driessen teaches the tune "Gold Rush" to a large, enthusiastic class! Nestled in rural Texas somewhere between Hallettsville and Schulenberg is the beautiful TR Ranch, home of the Live Oak Fiddle Camp. The fiddle camp is the brainchild of fiddlers Heidi Labensart, Roberta Rast Smith, and Tonya Rast Hopkins. Heidi Labensasrt is a talented fiddler who grew up in Colorado, and she met Idaho native Roberta Rast-Smith at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest and Festival in Weiser, Idaho when they were teenagers. Heidi had attended fiddle camps such as the Mark O’Connor camp and the Ludiker Camp and, after moving to Austin in 2001, wondered if an advanced fiddle camp wouldn’t work in a Texas setting. Heidi, Roberta, and Roberta’s sister Tonya kept talking about the idea of a fiddle camp and presented their idea to Tom McDaniel at the annual Texas State Championship Fiddlers Frolic in Hallettsville. Tom is a great supporter of Texas fiddle music, as well as other kinds of Texas roots music, and owns a beautiful ranch in Lavaca County. Page 12 �Tom was very enthusiastic about hosting a fiddle camp on his property, the TR Ranch, and, after a couple years of planning, the first Live Oak Fiddle Camp took place in 2011. The amazing lineup of fiddle instructors that year included Darol Anger, Stuart Duncan, Wes Westmoreland, and Hanneke Cassel; the camp was off to a great start! The Live Oak Fiddle Camp has continued every year since then except for 2020, when the COVID pandemic interrupted so many musical activities. The 2021 edition of the camp was held virtually and this year, 2022, the camp was back in business at the TR Ranch! Instructors this year included Bruce Molsky, Hanneke Cassel, Casey Dreissen, and Tatiana Hargreaves, with Jordan Tice teaching guitar. Next year’s Live Oak Fiddle Camp will take place as the TR ranch from May 28 through June 1. Stay up to date on the 2023 event at https://www.liveoakfiddlecamp.com/ Tatiana Hargreaves teaches an intimate fiddle class Page 13 �Bruce Molsky talking fiddle, above - Jordan Tice with guitar student, below Page 14 �Brucel Molsky works with fiddle students Casey Driessen and Luke Bulla played a stunning concert finale! Page 15 �March 18, 2023 - Hold the date! Return of the AFTM Camp Jam! After the pandemic year of 2020, and the uncertainties about COVID rearing its ugly head once again, our regular 2021 Austin String Band Festival at Camp Ben McCulloch was "reimagined" into a different kind of event, without regular stage shows, merchandise, or admission fees! The result was a casual, comfortable gathering of like minded pickers, and jamming and socializing were the order of the day! We called it the AFTM Camp Jam and the response was so positive that we wanted to hold the event again in the spring of 2022. Alas, all the weekends at Camp Ben had been reserved for other events, and there was no Camp Jam in 2022. Looking ahead to next year, the AFTM has reserved Camp Ben McCulloch for Saturday, March 18, 2023! As with the 2021 Camp Jam, there will be no admission charge, though Camp Ben will charge campers their usual fees. So, mark your calendars and plan to join Austin area pickers for a weekend of music and good times in the beautiful setting of Camp Ben McCulloch! Page 16 �Shows we've seen... Ben Hodges and Jenn Miori Hodges are joined by Ben White on saw at Load Off Fanny's in Lockhart, TX. Ben H. and Jenn are the proprietors of the Fiddlers Green Music Shop in Lockhart, a great supporter of the AFTM! Page 17 �The Buffalo Gals, Melissa Carper and Rebecca Patek, were joined by the great master of the Telecaster, Bill Kirchen, for a show at Central Market Westgate, Austin Page 18 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Dan Foster, At Large Matt Welch, At Large Dan Thompson, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Membership info Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 48 Number 3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2022-07 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 48, Number 3 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/283/newsletter-48-02-2022-04.pdf 3810d28a432da975469e30ea5296413e PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 48, Number 2, April 2022 Pickin' at Patterson! Monthly jam at Austin's Patterson Park resumes �Table of Contents Page 3 Pickin' at Patterson! Page 4 The Austin String Band Festival is back Page 5 The Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival Page 6 Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival Page 9 The Double Eagle String Band in Bastrop Page 10 The AFTM Board Meeting in the Hill Country Page 11 About the AFTM Page 2 �Pickin' at Patterson! This "all ages" jam last year included Tim Keough, Tanner Robertson (and Sam), and Betsy Hamblen The Patterson Park Old Time Jam is sponsored by AFTM and happens on the third Saturday of each month from 10:00 am until about 2:00 pm. Look for updates at aftm.us and the AFTM FaceBook page. Patterson Park is located at 4200 Brookview Rd, Austin, TX. The jam normally takes place at the north end of the park, along Wilshire Boulevard. Everyone is welcome to come play, listen, comment, etc. If one was to "classify" the session, it would be Intermediate to Advanced level of Old Time group play. But, any experience level is accommodated and encouraged. Everyone is on a musical journey - some already for a while, some just starting. Page 3 �The AFTM was unable to hold its Camp Jam this May, due to Camp Ben being booked every weekend, but... The Austin String Band Festival is Back! Please save the date (October 14-16) for a full-blown string band festival at Camp Ben McCulloch. A wonderful weekend of camping, jamming, concerts and workshops held in a lovely setting with even more lovely people! Page 4 �The Fort Worth African American Music Festival Festival director, Brandi Waller-Pace plays the banjo, to the delight of her daughter, Sparrow! The Fort Worth African American Music Festival (FWAAM) was held March 19, 2022 at the historic Southside Preservation Hall in Ft. Worth. The festival website stated “FWAMM Fest is bringing together award-winning artists from around the country for a day of performance highlighting an under recognized piece of America’s musical history-blackness in American Roots Music.” The festival was the brainchild of Brandi Waller-Pace who is a music teacher and banjo player living in the Ft. Worth area. It grew out of a non-profit organization called “Decolonizing the Music Room”. Their website states that their focus, in part, is to “challenge the historical dominance of White Western European and American music to create a more equitable future.” The day included both education about the African roots of the music and the instruments, a bones workshop, and amazing performances of old time, early blues, jazz, bones, jug band and beyond performed by M.S.G Acoustic Blues Trio, Brandi Waller-Pace, Justin Robinson, Jake Blount, Benjamin Hunter, Kafari, Junious Brickhouse, and Nelson Williams and Kaia Kater, with their incredibly talented bandmates. The day included a filming for a podcast (Color Me and Country Radio) led by Rissi Palmer interviewing several of the performers. A big thank you goes out to Brandi Waller-Pace for her open invitation to all races to attend this festival that felt like a sacred event celebrating African American Roots music. The festival was more than the description given here. It was deeply moving, thought provoking and enlightening. The performers shared their candid personal feelings about many aspects of their music. They corrected some widely held misconceptions about the roots of the music, the origin of the instruments, and the very important place musical expression holds in the heart and soul of African American communities. Angie Wooten Page 5 �The 19th Annual Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival Pete Peterson, Beverly Smith, and Kellie Allen in concert on Friday afternoon The Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival moved to a new venue this year, the First Baptist Church in Palestine. The festival, the 19th annual, was a rousing success, with jams, workshops, and concerts all weekend long! Reel Times took some photos of the Friday afternoon concert. Page 6 �Erin Mae Lewis performed on Friday The First Baptist Church of Palestine proved to be an excellent festival venue! Page 7 �A spontaneous jam in a comfortable spot at the First Baptist Church Steve and Sheryl Hartz performed on Friday afternoon Page 8 �The Double Eagle String Band in Bastrop The Double Eagle String Band Tim Wooten, Elizabeth Pittman, Angie Wooten, Walter Winslett, Robert & Nancy Griffith It was an honor for Calvary Episcopal Church of Bastrop to have Double Eagle perform at our Concerts in the Court Yard series. Although we were unable to hold the event outside due to weather conditions, the band brought their music inside to our sanctuary! This event reminds us all that music is one of the ultimate gifts from God. Music is universal and brings all people together in a special way. At Calvary we are a place to call home. Liz Kinney, Calvary Episcopal Church Page 9 �AFTM Board Meeting ? Absolutely! The March, 2022 AFTM board meeting was held in a beautiful setting in the Texas Hill Country! L to R Dan Thompson, Angie Wooten, Jeanne DeFriese, Matt Welch, Lee Thomas, James Seppi, Tim Wooten, Gary Mortensen Page 10 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Dan Foster, At Large Matt Welch, At Large Dan Thompson, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Membership info Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 48 Number 2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2022-04 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 48, Number 2 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/282/newsletter-48-01-2022-01.pdf d1a26b206192dacdacea6182bf726868 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 48, Number 1, January 2022 The AFTM Camp Jam was a rousing success! �Table of Contents Page 3 The AFTM Camp Jam Page 12 Old Time Music at The Little Darlin' Page 13 Reel Times visits the Fayetteville Picking Park Page 16 Dan Thompson, new AFTM board member Page 17 The Festival of Texas Fiddling, 2021 Page 22 AFTM Members' Buy and Sell Page 23 AFTM member videos After the COVID-19 Pandemic forced the cancellation of the Austin String Band Festival in 2020, the AFTM was anxious to come back strong with an event in October 2021. Unfortunately, ongoing COVID uncertainty throughout 2021 was such that it was impossible to do the advance planning for our usual Austin String Band Festival. The AFTM board devoted much thought to the issue of what kind of event we could offer the Austin acoustic music community, and a plan was hatched to have a new kind of event, one which would require little preparation, no volunteers, and would be free to attend! Thus, the AFTM Camp Jan was born, held on the third weekend of October at Camp Ben McCulloch, the same date and location as the previous Austin String Band Festivals. Since many String Band Festival attendees camp out and create their own music at their campsites, it was decided that for this occasion we could do without the normal two days of scheduled performances at the pavilion, the high-quality sound system, the Friday night dance, the Green Room, the Merchandise Booth, the staffing of the front gate, etc. Instead, the AFTM would rent Camp Ben for the weekend as usual, encourage jamming and even small performances at individual campsites, and let the event take its own form at beautiful Camp Ben! We even had delicious food available, courtesy of Linda's Texas Street Crepes! After a heavy downpour on Wednesday night, the weather cooperated beautifully, and the next three days were idyllic October days in the Texas Hill Country! Page 25 About the AFTM Many friends who hadn’t seen each other for a year or more gathered in their favorite campsites, and music was played all weekend long. The 2021 Camp Jam was so enjoyable that, with the usual COVID caveats, the AFTM board plans to hold another Austin String Band Camp Jam on May 14 & 15, 2022! The next few pages contain photos and observations from folks who attended the Camp Jam. in October. Page 2 Page 3 �Tracy Sloan and Chuck Middleton can't suppress the joy of playing the banjo! The legendary Rosebud band played a classic country set Matt Welch music fan The "camp jam" format, which was born of necessity in the covid era, in my estimation, turned out to be an improvement upon the more traditional festival stage setup. Maybe it's the informal, familial nature of traditional string music, or the pure joy I experience from having a front row view of talented and capable fingers sliding over strings, but something about the camp jam made it one of my favorite live music experiences to date. As exciting and spectacular as a stage show can be, the bigness of it comes at the cost of intimacy and informality, two qualities that are priceless in a string performance. I am no musician, and I am new to the traditional music world, so the camp jam in many ways was my introduction to the genre and its unique place on the giant continuum of ever-changing musical artistry. Tim Wooten rightly schooled me Saturday morning on the distinction between traditional music and bluegrass, a lesson that I'll never forget and that shifted the way I enjoyed the rest of the weekend. It's like he handed me a pair of 3D glasses. I realized that these little jam circles were more than performances, they were conversations, thematic but changing and improvised, where listening is as important as contributing. Mira Dickey played a Hardanger fiddle concert at sundown Page 4 Page 5 �Thomas Chapmond mandolin player It was such a joy to reunite with friends at AFTM’s Camp Jam in October, after a year and a half of very limited musical interaction with others. I enjoyed the mixture of playing those old familiar fiddle tunes and taking a break to wander around and listen to others. I always look forward to Stringband Festival and this year’s adaptation did not disappoint! Theresa Tod fiddler Always one of my musical highlights, String Band Camp Jam 2021 was especially gratifying this year! See (and cautiously hug) good friends - many after way too long, enjoy some tasty group camp meals, and most importantly - the hours of JAM time, which I had been sorely missing! As always, I enjoyed the variety of traditional music styles at the event, and the opportunities to hear and learn something new; the addition of performers and workshops was an unexpected plus. Thanks to the AFTM organizers for a thumbs-up event, once again! Tom Duplissey and John Downing work on guitar issues Will Grover, Tom Duplissey, Thomas Chapmond, a visiting fiddler and Theresa Tod Page 6 Mark Lewis, Marynell, and Gene Young play triple fiddles Page 7 �Britt Irick, Terri Lukačok, Dan Thompson, Lee and Janita Thomas play the old time music Tom Duplissey, Dave Seeman, and Kim Fagerstrom pick up a storm! Lee Thomas banjo player Great Camp Jam! Stormy Nite and Sunny Days. Fantastic Camaraderie! Tim Wooten fiddler Sitting around a campfire playing tunes I felt loose and happy. The chilly wind kept me feeling alive. Everyone I met was having fun and feeling free. Everywhere I went I heard tunes, songs, and laughter. There should be a law Dan Chrysler, Thomas Chapmond, and Sue Chrysler create some gourmet burgers! against how well I slept. Page 8 Page 9 �Shawn Spiars and friends play the bluegrass music A spirited Saturday morning old time jam! Chuck Middleton banjo player The AFTM Camp Jam was wonderful again this year. We arrived on Tuesday in our new 20-year-old RV. We survived the major rainstorm on Weds night, but some thought we'd be washed down Onion Creek! Thursday came along and the weather turned to perfect. We all played bluegrass and old-time tunes until the wee hours. On Friday, we wandered the campsites to see Mira Dickey playing gorgeous Norwegian tunes. We ended up at a camp with an accordion player doing Caribbean songs a la Harry Belafonte before wandering back to Camp Kaddiewhompus to end the day pickin' anything we could remember. I attended both the Old-time and Bluegrass banjo workshops and may have learned a few new tunes. Can't wait until next year! Page 10 Sue Chrysler, Thomas Chapmond, Tom Duplissey, Mike Hollern, & John Downing pick a tune Page 11 �Reel Times visits The Fayetteville Picking Park Hot bluegrass pickers congregate in the Fayetteville gazebo Old Time music in an Austin, Texas bar? Absolutely! Just a few days before the AFTM Camp Jam, Dan and Christy Foster and Jerry Hagins played to an appreciative audience at Lil' Darlin', a south Austin venue with a great outdoor stage! Page 12 For more than ten years, Austin area bluegrass pickers have made the trip to the Fayetteville Picking Park on the second Saturday of each month for a bluegrass jam that starts in the afternoon and continues into the evening! Fayetteville, TX is a charming community with a classic town square complete with a vintage courthouse and a gazebo. This bluegrass-oriented jam offers plenty of outdoor jamming areas as well as two different indoor locations when the weather doesn’t cooperate. Lou-Lou Barbour, a talented banjo player from nearby Brenham coordinates the event, having taken over from Tom Duplissey, a one-time Fayetteville resident who moved to Alabama a few years ago. Lou-Lou tells us that the jam officially begins around 3:00 in the afternoon, though the more ardent pickers often arrive a bit earlier. She mentioned that the event's attendance has been steady but that there's plenty of room for more pickers so, the next time you feel the need to pick, consider a trip to nearby Fayetteville! Page 13 �Some photos from the Fayetteville Picking Park More jamming at the Fayetteville Picking Park A group came from Corpus Christi for the November 13 jam! Our old pal, Tom Duplissey - once a Fayetteville resident! Page 14 Page 15 �7th Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling The Silver Alert String Band, new AFTM board member Dan Thompson at left The AFTM is excited to welcome Dan Thompson to its board! Dan Thompson grew up in western New York State, where he taught himself guitar while a senior in high school. He was exposed to frailing banjo by his geology professor while doing summer field work in Maine as an undergraduate at the State University of New York at Fredonia. When school started again in the fall, Dan had caught the banjo bug and built himself a banjo to practice on! He did post graduate work in New Orleans where he met Hazel Schlueter (Hazel the Delta Rambler) and played banjo in her band, which played at JazzFest through the 1980’s. Dan and his family moved to Houston around 2000. He didn’t find much music in Houston but heard about the monthly jams in Huntsville hosted by Marynell and Gene Young, where he met many musicians, and learned to play countless fiddle tunes! Dan first came to the Austin area when he discovered the Austin String Band Festival, which he has attended most years since its beginning in 2007. He joined a band with Gene and Marynell Young, who had relocated to Austin, called the Silver Alert String Band (see photo above). Dan moved from Houston to Round Rock when he retired from his work as a geologist in 2019. He’s been an active participant in Austin area old time jams ever since! Page 16 On December 3rd & 4th, the 7th Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling was held at its regular home, the Twin Sisters Dancehall outside Blanco, TX. The turnout was excellent, as was the weather(the weather's always great for this event)! The AFTM is a sponsor of the Festival of Texas Fiddling, and the AFTM had a table set up with t-shirts and info for visitors. Many AFTM members were in attendance, and some of them performed! The next four pages are photos from the 2021 Festival of Texas Fiddling! Page 17 �The Big Four - Pete Peterson, Keliie Allen, Marynell and Gene Young An all-ages jam circle Dan Thompson, Vanessa Gordon, and Angie Wooten at the official AFTM table Page 18 Page 19 �Christy and Dan Foster were joined onstage by AFTM board member, Angie Wooten Stewart Rose, Tim and Angie Wooten, and Dan Thompson jam under the trees Tim Wooten, Vanessa Gordon, and Stewart Rose warm up early in the day Page 20 Angie plays a sunset serenade, this photo by Vanessa Gordon Page 21 �As space permits, Reel Times will publish advertisements for musical instruments and music related items for sale by AFTM members. If you're interested , contact AFTMTexas@gmail.com Who are these fascinating folks? (see next page) Complete PA system 2 Yorkville 15" YV15 speakers 2 heavy duty speaker stands 2 100' speaker cables 2 Peavey monitor speakers Samson Mix Pad 12 Pyle Pro PT-2000 amplifier $500 for everything vanessagordonlenz@hotmail.com, 512 909 0337 Page 22 Page 23 �For the past several months, the AFTM has been hosting video interviews with Austin area members and musicians, and it's been great fun! Since we haven't been able to get together in person, these video conversations are a way of keeping up to date with friends in music. You can check out these video interviews at the AFTM TV page: https://www.aftm.us/sounds-and-pictures/video/aftm-tv Hear our lastest video interview with Dan and Christy Foster! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=honGAaCnffQ The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Mike Savercool, Membership Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Dan Foster, At Large Matt Welch, At Large Dan Thompson, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 Membership info Page 24 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 48 Number 1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2022-01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 48, Number 1 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/281/newsletter-47-04-2021-10.pdf 11c02c5a272fecbd4a53b10ece9b9858 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 47, Number 04, October 2021 �Table of Contents Page 3 New board member, Matt Welch Page 4 Austin String Band Camp Jam Page 8 Fascinating People Page 10 Patterson Park Old Time Jam Page 13 About the AFTM Page 2 �The AFTM's Newest Board Member, Matt Welch Matt Welch has lived in Austin and the Hill Country since 2005, having moved here from Nacogdoches, Texas. As an East Texan, Matt hosted a small, biannual pasture party that eventually grew into a proper music fest called Ten Acre Jam, a 3 day event with a range of musical acts, mostly bluegrass, country, and rock bands. Having little to no musical talent, Matt fancies himself a “semi-professional music appreciator” and takes pride in being the best audience member he can be. Matt is a farmer, horticulturist, and plant ecologist by trade and currently farms somewhere between Dripping Springs and Round Mountain. The AFTM is excited to have Matt join our board, and we look forward to working with him in the upcoming months! Page 3 �Austin String Band Camp Jam! October 15 -17 Camp Ben McCulloch, Driftwood, Texas Camping at Camp Ben can be very glamourous! The Austin String Band Camp Jam is coming right up! In these Covid- mindful times, here’s our opportunity to gather safely with friends, camp out, relax, play favorite old and new tunes, and enjoy the beautiful grounds at Camp Ben McCulloch! The Camp Jam takes place October 15 - 17 at Camp Ben, and the only cost to attendees is the nightly camping fee charged by Camp Ben. There's no admission charge at all! This year’s activities are flexible, varied, some scheduled, some not. We will have an on-site whiteboard to help with planned and impromptu scheduling; locations of any campsite specialties noted when possible. Page 4 �We’re planning to have several jams in the pavilion area; an old time jam, a classic country jam, and a bluegrass jam. If possible, there may be slow jams as well. Check the whiteboard in the stage area for times. When we get get hungry, we'll be glad to have Linda with Texas Street Crepes on hand in the campground! View her menu here We strongly encourage regular walkabouts throughout the campground, to discover quirky campsites, and listen to the music created there. There may be scheduled and impromtu performances of a variety of music and stories at various campsites. Kindly remember when in groups, to wear your masks, and to especially keep appropriate space around yourselves, and the musicians at campsites The camp's pavilion and other common areas will be made available on a firstcome-first-served basis; sign up on the whiteboard. The Austin String Band Festival hopes to return in full force for the 15th Anniversary Special 2022, with a full schedule of concerts, workshops, jams, and good eats! Jeanne DeFriese, AFTM Events Coordinator Sharon, Mary, & Margaret jamming at ASBF Page 5 �Tent camping along Onion Creek, ASBF 2012 Hot old time jam, Austin String Band Festival, ASBF 2017 Page 6 �Campsite jam, ASBF 2018 Fiddlers working on "swing" tunes, perhaps? Page 7 �Who are these fascinating folks? (see next page) Page 8 �For the past several months, the AFTM has been hosting video interviews with Austin area members and musicians, and it's been great fun! Since we haven't been able to get together in person, these video conversations are a way of keeping up to date with friends in music. You can check out these video interviews at the AFTM TV page: https://www.aftm.us/sounds-and-pictures/video/aftm-tv Hear our lastest video interview with Dan and Christy Foster! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=honGAaCnffQ Page 9 �Old Time Jam at Patterson Park, Austin There's a monthly Old Time Jam in the heart of Austin, at Patterson Park! The jam organizer, Britt Irick, says that the jam will take place toward the end of each month until a new site is found for the weekly jam that was suspended due to COVID. The best way to stay informed about this jam is to visit the Austin Old Time Jam Facebook page. Page 10 �The Reel Times photographer visited the Patterson Park Jam in late May and again in late September. Can you tell which photos are from which month? I thought so... Page 11 �Page 12 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Mike Savercool, Membership Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Dan Foster, At Large Matt Welch, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 Membership info � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 47 Number 4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-10 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 47, Number 4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/280/newsletter-47-03-2021-07.pdf 66fca7f4a0d1d317250dd7d049f3952d PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 47, Number 03, July 2021 Bernard Mollberg A Life In Music �Table of Contents Page 3 Letter from the president Page 4 Bernard Mollberg, a Life in Music Page 7 Austin String Band Camp Jam! Page 10 AFTM Online Page 2 �Letter from the President Our Decision to Keep the Austin String Band Festival (ASBF) at Camp Ben McCulloch Dear Friends of Traditional Music: As you know, these are trying times. Society is taking a hard look at our past, present and future related to race, ethnicity, gender issues and many other distinctions that may be divisive. The AFTM board, as a microcosm of our larger society has had a soul-searching conversation along these lines over the past several months. In particular, we have debated whether to cease holding our Austin String Band Festival at Camp Ben McCulloch (Camp Ben) because of its history as a reunion camp for descendants of soldiers who fought in the Civil War and the possibility of current ties to organizations that may not have ideals compatible with ours. We did all the research that we could on-line and then three of us met with the Camp Ben board. We asked them if they were making any payments to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of the Confederacy or any similar organization. They assured us that for at least 14 years (the tenure of their treasurer) they had not made any such payments. We asked them about their website. A search for Camp Ben links directly to the Camp Ben reunion website. The Camp Ben Reunion website seems to indicate ties to these organizations. They told us that the Camp Ben website has been down for some time and that the Camp Ben Reunion website is not the Camp Ben website. They stated that they have always been open to campers and organizations from any culture or ethnic group without regard to race. Some of them said that our festival was their favorite festival. They love the music and jamming and hope we keep holding our festival there. They said that they have no desire to bring back the Confederacy or its values. They do want to respect the memory of their ancestors who were veterans of the Civil War. Based on the Camp Ben Board's assurances and our long, friendly and mutually beneficial relationship with them the board voted to keep our festival at Camp Ben, at least for now. Some board members strongly dissented, but the majority felt that it is better to remain engaged with them. Some board members feel that remaining engaged will provide an opportunity to increase our mutual understanding and that this is particularly important if some of Camp Ben’s members have a different slant on some important issues. Finally, it should be noted that the board has researched several other potential festival locations but has found none with the combination of nearness to Austin, beauty, suitable facilities, and reasonable price afforded by Camp Ben. We are interested in your thoughts and feelings about this. Please email us at aftmtexas@gmail.com or contact any board member. Sincerely, Tim Wooten Page 3 �Bernard Mollberg A Life in (string) Music AFTM member, Bernard Mollberg, has spent a lifetime in music, in a very unique manner! During his early years, Bernard's family moved around a lot, due to his father’s employment in the aerospace industry. There wasn’t a lot of music played in his home, but Bernard has fond memories of his aunt’s harmonica playing, as well as watching Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner on TV when his family lived in Huntsville, Alabama. In his teenage years, Bernard recalls that “music kinda crept up on me”. He had a desire to play the five string banjo, and found a banjo teacher, Dale Weber, who taught him the clawhammer style. Shortly thereafter, his interest in string band music led him to take up the guitar and fiddle. It wasn’t too much longer that Bernard himself was teaching banjo, in a local music store. Bernard’s family lived in the Clear Lake, Texas area at this time, and Bernard found a community of supportive older musicians, who loaned him records and taught him licks. He fondly remembers playing harmonica with the great Texas fiddler, Benny Thommason! Around that time, Bernard’s primary mentor was the fine Houston area fiddler, Bill Northcutt. It was Northcutt who advised Bernard to get in touch with Doc Hamilton, if he ever got to Austin (which he certainly did!). Page 4 �Elizabeth Pittman, Bill Hudson, and Bernard on Fiddle. These three, plus Mike Weakly, comprised the Blue Eagle String Band. While still in the Houston area, Bernard became involved with the Houston Folklore Society, where he immersed himself in the string band jamming scene. He remembers a trip to Washington, DC in 1970 for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, where he saw performers such as Ralph Stanley, Elizabeth Cotton, and the Sacred Harp Singers! Bernard had an interest in becoming a folklorist but found that higher education wasn’t for him. He was teaching several instruments at this time and had built a small home shop where he did instrument repair. His instrument repair skills led to his going to work for Otto Hoffman, a pipe organ builder in south Austin. Bernard worked for Hoffman for three years, and he then opened a small repair shop of his own. Initially he worked on string band instruments but found that working on pianos was a more practical (and profitable) way to make a living. Bernard found a partner with experience working on pianos; they opened a shop together, renting a workspace and even hiring additional workers. Bernard’s been repairing and restoring pianos ever since! All along, though, Bernard’s interest in string band music persisted, and he remembers busking on the drag in front of the University of Texas. Page 5 �Bernard stands behind four stalwart members of the AFTM Tim Wooten, Christy Foster, Angie Wooten, & Dan Foster At one point, Bernard and four or five of his string band pals decided that an organization supporting the music needed to be formed, and the Austin Friends of Traditional Music was born in 1974. This original handful of pickers each chipped in ten dollars to get things going. “I never got my ten dollars back”, he recalls, though he seems OK with that! When the idea of the Austin String Band Festival at Camp Ben McCulloch was conceived in 2007, Bernard wondered at the time if that was really worth all the effort it would surely take. Over the years, though, the festival has taken root and grown to be the finest festival of its kind in Texas! Bernard has come to appreciate the event, and has taken on the duty of skillfully serving as sound engineer for the popular mini-sets between the main stage acts. In recent years, Bernard’s love of the banjo has led to him building some instruments; the Reel Times cover photo shows him with one of his creations! Hear Bernard tell his fascinating story and hear him play one of his banjos at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBYeN55qjD0 Page 6 �Austin String Band Camp Jam! October 15 -17 Camp Ben McCulloch, Driftwood, Texas Austin String Band Festival guitar workshop, 2017 We're having the Austin String Band Camp Jam at Camp Ben in October!! With a nod to Covid conditions then, an adjustable, abbreviated version of the Austin String Band Festival -- which we're calling the Austin String Band Camp Jam -- will be held Oct 15-17, 2021, at Camp Ben McCulloch. The unpredictability of the Covid situation prevents us from making more specific plans at this time, but we've got high hopes of hosting a wonderful musical weekend! So, check back at our website, www.aftm.us, and our Facebook page for updates as October gets closer! Page 7 �Tent camping along Onion Creek, ASBF 2012 Hot old time jam, Austin String Band Festival, ASBF 2017 Page 8 �Campsite jam, ASBF 2018 Pace & Barber perform at ASBF 2019 Page 9 �Who are these fascinating folks? (see next page) Page 10 �For the past several months, the AFTM has been hosting video interviews with Austin area members and musicians, and it's been great fun! Since we haven't been able to get together in person, these video conversations are a way of keeping up to date with friends in music. You can check out these video interviews at the AFTM TV page: https://www.aftm.us/sounds-and-pictures/video/aftm-tv Hear our lastest video interview with Dan and Christy Foster! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=honGAaCnffQ Page 11 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Mike Savercool, Membership Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Dan Foster, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 Membership info � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 47 Number 3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-07 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 47, Number 3 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/279/newsletter-47-02-2021-04.pdf 2f52a7cba39f242a9c0bcbe7d938918d PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 47, Number 02, April 2021 Live music is coming back! Melissa Carper releases her new CD to an appreciative audience at the Sagebrush Bar in Austin! �Table of Contents Page 3 Melissa Carper is back in Texas! Page 5 The Humphries Brothers of Liberty Hill, by Dan Foster Page 9 Fascinating Folks! The AFTM Online Page 11 The AFTM Presents - The Erik Hokkanen Trio Page 12 About the AFTM Page 2 �Melissa Carper's back in town! For a music-focused community like Austin, TX, being deprived of live music for a full year has been almost unbearable. But 2021 is a new year, and things are looking up for live music in our area! For one thing, the AFTM’s great friend Melissa Carper is back in Texas, and she gave a CD release performance at the Sagebrush Bar in Austin in late March. She was joined on stage by Rebecca Patek on fiddle, her old singing partner from the Carper Family, Jenn Miori Hodges, the wonderful Emily Gimble on piano and very tasteful drumming from Jason Baczynski. Next page - The Carper Family, Beth Chrisman, Jenn Miori Hodges, Melissa Carper perform in Lockhart, TX in February, 2018 Page 3 �Melissa’s CD is titled Daddy’s Country Gold and was recorded in Nashville, where Melissa had been living before recently returning to Texas. Melissa wrote or co-wrote all twelve songs, and the recording features many of Nashville’s great pickers and singers. The recording credits include Nashville's heavy hitters - Dennis Crouch, Chris Scruggs, Jeff Taylor, Billy Contreras, the great Lloyd Green, and even Ranger Doug! Also, onetime Austinite Brennen Leigh sings backing vocal on seven of the songs. Melissa’s recording has been received very enthusiastically by the country music community, and others; In March, Daddy’s Country Gold made NPR’s Top Albums of the Week! Here’s a review of Melissa’s new CD at savingcountrymusic.com Also, here’s a nice interview with Melissa at soundandsoulonline.com Page 4 �The Story of the Humphries Brothers Band of Liberty Hill By Dan Foster Austin, Texas may have become known in the late 20th century as the Live Music Capital of the World largely as a result of the post-1960s blossoming of creative energy made possible by low-rents, easy living, the natural beauty of the place, and a little magic. But the claim may properly go a good deal further back in time. There seems to have always been plenty of music in old Waterloo and more than one music "scene" long before the first beatnik landed in River City. Lately, I've been listening to the eight 1930 recordings of the Humphries Brothers from up at Liberty Hill, Texas. I wish that there were more of those 78-rpm sides, but am grateful to be able to listen now to what we have of the clear sound and solid intonation of Jess Humphries' violin and Cecil's near perfect guitar. From before 1920 and on up until the 1950s, Jess and Cecil, their family and friends between Austin, Williamson County, and up to Llano, were busy playing gigs, working day jobs, and basically leading the life that has come to characterize Austin musicians up to the present, the pandemic notwithstanding. It is too bad that so little is known about the Humphries. While they were very much in demand around Central Texas for decades, far longer than other early recorded bands like the East Texas Serenaders, their output was smaller, consisting of only that single session for Okeh Records so they have been largely overlooked by country music researchers. About the only published information concerning the band is a scant mention by Bill Malone in his landmark book Country Music USA: ...the region around Burnet, Texas, [where they] won a large local following playing for civic functions, at fiddlers’ contests, at the annual Old Settlers’ Reunion in Round Rock, and on Central Texas radio stations (such as KUT, Austin’s first radio station, which was located at the University of Texas). … Their repertory was characterized by the eclecticism generally found among southwestern fiddle bands. Not surprisingly, “Listen to the Mockingbird” was their most-requested tune (it was almost mandatory for fiddlers everywhere to play it), but Jess also knew such tunes as “Beaumont Rag,” “Ragtime Annie,” “Black and White Rag,” and “St. Louis Tickle”. I first became aware of the Humphries while visiting friends in North Carolina. They played a great version of the brothers' St. Louis Tickle and What Makes the Wild Cat Wild. My friends didn't know much of anything about the Humphries, though. I assumed based on the sound of the tunes that the boys must have hailed from Alabama, Mississippi or some other Southern state. But after reading Malone's comments, I decided to try and find out a little more. From what I can tell, Benjamin "Ben" Humphries, who was born in Louisiana in 1864, seems to have come to Texas where he married Ella Gaston, a native Texan born 1869 in Liberty Hill, north of Austin. It appears that Ben and Ella were musical and came to have a musical family, in fact a travelling musical and comic Vaudeville show that reportedly toured the Southern states. The 1910 census lists three of the children as musicians and five as comedians. Page 5 �Jesse Edwin Humphries was born to Ben and Ella in Grayson County at White Mound, Texas on February 18, 1889. Within a few years the couple had moved south from the area near Sherman, Texas way out west to Mills County where their second son, Cecil, was born in Goldthwaite, Texas on January 19, 1891. By 1913, the family had moved to Liberty Hill north of Austin and added two new Humphries, John Franklin and Olin Gaston, to the band. Jess played the fiddle, Olin guitar, John mandolin, with Cecil on bass, though there is every reason to believe all of them may have been multi-instrumentalists. Nothing more has yet come to light about the early career of the Humphries' family band, but by the 1920s young Jess was starting to make a name for himself. The Austin American newspaper on May 1, 1926 includes a notice of Jess Humphries leading a six-piece orchestra at the Liberty Hill Mother's Club. 1913 photo of the Humphries Brothers (Thanks to Sandi Peck Millay) By 1929 both Jess and Cecil had travelled far afield to the annual Valley Fiddle Contest in Harlingen, Texas on the Mexican border to compete in December of that year. According to a newspaper account: "They were given first decision over 10 other entries from over the state and one from Oklahoma". They subsequently enjoyed the honor, along with Carl Shipp, Jim Seward, and Tom Casbeer, of performing for the Leander Chamber of Commerce as the Humphries String Band of Liberty Hill later that same year. Liberty Hill at the time had a population of just over 600. In the 1930s, the band was joined by James Bard on banjo and ukulele player Charles Stubblefield. They performed at an Old Time Dance given at Lockhart, Texas on New Year's Eve 1930 and at the Exchange Club in Austin as the Humphries Brothers Dixieland Band in February of 1931. The boys were multi-talented and later that year at horse races in Lampasas, Texas, Cecil not only won first place in the fiddle contest but Jess took first prize in clog-dancing and entertaining. Jess was living in Briggs, Texas, about eighteen miles north of Liberty Hill, when he signed a contract with Okeh Records on March 4, 1930. June 6 found Jess and Cecil in San Antonio at the studio where the pair of them cut eight sides: Raggedy Ann Rag Black and White Rag What Made the Wild Cat Wild St. Louis Tickle Sweet Bunch of Daisies Page 6 �Good Old Summer Time After the Ball Over the Waves The Black and White Rag, St. Louis Tickle, After the Ball, and Over the Waves were also released to the Mexican market with the band featured as Hermanos Humberto and the four sides: El Blanco y Negro, El Paso St. Louis, Despues del Baile, and Sobre Las Olas. This raises an interesting question about inadvertent cultural cross-pollination as a byproduct of record companies trying to boost sales back in the day. Travis County Post No. 76, American Legion will sponsor a Christmas relief dance Dec. 19 at the Driskill Hotel. Admission to the dance will be a sack of groceries or a bundle of serviceable clothing. The music, through the courtesy of Jess Humphries, will be furnished by the Humphries Brothers Dixieland Band. --Austin American Statesman, Dec. 9, 1931. By 1932, the boys seem to have been landing some pretty good gigs, including a night in downtown Austin at the famed Driskill Hotel where Senator John W. Hornsby hosted fellow lawmakers, and their ladies, reportedly enjoying "novelty selections". Soon after, on January 2, 1932, The American Legion sponsored a "Novel Fete" that featured a Battle Dance with the boys facing off against rising regional powerhouse: Bob Skyles and His Haywire Cowboys. Skyles would later go on to meteoric (at least between Waco and Dalhart) fame with his fabulous band Bob Skyles and His Sky-rockets. About that time Jess married Cynthia Stubblefield in Liberty Hill. She was also a musician and there are numerous reports of weddings and concerts they played throughout their many years together. Top row, left to right, Joe Lightsey, bass violin; Cecil Smith, violin; Walter Neal, director, guitar; Lee Farris, drums; Marvin Smith, banjo; Johnny Ross, steel guitar; and A.J. Barder, mando-bass. Bottom row, Jess Humphries, violin; Barnacle Bill the Whistling Sailor, not shown here, expects to entertain. --Austin American Statesman, thanks to Dave Bedrich. By 1935, the Humphries brothers were playing regularly in the capital city. Gigs included a big dance on July 4 at Barton Springs where the outfit appeared as The Radio Wranglers, playing both oldtime and popular music. There were countless venues in the young and thriving metropolis on the Colorado River and doubtless the brothers played many of them. Others who played in the band included Joe Lightsey, who went on to play bass for many local Western Swing and country bands and to father Jerry Lightsey, master plumber, professional clown and much beloved bass player at the heart of the Austin Bluegrass scene until his passing in 2017. Page 7 �According to the Taylor Daily Press – July 15, 1934, The 31st Old Settlers Reunion, Old Time Fiddler's Contest, etc. was headed up by J.D. Dillingham. Jefferson Davis "Dave" Dillingham was born 1866 in Florence (then Brooksville) Texas. He moved with his parents Bruce and Sarah to Georgetown when he was 6, and later a few miles more to Merrilltown, now extinct. Dave started work as a freighter with his brother Brice, driving four mules and an ox team between Austin and Brownwood, then farming and eventually worked as a brakeman on the narrow gauge A&NW railroad between Austin and Granite Mountain, west of Marble Falls. He was a singer and banjo player, though he probably spoke of himself as a railroad man first, at least in polite company. But by the 1930s, Dillingham had become associated with the Old Settler's Reunion in a big way. Along with Otis Light and his Fiddle Band from Llano, Texas, J.W. Whatley's Old Time Fiddlers from Austin, and the Hayloft Gang from Briggs they formed the core entertainment of the Reunions for several years just outside Round Rock, Texas. Jess first appeared at the Old Settlers Reunion in 1940 with Charles Skaggs on guitar and continued to play the festival at least until 1951. That year Dillingham, who had been recorded on two occasions in 1935 and 1939 by folklorist John Lomax, gave a talk entitled "Changes Since 1880". What I wouldn't give for a recording of that! At the same presentation Jess Humphries was featured playing "Ragtime Annie" and Otis Light from Llano playing "Turkey in the Straw". The brothers continued to play for many years. Jess served as County Commissioner for Precinct No. 2 in Williamson County. To all accounts, both lived long and productive lives, contributing to their community and making music for their enjoyment and the benefit of countless friends and neighbors far and wide. Cecil Humphries died at the age of sixty-nine on December 30, 1960. A former tax-assessor he had lived a life full of music in a community he loved among friends and family. Jess was still living in Liberty Hill in 1973 when his younger brother Olin passed away. Jess Humphries died February 22, 1976. He lies buried next to his wife Cynthia at Liberty Hill Cemetery having lived to all accounts a full and happy life. The Humphries Brothers foreshadowed much of scene that came to draw many musicians to Austin over the years, perhaps not so much to make a living playing music as to live where music is a vital part of life and community. The boys contributed much to Austin's vaunted reputation, most of it at a time when live music was the only kind there was. Click on author Dan Foster's photo to hear the Humphries Brothers play What Made the Wild Cat Wild Page 8 �Who are these fascinating folks? (see next page) Page 9 �For the past several months, the AFTM has been hosting video interviews with Austin area members and musicians, and it's been great fun! Since we haven't been able to get together in person, these video conversations are a way of keeping up to date with friends in music. You can check out these video interviews at the AFTM TV page: https://www.aftm.us/sounds-and-pictures/video/aftm-tv And now, for something completely different, here's a beautiful donation box, lovingly crafted by AFTM president, Tim Wooten! See the next page to learn how this beautiful object will be used to collect contributions to Caritas of Austin. Page 10 �The AFTM presents a performance by the Erik Hokkanen Trio ! Erik Hokkanen performing with Ryan Gould and the Little Kings at the 2018 Austin String Band Festival In the spirit of bringing live music performances back to the Austin music community, the AFTM will sponsor a performance by the Erik Hokkanen Trio at Central Market North. This great show will take place on Sunday, May 9, Mothers Day, from 3:30 until 6:00 pm. AFTM secretary, Angie Wooten, has worked hard to find a way that the AFTM could help address the homeless situation in Austin, and one reason for sponsoring Erik Hokkanen’s performance is to raise funds for Caritas of Austin, whose goal is to end homelessness in Austin. The AFTM will have a table (and elegant donation box) at Central Market during Erik’s performance, and will be collecting donations for Caritas of Austin. Page 11 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer Chip Bach, Promotions Coordinator James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Mike Savercool, Membership Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Terry SoRelle, Webmaster Dan Foster, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 Membership info � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 47 Number 2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-04 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 47, Number 2 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/278/newsletter-47-01-2021-01.pdf 4761599a2423c0be26af5a2286443413 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 47, Number 01, January 2021 An AFTM Picture Book for the New Year! �Table of Contents Cover Steam Machine performed at the 2019 Austin String Band Festival Page 3 A message from the AFTM president Page 4 A message from the Reel Times newsletter editor Page 5 A word about our scholarships Page 6 through page 41 Photos of AFTM activities Page 42 List of AFTM board members Page 2 �A Note From the AFTM President Serving as AFTM president is an honor and an outstanding experience – even in this strange time of Covid 19. We haven’t been able to hold any public events over much of the past year, but we have been doing our best to find alternatives and to help spread the word about traditional music in the Austin area. We have compiled and posted on our web site an excellent list of on-line traditional music training opportunities and we are providing training scholarships to a limited number of applicants. Board members Gary Mortensen (interviewer) and Chip Bach (producer) have done several great video interviews of local traditional musicians. Some of the videos include performances by the musicians. You can see the interviews and find out more about the scholarships by visiting our website: www.aftm.us. Check back to watch future interviews. Gary has also been posting great photos of interest to our members. Currently we are in the process of archiving all our past newsletters and certain other historical documents with the intent of making this information publicly available. We are also accepting nominations for our board so please let us know if you or anyone you know would like to serve. Our board is a friendly and committed group and we would like to have you. Your input is always welcome. Let us know if you have any comments or suggestions. Preliminary planning is in the works for our next Austin String Band Festival. We certainly hope that circumstances permit us to hold this festival and look forward to seeing you all there! Tim Wooten Page 3 �A Note From the Reel Times Editor Normally a quarterly online publication, Reel Times didn’t have much to report on during 2021. Subsequently, we only published two issues during the year. Hopefully, things will change for the better in 2021 and we’ll be able to host our jams, sponsor performances around the Austin area, and have our beloved Austin String Band Festival take place again. The next ASBF will be the fifteenth, which is cause for celebration in itself! To remind our members of what the AFTM does in normal times, over the last several weeks we posted an AFTM Photo of the Day at our Facebook page. These pictures were well received, so we’re kicking off the year with a picture book illustrating some of the musical activities we’ve been involved with over the past few years. Happy New year, and thanks to all our members and readers who have stuck with the AFTM during 2021! Page 4 �AFTM Scholarships Each year the Austin Friends of Traditional Music awards a scholarship to promising musicians and dancers who wish to further their studies of old time music and dance. In previous years we have supported their participation in the Swannanoa Gathering’s Old-Time Music and Dance Week. Although the Swannanoa Old Time Camp is cancelled this year along with most other camps that support traditional music, your Austin Friends of Traditional Music (AFTM) still wishes to support the music education for people interested in traditional music forms. To that end, the AFTM is offering scholarships to learn on-line. There are several on-line learning sources to select from, some of which are listed on our On-line Learning page at https://aftm.us/resources/online-learning. Other sites or teachers may be approved after board review. Music students may select a course of study that is not listed and submit it with their scholarship application for review by the AFTM Board. Visit https://aftm.us/resources/scholarships for more details Page 5 �A sizable group gathered for the monthly AFTM Jam at Sam's Town Point, in Austin - June, 2018 Page 6 �The joy of old time music, as demonstrated by Angie Wooten and Janita Thomas, at the monthly AFTM jam at Batch, in Austin - October, 2019 Page 7 �The Carper Family - Beth Chrisman, Jenn Miori, and Melissa Carper - reunited for a concert at the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart, TX - February, 2018 Page 8 �Mira Dickey plays the fiddle and Terry SoRelle, AFTM webmaster, plays the banjo at the AFTM jam - March, 2017 Page 9 �Felipe Perez gave a joyful accordion workshop at the 2018 Austin String Band Festival Page 10 �Lee Thomas, AFTM vice president, picks the banjo at the monthly AFTM jam at Batch, in Austin - December, 2019 Page 11 �Glamourous camping = Glamping! As demonstrated by these women at the Austin String Band Festival in 2017 Page 12 �Dave Polachek and family playing at the Stone Soup Sessions at the Texas Music Museum - April, 2017 Page 13 �Bernard Mollberg - maker of banjos, restorer of pianos, and great friend of the AFTM! Pictured at the 2017 Austin String Band Festival Page 14 �The wonderful duo, Chris Brashear and Peter McLaughlin perfom at the Hillside House Concert in October, 2017 Page 15 �Two fiddlers work on a tune while the kids swing, Austin String Band Festival - October, 2017 Page 16 �A great turnout at the monthly cajun jam at St. Roch's bar in East Austin, December, 2017 Page 17 �Christy Foster performs one of her songs at the Stone Soup Sessions, held monthly at the Texas Music Museum in Austin - April, 2017 Page 18 �Dan Thompson and AFTM board member Dan Foster play old time music at the AFTM jam at Batch, in Austin December, 2019 Page 19 �The Csárdás Hungarian Dancers peformed at the AFTM Midwinter Festival - February, 2019 Page 20 �Lloyd Wright and Margaret Wright give a dulcimer workshop at the Austin String Band Festival - October, 2018 Page 21 �Angie Wooten, AFTM secretary, displaying her formidable banjo prowess at the AFTM jam at Batch in Austin - January, 2018 Page 22 �Lone Star Swing, with Cindy Cashdollar, Paul Glasse, and Gary Hartman perform at the Austin String Band Festival - October, 2016 Page 23 �Marynell Young loves to fiddle, at the AFTM monthly jam at Batch, in Austin - December, 2019 Page 24 �Terry SoRelle, AFTM webmaster, shows off his guitar picking skills at the monthly Stone Soup Jam at the Texas Music Museum - April, 2017 Page 25 �The Silver Alert String Band, an old time band spontaneously formed at the 2017 Austin String Band Festival, perfom a set of music between main stage acts - October 2017 Page 26 �Brandi Pace and Dean Barber perform old time music at the AFTM Midwinter Festival - February, 2019 Page 27 �Taylor Cook and AFTM volunteer coordinatorJames Seppi dancing at the AFTM Barn Dance - November, 2018 Page 28 �Tim Wooten, AFTM president, fiddling at the AFTM jam at Batch, in Austin - March, 2019 Page 29 �Ryan Gould and the Little Kings performed at the Austin String Band Festival - October, 2018 Page 30 �The Buffalo Gals, Melissa Carper and Rebecca Patek, came from Arkansas to perform at the Hillside House Concert - January, 2020 Page 31 �Jenn & the Corn Ponies perform at the Austin String Band Festival - October, 2016 Page 32 �ABIZIHIRWA, an Austin Rwandan community dancing troupe, performed at the AFTM Midwinter Festival - February, 2019 Page 33 �The banjo section, Dan Thompson, Terry SoRelle, & Alan Holt at AFTM jam, Batch, Austin, October 2019 Page 34 �A serious moment at an old time jam, Midwinter festival - February, 2019 L to R, Britt Irick, Angie Wooten, Roy Wilhite, Tim Wooten, Jeanne DeFriese, Lloyd Wright Page 35 �Ustad Ghulam Farid Nizami leading a workshop on Pakistani music, at the AFTM Midwinter Festival - February, 2019 Page 36 �Barbara Dean and Sharon Isaac playing a fiddle duet at the monthly AFTM jam - March, 2017 Page 37 �The Mar-A-Lago Stragglers, Dom Fisher, Matt Downing, Amanda Chisholm, & Silas Lowe at the Austin String Band Festival, October/2017 Page 38 �Dancers at the AFTM Barn Dance - November, 2018 Page 39 �The AFTM has no finer members than Elizabeth Pittman and Nancy McClintock, at the Austin String Band Festival - October, 2017 Page 40 �Dancers at the Austin String Band Festival - October, 2019 Page 41 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer Chip Bach, Promotions Coordinator James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Mike Savercool, Membership Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Terry SoRelle, Webmaster Dan Foster, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music Click here for P.O. Box 49608 Membership info Austin, TX 78765 Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 47 Number 1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 47, Number 1 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/277/newsletter-46-02-2020-05.pdf 78592ba43a4a4fd2b0264bc25cafefd8 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Volume 46, Number 02 AFTM board member Chip Bach has some great ideas for musicians dealing with social distancing! �Table of Contents Page 3 Editor's foreword Page 4 Keep on (virtually) pickin'! Page 10 Chip's gear Page 13 Cabin Fever Tunes Page 14 Terry's Tune and Song Circle Page 15 AFTM online scholarships Page 16 AFTM board Page 2 �A word from the editor In the past few months, the pandemic has changed our lives in ways we never could have imagined, and the effects of our necessary self-isolation are many. For musicians, isolation presents special challenges – performers lose their source of income, and those of us who play for the joy of it (which includes performers) lose the opportunity to play with others. For many of us, interacting with others is the most meaningful part of our musical lives, and abruptly losing that connection has been difficult to take. This special edition of Reel Times features the efforts of some Austin musicians to address this isolation in creative and exciting ways, taking full advantage of living in a digital age. Also, the AFTM’s long running scholarship program has adapted to the current circumstances, finding new ways to help young Austin area musicians continue their musical development. Stay safe and keep pickin’! Page 3 �Keep On (Virtually) Pickin’! By Chip Bach, AFTM Promotions Coordinator Recent isolation precautions have provided musicians with opportunities to hone skills, learn new tunes, transcribe, explore theory, and listen to the music we love. But for most of us, something is still missing. Playing music with friends is a tough joy to match, and even the most introverted musician needs musical interaction with other musicians. It’s part of who we are. Thank goodness for technology! During my current isolation, I have found several programs which help to ease the sense of emptiness left behind when playing music with my friends is curtailed. Although these programs don’t completely fill the need for musicians to play music together, they provide a very nice creative outlet. Here are my 6 favorite software packages, along with a brief description of each. I’m sure there are some others out there that will likely become “essential” once I discover them! I also included a description of equipment and platform needs in the section on “My Gear.” Keep picking! My Essential Software Amazing Slowdowner (ASD) by Roni Music: https://www.ronimusic.com While there are a number of slowdowner applications available, ASD was the first one I tried at the recommendation of a friend. The features ASD provides, such as tempo and pitch changing, looping, etc., can be found in several different available programs. However, the ability to import directly from Spotify is a boon. It is rare that I am unable to find even a rare or obscure fiddle tune on Spotify. Seems like all recorded music can be found on Spotify. Spotify’s library is huge. Once I have saved a tune into my “ASD” playlist within Spotify, It is quite easy to load that file into ASD for study. ASD is available for PC, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. The computer based versions are $49.95, Android version is $9.95, and the iOS version is $14.95. It is well supported. I have been a user for several years. I use ASD extensively when trying to learn a fiddle tune or mandolin break note for note. Page 4 �Strum Machine (SM) by Luke Abbott: https://strummachine.com/ SM changed the way I approached practice. For traditional music styles, SM provides the most realistic sounding computer-generated back-up I have heard. There are more than 1,000 different backing tracks already loaded, including Bluegrass, Old-Time, Celtic, Americana, and other genres. But the real beauty of SM is the ease at which chord progressions for your own tunes may be added. It is quick and easy with preview, tempo, key, time signature options available. Major, minor, seventh, and diminished chord voicing are available. Half-measures may be added for those crooked Old-Time tunes. Common (4/4), waltz (¾), jig (6/8), and slip jig (9/8) time signatures are available. Tunes may have an intro or tag line added, and a song may loop as many times as you wish. Bass, guitar, and mandolin voicings may be mixed in to the rhythm. Tune organization within the program is very intuitive. And tunes as well as groupings of tunes may be shared with other users. Be careful though! This program will tempt you to forgo your metronome practice! I love the realistic sounding backup and the ease of creating my own chord charts. SM is a subscription service. A subscription is $49 per year. I have been a user and a beta tester for SM for a couple years. Audacity by Audacity: https://www.audacityteam.org Audacity is all the mixing software most home studios need. Full featured and easy to use, you can import/export tracks, or record them directly using external mics or sources. I typically use Audacity with recorded tracks from my Tascam portable recorder. The array of effects is tremendous. Audacity is open source and free, and downloads are available for Mac or PC. I have used Audacity for several years. I like its ease of use coupled with its abundance of features. Page 5 �Acapella by Mixcord: https://www.mixcord.co/pages/acapella Acapella allows musicians to create synchronized, multi-frame videos, individually, or collaboratively with other musicians. It is intuitive, and while better audio equipment will improve the sound quality in the resulting videos, decent results may be obtained with nothing more than an iPhone and the supplied earbuds (ones with a microphone built in). It is fun, and certainly helps to somewhat satisfy musical creativity needs. Resulting video files may be saved to your device, shared with friends and on social media, and even sent to others who can add their own tracks to it. Mentioned earlier, sound quality can be improved with better audio equipment. See the discussion on inexpensive audio equipment alternatives below. Unfortunately, Acapella appears to be currently supported only on iOS. Acapella is a subscription service, costing $9.99 per month or $47.99 per year. Acapella was a discovery for me since going into isolation. I really like the product that I can easily make with it. Zoom by Zoom: https://zoom.us Yup, despite the latency issues, Zoom, when used with decent (but not necessarily expensive) audio equipment can provide a decent platform for social and musical interaction. The lag produced by internet latency prevents jamming synchronously, but a song-circle Zoom session can be quite fun. With only one person un-muted at a time, others can listen or play along. Sessions such as this also provide nice social interaction between songs. Since Zoom was designed for voice meetings there are some tweaks that may be applied to improve the outgoing sound quality. This video explains the tweaks. For a nice pictorial discussion go here. With a user ID alone, a user may hold sessions for up to 40 minutes with multiple participants, or longer sessions for only two participants. A subscription allows the user to access many more features, including conferences for up to 100 participants, screen sharing, scheduling, session recording, and other features. A Zoom subscription costs $14.99 per month. It is available on all major platforms. Zoom was a discovery for me since going into isolation. Zoom is great for conducting meetings, and song circles. Page 6 �JamKazam (JK): https://www.jamkazam.com JK is the newest software in my “must have” category. Using JK with friends with whom I share low latency (~30 ms or less) is as close to real time on-line jamming as I have come. It is certainly not the same as sitting around a fire, under a starlit sky, and enjoying an adult beverage while playing music with good friends, but it is as close as I’ve come. After setting it up, I must admit, I feel a bit like an old ham radio operator! I’ve had conversations with musicians from all over the US, Canada, and Europe. Here in the Austin area, a group of techno-musicians (present author included) have set up JamKazam at our homes, and found the experience quite fun. These folks are all Austin area traditional music and bluegrass (and even a bit of jazz sax) musicians. JK is currently free to sign up. It is an Austin based company, which is pretty cool! It requires either a Windows 10 PC or a Mac (no tablets or Smartphones). A wired internet connection is required. You should be able to hook up an Ethernet cable to the back of your router. I use a cat 7 Ethernet cable, but a cat 5 or 6 may be sufficient. JK also requires some additional audio gear which I explain below. One of the local techno-musicians has put together a nice tutorial on setting up JK. It can be found here http://paulmaine.com/jamkazam/. Check the page often, as it is frequently updated. It ain’t perfect every time, but JK does fill a need for this isolated musician. I actually set up a JK account several years ago, however I have gotten it much further along since going into isolation. I like the thought of being able to make music synchronously with my friends. In fact, I look forward to the time I can enjoy a nice face-to-face jam with friends! Page 7 �My Gear I admit it. Since March, I have purchased additional audio equipment. Please don’t tell my wife! Seriously though, I have purchased a few adapters, and cables, as well as a decent condenser mic, and an audio interface. There are several equipment configurations which I found useful. These are shown in the schematics below. For the Amazing Slowdowner, and Strum Machine, a smartphone, tablet, or computer with no fancy additional audio equipment is necessary. For Strum Machine, I do enjoy an external Bluetooth speaker, to keep up with my loud playing, but the phone or tablet speakers are fine for all but the loudest players. For Acapella, I have made some acceptable videos with nothing more than my iPhone XR and the Apple supplied earbuds (configuration 1 below). For improved sound, however, an external Bluetooth microphone, coupled with headphones or earbuds is an improvement over the basic configuration. This is shown in configuration 2. Finally, on my high end, is the addition of an XLR condenser mic and a digital audio interface. This is shown in configuration 3. Configuration 3 equipment can be purchased for under $300. Zoom can be run under the simplest configurations for voice only meetings, but headphone or earbuds will enhance the experience, and an external microphone will improve your transmitted sound to others. Configuration 1 works fine for a voice meeting, but for a music meeting consider upgrading to configuration 2, 3, or 4. For JamKazam, a wired internet connection is highly recommended. Hook up a cat 5 or better Ethernet cable from your router to your PC. Also, an external audio interface reduces your internal latency significantly. Configuration 4 (or better) is necessary. Page 8 �So, my equipment purchases to support these essential software packages included: Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD 2-channel audio interface. $130 Sabrent 4-port Usb powered hub. $17 MXL 770 Cardoid Condenser Mic. $77 Cat7 Ethernet cable 50 ft. $20 OTG Adapter for Lightning (my iPhone) (3 inputs, USB A for sound in, 3.5 mm for headphones, Lightning for charging). $18 OTG Adapter for USB C (my iPad) (3 inputs, USB A for sound in, 3.5 mm for headphones, USB C for charging). $20 I already owned various cables, mic stands, nice headphones, earbuds, dynamic mics (SM57, SM58, Beta58), a Windows (slow Intel i3 processor) PC, an iPhone XR, and an iPad Pro 11. I’ve shown four of my gear configurations in the following schematics along with when I use each. Remember though! YMMV! Page 9 �ffiY 6€nR (rrr/r E t6r)?. *frftorJ PF#- L Sr I mPLL Qoc Qood -,furu*tSb*dr*tl gsP't*t *rtlm tn$*l talL t4€kp?tu&W fu*rlta or(nwuos LoNl rruuRll- to{ L WbR 4a€r"' r05 wrtw, AuPellq,' *+e(nil furn Lbb Ne Po{N* 8 '{:atv,T" tU deu cog T t)oL ftre ,!l,olLXrrt" i4l?ru Urq ftCI*tr#- )iaa*s n.reaTlon)L) k &"( "l,bB ,3"ilZto' retJPhoPL) o Ct+xPanbfu{ Page 10 �IWY 6TAL YKL CoNFtarss4lo^ 3- d €"'fZ- iCa PeveL ZPOM "., @# --7 @1 T4" 6 lovtaA O @ ffi rvti6 fto (t" o( '7M ,?hotl(-XR' ura hdAfree 6?ow"r'A Bg *ob O fiehrt n", t)ru Lru,H D Page 11 A,td,b Interftt �rr3 Qa*k *"r &orn CnnQat)reTii'rl 4 Qu"d r @ @ {nmk*zkq hta L o ?fu;*lfu' red co on€n1'r ai ?c rl d r,rdads ?oaern4'JgB h':b r,ili,^rcrfacE ,{,;'{ylCuz}p r Beh Page 12 �Check out what the AFTM's great friend, Beth Chrisman, has done to address the indefinite loss of live performances! Cabin Fever Tunes https://www.cabinfevertunes.com/ When all of my gigs started canceling due to the COVID-19 health concerns and social distancing, I was looking for something to keep myself busy and connected with my peers. I have spent the past 20 years playing music and traveling the world, and have friends and fellow pickers scattered all over the globe. As we are all turning to live stream concerts to supplement our vanished incomes, I decided to host a calendar of my friends and peers here. Thanks for all your support...lets stay connected during these crazy times!!! Love, your virtual hostess, Beth Chrisman ps. If anyone feels like contributing financially to Cabin Fever Tunes, this is a one-woman operation so far and I am accepting donations for my time and research. paypal - missybethbooking@gmail.com venmo - @bethgrass Page 13 �Terry's Tune and Song Circle The AFTM's talented webmaster, Terry SoRelle, has created a virtual song circle which tales place via Zoom every Saturday afternoon at 4:00 PM, CDT. As Terry says, "The tune and song circle is our attempt to keep making music in spite or our isolation during the pandemic. Due to the limitations of video conferencing it is practially impossible to actually play together. The delayed timing throws us off. But we can share our music by performing one at time. Joining our Zoom video meeting is a simple matter of clicking the link on our main page. Just follow the prompts to install the Zoom application on your computer or mobile device. You may want to optimize your Zoom sound configuration by following the instuction on our Zoom Music Page." Here's a link with all the details https://www.2quakers.net/music/tune-and-song-circle Page 14 �AFTM SCHOLARSHIPS Helping the next generation to learn the music, not so much as a way to make a living as to make life itself worth living. Each year the Austin Friends of Traditional Music awards a scholarship to promising musicians and dancers, 30 years of age or younger, who wish to further their studies of old time music and dance. In previous years we have supported their participation in the Swannanoa Gathering’s Old-Time Music and Dance Week. Although the Swannanoa Old Time Camp is cancelled this year along with most other camps that support traditional music, your Austin Friends of Traditional Music (AFTM) still wishes to support the music education for young folks interested in traditional music forms. To that end, the AFTM is offering scholarships to learn on-line. There are several on-line learning sources to select from, some of which are listed on our On-line Learning page. Other sites or teachers may be approved after board review. Music students may select a course of study that is not listed and submit it with their scholarship application for review by the AFTM Board. Rules and requirements for the 2020 AFTM Scholarship Program: 1. 5 scholarships are available, each at a value not to exceed $200. 2. Applicants must be 30 or younger as of 6/1/2020. 3. Applicants must be AFTM members. They can go to our membership page to become a member at any time. 4. Applicants must submit an email application to AFTMTexas@gmail.com. The application must consist of a. Name, home address, email address, phone number, birthdate, b. Intended course of traditional music study, including contact information for the instructing entity, and the cost, c. Written description of your interest in traditional music, your musical background, and why you think you ought to be chosen for a chance to learn from the masters, and, d. Scanned copy of a proof of age document (birth certificate, drivers license, etc.). 5. The application and course of study shall be reviewed and approved or rejected by the AFTM board. The board will consider only applicants who have provided the information and met the requirements stated here. The board will consider the applicant’s written explanation, other items required in the application and any other factors the board considers germane. The board may request further information from any applicant to help in its decision. 6. The board may request recipients of AFTM scholarships to provide a post training report or participate in an interview for possible future inclusion in the Reel Times newsletter. Any costs other than tuition associated with attendance are the sole responsibility of the selected applicant. Submit your entry for the AFTM scholarship by August 21 to: AFTMTexas@gmail.com For more information about the scholarship, CONTACT: AFTMTexas@gmail.com Page 15 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Lee Thomas, Vice-President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer Chip Bach, Promotions Coordinator James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Mike Savercool, Membership Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Terry SoRelle, Webmaster Dan Foster, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Click here for Membership info AFTM website � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 46 Number 2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-05 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 46, Number 2 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/276/newsletter-46-01-2020-01.pdf 6140b4a8d9520e84d22635ea05e08f62 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 46, Number 01, Winter 2020 Old time music in Austin Kellie Allen, Gene Young and Pete Peterson experiencing the joy of playing old time music! �Table of Contents Page 2 Table of Contents Page 3 Gene and Marynell Young, new to Austin old-time music scene Page 7 The Buffalo Gals at the Hillside House Concert Page 8 Janie's Jumpstart, old-time music instruction comes to Austin Page 9 Evie Ladin and Keith Terry, neo-trad kinetic folk duo comes to Austin Page 10 The 2019 Austin String Band Festival Page 11 Photos of the 2019 ASBF by Tom Delaney Page 12 5th Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling Page 13 The AFTM at Batch Page 14 AFTM group photo Page 15 About the AFTM Page 2 �Gene and Marynell Young Austin's newest old-time musicians! Gene and Marynell, at a recent AFTM old-time jam at Batch Recent transplants to Austin, Gene and Marynell Young, have spent their lives learning and playing old time fiddle music. Both Gene and Marynell grew up in the Texas panhandle, Gene in the town of Borger and Marynell in Phillips, a town that no longer exists. Marynell Young fondly remembers the time when, at the age of eight, she and her family traveled from their home to the big city of Amarillo to have her grandfather’s fiddle set up by the legendary Eck Robertson! Page 3 �Both of Marynell’s grandfathers were fiddlers; Marynell began taking violin lessons in Borger, TX when she was in the fourth grade, but didn’t stick with it. In those days in Texas, the fiddle was considered a “man’s instrument” and she was teased about being a girl who played the fiddle. She switched to saxophone, which she played for eight years, through high school. Marynell is still in touch with some of her fellow saxophonists from her school days. Gene Young was born in San Angelo, TX, lived in Ballinger, TX, and moved to Borger when he entered the ninth grade. Gene and Marynell met when she was seventeen - Gene asked her to attend a Bo Diddley dance (an enormous event for little Borger, TX), Marynell said yes, and the rest is history! Gene’s guitar playing has its roots in visits to an older brother who attended the university of Oklahoma in Norman. On one visit he saw a Flatt & Scruggs performance and another the Kingston Trio. Gene was bitten by the guitar playing bug and has played ever since. Gene found a fan in Marynell’s father, who was mightily impressed with Gene’s guitar playing. Her parents would take Gene out to eat and invite him over after dinner to accompany Marynell’s father playing fiddle tunes! Gene’s career in higher education got off to a bit of a rocky start at the University of Texas. Playing music and socializing took up most of his time and he flunked out after one semester. His grades that semester were four F’s and one D. The bright spot was his D in English, and he would return to that subject in later years! Gene fondly remembers Austin folk clubs, the Eleventh Door and the Id, where he spent much of his time during that semester. By this time, Gene was already obsessed with music and spent many hours learning fingerstyle guitar, playing blues, ragtime, and folk music. However, the war in Viet Nam was heating up and Gene enlisted in the Air Force. He became a navigator on a B-52 and flew over sixty combat missions in Southeast Asia. By the time Gene’s tour of duty was over, Gene and Marynell were married and they moved to Knoxville, TN. Gene resumed his college career at the University of Tennessee, ultimately earning a PhD in English, while Marynell taught technical writing at a local trade school. During their years in Knoxville, they were exposed to Appalachian string band music, and met musicians such as Frank George and J. P. Fraley. They remember listening to performances by such artists as Bobby Fulcher, the Red Clay Ramblers, Jean Ritchie, Mike Seeger, John McCutcheon and, especially, the very influential Highwoods String Band. Still without a fiddle in the house, Marynell happened to attend a Knoxville furniture auction, intending to buy a chest of drawers for their young children. Instead, she came home with an old fiddle! Marynell resumed playing fiddle at that time and she and Gene formed a band, the Hardin Valley String Band. Gene initially played guitar with the band and took up the fiddle himself a year later. Page 4 �Now fully immersed in old time music, the Youngs relocated to College Station, TX in 1978 where Gene taught American Literature at Texas A & M. While living in College Station, they formed a new band, the King’s English String Band, which was made up of eight English professors! They played around College Station and performed every year at the Texas Folklife Festival in San Antonio. The Youngs lived in College Station until 1984 when Gene accepted a faculty position at Morehead State College in Morehead, KY. Not long after arriving in Morehead, Marynell applied for a grant from the Kentucky Oral History Commission to document, collect and preserve the careers of nine traditional Appalachian musicians. The fruits of her labor, the Vintage Fiddlers Oral History Project Collection, consists of audio and video interviews of fiddlers from Eastern Kentucky recorded by Marynell in the summer of 1985. The collection contains interviews and music samples of traditional folk musicians Alfred Bailey, Virgil and Clela Alfrey, Chillson Leach, J.P. and Annadeene Fraley, David Sizemore, Hiram Stamper, and Clyde Davenport. Included with the interviews, are black and white photographs of the musicians taken by David Bartlett. Originally on VHS tape, the collection was digitized in 2000 and is available at https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/fiddlers_oral_history_project/ These audio and video recordings are so well known within the traditional fiddle community that Gene says, “My only identity in the larger old-time community is as the husband of Marynell Young.” Marynell and Gene were in “music heaven” in Kentucky but felt a need to return to Texas as their parents aged. Gene joined the faculty of Sam Houston State University in 1992, and the Youngs lived in Huntsville, TX for twenty-seven years. Their musical activities continued, of course – they led a weekly jam for twenty years and formed a family band, the Young Family String Band, with their two fiddler daughters, as well as another band in Huntsville, the No Foolin’ String Band. When they both retired from teaching just a year and a half ago, they moved to Austin, as they had planned. They had purchased their house in Austin several years earlier, knowing they would retire here one day. Their three children and five grandchildren live within one square mile, so the Young Family String Band is still active! Most recently, the Youngs have formed a new band, the Silver Alert String Band, which includes AFTM board member, Chip Bach. They attend the monthly AFTM jam at Batch, and were especially fond of the old Rio Rita jam, which has relocated to the Aristocrat Lounge on Burnet Road. And, although they play about five hundred different tunes, they’re not done learning new material; their latest “obsession” is learning blues and rags in the key of F. Gene and Marynell are a great addition to the traditional music scene in Austin, and they couldn’t be nicer people; make an effort to meet them and hear their music! Page 5 �Marynell displays some of the results of her musical research Marynell and Gene play an old-time tune with Chip Bach and Sharon Isaac Page 6 �The Buffalo Gals in concert at The Hillside House Concert Sunday, January 19, 2020 4:00 pm until 7:00 pm The Buffalo Gals are Rebecca Patek and Melissa Carper. We fondly remember Melissa from her years in Austin, as part of the Carper Family! They will be performing repertoire from their soon to be released new album 'Where the Heart Wants to Go' For more info and to reserve a seat email Elise at musicgirl3205@gmail.com Suggested donation $15 Page 7 �Janie's Jumpstart comes to Austin! Janie's Jumpstart Traditional Music Weekend Camps Camp Director: Janie Rothfield janerothfield@gmail.com The goal of Janie's Jumpstart Camp is to help you get to the next level in playing old time music and, of course, to have a lot of fun! Special attention will be paid to techniques to play and sing better including rhythm, intonation, musicality and make your music come to life no matter your skill level or genre. Small Classes, Fantastic Teachers, Delicious Food, House Concert and tons of jamming! January 31-February 2, 2020 Austin, TEXAS Click here to register Old Time Weekend Janie Rothfield-Int/Adv Old Time Fiddle Pete Peterson-Int Clawhammer/Finger Style Banjo Kellie Allen-Int Guitar/Old Time Songs Page 8 �EVIE LADIN & KEITH TERRY neo-trad kinetic folk duo coming to Austin! House concert in Austin - Friday, February 7, 2020 Tenacious, innovative string musicians/dancers with a quirky neo-trad heart, Evie Ladin & Keith Terry throw down soulful folk songs with an unusual live show. In 2019 they release two CDs, celebrating both of their musical sides: Evie's totally trad fiddle/banjo duets with 17 fiddlers, Riding the Rooster, and their band's adventurous originals, Caught On A Wire. Grounded in old-time repertoire, writing clever lyrics with mature arrangements, intermingling music and dance, the performance experience is a stand-out. “A truly original sound in new old-time Americana,” says fRoots, while fans remark “your show was by turns whimsical, uplifting, jaw-droppingly brilliant, hilarious, and deeply moving.” To reserve a seat, send an email to mnellyoung@gmail.com Page 9 �2019 Austin String Band Festival Steam Machine from Minnesota performs on Saturday night at the ASBF Sunny and warm! This weather forecast for the 2019 Austin String Band Festival was a welcome change, after the “difficult” weather we endured in 2018. This year we enjoyed dry, pleasant conditions for the entire weekend, and the performances and workshops were superb! We heard old time bluegrass from Steam Machine from Minnesota and traditional music of New Mexico from Lone Piñon. Jesse Lége and Bosco Stomp performed Cajun dance hall music and Big Cedar Fever put the swing back in western swing! Local favorites, the Barn Owls, played a great square dance set, as called by Sharon Isaac, and we were treated to a reunion of the Austin legends, the Stovetop Rangers. Our new food vendors, Angie’s Pies and Come and Crepe It got rave reviews from festival-goers, and they plan to return next year. We even had our own ice concession! Page 10 �Photos from the 2019 ASBF by Tom Delaney Click any of these photos to see more of Tom's 2019 ASBF coverage! Page 11 �5th Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling The 5th annual Festival of Texas Fiddling took place on Saturday, December 7 at the beautiful Twin Sisters Dance Hall in Blanco. Just like last year, the weather was fantastic and the fiddling was memorable! Page 12 �AFTM at Batch Here's the gathering at the December, 2019 AFTM jam at Batch Starting in January, 2019, the AFTM Monthly Meeting and Jam has taken place at a new venue, Batch, located at 3220 Manor Road in Austin! Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches is an Austin, family-owned and operated kolache bakery, taproom, and retail craft beer shop. The pastry chefs at Batch elevate the classic Central Texas Czech pastry to gourmet status by teaming up with Micklethwait Craft Meats and local fruit vendors. Additionally, Batch offers a full espresso and coffee program through a partnership with Greater Goods Roasting. As always, the AFTM Monthly Meeting and Jam happens on the second Sunday of each month – the meeting commences at 12:30 PM and the jam starts around 2:00 PM. In January, 2020 that means Sunday, October 12! . See you there! Page 13 �A group of AFTM members gathered for a photo after the November meeting Page 14 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Angie Wooten, Secretary Rachel Brown, Treasurer Chip Bach, Promotions Coordinator James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Mike Savercool, Membership Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Terry SoRelle, Webmaster Dan Foster, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 Membership info � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 46 Number 1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 46, Number 1 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/275/newsletter-45-04-2019-10.pdf a9125453f8a6633e0d2ef56158139925 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 45, Number 04, Fall 2019 Steam Machine headlines the 2019 Austin String Band Festival! �Table of Contents Page 3 Steam Machine Page 5 Lone Piñon Page 6 Big Cedar Fever Page 7 Jesse Lége and Bosco Stomp Page 8 Pace and Barber Page 9 The Here and Now with Tony Davoren Page 10 Lloyd and April Wright Page 11 The Stovetop Rangers Page 12 The Barn Owls Page 13 Festival Information Page 14 ASBF Schedule of Performers Page 15 Food at the ASBF Page 16 AFTM Barn Dance Page 17 Photos from ASBF 2019 Page 18 The Westbank String Shop Page 20 The AFTM at Batch Page 22 About the AFTM Page 2 �Steam Machine Steam Machine is a band that bridges the old-time bluegrass divide. These four young Midwesterners have a vast repertoire that pulls from the fiddle traditions of Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky, interspersed with rare early country and bluegrass songs. While serious about old fiddle tunes, Steam Machine also carries forward the power and glory of the old stuff with widely appealing drive and relevance. Clean, powerful fiddling, rolling three finger banjo, and classic brother-style duets over a driving, rock-solid rhythm section combine to form a big sound on stage and square dance floor alike. All four band members are actively involved in perpetuating roots music and dance traditions as players, teachers, and organizers in their home communities and on the road. AJ Srubas has played and taught fiddle for over 20 years, from the Augusta Heritage Center to the Berkeley Old-Time Page 3 �Music Convention. Early in his fiddling years he met Chirps Smith who introduced AJ to the lesser known old-time repertoire of the Midwest. Other influences on his old-time playing include Dwight Lamb and Al Murphy who in turn played with Cyril Stinnett, Lyman Enloe, and Gene Goforth. Banjo player Aaron Tacke is known for his unique style of fingerpicking. In addition to playing and teaching, he works as a luthier at Hoffman Guitars. Rina Rossi first came to old time music as a clogger and then square dance caller, performing across the midwest and Europe with the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers. Always a lover of rhythm, she later took up bass and guitar. She enjoys laying down a strong and steady beat as a foundation for fiddle and banjo. Born and raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, bassist Nokosee Fields tours with the country band Western Centuries. As a teacher, he has taught at the Augusta Heritage Center and has been involved with Dancing with the Spirit—an Alaska-based youth and community music program that aims to re-inspire fiddle and dance traditions in indigenous communities throughout the region. Page 4 �Lone Piñon Lone Piñon is an acoustic conjunto from Northern New Mexico whose music celebrates the integrity of their region's cultural roots. Multiinstrumentalists Noah Martinez and Jordan Wax use the fiddle, bajo quinto, accordion, quinta huapanguera, mandolin, guitars, and bilingual vocals to play a wide spectrum of the traditional music that is at home in New Mexico. Tanya Nunez will be playing bass. Page 5 �Big Cedar Fever Big Cedar Fever is a string swing band out of central Texas that specializes in classic western swing and jazz. Three part harmonies and tight musical arrangements draw listeners in, only to be taken away by the classic style and lyrics that recall another time and place. Formed in January of 2018, the trio includes Georgia Parker on jazz-box guitar, Ian Lee on fiddle, and Nick Lochman on the upright bass. With all three sharing vocal duties and trading instrumental solos, this is a group whose constant harmony is right up there with their prowess as a dance band. The up-and-comers have played host to crowds of Lindy hoppers, Texas two-steppers, and Western swing dancers. In their short time together they have also been at home in listening room environments, providing intimate sets that showcase a true love for the history of the music. Page 6 �Jesse Lége & Bosco Stomp One dance hall at a time...That is the life work of Jesse Lége: to bring traditional, foot-stompin’ Cajun dance hall music from the dusty back roads of southwest Louisiana, coast to coast and around the world. Jesse Lege defines traditional Louisiana dance hall music. His unmistakeable hard driving style of accordion play and his powerful voice will get even the most staid listener up on the dance floor. Whether he is performing with Bayou Brew or his many friends, Jesse can crank up any old tune to something new and very different than you have ever heard before. Page 7 �Pace and Barber Pace & Barber's sound draws from American roots music, with stripped-down vocal harmonies accompanied by banjo and guitar. Their partnership began in the Dallas-Fort Worth area after Dean Barber received an email from Brandi Pace, looking for a banjo teacher. What started as a lesson developed into a duo and the rest, as they say, is history. Page 8 �The Here And Now with Tony Davoren Chris Buckley grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He’s been a student of the violin since the age of 3 and began studying Irish fiddle at the age of 14. His classical training culminated with a degree in viola performance at the University of Minnesota and graduate work at UT Austin. Rob Forkner claims he was born on a paddle-wheel gambling boat in Louisiana. Moving away from the boat a short time later he was fortunate enough to spend time living in many parts of the world. While living in Alaska, he discovered Irish music after a friend gave him an old cassette tape. He decided to learn how to play the bodhran after hearing the playing of the great Johnny McDonagh. From Tara, Co. Meath in Ireland Niamh moved to Austin in August 2014. As a child Niamh took lessons with the infamous Antoin McGabhann and still quotes him as one of her biggest influences. Niamh has enjoyed a varied career as a musician having toured extensively with notable acts such as Riverdance, Project West, The Dhol Foundation, John Williams and many more to boot. Prior to moving to Austin, Niamh lived in London where she carved out career as a recording session musician while also undertaking a masters in Music Therapy. Niamh now works as a contract music therapist and session musician in Austin and is excited about the prospects for The Here & Now. Though still a young man, guitar-player Joseph Carmichael has already collected an impressive resume. His primary project Flashpoint -- a contemporary Irish trio -- has recorded two albums, and performed at concerts and festivals throughout the southern US and has shared the stage with top-flight Irish music groups FullSet and the legendary Solas. Page 9 �Lloyd & April Wright Dulcimer champion, Lloyd Wright, picks a tune on the stage of the Mill Fest, accompanied by his wife, April Lloyd and April Wright hail from the town of Kennard in east Texas, and were featured in the summer edition of Reel Times. Their music is a blend of traditional string band music, with old time country and gospel influences. They're regulars at the Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival every March, and have started their own music festival, Mill Fest, which will take place this year on November 1 & 2. Page 10 �The Stovetop Rangers Many of the countless Stovetop Rangers fans feared that they'd never again hear the frequently dulcet tones of this fabled Austin oldtime string band, since one member moved to Atlanta and another to Oakland. The appeal of the Austin String Band Festival has proven to be so powerful that the lads have briefly reunited and will be staging a musical reunion on stage. To miss this performance would be to miss out on history... Page 11 �The Barn Owls The Barn Owls are an Austin area oldtime string band specializing in having a good time! Fiddler Trent Shepherd grew up in Austin but his family roots are in West Virginia. He and bassist Brink Melton are alumni of the Onion Creek Crawdaddies, a beergrass band that had a large and loyal following for several years. Guitarist Joe Dobbs is a librarian by day and tune collector all the time. Some of the band's more unusual tunes were unearthed by Joe. Banjoist Jerry Hagins has been on the Austin scene for quite a while, teaching banjo and playing in any band that will have him. Square dances are a Barn Owls specialty, and they'll be teaming up with Kentucky-raised dance caller Sharon Issac. Page 12 �Volunteer at the String Band Festival! Volunteers are essential to the success of the festival and volunteering is a great way to meet like-minded string band enthusiasts, as well as saving on admission fees. Click on this box to go to the volunteer signup page! Buy advance tickets online! Click on this box to go to the ticket purchasing page! Camp Ben McCulloch is located Near Austin on FM 1826, 11 miles southwest of US 290, right across the road from the Salt Lick BBQ Page 13 �ASBF 2019 Schedule FRIDAY OCT 18 Dance ‘til you Drop Night - all dances taught 7pm Flat Earth Rounders with Rich Macmath, caller Festival Kick-Off Square Dance with great local old time band and caller 8:30pm Lone Piñon with Larry Edelman, caller Lively traditional group and couples dances of Northern New Mexico 9:45pm Steam Machine with Larry Edelman, caller Killer Square dance with premier Old Time band and caller SATURDAY, OCT 19 All Day until Late Night Stage Shows and Dances 2pm Pace and Barber traditional old time string band music, Ft. Worth,TX 3pm Lloyd and April Wright traditional/old time/gospel Kennard,TX 4pm The Here & Now with Tony Davoren Fast-paced traditional Irish music Austin, TX 5pm Stovetop Rangers Old Time Appalachian, pre-war country and blues Austin, TX 6pm Big Cedar Fever Classic Western Swing and jazz for your dancing and listening pleasure Austin/Wimberly/Boerne, TX 7pm The Barn Owls with Sharon Isaac, caller Fiery local favorite Old Time/Square Dance Band and Caller Austin, TX 8pm Lone Piñon Traditional, lively acoustic conjunto of New Mexico and the Southwest, Native American fiddle music for dancing and listening Albuquerque, NM 9pm Steam Machine Hard-driving Old Time meets Bluegrass with clean, powerful fiddling, brother-style duets over rock-solid rhythm All Over the Midwest,USA 10pm Jesse Lége & Bosco Stomp (with special guests!) Authentic High-Energy Cajun dancehall music of SW Louisiana that packs the dance floor Austin, TX 11ish pm Crazy Square Dance Grand Finale Square Dance with Steam Machine and Guests, Larry Edelman, caller Insanely fun and well worth staying up for! SUNDAY, OCT 20 10am Gospel Sing and Festival Farewell Come sing old timey gospel songs and maybe even a few shape note hymns Page 14 �Delicious food at the ASBF ! In addition to the great music and camping at the ASBF, festival goers in recent years have enjoyed the delicious food offerings at The Café, as prepared by Sara Weber and her crew. When we learned that Sara would not be able to continue her excellent food service, the AFTM board searched for suitable food options and, thanks to new board member Rachel Brown, we’ll have three fine food vendors this year! John Imperial will be working in the Camp Ben kitchen, with offerings from both his businesses, The Coffee Guy and Villarina Fine Food and Pasta. He’ll be serving all kinds of coffee products as well as several types of lasagna (served with a fresh baguette and salad), empanadas, eggplant Parmesan, and pastries! He’ll be joined in the kitchen by Angie of Angie’s Fried Pies, who will serve quiches in the morning, and her famous fried pies the rest of the day! Finally, Linda of Come and Crepe It will bring her food trailer and will be serving crepes, omelettes and croissants in the morning and an extensive menu of sweet and savory crepes throughout the day! Also, vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options will be available. Although some festival goers enjoy cooking all their meals at Camp Ben, it’s great to know that you can attend the ASBF and not worry about doing your own food preparation, there’ll be great food available from our vendors! Page 15 �AFTM Barn Dance Check at www.aftm.us for information on future AFTM Barn Dances Page 16 �Photos from last year's ASBF Page 17 �Featured sponsor The Westbank String Shop Click on the photo to visit the website of the Westbank String Shop! The Westbank String Shop, located at 6301 Manchaca Road in Austin, is a true fiddler's paradise, with instruments galore and accessories such as bows, strings, stands, rosins, cases, etc. Founded by Dr. David Sloan, Westbank has grown and expanded over the last 22 years and today Westbank String Shop is operated by the founder’s son, Todd, a gifted musician and multi-instrumentalist himself, trained in instrument restoration and repair. The Austin String Band Festival is proud to have the Westbank String Shop as a sponsor, and we're excited that they will again have a booth at the festival, with instruments and accessories for sale, as well as a mobile repair shop for any fiddle issues that arise at the festival! Page 18 �Ausdtin area fiddle great, Howard Kalish, examines an instrument from the Westbank String Shop's inventory, as owner Todd Sloan looks on. There are always plenty of fine instruments on hand at the Westbank String Shop! Page 19 �AFTM at Batch Starting in January, 2019, the AFTM Monthly Meeting and Jam has taken place at a new venue, Batch, located at 3220 Manor Road in Austin! Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches is an Austin, family-owned and operated kolache bakery, taproom, and retail craft beer shop. The pastry chefs at Batch elevate the classic Central Texas Czech pastry to gourmet status by teaming up with Micklethwait Craft Meats and local fruit vendors. Additionally, Batch offers a full espresso and coffee program through a partnership with Greater Goods Roasting. As always, the AFTM Monthly Meeting and Jam happens on the second Sunday of each month – the meeting commences at 12:30 PM and the jam starts around 2:00 PM. In October, 2019 that means Sunday, October 13! Page 20 �Jamming at Batch, 2019 Outdoors, if it's pleasant, Indoors, if not... Page 21 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Joanna Saucedo, Vice President Angie Wooten, Treasurer Rachel Brown, Secretary James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Britt Irick, Outreach Coordinator Mike Savercool, Membership Coordinator Terry SoRelle, Webmaster Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Chip Bach, Promotions Coordinator Dan Foster, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 Membership info � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 45 Number 4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-10 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 45, Number 4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/274/newsletter-45-03-2019-07.pdf 11aab2f1128816fa5a9d420d37f1a00f PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 46, Number 03, Summer 2019 Lloyd and April Wright get ready for The 2019 Austin String Band Festival ! �Table of Contents Page 3 Lloyd and April Wright, 2019 Austin String Band Festival Performers Page 6 Chip Bach, new AFTM board member! Page 9 AFTM Barn Dance, August 19 Page 10 Batch, home of the monthly AFTM meeting and jam Page 12 Save the Date (for the ASBF, of course) Page 2 �Lloyd and April Wright at their home in Kennard, Texas Lloyd and April Wright, the East Texas duo who will perform at the Austin String Band Festival in October, are lifelong Texans from musical families. April was born in Crockett and raised in Kennard, where the couple now lives and, for a brief time, both Lloyd and April attended the same elementary school in Crockett, where Lloyd’s mother, Margaret, was the music teacher! April grew up with a father who played fiddle, and she still performs with him every Sunday morning at the Larry Bruce Gardens in Kennard. Lloyd grew up in Houston and discovered traditional old-time music in 1994 on a family vacation to Mountain View, AR, where a visit to the Ozark Folk Center made an indelible impression. Lloyd returned home with a mountain dulcimer and quickly acquired substantial playing skills – he was the Mountain Dulcimer National Champion in 2000! Lloyd’s family played and performed old time music through the 90’s in the Houston area, and has recorded three CD’s of old-time music. After Lloyd met April, he was introduced to more gospel music to add to his old-time repertoire. They’ve performed secular music as well, and their band the Sawmill Vagrants played at the ASBF a few years ago. Page 3 �"The family that plays together" A recent performance finds Lloyd playing with his mother, Margaret on bass, his brother, Hollis on mandolin, April on guitar and April's father, Larry on fiddle! They’re regulars at the Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival each March, and it was there that they first learned about the Austin String Band Festival after meeting the AFTM’s Jeanne DeFriese. Lloyd and April really enjoy the ASBF and have launched their own festival modeled after the ASBF. Their festival, the Old Mill Music Festival, is held in November every year near their home in Kennard. Both Lloyd and April perform throughout east Texas, and Lloyd is often heard playing with Pipp Gilette, proprietor of the famous Camp Street Café in Crockett. Page 4 �Lloyd and April Wright pick a tune on the stage of the Old Mill Music Festival, which they host every November in Kennard, TX Music is a family venture with Lloyd and April. At a recent Sunday performance at the Larry Bruce Gardens in Kennard, Lloyd and April were joined by Lloyd’s mother, Margaret on the upright bass, Lloyd’s brother, Hollis on mandolin and April’s father, Larry Bruce on fiddle. The wonderful music of Lloyd and April Wright is yet another reason to save the dates of October 18 through the 20th, 2019, for the 14th annual Austin String Band Festival held at Camp Ben McCulloch in Driftwood, TX! Page 5 �New AFTM board member, Chip Bach Chip Bach at home, with his mandolin Page 6 �Chip Bach exchanges licks with a fellow mandolin player at the monthly Pearl Bluegrass Jam & Stage Show Like a lot of musicians with a demanding full-time career, Chip Bach always planned to get more serious about his music once he retired and could put in additional practice hours on his instrument. Well, Chip followed through with that plan in a big way and just a bit over a year after retiring won the 2019 Texas State Mandolin Championship held in Farmers Branch, Texas! The story of how Chip came to Texas is an interesting one. Chip had planned to spend his retirement in Charleston, SC where his son’s family was living, but Chip and his wife Chris needed to sell their home in Palm City, FL first. Their home had been on the market for quite a while without a sale and then, one month before Page 7 �their home finally sold, that same son in Charleston took a job in Austin. Subsequently, Chip and his wife Chris (both being proud grandparents) decided that Austin, TX would be a pretty nice place to retire, and moved here in late 2017. Chip is an east coast guy, having grown up in VA and attended college in NC. As a teenager and young man, Chip played guitar and banjo and had played with Red and Murphy Henry in Florida. Preparing for a festival performance there, Chip was asked to learn the mandolin on short notice. He caught the mandolin bug at that time. Except for a few years in CO, Chip’s life has been spent on the east coast, living in NC, SC, and FL, in addition to his childhood in VA. Chip has especially fond memories of his year and a half in Asheville, NC where Chip and Chris’ daughter was born, he won the 1980 Bele Chere Mandolin competition, and he enjoyed the great jamming at the Shindig on the Green, a summer-long musical event in Asheville. Chip’s greatest musical joy is playing with others, and after moving to Austin he wasted no time getting involved with several of the area’s jamming opportunities. He plays both old time and bluegrass mandolin and guitar styles and wishes those two musical communities were more interconnected. Chip is a member of several traditional music organizations in our area and plays with the Austin bluegrass band One Eye Open. He can be seen at many Austin area bluegrass and old time jams. Chip has recently joined the AFTM board as Promotion Coordinator. Chip’s skills and work ethic will make a great contribution to the AFTM. Welcome to the board, Chip! Page 8 �The AFTM Barn Dance! Click photo to see more photos from the November 16 AFTM Barn Dance! Don't miss the next AFTM Barn Dance, which will be held on Friday, August 16, at Life in the City! The dance runs from 8:00 pm until 10:00, and admission is $10.00. Life in the City is located at 205 E Monroe Street in Austin, just east of South Congress. Page 9 �Batch Starting in January, 2019, the AFTM Monthly Meeting and Jam has taken place at a new venue, Batch, located at 3220 Manor Road in Austin! Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches is an Austin, family-owned and operated kolache bakery, taproom, and retail craft beer shop. The pastry chefs at Batch elevate the classic Central Texas Czech pastry to gourmet status by teaming up with Micklethwait Craft Meats and local fruit vendors. Additionally, Batch offers a full espresso and coffee program through a partnership with Greater Goods Roasting. As always, the AFTM Monthly Meeting and Jam happens on the second Sunday of each month – the meeting commences at 12:30 PM and the jam starts around 2:00 PM. In July, 2019 that means Sunday, July 14. See you there! Page 10 �Jamming at Batch, 2019 Page 11 �Save the date! Looking ahead to the fall, the dates for this year's Austin String Band Festival are October 18 through the 20th. At this early date, booking the lineup is still in its early stages, but we can state with confidence that the festival will be a fantastic event, and the good news this year is that the weather forecast is most excellent! Page 12 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Joanna Saucedo, Vice President Angie Wooten, Acting Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Brit Irick, Outreach Coordinator Mike Savercool, Membership Coordinator Terry SoRelle, Webmaster Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Dan Foster, At Large Chip Bach, Promotions Coordinator Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 Membership info � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 45 Number 3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-07 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 45, Number 3 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/273/newsletter-45-02-2019-04.pdf f709c73b653578e5a82212c21eec7ccf PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 45, Number 02, Spring 2019 Erica Braverman AFTM's "Volunteer at Large" �Table of Contents Page 3 Erica Braverman, AFTM volunteer Page 5 AFTM Midwinter Festival, 2019 Page 6 Fiddler's Green, AFTM supporter Page 8 AFTM Barn Dance Page 9 Batch, home of AFTM's monthly meeting and jam Page 11 Save the date! Page 2 �Erica Braverman dances to the Irish music of Chris Buckley and Jeff Moore at the 2018 AFTM Midwinter Festival “Volunteer-at-large”, that’s how Erica Braverman describes her role at the AFTM. Most recently in that role, she worked behind the scenes and helped produce the very successful Midwinter Festival, held this past February. The way Erica became involved in traditional music is quite a story! Erica’s not a native Texan, having grown up in the Detroit area. Though she studied violin and piano as a child, neither instrument really intrigued her. One summer during middle school, Erica and a friend decided to participate in a three-day traditional music camp, and it was there that she Page 3 �was first exposed to flat foot dancing. Erica continued to attend similar music camps through her high school years, developing her dancing skills. Clogging and flat foot dancing fascinated Erica and, to this day, she’s an active dancer in the Austin traditional music scene. Before coming to Austin, Erica received her undergraduate degree in Spanish at the University of Michigan and an M. A. degree in education at Wayne State, in Detroit. While teaching part- time in Michigan, she heard about opportunities offered by the Americorps program, and her Spanish language proficiency made her a perfect fit for a program called the 4-H CAPITAL AmeriCorps Project here in Austin. Though she had lived all her life in Michigan, she promptly moved to Austin and has been here since! Erica has really enjoyed her time in Austin and encouraged that same childhood friend from her first music camp to move here. The friend needed assurances that there was an active traditional music scene in Austin, and with the guidance of Google, Erica reached out to the AFTM. Her inquiry drew prompt responses from Sharon Isaac, Barbara Dean and Cheryl DeHut. Encouraged by their welcoming enthusiasm, she started attending old time jams at the old Rio Rita location. There she met more AFTM regulars like Tim and Angie Wooten and, although she was wearing sandals at her first flat footing opportunity, she quickly retrieved her tap shoes from her parents’ home in Michigan. Erica has very diverse interests in traditional music and has studied Irish music at the Blas International Summer School run by the University of Limerick, as well as Balfolk TTU, which is a dance event for folk dance and folk music held by the Vernacular Music Center at Texas Tech in Lubbock. Erica’s current instrumental “weapon of choice” is the concertina, which she learned about from Michelle Hedden at the Fiddlers Green music store in Austin. Erica takes lessons on that instrument from an instructor in Chicago via Skype. Perhaps the one characteristic of the Austin traditional music scene that Erica most appreciates is the open-mindedness she finds in local jams. "I am so thankful that I have been welcomed into the oldtime and Irish jams and grateful for all the friends I have made there. My study abroad advisor always said that "the music is just an excuse" and we are really all there to see our friends, which I believe to be true!" Page 4 �AFTM Midwinter Festival February 9, 2019 For the second consecutive year, the AFTM Midwinter Festival was held at Life in the City, just off South Congress in Austin. The Midwinter Festival has settled into its new home, and again this year featured performers from various world cultures. Dance from Africa and Hungary, fiddle music from Ireland and Scandinavia, Pakistani and Appalachian traditional music, and workshops ranging from making puppets, to playing banjo, to making your own washtub bass! Click on the above photo of the Csardas Hungarian Dancers to see more photos from the festival! Page 5 �Fiddler's Green Austin's traditional music resource It’s probably true that most AFTM members play an instrument of one kind or another, and that most of those instruments are of the stringed variety. Austin is fortunate to have a music shop that specializes in string instruments, that sells all the accessories needed to play those instruments, and offers instruction on just about every folk instrument, as well! That shop, of course, is the Fiddler’s Green Music Shop at 1809 W 35th St. in Austin. The owner, Clay Levit, moved his Fiddler’s Green Music Shop to Austin from its original location in Memphis about ten years ago. Clay wanted to relocate to his native Texas, and brought with him Ben Hodges to manage the shop. Fiddler’s Green offers instruments for sale ranging from very affordable entry-level ones to exquisite, hand-made axes of the highest quality (and priced accordingly). For the beginning musician, as well as the player wanting to improve his skills, sixteen different instructors offer lessons on guitar, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin, and several other less common instruments. Recently, Fiddler’s Green helped support the AFTM Midwinter Festival, for which we’re very grateful! If you’re an AFTM member who hasn’t visited Fiddler’s Green recently, you owe it to yourself to stop in and see this fine music shop for yourself! Page 6 �Photos from a recent visit to Fiddler's Green Page 7 �The AFTM Barn Dance! Click photo to see more photos from the November 16 AFTM Barn Dance! Starting on April 19, 2019, the AFTM Barn Dance will be held at Life in the City every other month on the third Friday of the month. The dance runs from 8:00 pm until 10:00, and admission is $10.00. Life in the City is located at 205 E Monroe Street in Austin, just east of South Congress. Page 8 �Batch Starting in January, 2019, the AFTM Monthly Meeting and Jam has taken place at a new venue, Batch, located at 3220 Manor Road in Austin! Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches is an Austin, family-owned and operated kolache bakery, taproom, and retail craft beer shop. The pastry chefs at Batch elevate the classic Central Texas Czech pastry to gourmet status by teaming up with Micklethwait Craft Meats and local fruit vendors. Additionally, Batch offers a full espresso and coffee program through a partnership with Greater Goods Roasting. As always, the AFTM Monthly Meeting and Jam happens on the second Sunday of each month – the meeting commences at 12:30 PM and the jam starts around 2:00 PM. In April, 2019 that means Sunday, April 14. See you there! Page 9 �Jamming at Batch, 2019 Page 10 �Save the date! Looking ahead to the fall, the dates for this year's Austin String Band Festival are October 18 through the 20th. At this early date, booking the lineup is still in its early stages, but we can state with confidence that the festival will be a fantastic event, and the good news this year is that the weather forecast is most excellent! Page 11 �The Reel Times is published quarterly by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Texas nonprofit corporation. Contributions are deductible as charitable and educational donations. AFTM Board of Directors Tim Wooten, President Angie Wooten, Vice President Cheryl Dehut, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, Events Coordinator Brit Irick, Outreach Coordinator Mike Savercool, Membership Coordinator Joanna Saucedo, Social Media Coordinator Terry SoRelle, Webmaster Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor Dan Foster, At Large Austin Friends of Traditional Music P.O. Box 49608 Austin, TX 78765 Click here for Click here for AFTM website https://www.flickr.com/photos/aftm/albums/72157680161933664 Membership info � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Volume 45 Number 2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-04 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 45, Number 2 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson