8 15 121 http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/289/newsletter-49-04-2023-10.pdf 7d914067fdd2f9aa35247ef55810187f PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 49, Number 4, October 2023 �Table of Contents Page 3 Austin String Band Festval Page 5 Festival Schedule Page 6 Workshop schedule Page 7 The Daiquiri Queens Page 8 The Nokosee Fields Trio Page 9 The Joymakers Page 10 Belen Escobedo Page 11 Luke Bulla Page 12 The Austin Lounge Lizards Page 13 The Lost Pines Page 14 Lloyd & April Page 15 Lost Patterns Page 16 Last Shot Got Him Page 17 Alley Grass Page 18 Festival yoga Page 20 Westbank String Shop Page 21 Food at the String Band Festival Page 22 Our new hats! Page 23 About the Austin Friends of Traditional Music Page 2 �Austin, TX. (Sept. 21, 2023) — The hamlet of Driftwood, Texas (population: 106) will be alive with the sounds of fiddles, banjos and mandolins on the weekend of October 20th and 21st, when hundreds of traditional musicians and fans gather for a weekend of pickin’ and partyin’ at Camp Ben McCulloch, 24 miles southwest of Austin (across the road from the Salt Lick). “It’s like our own little ACL Fest, except it’s for old-time, bluegrass, and other traditional musicians. . . and at a fraction of the cost!” jokes Tim Wooten, president of host organization Austin Friends of Traditional Music. Tickets on Friday: $30; Saturday: $45; Weekend pass: $55. (By comparison, an ACL Festival day pass is $170.) So, the price may be right, but does the festival have the stars? The award-winning Daiquiri Queens from Lafayette, Louisiana will be rocking the main stage with their Cajun grooves on Friday night. Headlining on Saturday, comedy bluegrass act the Austin Lounge Lizards, known for such goofball hits as “Jesus Loves Me (But He Can’t Stand You),” and “Shallow End of the Gene Pool.” Page 3 �Other dynamic performers include expert fiddlers Luke Bulla (formerly of Lyle Lovett’s Large Band) and gifted Cherokee musician Nokosee Fields. The Joymakers will undoubtedly live up to their name as they delve into the early history of jazz, and Belen Escobedo will present a rare example of Tejano conjunto music played on the fiddle. So, yes. . . this family-friendly festival has the stars. But it also has workshops, food trucks, jugglers, face painting, yoga, and a host of other activities. Campsites are available - $20 a night. Festival-goers can bring food and drink with them. No glass containers, and all dogs and animals of any kind must be left at home (except for service animals). There is a burn-ban in effect in Hays County - so campfires are not allowed. The Austin Friends of Traditional Music (AFTM) is an all-volunteer nonprofit that has been hard at work promoting and nurturing music and talent in the central Texas area for almost 50 years. Wimberley’s Sarah Jarosz - now a major Americana artist on Rounder Records - is among the many musicians who have benefited from AFTM’s support. Camp Ben McCulloch is located at 18301 FM 1826 in Driftwood, 24 miles southwest of Austin. https://aftm.us/events/festivals/2023-austin-string-band-festival Page 4 �2023 Austin String Band Festival Schedule Main stage performers in bold type Mini-set performers in italics Friday, October 20 6:45 PM Silver Alert Ramblers (Mini-Set) 7:00 PM Last Shot Got Him - Square Dance, caller Sharon Isaac 7:45 PM Two Fosters; One Price (Mini-Set) 8:00 PM Nokosee Fields Trio 8:45 PM The Slaughter Creek Drought Busters (Mini-Set) 9:00 PM Daiquiri Queens 10:00 PM Two Goat String Band - Square Dance, caller Sharon Isaac Saturday, October 21 2:00 PM Lloyd & April 2:45 PM Stubble in Mind (Mini-Set) 3:00 PM Luke Bulla 3:45 PM Creekbed Carter Hogan (Mini-Set) 4:00 PM Belen Escobedo 4:45 PM Gordon & Hagins (Mini-Set) 5:00 PM Alley Grass 5:45 PM Rusty Nut and the Wheel Ruts (Mini-Set) 6:00 PM Lost Patterns 6:45 PM Dog Days String Band (Mini-Set) 7:00 PM Lost Pines 7:45 PM George Rios & Friends (Mini-Set) 8:00 PM Austin Lounge Lizards 8:45 PM Everett Wren and Bird Calls (Mini-Set) 9:00 PM Nokosee Fields Trio 10:00 PM The Joymakers 11:00 PM Daiquiri Queens Page 5 �Austin String Band Festival Workshop Schedule All workshops take place on Saturday, October 21, at 11:00am, 12:00pm, and 1:00pm For various reasons, workshop times may change so check the website for up to date info 11:00am Rich MacMath - square-dance workshop - Square dance rule number one is to have fun! Reel, allemande, dosi-do, swing and promenade - learn five figures and you’re ready to dance. We’ll have a caller and live music. All ages invited and no partner needed. Lloyd Wright - beginning clawhammer banjo - learn the basics of everyone's favorite instrument from a master picker Lindsay Haisley - Autoharp - Lindsay Haisley has been playing autoharp for audiences for about 40 years and was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame in 2004. The subjects covered in this workshop will largely depend on what the workshop attendees would like to learn, so questions and feedback will be welcome. Please bring your autoharp, tuned as well as you can get it tuned. A handout will be provided. Daiquiri Queens - Louisiana twin fiddling/seconding - learn the techniques and principles behind the great twin fiddle sound of the Daiquiri Queens 12:00pm Jacqui Woolley - Cajun dance - waltz, two-step, and jitterbug taught with live Cajun backup music Nokosee Fields Trio - the art of playing and singing together in a string band Belen Escobedo - Tejano fiddle traditions, taught by a master fiddler Daiquiri Queens - Cajun French singing - you don't need to be a native French speaker to sing in French! 1:00pm Luke Bulla - bluegrass fiddle - Luke will talk about and demonstrate melody and harmony fiddle parts to the classic Bluegrass tunes, such as Wheelhoss and Roanoke, as taught to him by the great Bobby Hicks during Luke’s time playing in Ricky Skaggs’ band, Kentucky Thunder. Sharon Sandomirsky - with Aaron Zischkale and Adam Brodkin Oldtime backup guitar, with stories about Sharon's history, including her work with the Fuzzy Mountain String Band Daiquiri Queens - How to play proper Cajun rhythm, with triangles, guitar Blake Miller of the Daiquiri Queens - Cajun accordion techniques 10:00 am Sunday Sunday morning gospel jam - led by Sharon Sandomirsky and Georgia Canfield, in the pavilion Page 6 �The Daiquiri Queens Expect a crowded dance floor the minute this lively Cajun quintet takes the stage on Friday night. Over pumping accordion, bass and drums float the Cajun French harmonies of Jamie Lynn Fontenot and Miriam McCracken lamenting the heartbreak and the joy of everyday life. The ‘Queens won Offbeat Magazine’s 2022 Best Cajun Artist Award, and are regulars on the festival circuit. https://thedaiquiriqueens.com/bio https://www.facebook.com/OldtoneMusicFestival/ videos/925480084466329/ Page 7 �The Nokosee Fields Trio After a childhood of classical violin in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Nokosee Fields shifted his focus towards the old-time musical sounds of his great uncle, the celebrated Cherokee fiddler Sam O’Field. Nokosee is now himself a celebrated young, old-time fiddler, known for his precision, tone and extensive repertoire. All of this impressed the 2019 Clifftop Fiddle Contest judges. . . who awarded him first place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PznS-9p7XQ Page 8 �The Joymakers Texas jazz, blues, ragtime and old time roots will be on full display when this powerhouse of traditional musicians arrives on the String Band stage. The aptly-named Joymakers came together earlier this year when two groups - Hancock’s Jazz Serenaders, and The Revelators - joined forces. With an album already underway for New York label Turtle Bay Records, and talk of a post-release midwestern tour, the Joymakers are off to a roaring start to their career. “Texas style jazz, or jazz from the territories (i.e. not NYC, Chicago, or New Orleans),” is bandleader Colin Hancock’s favorite description of their sound. And not to be missed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak0su5OOTnA Page 9 �Belen Escobedo Belen Escobedo plays traditional Tejano conjunto music on a fiddle (rather than an accordion), and might be the only living person doing that. Early on, during her childhood in San Antonio’s south side, Belen was given a fiddle by her school, and it quickly became the center of her life. For 30 years she lit the spark of music in the children of her city, running school band and orchestra programs. Belen’s musical achievements were officially recognized in 2017 when she received theTexas Master Fiddler award. https://youtu.be/nl2b10ckiDg Page 10 �Luke Bulla Luke Bulla Luke grew up performing in his family’s band, and by the time he reached 16 he had become something of a hotshot fiddling prodigy, and proved it by winning the “Grand Champion” title at the National Fiddle Championship! Since then, Luke has shared stages and studios with Earl Scruggs, Alison Krauss, Lyle Lovett and Bela Fleck and a host of other luminaries - as well as having a career as a solo artist - which is how he will perform at the festival. https://lukebulla.bandcamp.com/track/temperance-reel https://lukebulla.com/music/ Page 11 �The Austin Lounge Lizards For 43 years "the most laughable band in show business" has been serving up its wondrous blend of hot bluegrass and stinging parody, in songs such as “Jesus Loves Me (But He Can’t Stand You.)” and “Shallow End of the Gene Pool.” Commented critic Ned Raggett, “As a band, they're able to take in everything from Bob WIlls style western swing to straight country. . . from start to finish, a perfect delight.” https://youtu.be/NucVQO0t92o Page 12 �The Lost Pines Formed in 2007 as a partnership between Talia Bryce and Christian Ward, this charming bluegrass/Texas country treasure has been delighting audiences ever since. “Great singing, great musicianship, and great songwriting,” was the assessment of one Bluegrass Unlimited critic. More simply, Lloyd Maines (producer of their album “Sweet Honey”) put it this way: “Lost Pines music is the good stuff.” https://www.reverbnation.com/thelostpines Page 13 �Lloyd and April “Foot stomping, caterwauling, family fun!” is how the Wrights describe their music. April grew up singing shaped-note songs from “The Heavenly Highway” in a backwoods East Texas church. Lloyd shared April’s interest in shaped note music, along with a curiosity about stringband music from western North Carolina. Together they blend family harmony, country gospel, raucous fiddle tunes, and sweet renditions of old country ballads. They even started their own festival - the flourishing Old Mill Music Festival in their East Texas home town of Kennard - a highlight of their careers. https://youtu.be/o2WBnLr4OLE Page 14 �Lost Patterns Over fiddles, banjos, mandolins, and guitars, Beth Chrisman and Silas Lowe’s voices bring earthy grit to the lonesome, lowdown backroads of acoustic Americana. 2023 has been a busy one for the duo.They took their show on the road to Norway this summer, and upon their return, released their debut album in August. “Laidback, front porch picking perfect for a summer night,” was Austin Chronicle critic Doug Freeman’s assessment of the Patterns sound. https://www.lostpatternsmusic.com/bio https://lostpatterns.bandcamp.com/album/lost-patterns Page 15 �Last Shot Got Him Jerry Hagins, banjo master This string band of locals think of themselves as “old friends playing new tunes in an old way.” Many were written by celebrated fiddler Garry Harrison (1954 - 2012). This instrumental quartet took its name from a 1920s fiddle tune, written as a humorous response to Mississippi John Hurt’s “First Shot Missed Him.” Featuring Tim Keough on fiddle; Jerry Hagins, banjo; Ethan Azarian, guitar; and Brink Melton on bass. Page 16 �Alley Grass Alley Grass This family band describes itself as “a celebration of bluegrass and old country.” From their home in Lockhart, Texas, Ben and Jenn Hodges (of Fiddler’s Green Music Shop) and Amanda Jo Chisholm decided one day to combine their musical passions and talents, and created the band Alley Grass. Since then they have played far and wide “for audiences from west of the Frio River to downtown Austin and back home again.“ Fiddler Ian Stewart will join them on-stage at the festival, along with French banjo player Theo Lawrence. Page 17 �Two Goat String Band The Two Goat String Band is Austin's newest old time ensemble they made their debut at the Sahara Lounge in east Austin last December, as part of the KOOP-FM ongoing series, Lonesome NIghts at the Sahara! Page 18 �Festival Yoga at the String Band Festival! Lucy's Yoga Class this summer at the Grey Fox Festival in New York State! A new highlight at this year’s Austin String Band Festival will be a Saturday morning yoga class with Lucy Weberling, whose Festival Yoga is a valued part of music festivals around the country. Lucy regularly leads yoga classes at the MBOTMA festival in Minnesota and the Grey Fox Festival in New York State, and in past years, she has lead yoga classes at the Old Settlers Music Festival, when it was held right here at Camp Ben. Two great loves in Lucy’s live are acoustic music and yoga, and she has found a way to express them both through Festival Yoga! Lucy welcomes everyone to her Festival Yoga sessions, from beginners to seasoned practitioners of yoga. If you have a yoga mat, bring it. If not, a nice thick blanket will do. Wear comfortable clothing and be prepared for a wonderful experience! Festival Yoga will take place at the ASBF on Saturday morning, October 21, at 10:00 am in the main pavilion if front of the stage. See you there! Page 19 �Lucy Weberling, Yoga instructor and dedicated picker! Lucy in Action at the MBOTMA festival in Minnesota! Page 20 �Westbank String Shop at the String Band Festival! Again this year, the Austin String Band Festival is proud to announce that Todd Sloan from the Westbank String Shop will set up his fiddle repair facility at the festival! He'll be there both Friday and Saturday to do setup and minor repair work to fiddles in need of his experienced touch. He'll have a selection of musical accessories avallable for sale, also. The Westbank String Shop is a great friend of the String Band Festival, and having Todd's presence on the campground is a real plus! Page 21 �Food at the Austin String Band Festival Texas Street Crepes will return to the String Band Festival this year, with their delicious sweet and savory crepes, and more! We're pleased to welcome Big Frank's Tacos to the String Band Festival, really delicious Mexican fare! Page 22 �There Will Be Hats! For the first time ever, the Austin String Band Festival will have an official hat, available for purchase at the Merchandise Booth in four colors! Since this is our first attempt at a festival hat, we didn't order too many so, if you want one (and of course you do) you better make your selection early in the weekend! Of course, we'll have a new ASBF t-shirt this year, and some really dynamic t-shirts for the younger set! Page 23 �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 Rich MacMath, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor, Festival Director Nana Lopez, Dance Liaison Jeanne DeFriese, At Large Dan Foster, At Large Matt Welch, At Large Tom Duplissey, At Large Darrel Mayers, 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 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 2023-10 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 49, Number 4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/290/newsletter-50-01-2024-01.pdf 27f1b03f8bad690153b118035c958cb1 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 50, Number 1, January 2024 The 2023 Austin String Band Festival was a great success! �Table of Contents Page 3 Upcoming AFTM events Page 4 The 2023 Austin String Band Festival Page 15 Aaron Zischcale, interviewed by Darrel Mayers Page 19 The AFTM at Lonesome Nights at the Sahara Lounge Page 21 Lost Patterns CD, reviewed by Tim Wooten Page 23 2024 AFTM Camp Jam Page 24 Another Way to Create Songs, by David Polacheck Page 26 AFTM Old Time Jam at Lazarus Brewing Page 27 2023 Festival of Texas Fiddling Page 31 About the AFTM Page 2 �Upcoming AFTM Events January 20, 2024 The monthly AFTM Old Time Jam will be held at a new location in January, Lazarus Brewing, 4803 Airport Blvd in Austin, TX from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm January 31, 2024 Lonesome NIghts at the Sahara, founded by our friends at KOOP radio, will feature an AFTM band in January, Everett Wren and the Bird Calls! Doors open at 7:00 pm, music starts at 8:00 pm The Sahara Lounge 1413 Webberville Road Austin, TX April 26 - 28, 2024 This year's edition of the very popular AFTM Camp Jam will be held at Camp Ben McCulloch. There's no admission fee whatsoever, the only cost is the camping fees that Camp Ben Charges. Page 3 �2023 The Joymakers cutting loose on Saturday night! AFTM members and others enjoyed a beautiful, warm weekend for the 16th Austin String Band Festival, and the event was a great success! Festival campers started arriving as early as Wednesday, and the sound of picking in the campground continued throughout the weekend. Page 4 �Starting Friday night, two fine food vendors, Texas Street Crepes and Big Frank’s Tacos, offered their delicious fare to the assembled festival-goers! Friday’s main stage activities included two square dances called by Rich MacMath, and great old time music from Last Shot Got Him, the Two Goat String Band, and the Nokosee Fields trio. In between sets, we were entertained by Two Fosters; One Price, and the Slaughter Creek Draught Busters! For the first time ever, Saturday morning at the ASBF featured a yoga class from Lucy Weberling, who brings her Festival Yoga to events across the country! Our musical workshops followed the yoga class, and twelve different workshops were offered, featuring several types of fiddle music, Cajun dance, accordion, banjo, singing, and guitar to name just a few. Young festival attendees were delighted on Saturday afternoon by the Texas Juggling Society, crafts with Natasha La Gitana, and face painting by Doodle Bug! Saturday’s main stage performances included the Old Time duo of Lloyd and April Wright, the phenomenal bluegrass fiddling of Luke Bulla, and the traditional Tejano fiddling of Belen Escobedo. Alley Grass from Lockhart, TX played, you guessed it, hot bluegrass tunes and were followed by the brilliant Austin area duo, Lost Patterns - Beth Chrisman and Silas Lowe. The Lost Pines bluegrass band, who last played at the ASBF in 2008, played a fantastic set of original and traditional bluegrass, and “The Most Laughable Band in Show Business”, the Austin Lounge Lizards, played original material from their over thirty years of performing together. The Nokosee Fields Trio, from Lafayette, LA, played an exquisite set of Old Time tunes, and The Joymakers blew the roof off the stage with their traditional jazz from the 1920’s. The festival’s headliners, the Dacquiri Queens, finished the evening with a powerful set of Cajun tunes, which captivated the assembled crowd! In between the main stage performances, we were treated to great mini-sets from Stubble In Mind, Creekbed Carter Hogan, Don’t Messa With Vanessa, Rusty Nut and the Wheel Ruts, the Dog Days String Band, George Rios and Friends, and Everett Wren and Bird Calls! The 2023 Austin String Band Festival was, as always, a wonderful experience for all who attended. Mark your calendars now for the 2024 ASBF which will take place on October 18 & 19, at beautiful Camp Ben McCulloch! On the following pages, John Stansell's photographs capture the spirit of the Austin String Band Festival, 2023! Page 5 �The Lost Pines band played a hot bluegrass set on Saturday night! Rich MacMath called a dance on Saturday afternoon! Page 6 �Belen Escobedo played beautiful Tejano fiddle music with her husband, Ramón Gutiérrez Lloyd and April Wright, from Kennard, TX, got Saturday's program off to a great start Page 7 �Saturday we heard mini-sets from The Dog Days String Band, and... Creekbed Carter Hogan, like many others, played a fine mini-set! Page 8 �The Nokosee Fields Trio gave an excellent workshop on Saturday, as did... Belen Escobedo and Ramón Gutierrez Page 9 �Luke Bulla's set on Saturday was a master class in Bluegrass fiddling On Saturday night, the Lost Pines Bluegrass band cut loose! Page 10 �The Texas Juggling Society entertained on Saturday afternoon Todd Sloan from the Westbank String Shop was on hand all weekend for repairs and setup Page 11 �A fine mini-set was performed by Rusty Nut and the Wheel Ruts Adam Brodkin and Aaron Zischkale accompanied Sharon Sandomirsky in her workshop Page 12 �The Silent Auction found new homes for some lovely instruments, boots, records, etc. Working at the Merchandise Booth was non-stop fun! Page 13 �The Green Room was a magical place after dark Georgia, Sharon, and Angie led the Sunday morning Gospel Jam Page 14 �Local musician Aaron Zischkale recently published a heartfelt and beautiful ‘zine celebrating the life and work of Sharon Sandomirsky. She was the driving guitar force behind The Fuzzy Mountain String Band back in the day — early 70s to be more precise — and has lived in Austin since the early 90s. Sharon is also one of the hosts of the excellent "Strictly Bluegrass" show on KOOP radio (91.7 FM) that brightens Austin’s airwaves on Sunday mornings at ten. I got a copy of the ‘zine, “Six Strings and a Nagra,” at our recent String Band Festival at Camp Ben, and was immediately charmed by the warmth and dedication of the project. Evocative illustrations by Britt Irick, and the detailed notes for guitarists on Sharon’s unique walking bass style made this a publication that deserves readership and lots of attention. — Darrel Mayers ______________________________________________________ Can you tell readers about your musical background, Aaron. Where are you from, and how did old-time music arrive in your life? I can trace my love of music back to my nine-fingered dad. When I was a kid he lost his left ring-finger climbing the ladder of a power plant boiler (he was an engineer at the Dallas utility company that became TXU), but that didn't deter him from picking acoustic guitar at home. Mostly it'd be the melody from "Needle and the Damage Done," or a little rock shuffle in A, but he also wrote a couple instrumental lullabies he'd play for me, picked in a simple twofinger style. He's the reason I'd eventually pick up the instrument, and passed down an appreciation for the guitar-driven music from his time: Creedence Clearwater Revival, Zeppelin, a little Frank Zappa. I grew up in a pretty insular Southern Baptist culture in Sherman, TX, so my musical tastes didn't really get to blossom until I was a college student with a high-speed internetconnection. Page 15 �Some time in grad school I bought a dirt-cheap resonator banjo from a maintenance guy at UNT Denton (inspired by hearing a three-finger part in a Raging Slab song). When my uncle found out he admonished me for it, saying everybody plays Scruggs. I should be playing something called "clawhammer"! So I picked up an arrangement of "Under the Double Eagle'' to play for my grandmother (a relative used to flat-pick it on guitar for her), and went down the rabbit hole from there. Started taking the banjo to the Dallas Heritage Village (big thanks to Dean Barber and Eric Clum), and after moving to Austin met all my great musician buddies at the Sixth Street Rio Rita jam that Britt Irick was keeping alive in 2015. ______________________________________________________ When did you first hear the Fuzzy Mountain String Band? And when did you notice Sharon’s unique style of playing? BanjoHangout was full of lovable cranks and a ton of fantastic music recommendations. I'm sure that's how I wound up buying that Rounder reissue of the Fuzzies. One of the resident experts was Tony Spadaro (aka the Old Woodchuck), who had this great detailed post delineating the "Old Dead Guys" from the second generation of counter-culture academics like the Hollow Rocks, Highwoods, Indian Creek Delta Boys. As I relay in the zine, it was JT Harechmak who switched me onto Sharon's driving guitar work on that second Rounder LP. His taste in music is pretty impeccable. You tend to listen when he points out a detail like that. ______________________________________________________ It must have been quite a surprise when you learned that Sharon was living in a house just off MoPac! Yeah, I remember being very impressed by the connection. But it wasn't shocking in a place where there is such a rich legacy of old-time music. We've been really blessed getting to spend time and hear stories from folks like Tim and Angie Wooten, Gene and Marynell Young (Marynell's always been such an inclusive presence in a jam, and she's got a great story about Clyde Davenport choosing to watch wrestling on TV instead of play, when she was all geared up to record him), Nancy and Robert Griffith, Dan and Christy Foster, and Jeanne DeFriese. There's all this opportunity to learn from folks who have lived this music. I just hadn't gotten the chance to meet Sharon yet. It's been a huge honor to pick her brain about her life, and a delight getting to know her. ______________________________________________________ Apart from being with “the Fuzzies,” Sharon has been in many other groups since, such as the Decibelles with Elizabeth Pittman and Christie Foster, and Friends of Big Ernie with Jerry Hagins. Do you have a favorite? I mean, that Herald Angels tape really does need a reissue. Hearing her sing with Alice Gerrard and backup that fantastic banjo song "Drunkard's Dream" is really wonderful. Page 16 �My favorite has to be Friends of Big Ernie, having gotten to watch them play a reunion show a few weeks back under the big purple stage lights at Sagebrush. She really made us proud. Despite all the trouble with that picking hand she just dove headfirst into those killer backup runs, and did some great harmonizing along with Wolf's rendition of "Ragged But Right." String Band Heaven. Let's see her link up again with Elizabeth and Christy some time soon! At the end of the zine you go into some detail about Sharon’s playing style. Can you talk about that for Reel TImes’s guitar playing readers out there? What is the key to being an effective guitarist in an old-time music setting? You describe Sharon as being “in-thepocket but unpredictable.” If you find a good fiddler like our buddy Tim Keough, who can call out chord changes while he plays, you're in great hands! A budding guitar player needs a tasteful fiddler who can give feedback while letting them develop their own style. You can tell Sharon did a ton of listening in those early days, but once she was comfortable she took off. “Peter Francisco” really is the hallmark for me. Listen to how much character her part lends to that tune! What's fun about old-time is so many of the rules are unwritten. But there's a balance. Start with what supports the tune (be "in-the-pocket") and once you've got that, get wild with it (be "unpredictable"). If the kid from Carter Brothers and Son can do it, you can too. If all else fails just play those angry grinding runs on the Lewis Brothers "Sally Johnson" and hope you aren't kicked out the back door. Also, go read "Guitars Have Feelings Too" by Cameron Knowler ______________________________________________________ What musical projects are you working on right now? Also, are you working with Britt on any other ‘zines? Looking forward to making a lot of music in '24. Britt, Rose Griffith, Adam Brodkin and I have been working up a repertoire as the Dog Day String Band (very glad I'm not the only one obsessed with cicadas), I've got my duo with Adam as the Slaughter Creek Drought Busters (I'm always overly proud of elaborate names, would love to see this on a t-shirt at some point), and got a couple other projects in the back of my head that I'd love to see the light of day. Can't stress this enough, there's no “Six Strings and a Nagra” without Britt's fantastic watercolor art throughout. I also had a great time figuring out the cover layout with him. We went pretty over the top on this zine (both on color artwork and content), so my next project would probably be a little lower-key and smaller in scope, but we'll see. Exhibiting our work at Austin's Lone Star Zine Fest was a lot of fun though. As an aside, go buy a copy (or several) of San Antonio-resident Shelby Criswell's Lazy Mr. Poole Had the pleasure of meeting them at Zine Fest, and their minicomic tribute to Charlie Poole is a wonderful bit of old-time memorabilia that you need in your collection. Page 17 �______________________________________________________ Where can readers of Reel Times get a copy of "Six Strings and a Nagra" for themselves? Eventually I'd like to have copies for sale online. But for now, please feel free to reach me at zischkale@gmail.com and I'll get ya taken care of. We're planning on printing another run soon. Thanks for the time, y’all! Thank you very much Aaron! I can’t wait to see, and hear, what you come up with next! Aaron Zischkale and Sharon Sandomirsky give a workshop at the 2023 ASBF Page 18 �"Bird Calls" at the Sahara Lounge Lounge As the latest edition of the AFTM's ongoing joint venture with KOOP Radio, the AFTM is proud to present Bird Calls: Everett Wren on fiddle, David Rabinowicz on guitar, & Taylor Turner on upright bass at Lonesome Nights at the Sahara on January 31, 2024. We had the opportunity to hear the Bird Calls at the Austin String Band Festival in October, where the band closed out the mini-set program on Saturday night. KOOP Radio created the monthly Lonesome Nights at the Sahara event, and offered to the AFTM the opportunity to "curate" two programs each year. In past months at Lonesome Nights at the Sahara, the AFTM has presented such local artists as Lost Patterns, Two Fosters, One Price, the Joymakers, and the Two Goat String Band. The Sahara Lounge, "Austin's East Side Gem", is located at 1413 Webberville Rd, Austin, TX Page 19 �More Info about "Bird Calls" Photo by Chris de la Rosa, at the 04 Center Bird Calls hail from Austin, Texas, with Everett Wren on fiddle, mandolin, percussion, and vocals, David Rabinowicz on guitars and vocals, and Taylor Turner on bass and vocals. They play high energy bluegrass and fiddle tunes, with a bit of jazz and vocal harmonies. Everett began performing at age four in his family's band, took home an Arkansas state fiddling championship in his teens, toured the USA with an Americana band, and co-founded the Austin bands Lost & Nameless and Chalkboard Poets, before focusing on releasing his own solo record called Porchlight in 2022. David was born into a multi-cultural family, and the different languages and traditions that surrounded him helped shape his guitar-playing, singing, and writing. Taylor is a native Austinite and has been playing professionally for 15 years, touring internationally with rock, folk, and bluegrass bands. He graduated from UT Austin with a degree in Jazz Performance and since then has continued to explore every kind of music. They love the Sahara Lounge and have performed there several times over the years. Bring your dancing feet and join the fun 8 pm Wed. Jan. 31st, 2024! instagram.com/wearebirdcalls Page 20 �Lost Patterns A CD Review by Tim Wooten, AFTM President Beth Chrisman and Silas Lowe are a twosome that has been been described as playing roots music, which is true but doesn’t begin to describe the variety of songs on their album with the same name as their duo - Lost Patterns. Classic country, folk, bluegrass, blues, and traditional mountain music are all represented. Silas and Beth wrote some of the songs, while others are from great songwriters hailing from Texas and parts beyond. Anyone wanting a tutorial on duet singing should listen to this album. Silas and Beth have been singing together off and on since 1976 and you can hear and feel it in the tightness of the harmonies. Silas plays mandolin and guitar, while Beth plays fiddle, banjo and guitar. Jerry Hagins on banjo and Lindsay Greene on bass join them on certain tracks. Page 21 �Dry My Eyes, written by Silas, has a pure classic country sound and feel – “if you’re saying that you’re leaving, don’t try to dry my eyes”. This is contrasted by Fall on My Knees, a traditional mountain appeal to a girl that has told so many lies that she’ll never get to heaven, and by the sad and haunting Sorrow Bound waltz, written by Beth and Silas. They cover the iconic John Deere Tractor Song by Austin favorite Don Walser, and the traditional Rabbit in a Log, a fast bluegrass tune with great fiddling and picking. Butch Hancock fans will love When Nights Are Cold with its stirring lyrics and visual imagery. Beth’s smooth fiddle and Silas’ liquid mandolin are perfect on this one. Beth and Silas offer one of the best examples of duet singing you’ll ever hear on Only the Lonely by the revered Hazel Dickens played with only an elegant guitar accompaniment that ends before the last line of the song to showcase the singing. These are just some of the highlights of Lost Patterns, an album well worth listening to! Lost Patterns, Silas Lowe and Beth Chrisman, performing at Lonesome Nights at the Sahara, at the Sahara Lounge in East Austin Page 22 �AFTM Camp Jam 2024 A few years ago, the AFTM came up with a new kind of event, and called it the Camp Jam. It's much like a festival, but there are no stage shows, no schedule, and no admission charge! The whole purpose of the Camp Jam is to give acoustic music fans a chance to get together and play the old tunes, meet up with old friends and make new ones, set up their tents and RVs, cook meals, stay up late, and have a great time! The only cost will be the camping fees that Camp Ben charges. This year's Camp Jam will be held on April 26 - 28, 2024 As usual, the site is beautiful Camp Ben McCulloch in Driftwood, TX. Page 23 �Another Way to Create Songs by David Polacheck I have been a singer of folk songs for more years than I care to remember. During that time, I have loved and learned hundreds of folk songs. There is much disagreement over the question of what is or is not a folk song. The definition I have arrived at over the years is simple: folk music and folk song can be performed well by people who are in no way professional musicians and who don't need a professional to direct them. I think you will find that this definition includes everything that we would want to include and excludes everything that we would want to exclude, which, I feel is the point of a definition of anything. Now, the reason I don't call myself a folksinger as such, is that I grew up an urban, middle class intellectual and the origin of the songs and tunes I love is quite different from the environment I was raised in. One thing that resulted from this is that I always felt a certain exotic flavor in the pieces I loved and learned. Since they arose in a setting where they were part of the daily life of the original performers, it is clear to me that this aura of the exotic was more about my perceptions and less about the songs themselves. This is one example of how the difference between a folksinger from a tradition matrix and a singer of folk songs can be profound. After so many years of learning traditional music and learning about tradition, I felt the urge to create new songs that worked within the context of the music I had immersed myself in. There are several approaches to this goal that have been put into play. The first, very frequently used, is to write new lyrics to traditional tunes. Many songwriters, known and unknown, have taken this route. Many traditional tunes have three, four or more sets of texts associated with them. For example, the Scottish tune for the song "Come All Ye Tramps and Hawkers" has been used for at least two other texts: "The Ballad of Peter Amberley" and Bob Dylan's "I Pity the Poor Immigrant". Woody Guthrie was well known for writing new lyrics to traditional tunes: "Union Maid" used the tune to "Pretty Redwing" and "The Ruben James" used the tune to "Wildwood Flower" to mention just two examples of his work. Page 24 �The second approach is to compose new words and music in the folk style. This approach started to be widely used from the 1920's on, expanded greatly starting in the 1960's and continues today. One reason for the popularity of this is undoubtedly economic, as such compositions qualify for writer and composer royalty payments, should they become commercially popular. Noteworthy songwriters in this mode are numerous, among them Joe Hill, Hank Williams, Willie Dixon, Cindy Walker, Carol King, Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs, Janis Ian, Leonard Cohen, and John Prine. The third approach is to compose music for previously "stand alone" poetry. This way overlaps with the province of the classical composer and has been done many times. A modern "folk music like" example is "The Golden Apples of the Sun" aka "The Song of Wandering Aengus" by William Butler Yeats, which was set to original music by Bud Dashiell and Travis Edmonson. Another is "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service, set to music by Kirk Kempter. For various reasons, I have largely taken a fourth approach, which is to match "stand alone" poems, mostly old, by known poets, with traditional tunes of the European American tradition. I have also used tunes from the Early Music repertoire, since I find many of them to be close in style to the traditional folk music I love. This has been done much less often, but it is not unprecedented. Yeats' poem "Down by the Salley Gardens" was set to an Irish traditional tune "The Mourne Shore" by Herbert Hughes, after the poem's original publication. It is still sung this way today. The reasons I liked this method of song creation over the others are: first, because it allows me to sing the poems I love to tunes I love, second, because I didn't think I could come up with lyrics any better than those of Shakespeare, Yeats. John Keats, Emily Dickenson, William Blake or John Masefield, among others and third, because matching this great poetry with a great tune that makes the poem singable is a very satisfying endeavor to me. Having played this music for as long as I have, I have accumulated a large number of tunes I can choose from for this process. For instance, for "The Song of Wandering Aengus" (Yeats' original title for his poem), in place of the Dashiell/Edmonson melody, I used Carolan's great harp tune "Colonel John Irwin", which I like much better for this poetry. One of the factors that helps me decide on the tune matches, is that the poetry itself has its own music when read aloud. The cadences, the rhythms, and the intonation of the words suggest melodies, and the tune I choose must work with, and not against, these. Of course, the notes of the tune have to fit the syllables of the lines of verse, and sometimes a part of the tune can be used to match part of the verse that may have fewer lines. For example, when I did some of Shakespeare's sonnets, I had to use the last two lines of the tune to go with the final couplet of the poem, since the sonnets consist of three quatrains followed by a couplet. Another example is Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night", which has mostly three-line stanzas. I discovered it went perfectly with the tune for "Pretty Polly" which also has three-line stanzas. The final couplet of the poem was accommodated by the last two lines of the tune. In addition to the "serious" poems, I have also made singable poems by Ogden Nash, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Christopher Morley and Eugene Field. Try Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" to the tune of "Reynardine". My hope is that at least some of my creations will be sung by others and maybe pass into the folk music tradition. Why not, after all? You can view some more of my poem/tune pairings on YouTube under my channel "David Polacheck". Page 25 �AFTM Old Time Jam For January's jam, we'll be trying out a new location: Lazarus Brewing at 4803 Airport Boulevard. They've got an inside space for us ("the casita") if needed. Bring a jam chair just in case. Lazarus has breakfast and lunch food, coffee, tea, and -- of course -- beer. The jam will take place on January 20, 2024, from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm Page 26 �The 9th Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling Felipe Perez and his band performed on the main stage at the Twin Sistes Dance Hall On the first weekend of December, many AFTM members made the trek to Blanco,TX to enjoy and participate in the 9th Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling. This great yearly event brings fiddlers from all over Texas and beyond to the beautiful Twin Sisters Dance Hall. The Festival features all day and night dancing to bands playing a variety of styles of Texas fiddle music inside the hall, as well as showcase concerts, instrument and dance workshops, jamming, and a symposium on Texas fiddling. The following pages display photos of this year's event - somehow, he weather is always great! Page 27 �Fiddles galore in the Hill Country! Howard Rains, Tricia Spencer, Brian Marshall, and Frank Motley give a workshop Page 28 �Heidi Labensart and her son, Mason, perform Britt Irick, Tim Keough, and Dan Thompson make beautiful music! Page 29 �Bird's eye view of a hot jam! Notice this isn't a Louisiana license plate! Page 30 �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 Rich MacMath, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor, Festival Director Nana Lopez, Dance Liaison Jeanne DeFriese, At Large Dan Foster, At Large Matt Welch, At Large Tom Duplissey, At Large Darrel Mayers, 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 50 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 2024-01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 50, Number 1 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/291/newsletter-50-02-2024-04.pdf 800771c898ecca7d40d155edd224dbeb PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 50, Number 2, April 2024 Tim Wooten's fiddling grandfather Thomas Jefferson Wootan (1882-1964) �Table of Contents Page 3 Upcoming Events Page 4 Steven Dao interview Page 5 AFTM Camp Jam 2024 Page 6 AFTM Monthly Old Time Jam Page 7 Join the AFTM Board! Page 8 Nokosee Fields Trio House Concert Page 9 ASBF Update Page 10 Alasdair Fraser / Natalie Haas Concert Page 11 Tim Wooten's AFTM Memories Page 13 About the AFTM Cover painting by Tim Kerr Page 2 �Upcoming AFTM Events Saturday, April 20 The monthly AFTM Old Time Jam takes place at the wonderful Lazarus Brewing Company at 4803 Airport Boulevard in Austin from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm! April 26 through 28 This year's edition of the very popular AFTM Camp Jam will be held at Camp Ben McCulloch, as usual. There's no admission fee whatsoever, the only cost is the camping fees that Camp Ben charges. Thursday, May 2 World music night at Batch, 3220 Manor Rd, Austin featuring the Austin Balkan Singers, Kis Kis Maca (Serbian folk), Indrajit Banerjee (sitar), Tim Keough and Britt Irick October 18 through 20 The seventeenth Austin String Band Festival! Camp Ben McCulloch, Driftrwood, TX Page 3 �Steven Dao, 2024 AFTM Scholarship recipient! The AFTM is excited to announce that the recipient of its 2024 Scholarship is Austin area fiddler, Steven Dao! Steven has a background in classical music, and has been attending the AFTM Old-Time jam for some time. Steven will use the scholarship to attend the Old-Time Week of the Swannanoa Gathering, in Asheville, NC this summer. Learn more about Steven in this video interview, conducted before the March AFTM Old-Time Jam at the Lazarus Brewing Company on Airport Boulevard in Austin. Steven Dao interview Page 4 �AFTM Camp Jam 2024 “This is the best thing the AFTM has ever done!”, a direct quote from a seasoned Austin area musician. What’s he talking about, you ask? Well, he’s talking about the AFTM Camp Jam, the fourth edition of which will take place on April 26 – April 28 at Camp Ben McCulloch in Driftwood, TX. The Camp Jam was conceived back in 2021, when the pandemic was still creating uncertainty about public events everywhere, and it didn’t seem responsible for the AFTM to proceed with our beloved October event, the Austin String Band Festival. So, the AFTM rented Camp Ben McCulloch for the entire weekend as usual, but we didn’t produce much of a festival stage show, or anything else. The Camp Jam was simply an opportunity to get together with musical friends, camp for the weekend, if desired, and spend a few days with no schedule and no duties. The admission charge for the Camp Jam is the same as always – it’s free! That’s correct, there’s no charge for participating in the Camp Jam, other than Camp Ben’s usual camping fees, if you choose to camp overnight. We will have a message center (writeboard, corkboard) in a central area where you can check for notices of organized jams or other community events. So, mark your calendars for the last weekend in April, and make plans to join us at Camp Ben for a relaxed and joyful weekend! Page 5 �AFTM Old Time Jam For April's jam, we'll again be at Lazarus Brewing at 4803 Airport Boulevard. They've got an inside space for us ("the casita") if needed. Bring a jam chair just in case. Lazarus has wonderful breakfast and lunch food, coffee, tea, and -- of course -- beer. The jam will take place on Saturday, April 20, 2024, from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm! Page 6 �Join the AFTM Board! We are excited to announce that there are currently three openings on our board of directors, and we are looking for passionate and committed individuals to join us in shaping the future of the AFTM. As active members of our traditional music community, we believe that your unique perspective and experience would be a valuable addition to our leadership team. Joining the AFTM board is a wonderful opportunity to contribute your ideas and energy towards furthering our mission of encouraging performance and appreciation of traditional music in our community. Board members play a crucial role in setting the direction of the organization, making important decisions, and ensuring the success of our programs and initiatives. We are seeking individuals who are dedicated to our cause, have excellent communication and leadership skills, and are willing to actively participate in board meetings and committee work. If you have a strong passion for traditional music and a desire to make a difference, we encourage you to consider applying to join our board of directors. Together, we can work towards a more vibrant and thriving music community. If you are interested in joining our board, please submit your application as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you and welcoming new members to our leadership team. Gary Mortensen Gary is our Festival Director and Newsletter Editor and is a fine example of the kind of person that serves AFTM. But don’t worry, you don’t have to do near as much as he does to really help us out! Tim Wooten, President Page 7 �Nokosee Fields Trio performing at the Hillside House Concert Photo by John C. Kelly, review by Tim Wooten The Hillside House Concert audience was thrilled with the silken, slippery fiddle of Nokosee Fields and the other members of his trio Ryan Nickerson on guitar and Reed Stutz on banjo. The trio played old-time tunes, and Carter family favorites along with some original tunes. Nokosee occasionally switched to autoharp on some songs for a different and very fitting accompaniment. The trio only recently came together as a band, but the interplay of finger style banjo, guitar and fiddle was a charm to hear! This trio performed to an enthusiastic audience at the Austin String Band Festival last October, and the Hillside House Concert venue provided a very personal and intimate unamplified listening experience. Page 8 �October 18 & 19, 2024 Camp Ben McCulloch, Driftwood, TX Though the Austin String Band Festival is more than six months away, planning has been underway for some time, and things are slowly but surely coming together! Musical performances are the heart of our festival and, so far, we have commitments from performers in several genres: two fine Old Time bands, a hot Bluegrass band, a killer Western Swing trio, an excellent Cajun band, as well as a traditional 1920’s Jazz band! Over the next weeks and months, we’ll be releasing more information about this year’s performers so check in with our website at www.aftm.org for the latest updates! To make this festival a success, we need volunteers to manage several important areas and, if you’re willing to devote a few hours to helping make the ASBF a success, we would love to hear from you! Send an email to gary@aftm.us for more details! Page 9 �Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas performing at the Austin Acoustical Café Photo by James Seppi, review by Tim Wooten The Austin Acoustical Cafe at the Lamar Senior Activity Center was a perfect venue for the Scottish music duo of Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas. Alasdair is one of the premier Scottish fiddlers of his generation and Natalie is a fantastic cellist. The duo reprises an old Scottish fiddle/cello tradition with virtuosic aplomb. The first set consisted mainly of traditional jigs, reels, airs and the like while the second set added some more modern pieces written by Alasdair and Natalie loosely in the Scottish tradition. The fiddle soared while the cello alternately played rhythmic accompaniment and transporting harmony. The cello occasionally took the lead while the fiddle played harmony. This was really a great show and a treat for the ears! Page 10 �My history with the Austin Friends of Traditional Music Tim Wooten, AFTM president This organization was founded 50 years ago, and I became a member in the mid 1980s, having moved to Austin in the fall of 1979. I have always had a great interest in traditional music, because I was exposed to the fiddling of my grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Wootan (1882-1964) , when I was a little boy, and really loved it. Whenever we visited my grandparents he played the fiddle, and my cousins and I danced. At home my father would occasionally play a tape of my grandfather for us to enjoy. We called him Papa Wootan, but his long-time friends called him Duck. He got that name when he was little, by competing with the family ducks to eat their food at feeding time. When I was 21 my father pulled Papa Wootan’s old fiddle down from the high shelf in the coat closet. It was broken into a bunch of pieces. He had traded a horse for it around the turn of the last century and called it “Old Squealer.” My dad said, “I’ll pay to get this fiddle repaired if you’ll learn to play it.” Of course I eagerly accepted and my fiddle-playing avocation began. I already knew how to play harmonica and began learning fiddle tunes on it also. Page 11 �It was around 1995 when Chris Kelly, a dancer at the Hancock Recreation Center that I played for, asked if I would consider joining the AFTM board. AFTM had become just a shell. It had no money, was hosting no events, and the board was made up of dancers who were using our non-profit status to obtain group insurance at a reasonable price. I soon became president of the board and Angie, my beloved wife, joined me on the board. We knew we needed to raise some money if we wanted to do anything, so we revived the Midwinter Festival at the Dougherty Arts Center as a fundraiser. The bands volunteered to play for free to support AFTM. We were usually able to book them an appreciation gig at Central Market or Cactus Café. We charged admission, sold food and started putting money in the bank. We also sold memberships and promoted our organization. We started holding jam sessions, having occasional events and workshops, and resurrected this newsletter, Reel Times, to provide value for our members. At that time, there were only four board members. Elizabeth Pittman suggested that we expand the board to twelve members, which we accomplished by revising our bylaws. The AFTM board is a working board. We have no staff, so all the work is done by board members and whatever volunteers we can round up. Our thinking was that a larger board could get more done, and provide more ideas, and better ideas. One of our good ideas was to create an annual Austin String Band Festival, because we now had the money to hire bands, rent a venue, and pay for all the necessary items to put on a good festival. We hosted our first festival in 2006, and have held it every year since, except for the two years of COVID. We decided to set a reasonable admission price to try to just break even and make the festival accessible to as many people as possible. We have actually lost money on the festival more often than not, but with sponsorships, gifts and member dues we have been able to keep the festival going, and still host other special events, dances, workshops, jam sessions and concerts from time to time throughout the years. We are always looking for new board members and volunteers with fresh ideas and a willingness to work. We have a lot of fun and the satisfaction of ensuring that traditional music and dance stays alive in central Texas. I hope you will join us! 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 Rich MacMath, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor, Festival Director Jeanne DeFriese, At Large Dan Foster, At Large Darrel Mayers, 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 50 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 2024-04 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 50, Number 2 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/292/newsletter-50-03-2024-07.pdf b1fc8420cffd72a31ed72e3a0048ff33 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 50, Number 3, July 2024 Jerron Paxton One of our featured performers at The Austin String Band Festival October 18 & 19, 2024 Camp Ben McCulloch, Driftwood, TX �Table of Contents Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 22 Page 23 Upcoming Events Austin String Band Festival Jerron Paxton Steamboat Skillet Licorice Western Flyers Lloyd & April Joymakers Guy Forsyth Hot Pickin 57s So & So and the Swamp Sizzle Up Around the Sun with Bosco Funyun Creek Mini-Stage Performers Issues we're addressing AFTM Old Time Jam at Lazarus Brewing Austin Balkan Singers Review of World Music Night at Batch Upcoming World Music Night at Batch Page 2 �Upcoming AFTM Events Saturday, July 20 AFTM Monthly Old Time Jam - 10:00 am - 2:00 pm Lazarus Brewing, 4803 Airport Blvd, Austin, TX Friday, August 2 AFTM World Music Night - 8:00 pm Batch, 3220 Manor Road, Austin, TX September 19 AFTM Night at Batch - 7:30 pm featuring: Slaughter Creek Drought Busters Dog Day String Band Bright Leaf Warblers Boyer, Yellman, & Keough All day, October 18 & 19 Austin String Band Festival Camp Ben McCulloch, Driftwood, TX Page 3 �October 18 & 19, 2024 Camp Ben McCulloch, Driftwood, TX Though the Austin String Band Festival is more than three months away, planning has been underway for some time, and things are coming together! Musical performances are the heart of our festival and we'll be featuring performers in several genres: two fine Old Time bands, a hot Bluegrass band, a killer Western Swing trio, a traditional blues artist, an excellent Cajun band, as well as a 1920’s Jazz band! Here's the full performance schedule This issue of Reel Times contains photos and listings of all of our performers - do check them out! To make this festival a success, we need volunteers to manage several important areas and, if you’re willing to devote a few hours to helping make the ASBF a success, we would love to hear from you! Send an email to gary@aftm.us for more details! Page 4 �Jerron Paxton Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton has earned a reputation for transporting audiences back to the 1920's and making them wish they could stay there for good. Jerron Paxton may be one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists that you have not heard of. Yet. And time is getting short, fast. This young musician sings and plays banjo, guitar, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Cajun accordion, and the bones (percussion). Paxton has an eerie ability to transform traditional jazz, blues, folk, and country into the here and now, and make it real. In addition, he mesmerizes audiences with his humor and storytelling. He's a world-class talent and a uniquely colorful character that has been on the cover of Living Blues Magazine and the Village Voice, and has been interviewed on FOX News. Paxton's sound is influenced by the likes of Fats Waller and Blind Lemon Jefferson. According to Will Friedwald in the Wall Street Journal, Paxton is "virtually the only music-maker of his generation— playing guitar, banjo, piano and violin, among other implements—to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and '30s." Page 5 �Steamboat Libby Weitnauer, Sami Braman, and Emily Mann are Steamboat, a new old-time stringband based in Nashville, TN. Their driving music breathes new life into old tunes and songs, mostly collected from recordings of unheralded female fiddlers, singers, and banjo players. Page 6 �Skillet Licorice Skillet Licorice is the latest project from San Francisco Bay Area roots-music luminaries Elise Engelberg and Matt Knoth. Essentially a musical consortium, Matt & Elise are the core of an All-Star lineup featuring many of California's hottest old-time musicians. The result is a full fledged proto-swing orchestra capable of expert musicianship in a dizzying array of folk genres. Whether they’re playing hot fiddle breakdowns, slinky blues, sparkling banjo breaks, ragtime or dreamy waltzes, Skillet Licorice displays an impressive command of styles and techniques that comes from deep study and loving dedication to America’s folk traditions. With the help of their talented friends they’ve put together an incredible repertoire that is essentially traditional, yet with a modern approach that is anything but stale. Skillet Licorice is hot, sweet, and just a bit greasy! Page 7 �Western Flyers Powerhouse Western Swing band The Western Flyers serve up an irresistibly hot, unmistakably Texas-style sound popularized by Bob Wills in the 1940s with an electrifying energy all their own. Featuring a fresh, all-star lineup led by guitar slinger Joey McKenzie on archtop guitar & vocal, 2024 National Grand Champion fiddler Ridge Roberts on fiddle & vocal, and upright bassist Matthew Mefford, the award winning Flyers are guaranteed to have even the shyest of wallflowers tappin' their toes or swinging on the dance floor. Page 8 �Lloyd & April Lloyd and April Wright hail from Kennard, TX, in the heart of the Davy Crockett National Forest. Their duet singing of traditional music is stunningly beautiful, and their gospel music performances are among the finest anywhere! April plays guitar and Lloyd is an award winning multiinstrumentalist. In addition to their performing schedule, they produce the Old Mill Music Festival every year in November! https://oldmillmusicfestival.com/ Page 9 �Joymakers Texas jazz, blues, ragtime and old time roots will be on full display when this powerhouse of traditional musicians arrives on the String Band Festival stage. The aptly-named Joymakers came together two years ago when two groups - Hancock’s Jazz Serenaders, and The Revelators - joined forces. With an album already underway for New York label Turtle Bay Records, and talk of a post-release midwestern tour, the Joymakers are off to a roaring start to their career. “Texas style jazz, or jazz from the territories (i.e. not NYC, Chicago, or New Orleans),” is bandleader Colin Hancock’s favorite description of their sound. They are not to be missed! Page 10 �Guy Forsyth Guy Forsyth photo edited Guy Forsyth grew up in KC but has been a denizen of Austin, TX for the past couple of decades. He’s a true renaissance man musically, and is very difficult to pigeon-hole. He was a cofounder of the Asylum Street Spankers, has released adrenalinefueled rock ‘n’ roll records, and is probably best classified as a performer with very deep rootsy/bluesy musical roots. Guy’s music is eclectic – in the best sense of the word. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist, being a fantastic slide guitar and harmonica player, and also playing guitar, baritone guitar, ukulele, and saw (yes, musical saw!) There are messages in the lyrics of most of Guy’s songs, or if not outright messages, then deeper meanings of life as he sees it playing out around him. Page 11 �Hot Pickin 57s The Hot Pickin 57s offer an energetic and thoroughly enjoyable mix of Bluegrass, Classic Country, and Americana music. The band members have deep roots in the Austin music scene, reuniting in 2016 after their musical educations at Berklee, South Plains College, and Texas State. They’ve played in well-known bands like the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Whit Smith's Hot Jazz Caravan, and Rosie and the Ramblers and have had the privilege of performing alongside notable artists like Sierra Hull, Kym Warner, Alun Munde, Billy Bright (Wood & Wire), and Mark Cosgrove (David Bromberg). Page 12 �So & So and the Swamp Sizzle Austin Cajun music stalwart Michael Perron has formed a great new Cajun band, including members of Gumbo Ce Soir, The Red Stick Ramblers, Chansons et Soûlards, featuring Josh Huval on accordion! Page 13 �Up Around the Sun with Bosco! Austin old time music innovators, Tim Kerr and Jerry Hagins, are joined by the talented old time fiddler from Kyoto, Japan - Bosco! Page 14 �Funyun Creek This powerhouse old time dance band will kick off the Friday stage shows. The band is named afer a small tributary that runs from Alaska to Austin, by way of Terlingua! Members are Jerry Hagins-banjo, Beth Chrisman-fiddle, Joe Dobbs-Guitar, Amanda Chisholm-bass and, all the way from Japan, the legendary Bosco on fiddle! Page 15 �Mini-Stage Performers It's a tradition at the String Band Festival to feature short sets of music at our Mini-Stage, while the Main Stage is being prepared for the next performance. This year's slate of perfomers looks to be most excellent! The Mini-Stage is located next to the Merchandise Booth. FRIDAY 6:45 7:45 8:45 9:45 Silver Alert Ramblers Preston Satchwell & Friends Cast Iron Shoes The Everett Wren Band ________________________________ SATURDAY 2:45 Shinbone Trio 3:45 Caroline Sears 4:45 Ayleen Pérez Cordero & Family 5:45 The Austin Balkan Singers 6;45 Founders Duo: David & Bernard 7:45 Out of the Blue 8:45 Zephyr & Friends 9:45 Mortensen & Duplissey ____________________________________ Page 16 �Complaints, we've had a few... It's always gratifying to hear the nice things festival-goers have to say about the String Band Festival and our Camp Jam, but we've received a couple of complaints recently and we'll be addressing them at this year's ASBF. By far, the most complained about issue at the festival is that of children cavorting on the dance floor during performances. This behavior is a major distraction to those who have come to listen to the music, and our performers have let us know that they don't care for it one bit either. This year, kids will not be allowed on the dance floor unless they're participating in organized dancing and accompanied by an adult. The other problem behavior that has generated many complaints is the playing of electric instruments in the campground. We've come to the conclusion that electric and acoustic instruments just don't mix well, and the String Band Festival and the Camp Jam are acoustic music events! So, please, don't bring your electric guitars, pedal steel guitars, or other amplified instruments. Your campground neighbors will appreciate it! Page 17 �AFTM Monthly Old Time Jam Again in July, the AFTM Monthly Old Time Jam will be held at the Lazarus Brewing Company, 4803 Airport Blvd, in Austin. The July Old Time Jam will take place on Saturday, July 20, from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm. The monthly Old Time Jam at Lazarus Brewing has proven to be very popular, with a consistently strong turnout at a wonderful venue! Don't forget, Lazarus Brewing has full coffee service and serves delicious breakfasts and lunches! Page 18 �The Austin Balkan Singers The Austin Balkan Singers in 1995: Back row l - r: Gilda Ginsel, Cynthia Mull, Shirley Middleton, CB Stephenson. Front row l - r: Susan Hovorka, Jane Lindsey, Harriet Dinerstein, Olga Popova. THE AUSTIN BALKAN SINGERS CELEBRATE 50 YEARS OF HARMONY It seems that 1974 was a seminal year for folk music in Austin, Texas. Joining AFTM in celebrating its golden anniversary is this extraordinarily beautiful eastern-European choir. An interview with founder/ director Susan D. Hovorka. — by Darrel Mayers ________________________________________________ Hi Susan. Can you take Reel Times readers back to 1974, and the formation of the Austin Balkan Singers? In the sixties and seventies, when folk music became very popular, some of us were enjoying dancing to music from around the world at international folk dancing, and we started craving to learn music from the Balkans, with those exotic rhythms and killer harmonies. Our group started at the University of Texas under sponsorship of Dr. John Kolsti, and then became a community group after we graduated. We started swapping lyrics and hunting in bins for remnant records written in Cyrillic letters. It used to be hard to find a recording and the lyrics for the same tune; they were like rare treasures from afar washed up on our shores. Now we can just Google and get a dozen or more historic and modern versions of a song, run the text through Google translate, and refine the tune with a Zoom call to a distant expert. But we keep recruiting new people who want to sing. ________________________________________________ Page 19 �So let’s talk about the geography of this region. “The Balkans'' iare a dozen countries that jostle against each other on the Balkan Peninsula in eastern Europe. There’s Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, part of Turkey, Serbia, Croatia and Romania. Do you choose your material evenly between all the countries… or do you favor one country over another? Each region or even each district has its own musical tradition, and we love the diversity. Christy Foster does a great oom-pah version to a Czech tune, and we know some obscure table songs from Albania where we take turns singing aaaj-ooo against each. Some of our favorites are Bulgarian tunes with single note “drone” harmonies. But we also love the 3 and 4-part close harmonies from Croatia and the funto-sing parallel thirds harmonies in pop tunes (from 1910) from Macedonia. ________________________________________________ What is your personal connection to the Balkans? Did you grow up in one of the dozen countries? Most of us have only visited via music and have never been there in person. Just like here, Balkan folk music is not nearly as popular now as it was in the past, so you have to find the equivalent of AFTM there to hear this music now. ________________________________________________ How do you go about learning a song? There’s such complex polyphony going on! We love the harmony. However it is not so complex, just a bit exotic. We know many songs that are a melody against a single or two-note lower part. Of course some of those archaic scales like hijaz make some intense harmonies against a single note. You can feel the harmonies vibrating inside you when you sing them. ________________________________________________ What is the strangest time signature that you’ve ever played? And, for people who rarely stray from those good ol’ workhorse signatures of’ 4/4 and 3/4, what advice can you offer on how to count, say, 11/16? Here is one in 11/16: 12-12-123-12-12, called kopanica. Fun. Macedonians call tunes in 7/16 lesnoto which means easy rhythm, because it is easier than 12/16 I guess. I like pajduško, in 5/8, which you can synchronize with your heart, lub-dubb lub-dubb . To make crazy long meters you just string the basics together. Balkan music enthusiasts compete to get the biggest collection of specialty rhythms, each one with nuances that merit a special name and have a regional significance. Page 20 �________________________________________________ There is something thrilling and primal about the “open throat” singing that you practice - offering such a wondrous array of overtones. Can you give readers a quick primer on how to sing in this style? I read somewhere that it begins with a yawn. . . I think it starts with howling! To do some styles you energize your whole body from your ribs to the top of your head. We don’t do those precise pitches that break glass, more like loud enough to . . . rattle windows? Suitable for singing at traditional settings like harvesting in the fields, but also useful at bars. ________________________________________________ During your 50 years together, there must have been countless highlights. Can you share a few? Have you toured, and visited the Balkans as a group? We would consider south Austin being on tour! Many good times. We did one of our first performances at AFTM’s open mic at the old Armadillo World Headquarters. And there was a memorable time when we were sort of misplaced at Pioneer Farms, and our main and enthusiastic audience was several sows and piglets. We have our best times every week just doing those harmonies at someone’s house. So if anyone wants to come over and try it, we like visitors. ________________________________________________ Have there been difficult times too? COVID-19 was hard for choirs because group singing was on the high hazard list. We kept going via Zoom by arranging ourselves in a complex scheme of taking turns singing different parts and muting ourselves, so you could at least sing duets with all the parts. But it sure was good to get back together vibrating the same air again. ________________________________________________ In AFTM we face some challenges with succession — passing the torch to younger, upcoming generations. For your choir, do you have a junior choir, or some younger members ready to join? We have multi-age women, even some singing girls sometimes. Folk traditions are not having as high popularity just now, but AFTM’s work in making traditions live is valuable. People don’t know how much pleasure making music yourself gives you, even without an audience. ________________________________________________ Thank you very much Susan. . . and hearty congratulations from AFTM to you, and to the rest of the choir: Christy Foster, Harriet Dinerstein, Robin Butter, Jane Lindsey, Mary Fero, and Irina Marinova. Page 21 �REVIEW OF WORLD MUSIC NIGHT AT BATCH By Darrel Mayers The first AFTM World Music Night at Batch early in May brought together a rich diversity of talent from our international city! The evening began with Kis Kis Maca, a trio led by Neri Osmanovic from Serbia. They focussed tightly on the rich melodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina, featuring the fleet-fingered accordion legend Don Weeda, and trumpeter David Gilden (Mazel Tov Kocktail Hour), while Neri filled in tastefully on electric guitar. Half way through their 11-tune set, the dancing began, much to the delight and surprise of the musicians! Set list: Maca Hora (Kitty Hora) - Kis Kis Maca original, Hora Veche, Hora ca la Caval, Corman's Bulgar, Boogich Bulgar, Odessa Bulgar, Kishinever Bulgar, Heisser Zib, Geamparala, Serb. Cocek, and Bosansko Kolo. The May 2nd String Band brought together many talented musicians well-known in the AFTM community: Tim Keough, Britt Irick, Cody Campbell and Adam Brodkin. Together they crafted a beautiful, blended sound that was a treat for all at Batch. Setlist: Chadwell’s Station; Redican's Trip to Appalachia; Billy in the Lowground; Kash Kersey; Creek's all Muddy and the Pond's all Dry; Gunboat; and Sweet Marie. Indrajit Banerjee transported us to his home country of India with incredible displays of virtuosity on his sitar. He was on fire, as was his accompanying tabla player Sai Kiran. Setlist: Jhinjhoti Raga set to a Teen Tala (a rhythmic cycle of 16 beats): Happy Shakti; (based on Raga Bhopali) The Austin Balkan Singers completed the circle, taking us back to the lands of Kis Kis Maca. This group, founded 50 years ago (see Reel Times article in this issue) took us on a thrilling trip through Croatian, Dalmatian, Macedonian and Bulgarian choral music. Deep gratitude to all in this talented choir. The setlist: Pusta mladost; Aj Lipo tilo; Cresnica; Junak Jodi; Sto si goro; Prsten mi padna; Vrlicko; and Od granka Many thanks to all at Batch for making this happen, and for being so welcoming of this new venture! __________________________________________________________________________ ____ Page 22 �Coming soon: August 2nd at 7:30 p.m. AFTM’s Second World Music Night. At Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches: 3220 Manor Road, Austin, TX Suggested donation: $7.00 7:30 p.m. Kiko Villamizar plays the folk music of Colombia 8:00 p.m. Mortensen & Duplissey; our AFTM friends perform big band numbers, western swing and early jazz in a bluesy, rootsy style on guitar and dobro. 8:30 p.m. Go Yotai Klezmer Trio features Gabriel Lit (clarinet) Wen Chang Lit (violin); and Constantine Caramanis (accordion) 9:00 p.m. Ibrahim Aminou will cast a magical spell with this 21-stringed African Kora (harp) 9:30 p.m. Open Mike ______________________________________________________________________________ Page 23 �We need you! In this year of 2024, it’s both exciting and gratifying to realize that our small organization, the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, has been in existence for fifty years! We owe a sincere debt of gratitude to those individuals who had the initiative and energy to create this organization and who have kept it going through the decades! But those AFTM founders back in 1974 were mostly in their twenties then; they’re now in their seventies. In fact, the average age of our current AFTM board members is about seventy, and that’s not by design. Many of us are ready and willing to transfer the leadership of the AFTM to a younger generation. The board’s efforts to recruit younger members to its ranks has so far not been successful. The last Reel Times newsletter contained a message specifically aimed at recruiting new board members, and the response was minimal. I know that we all have time-consuming responsibilites that make it difficult to commit to volunteering for a small non-profit like ours but, if the AFTM and the String Band Festival are to continue, a younger generation of traditional music enthusiasts needs to step up, get involved, and provide the energy and leadership we need to keep this organization growing and thriving. If you'd like to learn about joining our board or volunteering for the String Band Festival, email me at: gary@aftm.us Gary Mortensen Reel Times Editor ASBF Director Page 24 �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 Rich MacMath, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor, Festival Director Jeanne DeFriese, At Large Dan Foster, At Large Darrel Mayers, At Large David Polacheck, 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 50 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 2024-07 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 50, Number 3 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/293/newsletter-50-04-2024-10.pdf 81399f852e829ce92c6298e33401949a PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 50, Number 4, October 2024 �Table of Contents Page 3 Austin String Band Festival! Page 4 ASBF Performance Schedule Page 5 Jerron Paxton Page 6 Steamboat Page 7 Skillet Licorice Page 8 The Western Flyers Page 9 The Joymakers Page 10 Guy Forsyth & 78 Special Page 11 Lloyd & April Page 12 Hot Pickin 57s Page 13 So & So and the Swamp Sizzle Page 14 Up Around the Sun, with Bosco Page 15 Funyan Creek Page 16 ASBF Organized Jam Schedule Page 17 ASBF Merchandise Page 19 Silent Auction Page 20 ASBF Policies Page 21 AFTM 50th Anniversary Square Dance Page 24 AFTM Monthly Jam Page 25 The AFTM Needs You! Page 26 AFTM Texas String Band Showcase Page 27 Festival of Texas Fiddling Page 31 About the AFTM Page 2 �October 18 & 19, 2024 Camp Ben McCulloch, Driftwood, TX Believe it or not, the Austin String Band Festival is only a few weeks away! Musical performances are the heart of our festival and we'll be featuring performers in several genres: two fine Old Time bands, a hot Bluegrass band, a killer Western Swing trio, a traditional blues artist, an excellent Cajun band, as well as a 1920’s Jazz band! This issue of Reel Times contains photos and listings of many of the performers - do check them out! To make this festival a success, we need volunteers to manage several important areas and, if you’re willing to devote a few hours to helping make the ASBF a success, we would love to hear from you! Send an email to gary@aftm.us for more details! Page 3 �2024 Austin String Band Festival Performance Schedule Main stage performers in bold type Mini-set performers in italics Friday, October 18 6:00 pm 6:45 pm 7:00 pm 7:45 pm 8:00 pm 8:45 pm 9:00 pm 9:45 pm 10:00 pm Funyun Creek w/ dance caller Silver Alert Ramblers Hot Pickin 57s Preston Satchwell & Friends So & So and the Swamp Sizzle Cast Iron Shoes Steamboat The Everett Wren Band Skillet Licorice, with Robin Fischer, caller Saturday, October 19 2:00 pm 2:45 pm 3:00 pm 3:45 pm 4:00 pm 4:45 pm 5:00 pm 5:45 pm 6:00 pm 6:45 pm 7:00 pm 7:45 pm 8:00 pm 8:45 pm 9:00 pm 9:45 pm 10:00 pm Lloyd & April Shinbone Alley 3 The Western Flyers Caroline Sears Guy Forsyth Presents 78 Special Ayleen Pérez Cordeiro & Family Up Around the Sun, with Bosco The Austin Balkan Singers Skillet Licorice Founders Duo: David and Bernard Jerron Paxton Out of the Blue Steamboat, with dance caller Tallwood The Joymakers Mortensen & Duplissey Grand Dance Finale Page 4 �Jerron Paxton Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton has earned a reputation for transporting audiences back to the 1920's and making them wish they could stay there for good. Jerron Paxton may be one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists that you have not heard of. Yet. And time is getting short, fast. This young musician sings and plays banjo, guitar, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Cajun accordion, and the bones (percussion). Paxton has an eerie ability to transform traditional jazz, blues, folk, and country into the here and now, and make it real. In addition, he mesmerizes audiences with his humor and storytelling. He's a world-class talent and a uniquely colorful character that has been on the cover of Living Blues Magazine and the Village Voice, and has been interviewed on FOX News. Paxton's sound is influenced by the likes of Fats Waller and Blind Lemon Jefferson. According to Will Friedwald in the Wall Street Journal, Paxton is "virtually the only music-maker of his generation— playing guitar, banjo, piano and violin, among other implements—to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and '30s." Page 5 �Steamboat Libby Weitnauer, Sami Braman, and Emily Mann are Steamboat, a new old-time stringband based in Nashville, TN. Their driving music breathes new life into old tunes and songs, mostly collected from recordings of unheralded female fiddlers, singers, and banjo players. Page 6 �Skillet Licorice Skillet Licorice is the latest project from San Francisco Bay Area roots-music luminaries Elise Engelberg and Matt Knoth. Essentially a musical consortium, Matt & Elise are the core of an All-Star lineup featuring many of California's hottest old-time musicians. The result is a full fledged proto-swing orchestra capable of expert musicianship in a dizzying array of folk genres. Whether they’re playing hot fiddle breakdowns, slinky blues, sparkling banjo breaks, ragtime or dreamy waltzes, Skillet Licorice displays an impressive command of styles and techniques that comes from deep study and loving dedication to America’s folk traditions. With the help of their talented friends they’ve put together an incredible repertoire that is essentially traditional, yet with a modern approach that is anything but stale. Skillet Licorice is hot, sweet, and just a bit greasy! Page 7 �Western Flyers Powerhouse Western Swing band The Western Flyers serve up an irresistibly hot, unmistakably Texas-style sound popularized by Bob Wills in the 1940s with an electrifying energy all their own. Featuring a fresh, all-star lineup led by guitar slinger Joey McKenzie on archtop guitar & vocal, 2024 National Grand Champion fiddler Ridge Roberts on fiddle & vocal, and upright bassist Matthew Mefford, the award winning Flyers are guaranteed to have even the shyest of wallflowers tappin' their toes or swinging on the dance floor. Page 8 �Joymakers Texas jazz, blues, ragtime and old time roots will be on full display when this powerhouse of traditional musicians arrives on the String Band Festival stage. The aptly-named Joymakers came together two years ago when two groups - Hancock’s Jazz Serenaders, and The Revelators - joined forces. With an album already underway for New York label Turtle Bay Records, and talk of a post-release midwestern tour, the Joymakers are off to a roaring start to their career. “Texas style jazz, or jazz from the territories (i.e. not NYC, Chicago, or New Orleans),” is bandleader Colin Hancock’s favorite description of their sound. They are not to be missed! Page 9 �Guy Forsyth & 78 Special Guy Forsyth photo edited Guy Forsyth grew up in KC but has been a denizen of Austin, TX for the past couple of decades. He’s a true renaissance man musically, and is very difficult to pigeon-hole. He was a cofounder of the Asylum Street Spankers, has released adrenalinefueled rock ‘n’ roll records, and is probably best classified as a performer with very deep rootsy/bluesy musical roots. Guy’s music is eclectic – in the best sense of the word. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist, being a fantastic slide guitar and harmonica player, and also playing guitar, baritone guitar, ukulele, and saw (yes, musical saw!) There are messages in the lyrics of most of Guy’s songs, or if not outright messages, then deeper meanings of life as he sees it playing out around him. Page 10 �Lloyd & April “Foot stomping, caterwauling, family fun!” is how the Wrights describe their music. April grew up singing shaped-note songs from “The Heavenly Highway” in a backwoods East Texas church. Lloyd shared April’s interest in shaped note music, along with a curiosity about stringband music from western North Carolina. Together they blend family harmony, country gospel, raucous fiddle tunes, and sweet renditions of old country ballads. They even started their own festival - the flourishing Old Mill Music Festival in their East Texas home town of Kennard - a highlight of their careers! Old Mill Festival Page 11 �Hot Pickin 57s The Hot Pickin 57s offer an energetic and thoroughly enjoyable mix of Bluegrass, Classic Country, and Americana music. The band members have deep roots in the Austin music scene, reuniting in 2016 after their musical educations at Berklee, South Plains College, and Texas State. They’ve played in well-known bands like the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Whit Smith's Hot Jazz Caravan, and Rosie and the Ramblers and have had the privilege of performing alongside notable artists like Sierra Hull, Kym Warner, Alun Munde, Billy Bright (Wood & Wire), and Mark Cosgrove (David Bromberg). Page 12 �So & So and the Swamp Sizzle Austin Cajun music stalwart Michael Perron has formed a great new Cajun band, including members of Gumbo Ce Soir, The Red Stick Ramblers, Chansons et Soûlards, featuring Josh Huval on accordion! Page 13 �Up Around the Sun with Bosco! Austin old time music innovators, Tim Kerr and Jerry Hagins, are joined by Bosco Takaki, the Japanese fiddler they met and performed with on their recent tour of Japan. Bosco is well-steeped in the old time tradition, having learned directly from Tommy Jarrell and the Hammons family back in the day. They'll have their new record, recorded in Osaka in 2023, available on CD and vinyl. Page 14 �Funyun Creek This powerhouse old time dance band will kick off the Friday stage shows. The band is named afer a small tributary that runs from Alaska to Austin, by way of Terlingua! Members are Jerry Hagins-banjo, Beth Chrisman-guitar, Joe Dobbs-Guitar, Amanda Chisholm-bass and, all the way from Japan, the legendary Bosco on fiddle! Page 15 �We be jammin'! Just about anywhere you go in the campground night or day, you'll hear the sounds of live music being spontaneously performed. Well, this year at the the String Band Festival, we've scheduled some organized jams for those interested in specific genres of traditional music. These jams are open to all, so join right in! At press time, specific locations have yet to be determined. The AFTM Info booth will have the lastest information! Saturday, October 19 10:00 am Old Time Slow Jam, led by Tim Keogh 1:00 pm Bluegrass jam, led by Simon Waxman and Chelsea Burns 2:00 pm Cajun jam, led by the Ramsey Park Rounders 3:00 pm Old Time jam, led by Tim Wooten Sunday, October 20 10:00 am Gospel Jam, led by Georgia Canfield & Sharon Sandomirsky Page 16 �Festival Merchandise Of course, no one attends the Austin String Band Festival just to acquire merchandise, but we're quite proud of our new t-shirt design by Howard Rains, which is available in a unisex and a women's version! Also, we'll have a new batch of the very popular ASBF caps, which sold out the first day last year! The quantity of t-shirts and caps we'll have for sale will be limited, so as to ensure that we don't have leftover inventory. So, If you'd like the prestige of owning the new t-shirt or cap, better head to the Merch Booth as early as you can; it opens at 10:00 am on Friday, October 18! Page 17 �Page 18 �ASBF Silent Auction Our Silent Auction proved to be quite a success last year, and we're planning on doing it again! If you'd like to donate a musical item to the Silent Auction, bring it to the String Band Festival and items will be collected and displayed on Saturday! The two guitars below have been donated to the ASBF by our friends at Strait Music and Fiddlers' Green, and will be part of the Silent Auction! Page 19 �Complaints, we've had a few... It's always gratifying to hear the nice things festival-goers have to say about the String Band Festival and our Camp Jam, but we've received a couple of complaints recently and we'll be addressing them at this year's ASBF. By far, the most complained about issue at the festival is that of children cavorting on the dance floor during performances. This behavior is a major distraction to those who have come to listen to the music, and our performers have let us know that they don't care for it one bit either. This year, kids will not be allowed on the dance floor unless they're participating in organized dancing and accompanied by an adult. The other problem behavior that has generated many complaints is the playing of electric instruments in the campground. We've come to the conclusion that electric and acoustic instruments just don't mix well, and the String Band Festival and the Camp Jam are acoustic music events! So, please, don't bring your electric guitars, pedal steel guitars, or other amplified instruments. Your campground neighbors will appreciate it! Page 20 �AFTM 50th Anniversary Square Dance AFTM 50TH ANNIVERSARY SQUARE DANCE A Caller’s Observations On Saturday, September 28, about 90 folks packed a picnic and picked a partner for the AFTM 50Th Anniversary Square Dance at the French Legation State Historic Site in east Austin. The venue was beautiful, the program included a variety of dances, and the people were Austin-friendly. Two oldtime string bands – Rusty Nail and Two Goat - played on the grand old front porch of the historic 1841 home and diplomatic outpost for France’s ambassador to the Republic of Texas. The level green grass lawn in front of the home with generous shade provided by several majestic live oak trees made a cool and comfortable outdoor dance floor. To that setting add four enthusiastic dance callers and dozens of smiling dancers and you have socializing, exercising, and maximizing fun all at the same time. The photographs tell the story. See you again next year at the Second Annual 50th Anniversary Square Dance! Page 21 �Page 22 �Page 23 �AFTM Monthly Old Time Jam The Monthly AFTM Old Time Jam will not take place in October, so as not to detract from the Austin String Band Festival, which happens on October 18 & October 19! Our website, AFTM.US will have information about the November Jam! Page 24 �We need you! In this year of 2024, it’s both exciting and gratifying to realize that our small organization, the Austin Friends of Traditional Music, has been in existence for fifty years! We owe a sincere debt of gratitude to those individuals who had the initiative and energy to create this organization and who have kept it going through the decades! But those AFTM founders back in 1974 were mostly in their twenties then; they’re now in their seventies. In fact, the average age of our current AFTM board members is about seventy, and that’s not by design. Many of us are ready and willing to transfer the leadership of the AFTM to a younger generation. The board’s efforts to recruit younger members to its ranks has so far not been successful. The last Reel Times newsletter contained a message specifically aimed at recruiting new board members, and the response was minimal. I know that we all have time-consuming responsibilites that make it difficult to commit to volunteering for a small non-profit like ours but, if the AFTM and the String Band Festival are to continue, a younger generation of traditional music enthusiasts needs to step up, get involved, and provide the energy and leadership we need to keep this organization growing and thriving. If you'd like to learn about joining our board or volunteering for the String Band Festival, email me at: gary@aftm.us Gary Mortensen Reel Times Editor ASBF Director Page 25 �Texas String Band Showcase Review by Darrel Mayers, photo by James Seppi A packed house greeted four stellar acts at the Texas String Band Showcase at Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches in Austin last month. The Slaughter Creek Droughtbusters opened— with Aaron Zischkale initially plucking a Japanese sanshin (ancestor of the shamisen) next to Adam Brodkin on the banjo. It was a cool East-meets-West moment. There is deep chemistry between these two fine players, and it soon felt like we were all on a slow train to deepest Appalachia. The Bright Leaf Warblers blends old time fiddle music with American primitive guitar, in the tradition of John Fahey, Jack Rose and North Carolina’s Magic Tuber Stringband. And within this framework, the duo creates enchanting original tunes such as "Goldust," and "Salt Maiden's Hornpipe." Somehow gifted guitarist Cody Campbell and Aaron Z sounded old and new at the same time, with some parts reminiscent of the circular trance melodies of north Africa’s Gnawa tribes. Touchingly, Aaron’s dad Robert sat in on harmonica for a couple of tunes. The old-time power trio of Boyer, Yellman & Keough (better known to many as Joslyn, Zephyr and Tim) showcased the sparkling talent of ace fiddler Zephyr on tunes tried-and-true, and what a joy to hear Joslyn sing lead on one of the songs of their set. The Dog Day String Band rounded out the evening with a selection of classics such as “Cluck Old Hen,” and "Singing Waterfall,” featuring the plaintive lead vocals of Rose Griffith, with Britt Irick in support. Thanks to Aaron and Cody for creating this showcase, and to all at Batch for making us so welcome in their cozy venue. Page 26 �10th Annual Festival of Texas Fiddling Article by Dan Foster Fiddling from the Big State is a big deal. Drawing from the unique and ever-changing character of our state, where the sound of the fiddle & bow encompasses an exciting array of musical styles and historic traditions, it all comes together in the annual Festival of Texas Fiddling. Treat yourself to three days of the best there is when it comes to real Texas music. The fun is definitely big at the historic old Twin Sisters Dancehall near beautiful Blanco, Texas, and the fiddling seriously good. Whether it's out on the dance floor, out under the shade of majestic oaks, or under the starry Texas sky the gift of music will be traded back and forth among musicians, dancers, and fiddle fans from all over. Now in its 10th year, the Festival of Texas Fiddling celebrates a shared heritage that includes not only the iconic and independently joyful sound of Western Swing dance music, traditional polkas, waltzes and huapangos inherited from Polish, Czech, Tejano, and Ranchera traditions, but brilliant breakdowns and tunes-of-choice in the true Texas Style, the irresistible groove of Gulf Coast Acadian sound, and much more. Page 27 �There will be music on three stages simultaneously all day Saturday. All day dancing on the well worn wooden floor of Twin Sisters dance hall, including workshops on Texas 2-step, waltz, polka, swing, and huapango, and more. All workshops are free for festival goers. For musicians there will be instrument workshops on different Texas fiddle styles, along with interesting talks and demonstrations about the history and ever-changing nature of Texas fiddling. Performances by legends of Texas Style fiddling including Wes Westmoreland, Carl Hopkins, Larry Franklin, Jason Andrews, Dennis Ludiker and Luke Bulla, along with renowned swing fiddler Paul Anastasio and others. No Fiddle Fest would be complete without the indestructible Texas-Polish impresario from Tomball – Brian Marshall. Mark Halata, along with the Josh Baca Duo will be there bringing the sounds of Czech Texas to the fiddle and bow along with festival favorite, Mark Rubin. Of course, the one and only Belen Escobado and the true Tejas sound of her band Panfilo's Güera will be a delight to see and hear again, bringing to life the music of the South Texas ranchlands. The deep tradition of Trio Hupangueros Elegidos, Felipe Perez y Sus Polkeros, and Epi Cruz Martinez and featuring son huasteco musicians from Texas and from Veracruz in a cross cultural exchange. You won't be able to sit still when the real Creole sound of Ed Poullard's fiddle and accordion bring the sounds of old Beaumont to the Hill Country. Saturday night in the main hall, you can look forward to a big dance with the legendary flatland sound of Jody Nix and his band. We'll will see the return of an old time square dance for the first time in 8 years - sponsored by the Austin Friends of Traditional Music. Dan Foster (that’s me!) will be telling more tales of Texas fiddling, with the help of Christy Palumbo and the great Will "Ragtime Willie" Webster, concerning the story of fiddling in and around Austin, Texas since about 1870. I also have it on good authority there will also be a talk from one of the greats of Texas fiddling, Wes Westmorland, about the rise of the modern Texas Style. Not to be missed. On Sunday the Festival is hosting the Texas Old Time Fiddle Association (TOTFA) as they bring a genuine and official Texas fiddle contest for the first time at the Festival. Not only that, but there will be a bajo sexto contest sponsored by H. Jimenez with Mac Baca. All that and endless chances to jam, meet new friends and enjoy the best Texas has to offer. For more information, visit http://texasfiddle.org Page 28 �Trio Paseador Ridge Roberts Jason Andrew Page 29 �Christy Palumbo Foster Brian Marshall Belen Escobedo Page 30 �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 Rich MacMath, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Gary Mortensen, Reel Times Editor, Festival Director Jeanne DeFriese, At Large Dan Foster, At Large Darrel Mayers, At Large David Polacheck, 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 50 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 2024-10 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 50, Number 4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/307/ReelTimes-v51-n01.pdf fa89352c89cdc614538b4da0cdcccb57 PDF Text Text Reel Times Newsletter of The Austin Friends of Traditional Music Vol. 51, Number 1, January 2025 2024 Austin String Band Festival! Photograph by Darcie Westerlund �Table of Contents Page 3 The 2024 Austin String Band Festival Page 9 AFTM World Music Night #3 Page 13 Upcoming events at Batch Page 14 Old Time Jam at the French Legation Page 18 The 2025 AFTM Camp Jam Page 19 Message from the outgoing editor Page 2 �2024 Austin String Band Festival The Joymakers performed on Saturday night Recipe for a great acoustic music festival: • Perfect weather • Fantastic lineup • Large, enthusiastic audience The 2025 Austin String Band Festival had all these elements and more, and many in attendance said it was the best String Band Festival yet! There’s not enough room to list all the great performers at this year’s ASBF – follow this link to check out the performance schedule, workshop schedule, and festival details. 2024 Austin String Band Festival We’re deeply indebted to Darcie Westerlund for photographing this year’s festival! All the festival photos in this issue were taken by Darcie, and here’s a link to hundreds more! Darcie Westerlund ASBF photos It’s not too early to save the date for next year’s Austin String Band Festival = October 17 through October 19 at beautiful Camp Ben McCulloch! Page 3 �Dancing on Saturday afternoon Cast Iron Shoes performed on Friday evening Page 4 �Jerron Paxton came from New York City to perform on Saturday evening The Out of the Blue trio played a great mini-set Page 5 �Energetic Cajun tunes from So & So and the Swamp Sizzlers Tom Duplissey assembled a stalwart group of pickers on Saturday night Page 6 �Ayleen Pérez Cordeiro & Family The Founders Duo, David Polacheck and Bernard Mollberg Page 7 �Joey McKenzie and Ridge Roberts gave a western swing workshop Two fiddlers in the crowd! Page 8 �AFTM World Music Night #3 Magical Journeys at AFTM's World Music Night by Darrel Mayers Who needs to loaf around in airports, suffering cancelled flights and delays, when you can travel around our planet in comfort at one of AFTM's World Music Nights at Batch ; - ) ) Our first ticket for the evening was to Cuba and Mexico. Ayleen Perez-Cordeiro filled the room with her passionate, melancholy vocals. Beginning with “Guántanamera,” Ayleen went on to perform tunes by Trío Los Panchos, Silvio Rodríguez and Rogelio Martínez. Our AFTM friends the Bright Leaf Warblers (Aaron Zischkale and Cody Campbell) then took us into sun-dappled, Appalachian woodlands with their introspective, old time melodies in the tradition of the Magic Tuber Stringband. Originals “Goldust” and “Salt Maiden’s Hornpipe” were a special delight. Page 9 �Our next ticket was to Eastern Europe, and the high energy klezmer quartet Go Yotai. The klezmer sound is known for its odd pairing of joy and sadness, found in the distinct Freygish scale — flattened 2nd, major 3rd. Gabriel Lit (clarinet), Wen Chang Lit (violin), Constantine Caramanis (accordion), and Bruno Vinezof (percussion) delivered heaps of both in “Odessa Bulgarish,” “Down with the King,” and “Lalabassa,” an original by Gabriel. It was a close call, but joy - in the end - swept to victory. Mali was our final destination, and to get there we flew Bamako Airlines ; - ) This local Afro-pop group creates a vibrant, inclusive energy, and soon they were taking the whole room with them as they offered up beautiful tunes by Miriam Makeba, Tinariwen, and originals such as the infectious “Continental Soukous.” Guitarist Chris Vestre seemed to spend the whole set above the 15th fret of his guitar, as he spun tapestries of golden melodies, while singer Meera Chandrasekaran bopped and sang to the bountiful grooves of drummer Doug Marcis. Sincere thanks to Adam Brodkin for running the soundboard, and to KOOP’s Kim Simpson (“International Folk Bazaar”) for his support. Ayleen Pérez Cordeiro sang exquisite Cuban and Mexican songs Page 10 �Aaron Zischkale and Cody Campbell supplied great Old Time tunes David Myers joined Ayleen Pérez Cordeiro for a few songs Page 11 �The Go Yotai Klezmer quartet An enthusistic audience filled Batch Craft beer & Kolaches Page 12 �Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches, 3220 Manor Road, Austin, TX Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches is one of Austin's premier destinations for live music, with delicious beverages and food! The AFTM is excited to be able to present traditional music showcases at this wonderful venue. Upcoming AFTM events at Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches: Feb. 27: AFTM World Music Night March 8: AFTM Texas Stringband showcase #1 May 10: AFTM Texas String Band showcase #2 Page 13 �November AFTM Old Time Jam The monthly AFTM Old Time Jam normally takes place at Lazarus Brewing Company in Austin but, for the month of November, we were invited to bring our music to the beautiful French Legation in east Austin. This AFTM Old Time Jam was part of the French Legation's Homestead History Day. The weather was idyllic, the music sublime, and a great time was had by all! The January AFTM Old Time Jam will be back at its usual location, Lazarus Brewing Company, 4803 Airport Blvd, in Austin. The jam will run from 10:00 am until 1:00 pm on January 18, 2025. Page 14 �Britt Irick on banjo, Rose Griffith on guitar Sharon Isaac led the group in a spirited fiddle tune Page 15 �David Polacheck on banjo (7 string!), Preston Satchwell on guitar Ben Hayes on guitar, Molly Johnson on mandolin Page 16 �Betsy Hamblen - banjo, James Seppi - fiddle, Chip Bach - mandolin What a wonderful day at the French Legation! Page 17 �2025 AFTM Camp Jam The very popular AFTM Camp Jam will be happening again this coming spring! This year's dates are April 25 through April 27, 2025 - the location as always will be beautiful Camp Ben McCulloch in Driftwood, TX. The Camp Jam formula is a simple one: come out to Camp Ben, hang with your friends, make new friends, and pick some tunes! The Camp Jam is a free event sponsored by the AFTM. There's no admission charge, though overnight campers will need to pay Camp Ben the usual camping fees. Page 18 �A message from our outgoing editor Back in the spring of 2017, AFTM president Tim Wooten sent out an email to all members asking, among other things, if anyone would consider reviving the Reel Times newsletter, which had lay dormant for several years. For better or worse, I replied and volunteered to take on the job. My only qualification was being willing to work hard, though I had no editorial or graphic arts experience. Before long, I became a member of the AFTM board and, for the past two years the director of the Austin String Band Festival, as well! It's been a rewarding if sometimes draining experience, and I’ve decided that after this edition of Reel Times, I will be retiring from my various AFTM positions - Reel Times Editor, ASBF Director, staff photographer, and AFTM board member. I know the Reel Times newsletter will be in good hands going on – AFTM board members Darrel Myers and Dan Foster have volunteered to take over the editorial duties! Regarding the Austin String Band Festival (everyone’s favorite festival!) – for 2025, AFTM president Tim Wooten has crafted a leadership structure that spreads the various festival planning responsibilities among several individuals, an approach I enthusiastically endorse! ASBF planning is an enormous job, and we need some motivated individuals willing to help with preparation for this wonderful event! My New Year’s wish for the AFTM is for more participation from our younger members. The AFTM board has several openings and there are some board members who are ready to retire after many years of loyal service. We really need the involvement of your younger members. So, thanks to all who have made my years with the AFTM so enjoyable and meaningful. You’ll still see me at AFTM events, I hope to be able to pick some tunes with you! Gary Mortensen Page 19 �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 Rich MacMath, Treasurer James Seppi, Volunteer Coordinator Jeanne DeFriese, At Large Dan Foster, Reel Times Co-Editor Darrel Mayers, Reel Times Co-Editor David Polacheck, 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 51 Number 01 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 - Volume 51, Number 1 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Mortenson Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Gary Mortenson Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2025-01 http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/324/NewReelTimesV52N01.pdf 7c92807acdfb27f532f30302e75eb2d7 PDF Text Text OTAF REEL TIMES SUMMER 2025 drop thumbs not bombs �REEL TIMES SUMMER 2025 EDITED AND WRITTEN BY ADAM BRODKIN AND AARON ZISCHKALE AFTM CALENDAR FRESH SHELLAC.............................................................3 THE DUCK RIVER DISPATCH.....................................4 STARGAZERS WHO CALL THE SHOTS....................5 MAYDAY AT THE WOOTEN'S......................................6 THE GREAT DRONE MYSTAGOGUE........................9 BATCH STRING BAND SHOW CASE.........................11 EMAIL US AT REEL.TIMES.AFTM@GMAIL.COM 1 14 �guitar for an unusually sweet Dock Boggs tune, the wistful old ballad "Papa Build Me a Boat." Rose Griffith completes the group, lending lovely harmonies to Carter Family tunes and bringing a powerful holler to Hazel Dickens' hard-luck number, "Busted." A mainstay of the Show Case has been BYK, a power trio consisting of Joslyn Boyer (upright bass), Zephyr Yellman (fiddle), and Tim Keough (fiddle and guitar). They forged their sound from summer morning jams (I'll never forget hearing a phone recording of their twin-fiddle harmonizing on the old PT Bell tune "Mace Bell's Civil War March." The audience thrills every time Joslyn draws her bass bow from a h on the instrument and bellows a melody. The three of them have curated a fantastic set, and I'm still blown away at how deftly Zephyr twists the pegs of his fiddle in and out of rich open tunings to lend each piece a unique sound. The highlight this set was the twisty, BYK serenade at Batch (L to R, Joslyn Boyer, Zephyr Yellman, Tim Keough) winding "Dusty Miller" from Missouri's Gene Goforth, a tune Tim heard a few years back at CROMA from Steam Machine's AJ Srubas. Zephyr wound up winning a ribbon at Clifftop with the tune, and it wowed again at Batch. By this time of the night the place was packed, and I squeezed through the line at the counter for my instruments for the last set. Near the front door, Los Fandangeros played an impromptu happy birthday for a beaming girl, with the crowded room stomping their feet behind the semi-circle of musicians. As the Slaughter Creek Drought Busters, Adam and I atttempted to end with a nightcap, soothing the room with a meditative acoustic drone, bathed in violet light he had rented for the show. Using unique open tunings for fiddle and banjo, we conjured a long take on a West Virginia tune learned from Dwight Diller, "Piney Woods." The tune unwound over a sonic texture of bowed banjo (on loop from a guitar pedal), and a shruti box operated in turns by Lindsey Zischkale and Heather Brodkin. Another great night at Batch - huge thanks to Darrel Mayers with AFTM, and Adam and Henry Brodkin for doing the hectic job of running sound, and Gabriel Lit for giving us the space to share our music! 13 REEL TIMES SUMMER 2025 Howdy all you pickers and bowers, singers and shouters, clawhammerers, dulcimer hammerers, you noisemakers of all kinds! Reel Times is under new management, with Adam Brodkin and myself filling the big shoes Gary Mortensen left. So we're gonna bring you the Old-Time word, wherever banjos, ballads, yeah even bodhrans, sound off. From Austin, Texas, around the world, and back again. We'll print big events, new tunes, voices from the community: all about homemade acoustic roots music and the folks who make it. This issue we'll kick things off with a few great albums we've been spinning all summer, check in with our festival correspondents, get a peek at the twenty-sixth year of a great shindig out in Hill Country, hear from one of our regular pickers at the Tuesday night jam, lose oureslves to the drone, and finish with a report on the latest String Band Showcase at Batch out off of Airport. And don't forget that This October is our big Austin String Band Festival, so SAVE THE DATE and come on out to Camp Ben McCulloch in Driftwood, October 17 - 19. Bring your jam tunes and get ready for a great lineup: we've got Guy Forsyth's 78 Special, Brandi WallerPace, the Here & Now Band, Spencer & Rains, and the Lost Keys, Missy Beth & the Morning Afters, Mariachi Las Altenas, Luke Moody, Everett Wren, BYK, Corey McCauley, Steel Grassy, and the Austin City Quicksteppers! There'll also be a SILENT AUCTION!! Please donate items (musical instruments, books, artwork, etc.)! Contact Lee Thomas (817-480-5561) for pick-up or bring items to the festival kitchen on Saturday morning, Oct 18. SEE Y'ALL THERE! 2 �FRESH SHELLAC Rhiannon Gidden's staccato old-time banjo pierces the warm summer drone of 17-year cicadas, alongside the driving bow of her old Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson. They bring us the impromptu energy of a back porch jam with eighteen tunes begging to be learned and shared. From killer takes on chestnuts (“Ebenezer”) to intriguingly titled obscurities (“Duck’s Eyeball”), this record is packed with energy and will have your fingers itching to pick. Not a ton of blockbuster films reference Charley Patton, Geechie Wiley, and Rocky Road to Dublin, so hopefully old-time fans caught Sinners in theaters, a story of Black resistance and joy in the Jim Crow-era South that director Ryan Coogler spins into a universal statement about a deeply human relationship to music, pleasure, and spiritual danger. The album isn’t your usual oldtime fare but is well worth a listen for actor Miles Caton’s gorgeous rendering of delta blues (he impressively learned slide guitar for the role), and an exclusive cut from Rhiannon and Justin. 3 West Virginia and Pennsylvania natives The Wild Shoats released their first proper album, full of both original fiddle tunes that would fit nicely in a jam, and achingly emotional songwriting. Just tuck into the opening strains of “Clara” and be taken away as the band applies the pulse of traditional fiddle to sorrowful bury-me-not lyrics inspired by Lonesome Dove. When singer and fiddler Mary Linschield brings the last refrain up an octave, it has me breaking out in goosebumps. Gorgeous version of "Moonshiner" (and great imagery about his breath) with buzzy baritone harmonies from bandmate Augustus Tristch. This was a huge help as I took to the board to double-chug some flatfoot steps during the Dog Day String Band's set, to a certain possum-themed tune that just happened to be mentioned in our Duck River Dispatch section. The Dogs include myself (fiddle and mandolin) and Adam (upright bass and banjo), with Britt Irick fiddling and whacking out rhythms on a banjo uke (the shrink-dried version of the banjo). He also picked up 12 �BATCH CRAFT BEER AND KOLACHES STRING BAND SHOW CASE MAY 10, 2025 This past May marked the third String Band Show Case at Batch, an AFTM-hosted event in which Austin old-time players take to the indoor stage in various string band incarnations for an evening of raucous acoustic tunes. Frosty pints of beer flow and kolaches sweet and savory are devoured to melodies from Appalachia and beyond. THE DUCK RIVER DISPATCH Intrepid correspondents journey from Austin's cozy jam scene to the wide world of festivals. They bring back tunes and stories from the road. This issue we check in with Britt Irick and Rose Griffith, who back in April drove 7 hours up the 35 corridor to the The Greenleaf Old Time Music Festival in Braggs, Oklahoma. The clear weather was perfection, befitting of the state park's name, and the jam circles formed easily throughout the day. The attendance is still fairly small, around 320 people this year. "Everybody knows everybody," Britt remarks, "cause a lot of people are CROMA refugees." With the Colorado festival now defunct, Greenleaf has become a new meeting spot. "Jams are pretty magnetic there," he says, "start a jam, people see you and join in." Of course the first question you've gotta ask the weary travelers is, "new tunes?" And they certainly brought back a keeper, learning "The Old She Possum Skating on the Ice" from Tricia Spencer, a great cut from a Jimmy Triplett CD. Los Fandangeros de Austin (L to R): Joanna Saucedo, Chris Ledesma, Rodrigo Leal, Carlos Salazar, Marino Miranda, Erik Salinas, Jerónimo James Sexton Macias The energy out of the gate was propulsive as Los Fandangeros de Austin took the stage. Six string-slingers strummed jaranas of various sizes and types, with Joanna Saucedo seated at the marimbol, thumping out bass lines. Their music hails from Veracruz and features a powerful call-and-response structure, a social call to dance and sing ("made for convivio"). When not at the marimbol Joanna tapped out dance steps on a wooden platform (a humble cube of 2x4s that I patched together during the height of the pandemic, when learning some flatfooting steps). Quick-thinking Joanna slid a yoga mat under the box to keep it from sliding across Batch's tile floor! 11 Rose, as a trusty backup guitarist, focuses less on tune names and more on the company and song. "I don't necessarily learn the names of the tunes. But I will say I was pretty blissed out for the entire week." One morning she joined Marge Mullaney and Bob Atchinson and sang a "dynamite" version of Long Journey Home, "one of the saddest songs in country music." There were workshops and vendors aplenty, and Britt stopped by the Beautiful Music Violin Shop booth, in from Kansas. "I was trying to avoid it, because I knew if I went over there I would walk away with something." He picked up a Hopf violin and "it played itself", so he didn't leave without it. So get out next year to Greenleaf for tunes, friends and fiddles, April 12-18, 2026 4 �STARGAZERS WHO CALL THE SHOTS The Tuesday night jam at Stargazer, Springdale Station, attracts folks from all over Austin. Let's get to know em! This issue we catch up with Tristan Walling. Q: Hey Tristan! Tell us how you found the jam A: I met Britt at my drawing meetup and he had a tattoo of a banjo, and I was just starting to play banjo. He invited me out to the jam. Q: What are your strings of choice? A: I have a Deering Goodtime that I usually bring [that night he also brought an old Gibson L3, on which he’s learning an old Bo Carter tune, "The Lead's All Gone"] Q: Best tune to play at a jam? A: John Brown's f*****' Dream, man. Q: What's the most old-time thing you do outside of a jam? A: I grow my mustache. That’s for music too. I’m currently working on a project called The Chronicles of Cowboy Buck Q: At Genuine Joe’s, you noticed that the standup bass was vibrating through the old hardwood floors, that it turned the place into a musical instrument. You took it upon yourself to learn how to say that in Japanese mind throwing that our way? A: Q: What does the jam mean to you? 5 A: I feel absolutely freed as a musician. Came as an absolute beginner and you guys never kicked me out, y'know what I mean? I feel welcome in this whole group, man, and y’all feel like a family to me! 10 �THE GREAT DRONE MYSTAGOGUE by Adam Brodkin You can’t escape it. It’s ever present. Ubiquitous. Whether you’re out in the boondocks or in the middle of a sprawling industrial urban center. It’s there whether you hear it or not. It affects you whether you want it to or not. Sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly. Every culture, on every continent, from the very beginning, has an indigenous form of it. It can simultaneously separate your spirit from your body and drive you insane. I’m not an ethnomusicologist, or an academic, and I have no formal training in music. I have followed the drone as a guiding force in the music I have played over the years. Heavy psychedelic rock and roll, experimental music, and for the last few decades old time and other traditional folk music. It has been the mainstay of the music I play with my partner Aaron Zischkale in the Slaughter Creek Drought Busters. I’ve communed with the drone and found it to be a good thing. This small corner of Reel Times will be dedicated to the drone, wherever I can find it. Some drones I’ve been obsessed with and would like to explore more in 2026 are Dwight Diller’s low G banjo playing, the work of La Monte Young, Isaan music of Northern Thailand, Tuvan throat singing, and the music of Sunn O))). Give in to the drone and scan the QR code at left to meet The Mystagogue and experience a sampling of the music mentioned in this article 9 MAYDAY IN HILL COUNTRY This May marked the 26th anniversary of a party held by Angie and Tim Wooten at their place out in Hill Country. It's a bit of a trek from Austin, with a couple low-water crossings that threaten to make the journey treacherous if there's been rain. But at the end of a winding road atop a hill a host of partygoers gather. The centerpiece of the evening is the maypole, where folks dance in two concentric circles, wrapping multicolored ribbons in a criss-cross around the center. On the outer orbit, a tall fiddle player skips in the opposite direction of the nearest line of dancers. He's Everett Wren, and has amassed years of experience. "If I move counter to them, it almost seems like it's moving faster. Little psychological thing", he grins. In clusters outside the spinning wheel a motley musical procession forms to churn out a marching step for the dancers: "St Anne's Reel", "Old Molly Hare", "La Bastringue. " Folk music circles collide as splashy Irish guitar (David Rabinowicz) plays alongside fiddles, trilling flute, clacking bones (Rich MacMath) and a six-string clawhammer banjo (Bernard Mollberg). "It’s a happy feeling that you get when everybody’s smiling outside, moving around, instead of the way we usually are, in our heads," Angie Wooten muses. "And [the dance] puts people in their bodies and you feel you’re interconnected. Kinda like when we’re playing a tune in a circle, we’re all playing the same tune so we’re connected. In the Maypole everybody’s kind of got the same goal and they’re not thinking about anything except 'up, down, over, under…'" 6 �Tim and Angie inherited the maypole from the Lady Bird Johnson Wilflower Center, where they'd been providing music for the annual event. It was first hoisted up on their new property for a groundbreaking project, and by the time the house was built, it was May again. The tradition carries on to this day, though a bit like the Ship of Theseus. Tim recalls parts being replaced over time. "Now, one year Seth, when it was time to take it up (Seth's big and strong) so when he was wobbling it to get it out of the ground he broke it in two." Every year when the pole comes down Angie irons the ribbons, until they get too ragged to keep. "It's the same maypole, we've just had the pole and the ribbons replaced," Tim smiles with a shrug. After the dance is done the night goes late with Everett playing a square dance on a homemade floor and little groups splitting off, playing around warm crackling campfires. Now one of the big selling points that was made to me when I first attended a few years back was the breakfast. You play tunes until late, Britt said, and you wake up and there's crepes. Sure enough on Sunday morning there's Everett again, sharing a skill he'd picked up from French friends while living in Germany. "Our get-togethers, the focal point, almost the whole reason we got together was for a crepe specatular." His way of giving back then is this big social breakfast. What's more, Jeanne DeFriese follows this up with a huge cast iron skillet of migas with nopales (and by eleven o' clock she'd refilled the huge coffee maker seven times). While folks gorge themselves on breakfast, the front porch is singing with gospel, country and bluegrass. Nancy Griffith thumps out bass lines with her husband Robert singing crisp harmonies alongside daughter Rose, as it has been since she was a kid. Others join the jam,or just sit in rocking chairs watching a half-dozen flitting hummingbirds chase each other around the array of feeders off the porch, set against an open blue sky. "We wouldn't miss it for the world," Robert says. When prompted the trio each choose different favorites from the weekend. For Robert, "Standing Room Only" from the Stanleys, for Rose it's the Louvin Brothers' "My Baby's Gone," and Nancy picks "Stormy Waters", the one popularized by Jimmy Martin. Inside the adobe house is a buzz of activity, and Vanessa Gordon taps out bouncy fiddle tunes from the living room's piano. Austin newcomer and banjo player Janet Turley reflects on her first Mayday. "Just enchanting, magical, all those words." There were two competing oldtime jam circles the night prior, and when one would pause the silence would bring the soft call of the Chuck-wills'-widow, and a wafting of music from the other circle. Janet's favorite moment was the jam shifting to cowboy songs, to Old Paint. Anther year with melodies and laughter on the air, with many more to come. Other choice tunes: "Callahan" in cross tuning (with that sliding high note), and one the Woots learned from youtube, "Laughing Gravy" Make sure to check out Everett's band Big Love Car Wash, who play a blend of roots music they call "erstwhile bluegrass" and by now have had an album release show at the 04 Center on June 4th 7 8 �Tim and Angie inherited the maypole from the Lady Bird Johnson Wilflower Center, where they'd been providing music for the annual event. It was first hoisted up on their new property for a groundbreaking project, and by the time the house was built, it was May again. The tradition carries on to this day, though a bit like the Ship of Theseus. Tim recalls parts being replaced over time. "Now, one year Seth, when it was time to take it up (Seth's big and strong) so when he was wobbling it to get it out of the ground he broke it in two." Every year when the pole comes down Angie irons the ribbons, until they get too ragged to keep. "It's the same maypole, we've just had the pole and the ribbons replaced," Tim smiles with a shrug. After the dance is done the night goes late with Everett playing a square dance on a homemade floor and little groups splitting off, playing around warm crackling campfires. Now one of the big selling points that was made to me when I first attended a few years back was the breakfast. You play tunes until late, Britt said, and you wake up and there's crepes. Sure enough on Sunday morning there's Everett again, sharing a skill he'd picked up from French friends while living in Germany. "Our get-togethers, the focal point, almost the whole reason we got together was for a crepe specatular." His way of giving back then is this big social breakfast. What's more, Jeanne DeFriese follows this up with a huge cast iron skillet of migas with nopales (and by eleven o' clock she'd refilled the huge coffee maker seven times). While folks gorge themselves on breakfast, the front porch is singing with gospel, country and bluegrass. Nancy Griffith thumps out bass lines with her husband Robert singing crisp harmonies alongside daughter Rose, as it has been since she was a kid. Others join the jam,or just sit in rocking chairs watching a half-dozen flitting hummingbirds chase each other around the array of feeders off the porch, set against an open blue sky. "We wouldn't miss it for the world," Robert says. When prompted the trio each choose different favorites from the weekend. For Robert, "Standing Room Only" from the Stanleys, for Rose it's the Louvin Brothers' "My Baby's Gone," and Nancy picks "Stormy Waters", the one popularized by Jimmy Martin. Inside the adobe house is a buzz of activity, and Vanessa Gordon taps out bouncy fiddle tunes from the living room's piano. Austin newcomer and banjo player Janet Turley reflects on her first Mayday. "Just enchanting, magical, all those words." There were two competing oldtime jam circles the night prior, and when one would pause the silence would bring the soft call of the Chuck-wills'-widow, and a wafting of music from the other circle. Janet's favorite moment was the jam shifting to cowboy songs, to Old Paint. Anther year with melodies and laughter on the air, with many more to come. Other choice tunes: "Callahan" in cross tuning (with that sliding high note), and one the Woots learned from youtube, "Laughing Gravy" Make sure to check out Everett's band Big Love Car Wash, who play a blend of roots music they call "erstwhile bluegrass" and by now have had an album release show at the 04 Center on June 4th 7 8 �THE GREAT DRONE MYSTAGOGUE by Adam Brodkin You can’t escape it. It’s ever present. Ubiquitous. Whether you’re out in the boondocks or in the middle of a sprawling industrial urban center. It’s there whether you hear it or not. It affects you whether you want it to or not. Sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly. Every culture, on every continent, from the very beginning, has an indigenous form of it. It can simultaneously separate your spirit from your body and drive you insane. I’m not an ethnomusicologist, or an academic, and I have no formal training in music. I have followed the drone as a guiding force in the music I have played over the years. Heavy psychedelic rock and roll, experimental music, and for the last few decades old time and other traditional folk music. It has been the mainstay of the music I play with my partner Aaron Zischkale in the Slaughter Creek Drought Busters. I’ve communed with the drone and found it to be a good thing. This small corner of Reel Times will be dedicated to the drone, wherever I can find it. Some drones I’ve been obsessed with and would like to explore more in 2026 are Dwight Diller’s low G banjo playing, the work of La Monte Young, Isaan music of Northern Thailand, Tuvan throat singing, and the music of Sunn O))). Give in to the drone and scan the QR code at left to meet The Mystagogue and experience a sampling of the music mentioned in this article 9 MAYDAY IN HILL COUNTRY This May marked the 26th anniversary of a party held by Angie and Tim Wooten at their place out in Hill Country. It's a bit of a trek from Austin, with a couple low-water crossings that threaten to make the journey treacherous if there's been rain. But at the end of a winding road atop a hill a host of partygoers gather. The centerpiece of the evening is the maypole, where folks dance in two concentric circles, wrapping multicolored ribbons in a criss-cross around the center. On the outer orbit, a tall fiddle player skips in the opposite direction of the nearest line of dancers. He's Everett Wren, and has amassed years of experience. "If I move counter to them, it almost seems like it's moving faster. Little psychological thing", he grins. In clusters outside the spinning wheel a motley musical procession forms to churn out a marching step for the dancers: "St Anne's Reel", "Old Molly Hare", "La Bastringue. " Folk music circles collide as splashy Irish guitar (David Rabinowicz) plays alongside fiddles, trilling flute, clacking bones (Rich MacMath) and a six-string clawhammer banjo (Bernard Mollberg). "It’s a happy feeling that you get when everybody’s smiling outside, moving around, instead of the way we usually are, in our heads," Angie Wooten muses. "And [the dance] puts people in their bodies and you feel you’re interconnected. Kinda like when we’re playing a tune in a circle, we’re all playing the same tune so we’re connected. In the Maypole everybody’s kind of got the same goal and they’re not thinking about anything except 'up, down, over, under…'" 6 �STARGAZERS WHO CALL THE SHOTS The Tuesday night jam at Stargazer, Springdale Station, attracts folks from all over Austin. Let's get to know em! This issue we catch up with Tristan Walling. Q: Hey Tristan! Tell us how you found the jam A: I met Britt at my drawing meetup and he had a tattoo of a banjo, and I was just starting to play banjo. He invited me out to the jam. Q: What are your strings of choice? A: I have a Deering Goodtime that I usually bring [that night he also brought an old Gibson L3, on which he’s learning an old Bo Carter tune, "The Lead's All Gone"] Q: Best tune to play at a jam? A: John Brown's f*****' Dream, man. Q: What's the most old-time thing you do outside of a jam? A: I grow my mustache. That’s for music too. I’m currently working on a project called The Chronicles of Cowboy Buck Q: At Genuine Joe’s, you noticed that the standup bass was vibrating through the old hardwood floors, that it turned the place into a musical instrument. You took it upon yourself to learn how to say that in Japanese mind throwing that our way? A: Q: What does the jam mean to you? 5 A: I feel absolutely freed as a musician. Came as an absolute beginner and you guys never kicked me out, y'know what I mean? I feel welcome in this whole group, man, and y’all feel like a family to me! 10 �BATCH CRAFT BEER AND KOLACHES STRING BAND SHOW CASE MAY 10, 2025 This past May marked the third String Band Show Case at Batch, an AFTM-hosted event in which Austin old-time players take to the indoor stage in various string band incarnations for an evening of raucous acoustic tunes. Frosty pints of beer flow and kolaches sweet and savory are devoured to melodies from Appalachia and beyond. THE DUCK RIVER DISPATCH Intrepid correspondents journey from Austin's cozy jam scene to the wide world of festivals. They bring back tunes and stories from the road. This issue we check in with Britt Irick and Rose Griffith, who back in April drove 7 hours up the 35 corridor to the The Greenleaf Old Time Music Festival in Braggs, Oklahoma. The clear weather was perfection, befitting of the state park's name, and the jam circles formed easily throughout the day. The attendance is still fairly small, around 320 people this year. "Everybody knows everybody," Britt remarks, "cause a lot of people are CROMA refugees." With the Colorado festival now defunct, Greenleaf has become a new meeting spot. "Jams are pretty magnetic there," he says, "start a jam, people see you and join in." Of course the first question you've gotta ask the weary travelers is, "new tunes?" And they certainly brought back a keeper, learning "The Old She Possum Skating on the Ice" from Tricia Spencer, a great cut from a Jimmy Triplett CD. Los Fandangeros de Austin (L to R): Joanna Saucedo, Chris Ledesma, Rodrigo Leal, Carlos Salazar, Marino Miranda, Erik Salinas, Jerónimo James Sexton Macias The energy out of the gate was propulsive as Los Fandangeros de Austin took the stage. Six string-slingers strummed jaranas of various sizes and types, with Joanna Saucedo seated at the marimbol, thumping out bass lines. Their music hails from Veracruz and features a powerful call-and-response structure, a social call to dance and sing ("made for convivio"). When not at the marimbol Joanna tapped out dance steps on a wooden platform (a humble cube of 2x4s that I patched together during the height of the pandemic, when learning some flatfooting steps). Quick-thinking Joanna slid a yoga mat under the box to keep it from sliding across Batch's tile floor! 11 Rose, as a trusty backup guitarist, focuses less on tune names and more on the company and song. "I don't necessarily learn the names of the tunes. But I will say I was pretty blissed out for the entire week." One morning she joined Marge Mullaney and Bob Atchinson and sang a "dynamite" version of Long Journey Home, "one of the saddest songs in country music." There were workshops and vendors aplenty, and Britt stopped by the Beautiful Music Violin Shop booth, in from Kansas. "I was trying to avoid it, because I knew if I went over there I would walk away with something." He picked up a Hopf violin and "it played itself", so he didn't leave without it. So get out next year to Greenleaf for tunes, friends and fiddles, April 12-18, 2026 4 �FRESH SHELLAC Rhiannon Gidden's staccato old-time banjo pierces the warm summer drone of 17-year cicadas, alongside the driving bow of her old Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson. They bring us the impromptu energy of a back porch jam with eighteen tunes begging to be learned and shared. From killer takes on chestnuts (“Ebenezer”) to intriguingly titled obscurities (“Duck’s Eyeball”), this record is packed with energy and will have your fingers itching to pick. Not a ton of blockbuster films reference Charley Patton, Geechie Wiley, and Rocky Road to Dublin, so hopefully old-time fans caught Sinners in theaters, a story of Black resistance and joy in the Jim Crow-era South that director Ryan Coogler spins into a universal statement about a deeply human relationship to music, pleasure, and spiritual danger. The album isn’t your usual oldtime fare but is well worth a listen for actor Miles Caton’s gorgeous rendering of delta blues (he impressively learned slide guitar for the role), and an exclusive cut from Rhiannon and Justin. 3 West Virginia and Pennsylvania natives The Wild Shoats released their first proper album, full of both original fiddle tunes that would fit nicely in a jam, and achingly emotional songwriting. Just tuck into the opening strains of “Clara” and be taken away as the band applies the pulse of traditional fiddle to sorrowful bury-me-not lyrics inspired by Lonesome Dove. When singer and fiddler Mary Linschield brings the last refrain up an octave, it has me breaking out in goosebumps. Gorgeous version of "Moonshiner" (and great imagery about his breath) with buzzy baritone harmonies from bandmate Augustus Tristch. This was a huge help as I took to the board to double-chug some flatfoot steps during the Dog Day String Band's set, to a certain possum-themed tune that just happened to be mentioned in our Duck River Dispatch section. The Dogs include myself (fiddle and mandolin) and Adam (upright bass and banjo), with Britt Irick fiddling and whacking out rhythms on a banjo uke (the shrink-dried version of the banjo). He also picked up 12 �guitar for an unusually sweet Dock Boggs tune, the wistful old ballad "Papa Build Me a Boat." Rose Griffith completes the group, lending lovely harmonies to Carter Family tunes and bringing a powerful holler to Hazel Dickens' hard-luck number, "Busted." A mainstay of the Show Case has been BYK, a power trio consisting of Joslyn Boyer (upright bass), Zephyr Yellman (fiddle), and Tim Keough (fiddle and guitar). They forged their sound from summer morning jams (I'll never forget hearing a phone recording of their twin-fiddle harmonizing on the old PT Bell tune "Mace Bell's Civil War March." The audience thrills every time Joslyn draws her bass bow from a h on the instrument and bellows a melody. The three of them have curated a fantastic set, and I'm still blown away at how deftly Zephyr twists the pegs of his fiddle in and out of rich open tunings to lend each piece a unique sound. The highlight this set was the twisty, BYK serenade at Batch (L to R, Joslyn Boyer, Zephyr Yellman, Tim Keough) winding "Dusty Miller" from Missouri's Gene Goforth, a tune Tim heard a few years back at CROMA from Steam Machine's AJ Srubas. Zephyr wound up winning a ribbon at Clifftop with the tune, and it wowed again at Batch. By this time of the night the place was packed, and I squeezed through the line at the counter for my instruments for the last set. Near the front door, Los Fandangeros played an impromptu happy birthday for a beaming girl, with the crowded room stomping their feet behind the semi-circle of musicians. As the Slaughter Creek Drought Busters, Adam and I atttempted to end with a nightcap, soothing the room with a meditative acoustic drone, bathed in violet light he had rented for the show. Using unique open tunings for fiddle and banjo, we conjured a long take on a West Virginia tune learned from Dwight Diller, "Piney Woods." The tune unwound over a sonic texture of bowed banjo (on loop from a guitar pedal), and a shruti box operated in turns by Lindsey Zischkale and Heather Brodkin. Another great night at Batch - huge thanks to Darrel Mayers with AFTM, and Adam and Henry Brodkin for doing the hectic job of running sound, and Gabriel Lit for giving us the space to share our music! 13 REEL TIMES SUMMER 2025 Howdy all you pickers and bowers, singers and shouters, clawhammerers, dulcimer hammerers, you noisemakers of all kinds! Reel Times is under new management, with Adam Brodkin and myself filling the big shoes Gary Mortensen left. So we're gonna bring you the Old-Time word, wherever banjos, ballads, yeah even bodhrans, sound off. From Austin, Texas, around the world, and back again. We'll print big events, new tunes, voices from the community: all about homemade acoustic roots music and the folks who make it. This issue we'll kick things off with a few great albums we've been spinning all summer, check in with our festival correspondents, get a peek at the twenty-sixth year of a great shindig out in Hill Country, hear from one of our regular pickers at the Tuesday night jam, lose oureslves to the drone, and finish with a report on the latest String Band Showcase at Batch out off of Airport. And don't forget that This October is our big Austin String Band Festival, so SAVE THE DATE and come on out to Camp Ben McCulloch in Driftwood, October 17 - 19. Bring your jam tunes and get ready for a great lineup: we've got Guy Forsyth's 78 Special, Brandi WallerPace, the Here & Now Band, Spencer & Rains, and the Lost Keys, Missy Beth & the Morning Afters, Mariachi Las Altenas, Luke Moody, Everett Wren, BYK, Corey McCauley, Steel Grassy, and the Austin City Quicksteppers! There'll also be a SILENT AUCTION!! Please donate items (musical instruments, books, artwork, etc.)! Contact Lee Thomas (817-480-5561) for pick-up or bring items to the festival kitchen on Saturday morning, Oct 18. SEE Y'ALL THERE! 2 �REEL TIMES SUMMER 2025 EDITED AND WRITTEN BY ADAM BRODKIN AND AARON ZISCHKALE AFTM CALENDAR FRESH SHELLAC.............................................................3 THE DUCK RIVER DISPATCH.....................................4 STARGAZERS WHO CALL THE SHOTS....................5 MAYDAY AT THE WOOTEN'S......................................6 THE GREAT DRONE MYSTAGOGUE........................9 BATCH STRING BAND SHOW CASE.........................11 EMAIL US AT REEL.TIMES.AFTM@GMAIL.COM 1 14 �OTAF REEL TIMES SUMMER 2025 drop thumbs not bombs � 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 52 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/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 52, Number 1 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Aaron and Adam Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available AFTM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2025-09 http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/10/326/ReelT531.pdf 1ff0b7ee544641373651289b828b4ebf PDF Text Text ���������������� 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 53 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/. Title A name given to the resource Reel Times - Volume 53, Number 1 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Aaron and Adam Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available AFTM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2026-02 http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/4/73/SCDB-Setlist-Batch-2024-09-19.pdf 39024c9f58a743d00ae963847c525c40 PDF Text Text Slaughter Creek Drought Busters 19 September 2024 Batch Show Setlist, Notes, Source Links �Dead Man's Piece: Banjo: fCFCD, Sanshin: CFC "Similar to another tune but specific to Lee Hammons. He said that an old man liked the tune so well that he wanted it played all night at his wake. So banjo players sat up and traded the banjo around and accommodated him. Lee couldn't remember the dead man’s name. This is why he called it ‘the Dead Man's Piece’." - Dwight Diller from “Obscure Underground Clawhammer Banjo from Mysterious Central West Virginia.” The Hammons Family played music for generations along the Williams River in West Virginia, preserving some distinct and powerful old music We play this one as a duet with the Sanshin, ancestor of the more familiar Shamisen. The sanshin is Japan's banjo and has Chinese origins. The US banjo has West African origins. Below is a link to Dwight Diller performing this tune. Walking In the Parlor: Banjo: gCGCD, Guitar: Standard We play Lee Hammons’ version. “Probably something like an old ‘playparty song’. It does have words that go along with it. Something like: “Walkin in th’ parlor, walkin in th’ring, walkin in th’parlor to hear the banjo ring; ………”. Dwight Diller. �Abe's Retreat > Yew Piney Mountain: Banjo: gGDGD, Fiddle: GDGD Both are Dwight Diller's banjo arrangements. Abe’s Retreat is loosely based on the fiddling of Emory Bailey, Played in his slow and steady clawhammer style. Uses a tuning with a deep bellow that Dwight called Low G. Refers to the first Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle of the US Civil War. And the first retreat for the Union Army. Yew Pines are a type of Red Spruce. “The “yew pine,” for the old mountain people around here, was the ‘red spruce’ which grows at approximately 4000’ and above. The Wright Bros used ‘yew pine’ red spruce boards in their ‘airship’ while building it down at Kitty Hawk back in about 1903.” Dwight Diller. Abe’s Retreat – Emory Bailey fiddle Abe’s Retreat – Dwight Diller banjo Yew Piney Mountain – Dwight Diller banjo Shady Grove: Banjo: gDGCD, Fiddle: GDGD Frankenstein tune using two version of an old melody called Shady Grove. Instrumental section comes from banjo master Wade Ward of Independence, Virginia. Born in the late 1890's and having a sharp striking attack in his signature clawhammer style. The singing part is based loosely on the banjo playing of Doc Watson. �Shady Grove – Doc Watson banjo. Shady Grove – Wade Ward banjo Speed of the Plow: Banjo: gGDGD, Fiddle: GDGD Tune from East Kentucky fiddler John Morgan Salyer, who was recorded at home by his kids in the early 40's. Yew Piney Mountain - Lester McCumbers: Banjo: gGDGD, Fiddle: GDGD Lester was a monster player from Nicut, WV. He played some slow, groovy, crooked tunes with the fiddle tucked into his shoulder. �Brown's Dream: Banjo: gGDGD, Fiddle: GDGD From the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers of Tennessee. Family string band with a driving country sound. Somehow wound up receiving a visit from the Sex Pistols during the punk band's disastrous US tour in the late 70's. One of a family of tunes named after the famous abolitionist John Brown. "John Brown dreamed the devil was dead", as Round Peak, North Carolina fiddler Tommy Jarrell would shout over the tune.] Greasy Coat: Banjo: gDGCD, Fiddle: GDGD A Hammons tune from a digerent interpreter, closely following folk revival fiddler Lisa Ornstein's playing. Lot of debate in the old-time community on what exactly the title refers to. Greasy Coat - Andy Cahan, Laura Fishleder, Lisa Ornstein Old Greasy Coat – Edden Hammons � 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 Things that Happen at Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 19-September-2022 Description An account of the resource <p><strong>Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches </strong>has become a home away from home for traditional music. They host Old Time Music gigs and have a Sunday <a href="https://www.theangelsshare.live/event/ctba-bluegrass-jam-at-batch/2024-10-13/">CTBA sponsored bluegrass jam</a>.</p> <p>3220 Manor Road <br />Austin, Texas<br />78723 <br />512-401-3025 <br />info@batchatx.com</p> 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 Slaughter Creek Drought Busters - Setlist - Batch Show 19-September-2024 Description An account of the resource Setlist that has backgrounds and sources of the tunes and songs we played at the Batch show on 19-September-2024.. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Adam Brodkin and Aaron Zischkale Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 19-September-2024 Aaron Zischkale Adam Brodkin Batch Slaughter Creek Drought Busters http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/6/72/IMG_2009.jpeg 34977554340c1f8552de3f416ff7c614 http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/6/72/IMG_2011.jpeg 8a656f627647bdecdac8699d8854fc10 http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/6/72/IMG_2013.jpeg f0bae0c452e68c06e0506013cf6938be http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/6/72/IMG_2014.jpeg 1c5fdb6fe2bd8243e00f02ef1b365182 http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/6/72/IMG_2010.MOV 2cedb53dd1c7244d3e873592518563bf http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/6/72/IMG_2012.MOV fe09b4587cd856e1a57930bb041a304b 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 International Traditional Music Description An account of the resource Folk and traditional music form around the world. Generally from events and happenings in and arround Central Texas. 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 Takase Kochihira, Sanshin Player, Okinawa Japan. Description An account of the resource Sanshin (special three strings guitar like instrument from Okinawa) musician Takase Kochihira will perform a special live mini concert! Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1-October-2024 Sanshin http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/9/298/AFTM_Festival_Sara_Cleveland_1976.pdf dd88270cc9c10abb962aa48f7ba3e07c PDF Text Text � 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 Posters, Fliers, and Other Art. 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 The Austin Traditional Music Festival Description An account of the resource THE AUSTIN TRADITIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL featuring SARA CLEVELAND &traditional musicians from Houston & Austin Zilker Hillside Theatre September 11 & 12 Saturday Saturday Sunday 3-5:30 7:30-10 3-5:30 Free to the Public sponsored by The Austin Friends of Traditional Music &PARD Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Earl Hunt Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976-09-11-12 The Austin Traditional Music Festival 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 Audio Archive Org Audio archiveorg_audio_embed gkb02 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 The Grassy Knoll Boys 14-November-1993 Description An account of the resource Studio recordings. Bob Grant - mandolin, guitar, vocals Keith Harrison- banjo Will Walden - guitar, vocals Jimbo Young - fiddle, guitar, vocals Adam Brodkin - bass Adam Brodkin Bob Grant Jimbo Young Keith Harrison The Grassy Knoll Boys Will Walden 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 Audio 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 The Grassy Knoll Boys Live on KUT 12-December-1993 Description An account of the resource The grassy Knoll Boys live on KUT radio, Folkways with Dan Foster, Austin, TX. Bob Grant - mandolin, guitar, vocals Keith Harrison- banjo Will Walden - guitar, vocals Jimbo Young - fiddle, guitar, vocals Adam Brodkin - bass Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <p><!-- Wimpy Engine (you only need one of these) --> <script src="http://storage.theangelsshare.live/wimpy/wimpy.js"></script> <!-- Wimpy Player --></p> <div style="width: 50%; height: 100%;" data-wimpyplayer="" data-skin="http://storage.theangelsshare.live/wimpy/wimpy.skins/flume.tsv" data-coverart="http://storage.theangelsshare.live/aftm-logo.jpg" data-responsive="1" data-startuptext="{&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Grassy Knoll Boys&quot;,&quot;album&quot;:&quot;GKB KUT 1993-12-11&quot;,&quot;artist&quot;:&quot;Grassy Knoll Boys&quot;}" data-volume="0.75" data-downloadenable="1" data-media="[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;1729917164&quot;,&quot;file&quot;:&quot;http://storage.theangelsshare.live/wimpy/media/GKB_KUT_1993-12-11/01 Shenandoah Breakdown.mp3&quot;,&quot;kind&quot;:&quot;mp3&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;01 Shenandoah Breakdown&quot;},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;1729917165&quot;,&quot;file&quot;:&quot;http://storage.theangelsshare.live/wimpy/media/GKB_KUT_1993-12-11/02 Wind Beneath My Collar.mp3&quot;,&quot;kind&quot;:&quot;mp3&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;02 Wind Beneath My Collar&quot;},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;1729917167&quot;,&quot;file&quot;:&quot;http://storage.theangelsshare.live/wimpy/media/GKB_KUT_1993-12-11/03 Rain and Snow.mp3&quot;,&quot;kind&quot;:&quot;mp3&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;03 Rain and Snow&quot;},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;1729917164&quot;,&quot;file&quot;:&quot;http://storage.theangelsshare.live/wimpy/media/GKB_KUT_1993-12-11/04 The Windmill Song.mp3&quot;,&quot;kind&quot;:&quot;mp3&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;04 The Windmill Song&quot;}]"></div> Bluegrass Dan Foster Grassy Knoll Boys KUT http://archive.aftm.us/files/original/5/71/scdb.jpeg 28e3a2ea3bc19ffe11b029f302c625aa 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 Audio 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 The Slaughter Creek Drought Busters - Early Jams Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <iframe width="100%" height="600" scrolling="yes" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1305091306&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true&amp;visual=true"></iframe> <div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc; line-break: anywhere; word-break: normal; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/adam-brodkin" title="brazosbound" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener">brazosbound</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/adam-brodkin/sets/aaron-fiddle-adam-banjo" title="Aaron - fiddle, Adam - banjo" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener">Aaron - fiddle, Adam - banjo</a></div> Aaron Zischkale Adam Brodkin Slaughter Creek Drought Busters 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 Audio Archive Org Audio archiveorg_audio_embed suspenders 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 The Suspenders on KUT in 1997 Description An account of the resource The Suspenders were a dance band. Played at the "High Time Tea Bar and Brain Gym" every Saturday afternoon for awhile. Dan Foster had us on "Folkways" at least a few times. Heather Brodkin recorded this onto a cassette off the radio at the time. Matt Gordon = Fiddle Ralph White = Fretless Banjo Will Walden = Guitar Adam Brodkin = Bass Adam Brodkin Dan Foster Folkways Matt Gordon Ralph White Will Walden