On Mon, 16 Oct 2000, Keith W Dunn wrote:
>
> Lets see what we can do! ( this comming from an already time-deficient
> working family man )
> Hopefully the fiddle tent at the Stone Mountain Highland Games will draw
> some interested parties, who, like me, can't seem to find contacts for
> such a gathering. It would certainly be good if there was some sort of
> way that there could be a sign up sheet at the tent - for folks who are
> interested to list names, addresses, email, phone # or any other contact
> info. Atleast there would be somewhat of a list of those interested in
> the Scots fiddle music. Any Idea how this might be able to be made
> available?
> Atlanta and the suburbs is so spread out that distance will deter a lot
> of folks from being involved.
Seriously, good luck with this. I've tried it myself before and
failed. Ask yourself this question: "What is it that really fosters true
commitment?" If you can make others understand the answer to that, then I
think you will have a better chance then I did.
>
> I attended the fiddle contest at the Ga. Mountain Fair in Hiawassee this
> weekend . I was not a contestant, I just happened to be camping about 15
> mi. away with the family and knew about the contest. There were contests
> for mandolin, harmonica, banjo, dobro, guitar, dulcimer and most of all
> ....... fiddling. The fiddling was the major event as there was a "King
> or Queen Fiddler" crowned at the final event. ( which was chosen through
> a "fiddle-off" between the winners of the Junior fiddler and the Senior
> Fiddler ) It wound up being a "Queen" but I forgot her name. She
> seemed to be in her early 20's and she played some of the tunes that
> Natalie McMaster plays. She was great! Quiet a few of the other
> contestants on other instruments, as well as the fiddle, played some
> other Scots tunes.......one of which I remember was "Whiskey Before
> Breakfast". Unless I'm wrong.......bluegrass music is heavily
> influenced by Scottish music. Mostly out of the Appalachian Mtns. I
> know there are a lot of Scottish Sir names among the folks living in the
> Blue Ridge Mtns. ( which is the most southerly range of the
> Appalachians.)
I am one of those people. One half of my people are from Boone and
Granite Falls. The other half of them are from across the Pacific :-)
Unfortunately, blood does not equal culture. Whereas culture can
easily overcome blood. There are Gaelic speaking black families in Nova
Scotia. Gaelic isn't spoken in Africa. Now how did that happen? :-)
I think you will find a plethora of bluegrass players all over the
Southeast and a very strong network of jam sessions, I know they had a jam
session with some serious players over at the Georgia Tech campus. Bluegrass
is as established a part of southern culture as cornbread, sweetened tea and
mud boggin'. The southeast is ground zero for bluegrass. The best
bluegrass players anywhere come from the Southeast.
You can't reasonably expect to separate one element of an alien
culture, ie: Scottish music, and expect it to survive and build
upon itself surrounded by a different majority culture. What will happen
is it will either assimilate or disappear.
So that's what happened with bluegrass, it's an assimilation.
Scottish settlers came over and established small farms in the hills. One of
the primary forms of entertainment for people in the hills is playing music in
people's houses. From the very beginning, the hills are a melting pot of
people, there are Highland Scots, Lowland Scots, Irish, French, German,
Black, and Native Indians living there. They all listen to each other's
music and start trading ideas and instruments. So soon you have reels
being played on banjos. Banjos aren't from Scotland. You have high
lonesome singing getting a heavy influence from black spirituals. It all
comes together and after awhile, it takes on an identity and life of it's
own. It becomes bluegrass.
The only way around this, the only way to really preserve and
foster the learning of parent traditions is to have relatively insular
communities with a critical mass of people from the same parent culture
living in an area where outsiders may be welcomed on visits, but it is
always understood that they are not "from here". The locals will always
keep this in the back of their minds. Outsiders may even move into
the area, but only their offspring can truly become part of parent
culture, because they will grow up surrounded by it.
Some cultures are more militant and commited to preserving their
parent culture and language then others. Some examples that come to mind
are the Armenian and Yugoslavian communities here in Los Angeles.
Other cultures are very commited to preserving their own culture
and language, but at the same time are very commited to borrowing elements
of other cultures and applying their own cultural mores to them.
Le Meas,
Toby
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