Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[Mando Chef]

My inlaws think that my liking bluegrass makes me a fan of the
banjo so they invited me to a Banjo Jamboree at the Grand Opry
House in Galveston, TX last year and it was mostly Dixie Jazz and a
couple classical and of course a few bob wills classics.  All were
tenor and for some songs half broke out in Mandolins then half of them
broke out in Mandolas.  It was interesting to say the least.  It made
me think of How do you keep two banjo players in time with each
other?  shoot one.  I was ready to use that lone bullet on myself
by the end.  That was a tremendous amount of oral stimulation.   I
guess being married, one could overdose on oral stimulation rather
quicker than the single folks.
Later...

On Feb 18, 5:02 pm, mistertaterbug taterbugmu...@gmail.com wrote:
 Oh, and I forgot to mention, if one ingests enough collards, you will
 definitely move...
 Taters and Greens

 On Feb 18, 4:23 pm, mistertaterbug taterbugmu...@gmail.com wrote:

  Aha, now I get it. Sorry, but it's hard for me to think about more
  than one thing at a time like you young college whippersnappers. So,
  New Jersey was a mecca for banjo enthusiasts in the early days? Cool.
  Thanks for taking up for banjo players and trying to keep the
  bubbatooth syndrome in check.You've got at least one attaboy for
  that. I get as much mileage out of banjo jokes as the next guy, but I
  know the reality is there's a lot of very complicated music played on
  banjos, and not just by classical players.  I reckon if anybody could
  bring respectability to banjo culture it would've been guys like
  Ossman and Van Eps (Aren't Fred Van Eps' recordings supposed to have
  been one of Earl Scruggs influences?). But beings this comes up, I
  wonder if  so much minstrel and classical banjo music came from the
  northeast because of business opportunities (publishing/printing/
  licensing) due to the number of people and venues closer together, or
  was it due to the most prominent players of the instrument in that day
  being located there, which obviously would attract more prominent
  writers/players? I know that there were a number of banjo
  manufacturers located in the Northeast. Why would the North feel so
  compelled to write romantic musical scenes about the South, however
  unrealistic? How romantic was it for the blacks and the dirt-poor
  whites? I doubt it had anything to do with climate.

  I do find it funny that you brought up the NJ connection considering
  Hartford said one time that you gotta be Jewish and from NJ to play
  oldtime music these days. I think he was kidding, but still the
  reality of it may not be too far off base.

  Val, where could a copy of The  Secret Lives of Banjos be obtained?
  And yes, I do think that 27 banjos in one place is way over the legal
  limit. There's probably an ordinance against it someplace.

  puhtater

  On Feb 18, 12:18 pm, Val Mindel vmin...@gmail.com wrote:

   Mike H, if you ever get a chance to catch The secret lives of
   banjos, you should. It's a show put together by Jody Stecher and Bill
   Evans and includes a great story about Arctic explorations, banjos and
   penguins ... It also shows the broad reach of the instrument. They use
   something Iike 27 banjos in their show and demonstrate convincingly
   that the banjo has a wild and well-traveled history.

   Meanwhile, for my $.02, I think we can play outside our immediate
   zones, just as we listen outside those zones, given sufficient will
   and passion/obsession. It's a matter of relating to the underlying
   emotion. Music really is generated from just a few main themes --
   love, death, god, events, work  -- mixed and matched as appropriate,
   and we can relate to these themes, even if the specifics (collard
   greens) are foreign. Granted there is music that is outside my ken
   (Chinese opera, for example), but I suspect that if I wanted to and
   had a spare lifetime to mess around with it, I could tackle anything
   that moved me. But being moved by it is the key. Just look at some of
   our Japanese old-time musician friends who play great, with scrupulous
   regard for the channels the music has come through. Of course, the
   farther you are from the source, the harder it is to pick up the
   nuances, rhythmic and otherwise, but I don't buy the you-gotta-have-
   been-born-there notion, nor do I think the music died with some past
   generation. Many young people are playing it well, with great
   attention to detail and history, and not-so-young people like me are
   still working at playing it, and that's a good thing, I think. But
   then I've spent much of my life in zones where the frost-free date
   skated to the end of June (or where other climatic realities dominate)
   so I'm hardly any sort of argument for regional authenticity. best,
   val

   On Feb 18, 11:19 am, Mike Hoffmann mikehoffma...@gmail.com wrote:

Tater tater tater tater tate-
Your post was about ethnic groups and then there was a 

Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[secsc2]

 
That one has been running around on the mental soundstrack since I read this yesterday, and unfortunately it's the repeated falsetto backing, "In the ghetto...in the ghetto."

 -- Original message from Dasspunk dassp...@gmail.com: --


 
 And his momma cried...
 
 On Feb 17, 3:53pm, mistertaterbug  wrote:
  Ghetto?
 
  On Feb 17, 2:23pm, Mike Hoffmann  wrote:
 
   Nelson - I disagree, I think that there are a ton of young people playing
   music today and writing original music.
 
   Tater-
   you just reminded me. I really should be reading Making the second ghetto
   instead of playing mandolin.
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Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[mistertaterbug]

Well, Hoffsking, forgive me for being so dense, but I dont' get it.
Bugs

On Feb 17, 4:22 pm, Mike Hoffmann mikehoffma...@gmail.com wrote:
 Oh sorry, I forget to add the subtitle - race and housing in chicago
 1940-1960.

 On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 4:53 PM, mistertaterbug 
 taterbugmu...@gmail.comwrote:



  Ghetto?

  On Feb 17, 2:23 pm, Mike Hoffmann mikehoffma...@gmail.com wrote:
   Nelson - I disagree, I think that there are a ton of young people playing
   music today and writing original music.

   Tater-
   you just reminded me.  I really should be reading Making the second
  ghetto
   instead of playing mandolin.
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Taterbugmando group.
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Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[Mike Hoffmann]

Tater tater tater tater tate-
Your post was about ethnic groups and then there was a sentence about
Chicago.  I drank a cup of coffee and read a big chunk of a book (Making the
second ghetto - race and housing in chicago 1940-1960) that I really should
have already finished yesterday before working on music.  The chapter I left
half finished was on white ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago.  Then the coffee
actually started working and I picked up my mandolin and was playing and
listening to stuff on my computer whence I should have been doing homwork.
 That lead to reading this mailing list and thus your post, reminding me
about white ethnic groups and Chicago and that I should be reading that
book.  I guess I should have just left the response in my head!  Sorry for
leading us off track.

On another note, I was once told that NJ was a hotbed of classical banjo
activity.  I also just read an account of a North Pole expedition that
mentioned banjos AND accordions playing home sweet home while in the arctic.
 I think banjos were everywhere.  Fred Van Eps and Vess Ossman both lived
here and played extensively in Asbury Park, but certainly not old-time
music.  My dad always calls our local area banjo land because he gets
frustrated at the inability to think liberally at school board meetings and
such.  I always get mad and remind him that it takes a large mind to play a
banjo.  The banjo gets pigeonholed as a rural, southern thing.  Even a lot
of the minstrel stuff was written in NYC, and it certainly romanticized the
south.  There is something about fantasizing about the South for us
Northerners.  Even Dixie was written up North.  Maybe that is why old-time
music is so popular up North in New England, MN, and Wisconsin specifically.
 It's cold and in the south it is so warm.  I get jealous when I listen to
Charlie McCoy sing, in the wintertime I'm doing mighty well, but in the
summertime its a burning hell because in the wintertime here it is cold!

On a side note, I am watching Dora the Explorer with my niece right now and
a flower is lost in the snow and they are trying to find their way back to
warmer climates.  Perhaps that is the same as us Northern flowers listening
mournfully to southbound trains.  Also, in the background I could swear they
keep playing little brown jug.


need to organize my thoughts better
Mike H

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Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[Dasspunk]

Personally, I'm a fan of mustard greens... and had many a helping as I
carpet bagged down in the land of Tater (old times there are not
forgotten, look away...).

If you are what you eat... do you play what you hear? That is to say,
playing a style well, requires listening to the style. If this is so,
I would think this collared greens theory would have had more merit
back in the day... before recordings and such. Recordings would allow
more non-regional folk, and even more interestingly, more not-yet-
living folk, to listen and learn. To this, I would like to thank those
sons-a-bitch recording pioneers that screwed nice musical folk out of
royalties and such for their own gains... and my gain 'cause it allows
me to own the recordings. Thanks bastards!

And this will be nothing to what the web can offer. Take Mr. Tate R.
Bug for example. That boy's been given lessons over them internets for
years now. I'd call him a trailblazer (among other things). Who'd a
thunk it (besides me I guess)? He's spreading his collared greens all
over the world, live and in person... and all this without having to
leave his house. Amazing really...

B



On Feb 18, 12:18 pm, Val Mindel vmin...@gmail.com wrote:
 Mike H, if you ever get a chance to catch The secret lives of
 banjos, you should. It's a show put together by Jody Stecher and Bill
 Evans and includes a great story about Arctic explorations, banjos and
 penguins ... It also shows the broad reach of the instrument. They use
 something Iike 27 banjos in their show and demonstrate convincingly
 that the banjo has a wild and well-traveled history.

 Meanwhile, for my $.02, I think we can play outside our immediate
 zones, just as we listen outside those zones, given sufficient will
 and passion/obsession. It's a matter of relating to the underlying
 emotion. Music really is generated from just a few main themes --
 love, death, god, events, work  -- mixed and matched as appropriate,
 and we can relate to these themes, even if the specifics (collard
 greens) are foreign. Granted there is music that is outside my ken
 (Chinese opera, for example), but I suspect that if I wanted to and
 had a spare lifetime to mess around with it, I could tackle anything
 that moved me. But being moved by it is the key. Just look at some of
 our Japanese old-time musician friends who play great, with scrupulous
 regard for the channels the music has come through. Of course, the
 farther you are from the source, the harder it is to pick up the
 nuances, rhythmic and otherwise, but I don't buy the you-gotta-have-
 been-born-there notion, nor do I think the music died with some past
 generation. Many young people are playing it well, with great
 attention to detail and history, and not-so-young people like me are
 still working at playing it, and that's a good thing, I think. But
 then I've spent much of my life in zones where the frost-free date
 skated to the end of June (or where other climatic realities dominate)
 so I'm hardly any sort of argument for regional authenticity. best,
 val

 On Feb 18, 11:19 am, Mike Hoffmann mikehoffma...@gmail.com wrote:

  Tater tater tater tater tate-
  Your post was about ethnic groups and then there was a sentence about
  Chicago.  I drank a cup of coffee and read a big chunk of a book (Making the
  second ghetto - race and housing in chicago 1940-1960) that I really should
  have already finished yesterday before working on music.  The chapter I left
  half finished was on white ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago.  Then the coffee
  actually started working and I picked up my mandolin and was playing and
  listening to stuff on my computer whence I should have been doing homwork.
   That lead to reading this mailing list and thus your post, reminding me
  about white ethnic groups and Chicago and that I should be reading that
  book.  I guess I should have just left the response in my head!  Sorry for
  leading us off track.

  On another note, I was once told that NJ was a hotbed of classical banjo
  activity.  I also just read an account of a North Pole expedition that
  mentioned banjos AND accordions playing home sweet home while in the arctic.
   I think banjos were everywhere.  Fred Van Eps and Vess Ossman both lived
  here and played extensively in Asbury Park, but certainly not old-time
  music.  My dad always calls our local area banjo land because he gets
  frustrated at the inability to think liberally at school board meetings and
  such.  I always get mad and remind him that it takes a large mind to play a
  banjo.  The banjo gets pigeonholed as a rural, southern thing.  Even a lot
  of the minstrel stuff was written in NYC, and it certainly romanticized the
  south.  There is something about fantasizing about the South for us
  Northerners.  Even Dixie was written up North.  Maybe that is why old-time
  music is so popular up North in New England, MN, and Wisconsin specifically.
   It's cold and in the south it is so warm.  I get jealous 

Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[Robin Gravina]

Well in my Spanish ghetto we have plenty of greens of mustard and collard
sort, and there has yet to be a heavy blues and southern funk movement
coming out of Castilla. I have to go with Val and say that the emotion does
it, and if you change a couple of words so that a song has some relation to
your own life, then you can own the emotion and sing the thang. In fact I
think that is how the folk process goes pretty much. In the US you have the
luck that people worked on the land and played music until recording
started. In the UK people had largely moved to the city and worked 12 hours
in the cloth factory and had no time or energy for singing, so the tradition
pretty much turned stomach up.

Now if I make a big plate of black eyed peas cooked with a hambone and some
hot pepper, and serve it with rice and collard greens, also with the
hambone, why do Spanish people say it reminds them of home?

Why does Flamenco exist? Why are the lyrics so similar to blues? Are we sad
and do we like dancing? Are we all human? Can I get another beer?

(this was the random rambling thread right?)



On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 8:37 PM, Dasspunk dassp...@gmail.com wrote:


 Personally, I'm a fan of mustard greens... and had many a helping as I
 carpet bagged down in the land of Tater (old times there are not
 forgotten, look away...).

 If you are what you eat... do you play what you hear? That is to say,
 playing a style well, requires listening to the style. If this is so,
 I would think this collared greens theory would have had more merit
 back in the day... before recordings and such. Recordings would allow
 more non-regional folk, and even more interestingly, more not-yet-
 living folk, to listen and learn. To this, I would like to thank those
 sons-a-bitch recording pioneers that screwed nice musical folk out of
 royalties and such for their own gains... and my gain 'cause it allows
 me to own the recordings. Thanks bastards!

 And this will be nothing to what the web can offer. Take Mr. Tate R.
 Bug for example. That boy's been given lessons over them internets for
 years now. I'd call him a trailblazer (among other things). Who'd a
 thunk it (besides me I guess)? He's spreading his collared greens all
 over the world, live and in person... and all this without having to
 leave his house. Amazing really...

 B



 On Feb 18, 12:18 pm, Val Mindel vmin...@gmail.com wrote:
  Mike H, if you ever get a chance to catch The secret lives of
  banjos, you should. It's a show put together by Jody Stecher and Bill
  Evans and includes a great story about Arctic explorations, banjos and
  penguins ... It also shows the broad reach of the instrument. They use
  something Iike 27 banjos in their show and demonstrate convincingly
  that the banjo has a wild and well-traveled history.
 
  Meanwhile, for my $.02, I think we can play outside our immediate
  zones, just as we listen outside those zones, given sufficient will
  and passion/obsession. It's a matter of relating to the underlying
  emotion. Music really is generated from just a few main themes --
  love, death, god, events, work  -- mixed and matched as appropriate,
  and we can relate to these themes, even if the specifics (collard
  greens) are foreign. Granted there is music that is outside my ken
  (Chinese opera, for example), but I suspect that if I wanted to and
  had a spare lifetime to mess around with it, I could tackle anything
  that moved me. But being moved by it is the key. Just look at some of
  our Japanese old-time musician friends who play great, with scrupulous
  regard for the channels the music has come through. Of course, the
  farther you are from the source, the harder it is to pick up the
  nuances, rhythmic and otherwise, but I don't buy the you-gotta-have-
  been-born-there notion, nor do I think the music died with some past
  generation. Many young people are playing it well, with great
  attention to detail and history, and not-so-young people like me are
  still working at playing it, and that's a good thing, I think. But
  then I've spent much of my life in zones where the frost-free date
  skated to the end of June (or where other climatic realities dominate)
  so I'm hardly any sort of argument for regional authenticity. best,
  val
 
  On Feb 18, 11:19 am, Mike Hoffmann mikehoffma...@gmail.com wrote:
 
   Tater tater tater tater tate-
   Your post was about ethnic groups and then there was a sentence about
   Chicago.  I drank a cup of coffee and read a big chunk of a book
 (Making the
   second ghetto - race and housing in chicago 1940-1960) that I really
 should
   have already finished yesterday before working on music.  The chapter I
 left
   half finished was on white ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago.  Then the
 coffee
   actually started working and I picked up my mandolin and was playing
 and
   listening to stuff on my computer whence I should have been doing
 homwork.
That lead to reading this mailing list and thus your post, 

Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[Nelson]

How appropriate that I am reading this as a pot of greens cooks down
on my stove.  They might be foreign to some of you, but they are one
of the best foods for your body that you can find on earth.  Gonna add
some Great Northern beans and mashed taters to go along.

On Feb 18, 3:10 pm, Robin Gravina robin.grav...@gmail.com wrote:
 Well in my Spanish ghetto we have plenty of greens of mustard and collard
 sort, and there has yet to be a heavy blues and southern funk movement
 coming out of Castilla. I have to go with Val and say that the emotion does
 it, and if you change a couple of words so that a song has some relation to
 your own life, then you can own the emotion and sing the thang. In fact I
 think that is how the folk process goes pretty much. In the US you have the
 luck that people worked on the land and played music until recording
 started. In the UK people had largely moved to the city and worked 12 hours
 in the cloth factory and had no time or energy for singing, so the tradition
 pretty much turned stomach up.

 Now if I make a big plate of black eyed peas cooked with a hambone and some
 hot pepper, and serve it with rice and collard greens, also with the
 hambone, why do Spanish people say it reminds them of home?

 Why does Flamenco exist? Why are the lyrics so similar to blues? Are we sad
 and do we like dancing? Are we all human? Can I get another beer?

 (this was the random rambling thread right?)



 On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 8:37 PM, Dasspunk dassp...@gmail.com wrote:

  Personally, I'm a fan of mustard greens... and had many a helping as I
  carpet bagged down in the land of Tater (old times there are not
  forgotten, look away...).

  If you are what you eat... do you play what you hear? That is to say,
  playing a style well, requires listening to the style. If this is so,
  I would think this collared greens theory would have had more merit
  back in the day... before recordings and such. Recordings would allow
  more non-regional folk, and even more interestingly, more not-yet-
  living folk, to listen and learn. To this, I would like to thank those
  sons-a-bitch recording pioneers that screwed nice musical folk out of
  royalties and such for their own gains... and my gain 'cause it allows
  me to own the recordings. Thanks bastards!

  And this will be nothing to what the web can offer. Take Mr. Tate R.
  Bug for example. That boy's been given lessons over them internets for
  years now. I'd call him a trailblazer (among other things). Who'd a
  thunk it (besides me I guess)? He's spreading his collared greens all
  over the world, live and in person... and all this without having to
  leave his house. Amazing really...

  B

  On Feb 18, 12:18 pm, Val Mindel vmin...@gmail.com wrote:
   Mike H, if you ever get a chance to catch The secret lives of
   banjos, you should. It's a show put together by Jody Stecher and Bill
   Evans and includes a great story about Arctic explorations, banjos and
   penguins ... It also shows the broad reach of the instrument. They use
   something Iike 27 banjos in their show and demonstrate convincingly
   that the banjo has a wild and well-traveled history.

   Meanwhile, for my $.02, I think we can play outside our immediate
   zones, just as we listen outside those zones, given sufficient will
   and passion/obsession. It's a matter of relating to the underlying
   emotion. Music really is generated from just a few main themes --
   love, death, god, events, work  -- mixed and matched as appropriate,
   and we can relate to these themes, even if the specifics (collard
   greens) are foreign. Granted there is music that is outside my ken
   (Chinese opera, for example), but I suspect that if I wanted to and
   had a spare lifetime to mess around with it, I could tackle anything
   that moved me. But being moved by it is the key. Just look at some of
   our Japanese old-time musician friends who play great, with scrupulous
   regard for the channels the music has come through. Of course, the
   farther you are from the source, the harder it is to pick up the
   nuances, rhythmic and otherwise, but I don't buy the you-gotta-have-
   been-born-there notion, nor do I think the music died with some past
   generation. Many young people are playing it well, with great
   attention to detail and history, and not-so-young people like me are
   still working at playing it, and that's a good thing, I think. But
   then I've spent much of my life in zones where the frost-free date
   skated to the end of June (or where other climatic realities dominate)
   so I'm hardly any sort of argument for regional authenticity. best,
   val

   On Feb 18, 11:19 am, Mike Hoffmann mikehoffma...@gmail.com wrote:

Tater tater tater tater tate-
Your post was about ethnic groups and then there was a sentence about
Chicago.  I drank a cup of coffee and read a big chunk of a book
  (Making the
second ghetto - race and housing in chicago 1940-1960) that I 

Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[secsc2]

 

Excellent, Nelson. I like to make a pot of Great Northerns with ham and onion and a plate of buttered cornbread. That kills me just thinking about it.

 -- Original message from Nelson nelsonpeddyco...@knology.net: --


 
 How appropriate that I am reading this as a pot of greens cooks down
 on my stove.  They might be foreign to some of you, but they are one
 of the best foods for your body that you can find on earth.  Gonna add
 some Great Northern beans and mashed taters to go along.
 
 On Feb 18, 3:10pm, Robin Gravina  wrote:
  Well in my Spanish ghetto we have plenty of greens of mustard and collard
  sort, and there has yet to be a heavy blues and southern funk movement
  coming out of Castilla. I have to go with Val and say that the emotion does
  it, and if you change a couple of words so that a song has some relation to
  your own life, then you can own the emotion and sing the thang. In fact I
  think that is how the folk process goes pretty much. In the US you have the
  luck that people worked on the land and played music until recording
  started. In the UK people had largely moved to the city and worked 12 hours
  in the cloth factory and had no time or energy for singing, so the tradition
  pretty much turned stomach up.
 
  Now if I make a big plate of black eyed peas cooked with a hambone and some
  hot pepper, and serve it with rice and collard greens, also with the
  hambone, why do Spanish people say it reminds them of home?
 
  Why does Flamenco exist? Why are the lyrics so similar to blues? Are we sad
  and do we like dancing? Are we all human? Can I get another beer?
 
  (this was the random rambling thread right?)
 
 
 
  On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 8:37 PM, Dasspunk  wrote:
 
   Personally, I'm a fan of mustard greens... and had many a helping as I
   carpet bagged down in the land of Tater (old times there are not
   forgotten, look away...).
 
   If you are what you eat... do you play what you hear? That is to say,
   playing a style well, requires listening to the style. If this is so,
   I would think this "collared greens" theory would have had more merit
   back in the day... before recordings and such. Recordings would allow
   more non-regional folk, and even more interestingly, more not-yet-
   living folk, to listen and learn. To this, I would like to thank those
   sons-a-bitch recording pioneers that screwed nice musical folk out of
   royalties and such for their own gains... and my gain 'cause it allows
   me to own the recordings. Thanks bastards!
 
   And this will be nothing to what the web can offer. Take Mr. Tate R.
   Bug for example. That boy's been given lessons over them internets for
   years now. I'd call him a trailblazer (among other things). Who'd a
   thunk it (besides me I guess)? He's spreading his collared greens all
   over the world, live and in person... and all this without having to
   leave his house. Amazing really...
 
   B
 
   On Feb 18, 12:18 pm, Val Mindel  wrote:
Mike H, if you ever get a chance to catch "The secret lives of
banjos," you should. It's a show put together by Jody Stecher and Bill
Evans and includes a great story about Arctic explorations, banjos and
penguins ... It also shows the broad reach of the instrument. They use
something Iike 27 banjos in their show and demonstrate convincingly
that the banjo has a wild and well-traveled history.
 
Meanwhile, for my $.02, I think we can play outside our immediate
zones, just as we listen outside those zones, given sufficient will
and passion/obsession. It's a matter of relating to the underlying
emotion. Music really is generated from just a few main themes --
love, death, god, events, work -- mixed and matched as appropriate,
and we can relate to these themes, even if the specifics (collard
greens) are foreign. Granted there is music that is outside my ken
(Chinese opera, for example), but I suspect that if I wanted to and
had a spare lifetime to mess around with it, I could tackle anything
that moved me. But being moved by it is the key. Just look at some of
our Japanese old-time musician friends who play great, with scrupulous
regard for the channels the music has come through. Of course, the
farther you are from the source, the harder it is to pick up the
nuances, rhythmic and otherwise, but I don't buy the you-gotta-have-
been-born-there notion, nor do I think the music died with some past
generation. Many young people are playing it well, with great
attention to detail and history, and not-so-young people like me are
still working at playing it, and that's a good thing, I think. But
then I've spent much of my life in zones where the frost-free date
skated to the end of June (or where other climatic realities dominate)
so I'm hardly any sort of argument for regional 

Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[mistertaterbug]

Aha, now I get it. Sorry, but it's hard for me to think about more
than one thing at a time like you young college whippersnappers. So,
New Jersey was a mecca for banjo enthusiasts in the early days? Cool.
Thanks for taking up for banjo players and trying to keep the
bubbatooth syndrome in check.You've got at least one attaboy for
that. I get as much mileage out of banjo jokes as the next guy, but I
know the reality is there's a lot of very complicated music played on
banjos, and not just by classical players.  I reckon if anybody could
bring respectability to banjo culture it would've been guys like
Ossman and Van Eps (Aren't Fred Van Eps' recordings supposed to have
been one of Earl Scruggs influences?). But beings this comes up, I
wonder if  so much minstrel and classical banjo music came from the
northeast because of business opportunities (publishing/printing/
licensing) due to the number of people and venues closer together, or
was it due to the most prominent players of the instrument in that day
being located there, which obviously would attract more prominent
writers/players? I know that there were a number of banjo
manufacturers located in the Northeast. Why would the North feel so
compelled to write romantic musical scenes about the South, however
unrealistic? How romantic was it for the blacks and the dirt-poor
whites? I doubt it had anything to do with climate.

I do find it funny that you brought up the NJ connection considering
Hartford said one time that you gotta be Jewish and from NJ to play
oldtime music these days. I think he was kidding, but still the
reality of it may not be too far off base.

Val, where could a copy of The  Secret Lives of Banjos be obtained?
And yes, I do think that 27 banjos in one place is way over the legal
limit. There's probably an ordinance against it someplace.

puhtater

On Feb 18, 12:18 pm, Val Mindel vmin...@gmail.com wrote:
 Mike H, if you ever get a chance to catch The secret lives of
 banjos, you should. It's a show put together by Jody Stecher and Bill
 Evans and includes a great story about Arctic explorations, banjos and
 penguins ... It also shows the broad reach of the instrument. They use
 something Iike 27 banjos in their show and demonstrate convincingly
 that the banjo has a wild and well-traveled history.

 Meanwhile, for my $.02, I think we can play outside our immediate
 zones, just as we listen outside those zones, given sufficient will
 and passion/obsession. It's a matter of relating to the underlying
 emotion. Music really is generated from just a few main themes --
 love, death, god, events, work  -- mixed and matched as appropriate,
 and we can relate to these themes, even if the specifics (collard
 greens) are foreign. Granted there is music that is outside my ken
 (Chinese opera, for example), but I suspect that if I wanted to and
 had a spare lifetime to mess around with it, I could tackle anything
 that moved me. But being moved by it is the key. Just look at some of
 our Japanese old-time musician friends who play great, with scrupulous
 regard for the channels the music has come through. Of course, the
 farther you are from the source, the harder it is to pick up the
 nuances, rhythmic and otherwise, but I don't buy the you-gotta-have-
 been-born-there notion, nor do I think the music died with some past
 generation. Many young people are playing it well, with great
 attention to detail and history, and not-so-young people like me are
 still working at playing it, and that's a good thing, I think. But
 then I've spent much of my life in zones where the frost-free date
 skated to the end of June (or where other climatic realities dominate)
 so I'm hardly any sort of argument for regional authenticity. best,
 val

 On Feb 18, 11:19 am, Mike Hoffmann mikehoffma...@gmail.com wrote:

  Tater tater tater tater tate-
  Your post was about ethnic groups and then there was a sentence about
  Chicago.  I drank a cup of coffee and read a big chunk of a book (Making the
  second ghetto - race and housing in chicago 1940-1960) that I really should
  have already finished yesterday before working on music.  The chapter I left
  half finished was on white ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago.  Then the coffee
  actually started working and I picked up my mandolin and was playing and
  listening to stuff on my computer whence I should have been doing homwork.
   That lead to reading this mailing list and thus your post, reminding me
  about white ethnic groups and Chicago and that I should be reading that
  book.  I guess I should have just left the response in my head!  Sorry for
  leading us off track.

  On another note, I was once told that NJ was a hotbed of classical banjo
  activity.  I also just read an account of a North Pole expedition that
  mentioned banjos AND accordions playing home sweet home while in the arctic.
   I think banjos were everywhere.  Fred Van Eps and Vess Ossman both lived
  here and played extensively in Asbury Park, 

Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[Nelson]

If there isn't there should be.

On Feb 18, 4:23 pm, mistertaterbug taterbugmu...@gmail.com wrote:
 Aha, now I get it. Sorry, but it's hard for me to think about more
 than one thing at a time like you young college whippersnappers. So,
 New Jersey was a mecca for banjo enthusiasts in the early days? Cool.
 Thanks for taking up for banjo players and trying to keep the
 bubbatooth syndrome in check.You've got at least one attaboy for
 that. I get as much mileage out of banjo jokes as the next guy, but I
 know the reality is there's a lot of very complicated music played on
 banjos, and not just by classical players.  I reckon if anybody could
 bring respectability to banjo culture it would've been guys like
 Ossman and Van Eps (Aren't Fred Van Eps' recordings supposed to have
 been one of Earl Scruggs influences?). But beings this comes up, I
 wonder if  so much minstrel and classical banjo music came from the
 northeast because of business opportunities (publishing/printing/
 licensing) due to the number of people and venues closer together, or
 was it due to the most prominent players of the instrument in that day
 being located there, which obviously would attract more prominent
 writers/players? I know that there were a number of banjo
 manufacturers located in the Northeast. Why would the North feel so
 compelled to write romantic musical scenes about the South, however
 unrealistic? How romantic was it for the blacks and the dirt-poor
 whites? I doubt it had anything to do with climate.

 I do find it funny that you brought up the NJ connection considering
 Hartford said one time that you gotta be Jewish and from NJ to play
 oldtime music these days. I think he was kidding, but still the
 reality of it may not be too far off base.

 Val, where could a copy of The  Secret Lives of Banjos be obtained?
 And yes, I do think that 27 banjos in one place is way over the legal
 limit. There's probably an ordinance against it someplace.

 puhtater

 On Feb 18, 12:18 pm, Val Mindel vmin...@gmail.com wrote:



  Mike H, if you ever get a chance to catch The secret lives of
  banjos, you should. It's a show put together by Jody Stecher and Bill
  Evans and includes a great story about Arctic explorations, banjos and
  penguins ... It also shows the broad reach of the instrument. They use
  something Iike 27 banjos in their show and demonstrate convincingly
  that the banjo has a wild and well-traveled history.

  Meanwhile, for my $.02, I think we can play outside our immediate
  zones, just as we listen outside those zones, given sufficient will
  and passion/obsession. It's a matter of relating to the underlying
  emotion. Music really is generated from just a few main themes --
  love, death, god, events, work  -- mixed and matched as appropriate,
  and we can relate to these themes, even if the specifics (collard
  greens) are foreign. Granted there is music that is outside my ken
  (Chinese opera, for example), but I suspect that if I wanted to and
  had a spare lifetime to mess around with it, I could tackle anything
  that moved me. But being moved by it is the key. Just look at some of
  our Japanese old-time musician friends who play great, with scrupulous
  regard for the channels the music has come through. Of course, the
  farther you are from the source, the harder it is to pick up the
  nuances, rhythmic and otherwise, but I don't buy the you-gotta-have-
  been-born-there notion, nor do I think the music died with some past
  generation. Many young people are playing it well, with great
  attention to detail and history, and not-so-young people like me are
  still working at playing it, and that's a good thing, I think. But
  then I've spent much of my life in zones where the frost-free date
  skated to the end of June (or where other climatic realities dominate)
  so I'm hardly any sort of argument for regional authenticity. best,
  val

  On Feb 18, 11:19 am, Mike Hoffmann mikehoffma...@gmail.com wrote:

   Tater tater tater tater tate-
   Your post was about ethnic groups and then there was a sentence about
   Chicago.  I drank a cup of coffee and read a big chunk of a book (Making 
   the
   second ghetto - race and housing in chicago 1940-1960) that I really 
   should
   have already finished yesterday before working on music.  The chapter I 
   left
   half finished was on white ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago.  Then the 
   coffee
   actually started working and I picked up my mandolin and was playing and
   listening to stuff on my computer whence I should have been doing homwork.
    That lead to reading this mailing list and thus your post, reminding me
   about white ethnic groups and Chicago and that I should be reading that
   book.  I guess I should have just left the response in my head!  Sorry for
   leading us off track.

   On another note, I was once told that NJ was a hotbed of classical banjo
   activity.  I also just read an account of a North Pole expedition that
   

Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[mistertaterbug]

Oh, and I forgot to mention, if one ingests enough collards, you will
definitely move...
Taters and Greens

On Feb 18, 4:23 pm, mistertaterbug taterbugmu...@gmail.com wrote:
 Aha, now I get it. Sorry, but it's hard for me to think about more
 than one thing at a time like you young college whippersnappers. So,
 New Jersey was a mecca for banjo enthusiasts in the early days? Cool.
 Thanks for taking up for banjo players and trying to keep the
 bubbatooth syndrome in check.You've got at least one attaboy for
 that. I get as much mileage out of banjo jokes as the next guy, but I
 know the reality is there's a lot of very complicated music played on
 banjos, and not just by classical players.  I reckon if anybody could
 bring respectability to banjo culture it would've been guys like
 Ossman and Van Eps (Aren't Fred Van Eps' recordings supposed to have
 been one of Earl Scruggs influences?). But beings this comes up, I
 wonder if  so much minstrel and classical banjo music came from the
 northeast because of business opportunities (publishing/printing/
 licensing) due to the number of people and venues closer together, or
 was it due to the most prominent players of the instrument in that day
 being located there, which obviously would attract more prominent
 writers/players? I know that there were a number of banjo
 manufacturers located in the Northeast. Why would the North feel so
 compelled to write romantic musical scenes about the South, however
 unrealistic? How romantic was it for the blacks and the dirt-poor
 whites? I doubt it had anything to do with climate.

 I do find it funny that you brought up the NJ connection considering
 Hartford said one time that you gotta be Jewish and from NJ to play
 oldtime music these days. I think he was kidding, but still the
 reality of it may not be too far off base.

 Val, where could a copy of The  Secret Lives of Banjos be obtained?
 And yes, I do think that 27 banjos in one place is way over the legal
 limit. There's probably an ordinance against it someplace.

 puhtater

 On Feb 18, 12:18 pm, Val Mindel vmin...@gmail.com wrote:

  Mike H, if you ever get a chance to catch The secret lives of
  banjos, you should. It's a show put together by Jody Stecher and Bill
  Evans and includes a great story about Arctic explorations, banjos and
  penguins ... It also shows the broad reach of the instrument. They use
  something Iike 27 banjos in their show and demonstrate convincingly
  that the banjo has a wild and well-traveled history.

  Meanwhile, for my $.02, I think we can play outside our immediate
  zones, just as we listen outside those zones, given sufficient will
  and passion/obsession. It's a matter of relating to the underlying
  emotion. Music really is generated from just a few main themes --
  love, death, god, events, work  -- mixed and matched as appropriate,
  and we can relate to these themes, even if the specifics (collard
  greens) are foreign. Granted there is music that is outside my ken
  (Chinese opera, for example), but I suspect that if I wanted to and
  had a spare lifetime to mess around with it, I could tackle anything
  that moved me. But being moved by it is the key. Just look at some of
  our Japanese old-time musician friends who play great, with scrupulous
  regard for the channels the music has come through. Of course, the
  farther you are from the source, the harder it is to pick up the
  nuances, rhythmic and otherwise, but I don't buy the you-gotta-have-
  been-born-there notion, nor do I think the music died with some past
  generation. Many young people are playing it well, with great
  attention to detail and history, and not-so-young people like me are
  still working at playing it, and that's a good thing, I think. But
  then I've spent much of my life in zones where the frost-free date
  skated to the end of June (or where other climatic realities dominate)
  so I'm hardly any sort of argument for regional authenticity. best,
  val

  On Feb 18, 11:19 am, Mike Hoffmann mikehoffma...@gmail.com wrote:

   Tater tater tater tater tate-
   Your post was about ethnic groups and then there was a sentence about
   Chicago.  I drank a cup of coffee and read a big chunk of a book (Making 
   the
   second ghetto - race and housing in chicago 1940-1960) that I really 
   should
   have already finished yesterday before working on music.  The chapter I 
   left
   half finished was on white ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago.  Then the 
   coffee
   actually started working and I picked up my mandolin and was playing and
   listening to stuff on my computer whence I should have been doing homwork.
    That lead to reading this mailing list and thus your post, reminding me
   about white ethnic groups and Chicago and that I should be reading that
   book.  I guess I should have just left the response in my head!  Sorry for
   leading us off track.

   On another note, I was once told that NJ was a hotbed of classical banjo
   

Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[mistertaterbug]

Ah, spoken like a true chef. I mean, who else would use the word
infused with hock?

Damn, what a big can of worms. Interesting way of looking at the music
scene. Does this mean that banjos will only be perennial below zone 5?
I suppose accordians overwinter well in zone 3 providing there is only
a mild freeze. Is there a natural pest that plagues accordians? Seems
the answer is a resounding no, but then, it might be polkas.

You know, I think that the choice of instruments had more to do with
the nationality of the peoples that settled the areas, not climate. Of
course,the climate factor might have had something to do with who
settled where as well. You know, people settling into climates that
they were familiar with. Seems to me that the upper midwestern states
were settled by Europeans who played violins and accordians in the
first place, the Swedes, Germans, Norwegians, Poles, etc. You know,
farmers instruments. So did the French down farther south around
Missouri, and of course the French Acadians in Louisiana. I suppose
the African influence in the South brought on the popularization and
eventual standardization of banjos. And so on and so forth for all the
nationalities I left out. Consider that the major population centers
were in Eastern half of the US at the time and most of the industry,
publishing, and mail order houses were too. Most of the people who
could afford to buy records lived there as well. Most of the people
lived there, period. From Chicago to the west there wasn't much until
you got to the West Coast. Radio helped spread the word/music, but
shoot, not many people in the country could afford radio either, much
less get access to electricity. I had an old highway atlas of the USA
once that also had a listing of powerlines on it too. There was one
electrical line in Nashville in 1931 and it was the only one on the
page for the state of Tennessee. I used to collect old radios, and I
had a bunch of battery sets. The batteries that used to go in battery
radio sets were nearly as big as a battery for a Toyota truck.

I reckon it goes on and on and is far more a big soup today with all
of us influencing each other because of the ease with which the
information hotline is accessed. Not like it was back when places like
Montana were settled. Hell, think of how far it is out there now.
Imagine how isolated it would have been 100 years ago. And, it's a
damned long way to the West Coast from here. But, I think collards
will grow in California.

This all touches on another subject, and that is the fact that we all
sing songs about subjects that we know nothing or very little about,
basically because we like the sound of them. How many people, given
the choice between modern furnishings and luxuries (like insulation
and inside plumbing and running water) would write romantic songs
about cabin life? Exactly my point. I read a book about Jascha Heifetz
some time ago. In it he is quoted as saying that a person should not
play music that they cannot identify with because, even though their
performances might be good, they will never be great or inspiring
because they have no actual relationship with the material. While I
agree, I also don't feel like we all should just pack it up either.
Does this mean I have to stop listening to my Ali Farka Toure' cd's?
Should I quit playing Swedish tunes off Richard Robinson's website?
Should I not record any more tunes by black gospel groups? Should I
throw away my Bill Monroe and Leake County Revelers Cd's? I like them
but I don't REALLY fit their culture, though I have a toe in both. How
close is close enough? I mean, come on.

To address the material issue, I think there is a lot of music that
has been just flat out forgotten over the years. Sure, a lot of it was
gone before the technology came along to save it, but I think the
cultures that spawned it died out too, either died or adapted to
another way of life and changed just the same way bluegrass and
oldtime has. Sometimes I think of all the music that I missed back in
the heyday of radio groups. I suspect every little station that could
had a band playing sometime during the day. All that music is whizzing
off through space someplace. Egad. I can only hope that a lot of
what's offered on radio today is forgotten in a hurry.

Okay. Shut my mouth.
Tatermouth



On Feb 17, 8:33 am, Mando Chef saltydogli...@gmail.com wrote:
 Not being a smart ass here, but, my short answer is TIM O'BRIEN.
 Cornbread Nation has a version of this song and I'm sure it inspired
 alot of the west coast.  And I think it's jealousy... If the only
 greens that were available to me from my garden were sage and potato,
 period, I would dream of those smoked hock infused, hint of vinegar
 having little bits of leafy glory, too.
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Taterbugmando group.
To post to this group, send email to 

Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[Nelson]

That is one of the main reasons I read biographies (where available)
of the folks I listen to alot.  I think that for alot of my favorites,
the main muse is one of the human emotions that is maginified by
environmental issues growing up.  Look at Monroe and his feelings of
loneliness.  To me, it seems that he spent his entire life holding on
to the memories of that old home place and a time when he still had
someone whose love he did not have to question.  When did he last feel
secure - as a young boy?  I think alot of folks can identify with
those songs because of the emotion/feeling that is driving them.

I think our culture today is just way too different from a hundred
years ago and later.  Our values and expectations are way out of line
with those of our parents in many ways.  I would have thought myself
abused if I'd been required to miss school and chop cotton all day
(like my mother was) or required to get up early and feed the cows,
pigs and chickens before school (like my dad was).

Kids don't pick up a instrument and write a song when someone makes
them feel bad; they take a gun to school and take care of it.



On Feb 17, 1:44 pm, mistertaterbug taterbugmu...@gmail.com wrote:
 Ah, spoken like a true chef. I mean, who else would use the word
 infused with hock?

 Damn, what a big can of worms. Interesting way of looking at the music
 scene. Does this mean that banjos will only be perennial below zone 5?
 I suppose accordians overwinter well in zone 3 providing there is only
 a mild freeze. Is there a natural pest that plagues accordians? Seems
 the answer is a resounding no, but then, it might be polkas.

 You know, I think that the choice of instruments had more to do with
 the nationality of the peoples that settled the areas, not climate. Of
 course,the climate factor might have had something to do with who
 settled where as well. You know, people settling into climates that
 they were familiar with. Seems to me that the upper midwestern states
 were settled by Europeans who played violins and accordians in the
 first place, the Swedes, Germans, Norwegians, Poles, etc. You know,
 farmers instruments. So did the French down farther south around
 Missouri, and of course the French Acadians in Louisiana. I suppose
 the African influence in the South brought on the popularization and
 eventual standardization of banjos. And so on and so forth for all the
 nationalities I left out. Consider that the major population centers
 were in Eastern half of the US at the time and most of the industry,
 publishing, and mail order houses were too. Most of the people who
 could afford to buy records lived there as well. Most of the people
 lived there, period. From Chicago to the west there wasn't much until
 you got to the West Coast. Radio helped spread the word/music, but
 shoot, not many people in the country could afford radio either, much
 less get access to electricity. I had an old highway atlas of the USA
 once that also had a listing of powerlines on it too. There was one
 electrical line in Nashville in 1931 and it was the only one on the
 page for the state of Tennessee. I used to collect old radios, and I
 had a bunch of battery sets. The batteries that used to go in battery
 radio sets were nearly as big as a battery for a Toyota truck.

 I reckon it goes on and on and is far more a big soup today with all
 of us influencing each other because of the ease with which the
 information hotline is accessed. Not like it was back when places like
 Montana were settled. Hell, think of how far it is out there now.
 Imagine how isolated it would have been 100 years ago. And, it's a
 damned long way to the West Coast from here. But, I think collards
 will grow in California.

 This all touches on another subject, and that is the fact that we all
 sing songs about subjects that we know nothing or very little about,
 basically because we like the sound of them. How many people, given
 the choice between modern furnishings and luxuries (like insulation
 and inside plumbing and running water) would write romantic songs
 about cabin life? Exactly my point. I read a book about Jascha Heifetz
 some time ago. In it he is quoted as saying that a person should not
 play music that they cannot identify with because, even though their
 performances might be good, they will never be great or inspiring
 because they have no actual relationship with the material. While I
 agree, I also don't feel like we all should just pack it up either.
 Does this mean I have to stop listening to my Ali Farka Toure' cd's?
 Should I quit playing Swedish tunes off Richard Robinson's website?
 Should I not record any more tunes by black gospel groups? Should I
 throw away my Bill Monroe and Leake County Revelers Cd's? I like them
 but I don't REALLY fit their culture, though I have a toe in both. How
 close is close enough? I mean, come on.

 To address the material issue, I think there is a lot of music that
 has been just flat out 

Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[Mike Hoffmann]

Nelson - I disagree, I think that there are a ton of young people playing
music today and writing original music.

Tater-
you just reminded me.  I really should be reading Making the second ghetto
instead of playing mandolin.

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Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[mistertaterbug]

Ghetto?


On Feb 17, 2:23 pm, Mike Hoffmann mikehoffma...@gmail.com wrote:
 Nelson - I disagree, I think that there are a ton of young people playing
 music today and writing original music.

 Tater-
 you just reminded me.  I really should be reading Making the second ghetto
 instead of playing mandolin.
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Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[Nelson]

I abdicate the throne...

On Feb 16, 4:48 pm, MinnesotaMandolin eberr...@gmail.com wrote:
 So, this is idea here is not a specific question, more of a half-
 formed idea of mine I'm sharing for discussion because I'm curious
 what other people think.

 The other day I was listening to Jawbone Railroad, a fine Montana-
 based stringband whose CD I picked up during my travels. They do a
 cool version of Keep Your Skillet Good and Greasy and it contains a
 vocal line about collard greens.

 Now, I don't think collards can grow in Montana. I know they can't in
 my part of the world, which is zone 3 for you greenthumbs. So the tune
 probably traveled to Montana. In this day and age, obviously, between
 the internet and other mediums tunes can travel anywhere. But most
 traditional stringband music seems to be Southern, that is to say,
 zone 5 or higher. Collard green growing climates. And I'm going to use
 these zone markings to keep the focus on climate and not any other
 sort of differentiation between the different parts of the US.

 Back in the day, there had to be fiddle bands in all the zones,
 because the instrument traveled there. There's collections of
 Minnesota/Wisconsin fiddle music, for example, which is mostly
 Scandanavian in its origins. But that part of the world had its share
 of Irish immigrants, as did Appalachia and other regions associated
 with stringband music. Up in Zone 4 or colder, though, the other major
 instrument seemed to be the accordian, not the banjo.

 So that's my wordy introduction to My Questions. Do you think the
 reason much of the fiddle or stringband tradition seems to be (mostly)
 Zones 5-8 is the banjo is cooler than the accordian? (that's a
 subjective question, I know) Is it because the Carter family and other
 professionals really crystallized a lot of very cool stuff on recorded
 mediums in a way that transcended their place and time? Is it because
 WSM was located in Nashville? Are there lost tunes that are Michigan/
 Minnesota/Montana in origin and are only lost because the performers
 died out before the field recorders or the radio got there in time?
 Did the record companies think Iowans were less likely to buy records
 than Virginians?

 Certainly we can play what-if games all day about history, which is
 actually one of my late-night conversation hobbies. I guess what I'm
 after is why do you think contemporaty Montana-based stringbands sing
 traditional songs about collard greens (with cornbread and beans) and
 Carolina-based stringbands don't sing traditional songs about ice
 fishing?

 Of course, that's just keeping the focus on the United States.

 And with that, I'm going to wrap this up. I'm curious to read what
 people think.

 erik
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Re: regionalism (long-winded and rambling)

[Robert Feivor]

See what happens in the great white north when one is trapped indoors too
long? ;)

RF (Yes in MN)

On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 7:49 PM, Nelson nelsonpeddyco...@knology.netwrote:


 I abdicate the throne...

 On Feb 16, 4:48 pm, MinnesotaMandolin eberr...@gmail.com wrote:
  So, this is idea here is not a specific question, more of a half-
  formed idea of mine I'm sharing for discussion because I'm curious
  what other people think.
 
  The other day I was listening to Jawbone Railroad, a fine Montana-
  based stringband whose CD I picked up during my travels. They do a
  cool version of Keep Your Skillet Good and Greasy and it contains a
  vocal line about collard greens.
 
  Now, I don't think collards can grow in Montana. I know they can't in
  my part of the world, which is zone 3 for you greenthumbs. So the tune
  probably traveled to Montana. In this day and age, obviously, between
  the internet and other mediums tunes can travel anywhere. But most
  traditional stringband music seems to be Southern, that is to say,
  zone 5 or higher. Collard green growing climates. And I'm going to use
  these zone markings to keep the focus on climate and not any other
  sort of differentiation between the different parts of the US.
 
  Back in the day, there had to be fiddle bands in all the zones,
  because the instrument traveled there. There's collections of
  Minnesota/Wisconsin fiddle music, for example, which is mostly
  Scandanavian in its origins. But that part of the world had its share
  of Irish immigrants, as did Appalachia and other regions associated
  with stringband music. Up in Zone 4 or colder, though, the other major
  instrument seemed to be the accordian, not the banjo.
 
  So that's my wordy introduction to My Questions. Do you think the
  reason much of the fiddle or stringband tradition seems to be (mostly)
  Zones 5-8 is the banjo is cooler than the accordian? (that's a
  subjective question, I know) Is it because the Carter family and other
  professionals really crystallized a lot of very cool stuff on recorded
  mediums in a way that transcended their place and time? Is it because
  WSM was located in Nashville? Are there lost tunes that are Michigan/
  Minnesota/Montana in origin and are only lost because the performers
  died out before the field recorders or the radio got there in time?
  Did the record companies think Iowans were less likely to buy records
  than Virginians?
 
  Certainly we can play what-if games all day about history, which is
  actually one of my late-night conversation hobbies. I guess what I'm
  after is why do you think contemporaty Montana-based stringbands sing
  traditional songs about collard greens (with cornbread and beans) and
  Carolina-based stringbands don't sing traditional songs about ice
  fishing?
 
  Of course, that's just keeping the focus on the United States.
 
  And with that, I'm going to wrap this up. I'm curious to read what
  people think.
 
  erik
 


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