November 9, 1915-March 28, 2015 If you have ever played or heard “John Short’s Tune,” a lively polka, then you have met my father, Erwin A. Thompson. He passed the… Read More →
Features
Attic #21: Fiddle and Guitar
One of the popular, recurring topics of discussion, debate, disagreement, and disputation among fans of old-time music is the question of when guitars began to be used as accompanying instruments… Read More →
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The Highwoods Moment
Old-time music experienced a great loss in February 2020, with the passing of banjo player Mac Benford. Mac had submitted this essay to the OTH a few months earlier, and… Read More →
Teodar Jackson and African American Fiddling from Texas: Lost Music from the Rural
by Dan Foster Note: This article was written in part to celebrate the release of a new CD of old-time fiddling from the Field Recorders’ Collective, Teodar Jackson with T.… Read More →
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History the “Great Man” Missed: Critiquing Ken Burns’ “Country Music”
Early Country Music, from the Top Down Before the debut broadcast of Country Music, filmmaker Ken Burns’s paean to American exceptionalism, that popular music genre was beloved among its core… Read More →
Young Old-Time Musicians of North Carolina
The North Carolina Arts Council has recently completed work on its Millennial Traditional Artists Directory, an effort to promote the work of young traditional artists in North Carolina. The project… Read More →
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Y’all Come: The Ballad of Big Jim Folsom
In March of 1962, a new political season was gearing up in Alabama, and so-called “hillbilly” music was everywhere. “It has gotten so you can’t run for governor in Alabama,”… Read More →
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Mayo’s the Name, Fiddlin’s the Game: Ralph Mayo
Carter Stanley once referred to old-time fiddle player Leslie Keith as “an unsung hero,” a powerhouse entertainer who, in his day, enjoyed widespread popularity, but with the passing of time… Read More →
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