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Look out for the 2019 Brooklyn Folk Festival!

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Look out for the 2019 Brooklyn Folk Festival!
www.BrooklynFolkFest.com for all the up to date info and tix!

Here’s what’s happening at the festival this year:

The 2019 Brooklyn Folk Festival schedule:

Friday April 5th

Main Stage

7:30pm Tenores de Aterúe– Sardinian vocal quartet
8:10pm Jake Xerxes Fussell– Folk & Blues from North Carolina
9:00pm La Cumbiamba NY – playing Gaitas y Tambores from Colombia
9:50pm Jontavious Willis – Blues from Georgia
10:40pm Feral Foster & Ali Dineen – Folk, Blues, Country and original songs

Parish Hall Stage

8:00pm Ukrainian Village Voices – Vocal and instrumental music from rural Ukraine
9:00pm Jackson & The Janks (Feat. Sam Doores of The Deslondes) – R&B from New Orleans
10:00pm The Big Dixie Swingers – Western Swing and Jazz from New Orleans!

Workshop Room

8:00pm Puppet Show! –  Those beautiful Boxcutter Collective babies are back! Last year their show predicted Amazon’s move to NYC, the opening of the rainforest to more devastation by capitalism and the rise of witchcraft across the country. What will they bring us this year? Stay tuned to find out.
9:30pm Vincent Cross presents: Ballads of James “The Rooster” Corcoran

Saturday April 6th

Afternoon Concerts

Main Stage

12:00pm Dan Zanes & Claudia Eliaza – Sing from “The House Party Songbook“: An All-Ages Performance Featuring Songs From Their Family Roots Music Treasury
12:50pm Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues – Traditional and original jug band music
1:40pm Nate Polly – Country songs from E. Kentucky, presented by the Appalshop
2:30pm The Mammals – Folk and original songs
3:20pm Little Nora Brown – Banjo songs, ballads and tunes
4:10pm The Ozark Highballers – Oldtime string band from Arkansas!
5:00pm The Lovestruck Balladeers – Trad jazz, ragtime, and more!
5:50pm Amythyst Kiah – Folk, blues, and original songs

Parish Hall Stage

2:30pm Square Dance!! with John Harrod, featuring a flatfoot dance performance by the City Stompers!
4:00pm Mara Kaye – Early jazz and blues songs
5:00pm Barry Clyde – Folk and blues songs
5:50pm The Hayrollers – Bluegrass!

Workshop Room

12:00pm Revealing the Banjo’s Earliest History – Through historical images and accounts, banjo-maker Pete Ross and writer Kristina Gaddy explore the Origins of the banjo and it’s development from the 1600s through the early 1800s in the hands of enslaved African Americans. They reveal fascinating discoveries about the banjo’s role in cultural-spiritual practices like Vodou and the origins of the word “banjo.”

1:00pm “Playing (with) Trash” – Come spend an hour making your own musical instrument! We’ll use everyday found objects and simple tools. No experience necessary, great for kids and adults! –  with Zeke Leonard

2:30pm  Old Time Jam Session – Bring your fiddles, banjos, guitars, mandolins and harmonicas for a good old string band jam session! – Led by fiddler Stephanie Coleman

4pm  Workshop TBA

5pm Fiddle Workshop – Glimpses of the African-American Fiddle Tradition in Kentucky: This workshop will explore what is known about the African- American fiddle tradition in KY – with master Kentucky fiddler John Harrod, presented by the Appalshop

6pm  Film: Catfish Man of the Woods – Clarence “Catfish” Gray is a fifth-generation herb doctor living near Glenwood, West Virginia. In the film, Gray gives his healing techniques and his personal philosophy of life. “A beautiful film, keenly observant and irresistibly appealing. It is difficult to imagine an audience that would fail to respond.” –The Washington Post
Presented by the Appalshop.

7:00pm Film: American Epic – This new documentary features the untold story of how the ordinary people of America were given the opportunity to make records for the first time.  NYC Premiere!

Evening Concerts

Main Stage

7:00pm The Local Honeys – Stringband from E. Kentucky! Presented by the Appalshop
7:50pm Frank Fairfield & Meredith Axelrod – Folk, blues and popular songs from the 19th and early 20th century
8:40pm Jerron Paxton – Blues, Old Time and Ragtime Music
9:30pm Kashiah Hunter & Friends – Sacred Steel from Atlanta, GA!
10:20pm The Brain Cloud – featuring Tamar Korn and Dennis Lichtman – Western Swing
11:10pm The Big Dixie Swingers – Western Swing and Jazz from New Orleans!

Parish Hall Stage

8:00pm Frankie Sunswept and The Sunwrays – R&B, R&R and original songs
9:00pm Ska-lopy Brass – The Jalopy Theatre’s own ska band!
10:00pm The Four o’clock Flowers – R&B and Soul

Sunday April 7th

Afternoon Concerts

Main Stage

2:00pm Pete Seeger 100th Birthday Children’s Concert & Sing-a-long! with Emily Eagen and Chris Q. Murphy – Presented by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
2:45pm Jim Kweskin – Jugband, Folk, Blues, and early Jazz
3:30pm John Harrod – Old time fiddling from Kentucky! Presented by the Appalshop
4:15pm The Down Hill Strugglers w/ John Cohen – Oldtime string band
5:00pm Baby Gramps – Folksongs?!
5:45pm Ian Felice (of the Felice Brothers) – Original and folk songs

Parish Hall Stage

2:45pm Flatfooting Dance workshop with Megan Downes of City Stompers
3:45pm Cooking workshop/demonstration – TBA
4:30pm Jalopy Chorus – World harmony song traditions, led by Eva Salina
5:15pm Jalopy Jr. Folk Stringband and Jr. Folk Intermediate Ensemble Performance

Workshop Room

2:00pm Vocal Harmony Workshop – Learn to sing together in harmony, with Don Friedman and Phyllis Elkind

3:15 pm Songs from the Freedom Highway: Protest Music, Past and Present – w/ Nick Panken (of Spirit Family Reunion) & Special Guests

4:30pm 60th Anniversary of Alan Lomax’s “Southern Journey” field work – A guided tour from Nathan Salsburg, curator of the Alan Lomax Archive

5:30pm Film: The Ballad of Shirley Collins – “Not just a delicious glimpse into the young Collins, but a glorious insight into the music, character and attitudes of rural America.”- Mojo
“Music Documentary Of The Year” – Louder Than War
This is the NYC Premiere!

7:00pm Film: Peace Stories (27 min) – Three men from the South who served in WWI, WWII and Vietnam respectively, recount their war experiences and discuss it’s affects on their opinions of war. This film puts the study of war into a human context as it illustrates the impact of war on the ordinary people who carry out the decisions of presidents and generals. Presented by the Appalshop.

8:00pm Lil’ Dogies – Harmony singing of old time & country music, all the way from Kentucky!

1:00PM SPECIAL EVENT: THE BANJO TOSS – Banjo Throwing Contest!

This event is held off-site.
Assemble at the Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse, 165 2nd St., right on the canal! Flapjacks social at noon! Banjo toss at 1pm!
More [details]
Carroll St. F/G train is just two blocks away!

Evening Concerts

Main Stage

7:10pm Bruce Molsky, Tony Trischka, and Michael Daves – Bluegrass & old time music!
8:00pm Anna rg (of Anna & Elizabeth) – Traditional and original songs
8:30pm Joan Shelley – Original songs from Louisville, KY
9:15pm Yacouba Sissoko – Kora (harp) music from Mali

Parish Hall Stage
7:00pm Jesse Lenat – Original songs
8:00pm Tin + Bone – Old time banjo and harmonica

7th Annual Brooklyn Folk Festival: April 17th-19th, 2015!

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Hey folks – The 7th Annual Brooklyn Folk Festival is on it’s way!  Get your tickets now!

 

April 17th-19th at our amazing new venue, St. Ann’s Church, centrally located in Brooklyn Heights!  Here’s a photo of the venue:

Complete 30 band lineup below! PLUS! Workshops, film screenings, and the BANJO TOSS competition!


CLICK HERE for tickets, or visit www.BrooklynFolkFest.com

Brought to you by Down Home Radio Show and the Jalopy Theatre…

SCHEDULE

Friday April 17th:

8:00PM Jackson Lynch – Blues guitar, old time fiddle and banjo breakdowns, songs and ballads
8:45PM Horse Eyed Men – Original folk/country outer-space music
9:30PM Michael Hurley – Legendary folk musician, needs no introduction!
10:15PM Jerron “Blindboy” Paxton – Country blues, fiddle and banjo
11:00PM Terry Waldo’s Rum House Band – Legendary early Jazz and Ragtime pianist with his band
11:45PM Feral Foster and His Band – Excellent songwriting based solidly in Blues, Folk, Gospel and Balkan music

Saturday April 18th: Afternoon Concerts

The Brooklyn Folk Festival: April 18th-20th, 2014…

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The Brooklyn Folk Festival, a co-production of Down Home Radio and the Jalopy Theatre, is almost here!  It’s gonna be an incredible event! – with 30 bands, film screenings, workshops, jam sessions and contests!  Coming up April 18th – 20th, 2014 at the Bell House, a great venue here in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn Folk Festival is now going into its 6th successful year.  This year’s festival will focus on Old Time String Band music from the United States and will feature a number of traditional groups and musicians coming to the city from various parts of the South, representing their local traditions, as well as a number of great groups from right here in New York.  We will also have Indonesian Gamelan gong music, Andean music from regions of the old Inca empire, Balkan music, jug bands, blues, jazz, songwriters and more… a huge wealth of talent!

The festival will feature Frank Fairfield and Jerron “Blindboy” Paxton, Dom Flemons and Hubby Jenkins of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, R. Crumb with the East River Stringband, as well as 25 other bands and performers.  The Brooklyn Folk Festival is modeled on the early days of the Newport and University of Chicago folk festivals and seeks to present an authentic folk festival experience, with a diversity of traditional music, as well as contemporary songwriters, plus workshops, jam sessions, film screenings and the famous Banjo Toss contest!  There will also be a very nice tribute to Pete Seeger with group singing and a family friendly square dance.

Its gonna be fun!  Get your tickets right away!.. visit the festival website at: www.BrooklynFolkFest.com for the compete schedule and ticket information.

– Eli

Roots of Woody Guthrie: Celebrating Woody at 100

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July 14th, 2012 will mark the 100th birthday of the great songwriter, author and artist Woody Guthrie.  On today’s show we’ll honor Guthrie by playing a number of his songs and taking a look at some of the sources for the melodies he used and influences on the style in which he played and sang.

Guthrie is best known as author of “This Land Is Your Land,” but in fact wrote thousands of songs, as well as autobiographical novels, poetry, and humorous op-ed news pieces.  He was also a fine visual artist as well as a rambling man, having traveled through out the United States and also Europe and Africa during in his time in the Merchant Marines during WWII.

There have been a number of books about his life and a film based on his book “Bound for Glory,” numerous reissues of his recordings, tribute albums and cover versions of his songs in a number of styles, but I’ve found that the least explored area of his work are his actual musical sources and style.

Woody Guthrie wrote very few original melodies, he took melodies of old time songs, folk and other songs and rewrote them with his own words to make them his own and into the songs we know today.  Most songwriters who claim Guthrie as an influence today do not perform in a style related to Guthrie’s old time style, but instead focus on his lyrics and a some notion of his politics and perform Guthrie’s songs and their own songs in a singer songwriter rock/pop based style.

Woody Guthrie was a great folk singer and had great taste in the songs that he used to base his own songs.  He loved the Carter Family as well as apparently many other old time musicians that made 78rpm records in the years before WWII.  Guthrie is pictured below with J.E. and Wade Mainer of the famous and influential old time string band “Mainer’s Mountaineers.”

By making these juxtapositions of Guthrie’s songs and their sources (probably Guthrie’s favorite pieces) I hope to place Guthrie aesthetically as an old time / “hill billy” musician much like the other performers featured on today’s show.

These are recordings that Woody either enjoyed or I think would have enjoyed, so here’s wishing Woody a happy 100th birthday and I hope you will enjoy the program.

Here is a list of all the tracks played on today’s show.  Each Guthrie song is followed by its source:

Intro music: Cowboy Waltz (Guthrie on fiddle)
1. This Land is Your Land – Woody Guthrie
2. When the World’s On Fire – The Carter Family
3. So Long, Its Been Good to Know Yuh – Woody Guthrie
4.  Billy the Kid – Vernon Dalhart
5. Pretty Boy Floyd – Woody Guthrie
6. Utah Carroll – Cartwright Brothers
7. 1913 Massacre – Woody Guthrie
8. Irish Soldier and the English Lady – Neil Morris
9. The Ludlow Massacre – Woody Guthrie
10. East Virginia Blues – The Carter Family
11. Ramblin’ Round – Woody Guthrie
12. Goodnight Irene – Leadbelly
13. Do Re Mi – Woody Guthrie
14. Hang Out the Front Door Key – The Blue Sky Boys
15. Two Good Men (Sacco and Vanzetti) – Woody Guthrie
16. Poor Howard – Leadbelly
17. I’ve Got to Know – – Woody Guthrie
18. Farther Along – Roy Acuff
19. Phildelphia Lawyer (Reno Blues) – Woody Guthrie
20. The Jealous Lover – The Stanley Brothers
21. The Sinking of the Reuben James – Woody Guthrie
22. Wildwood Flower – The Carter Family
23. Union Maid (Live Excerpt) – Woody Guthrie
24. Redwing – Riley Puckett
Outro Music – Wildwest Rambler by the Crowder Brothers. Once while speaking with the great folklorist Archie Green, he asked me to name examples of old records the prefigured Guthrie’s style.  This is one, sounds like Woody and Cisco to me.

P.S. I realized that I should have included “Pastures of Plenty” in this program, which is based on the melody of the folk song “Pretty Polly.”  And how could I forget “Tom Joad” based on the melody of “John Hardy!”  There are probably others that I missed too!

P.P.S.  Don’t forget to check out:

Woody Guthrie on live on WNYC with Leadbelly in 1940

The program was produced for WNYC in 1940 by Down Home Radio co-founder Henrietta Yurchenco.  The recording of the broadcast was discovered in 2006, at which time I went down to the archives and picked up a CD dub of it from archivist Andy Lanset.  Down Home Radio rebroadcast it for the first time in 67 year in 2007 with commentary by Yurchenco.


l to r: Eugene Rector, Woody Guthrie, Fred Smith, J.E. Mainer, Cisco Houston, Wade Mainer, at the BBC Studios New York. September 11, 1944.

More Thoughts on Woody Guthrie:

The scope of Guthrie’s work identifies him as a Popular Front era public intellectual and his influence on generations of artists, mostly song writers, continues to this day.  Woody Guthrie was incredibly prolific, especially considering the brevity of his career, cut short by the hereditary Huntington’s Disease that disabled him by the mid 1950’s and took his life in 1967.

Guthrie came from a middle class family in what was then the young state of Oklahoma , having been

On Tour Through OH, KY and TN…

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Hello everybody,

The Dust Busters are heading out on tour again, this time to the great states of Ohio and Kentucky! We will be on tour from Nov. 15th – Nov. 20th, all the dates are below. We are pleased and honored to be performing at To Sing With You Once More: A musical memorial benefiting the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and the Mike Seeger Scholarship Fund. This concert was organized my Michael Oberst of The Tillers, one of our very favorite bands! It is a tribute to the music and work of Mike Seeger. 

The concert will feature:
John Cohen with The Dust Busters, Tracy Schwarz and Ginny Hawker, The Tillers with Uncle Mike Carr, Magnolia Mountain, Clifton Hicks, Rabbit Hash String Band, Ma Crow, Andru Bemis, The Comet Bluegrass Allstars, The Williams Family Band, Davy Jay Sparrow and His Well-Known Famous Drovers, Al Scorch’s Country Soul Ensemble, Whiskey Bent Valley Boys, Gerle Haggard, Lee Sexton with John Haywood and Brett Ratliff, Ryan Spearman, Calamity Rain. 

Sat, November 19, 2011
Doors: 7:30 pm / Show: 8:00 pm

The Southgate House
Newport, KY
$12.00 – $15.00

[Mike Seeger with some of his instruments] 

Here’s all of our November tour dates:

Tuesday Nov. 15th – Hiram College, Hiram, OH.
Frohring Recital Hall
11764 Dean St., Hiram
7:30pm

Wednesday Nov. 16th – Gone to the country. 

Thursday Nov. 17th – Gerstle’s Place – Louisville, KY
3801 Frankfort Ave.  Louisville, KY
9pm
Seth Folsom will play an opening set.

Friday Nov. 18th – Morelock Music, Knoxville, TN
411 S. Gay St.
Knoxville, TN 37902
…a little after 8pm

Saturday Nov. 19th – To Sing With You Once More benefit, Newport, Kentucky
Doors: 7:30 pm / Show: 8:00 pm
The Southgate House
Newport, KY
$12.00 – $15.00

Sunday Nov. 20th – House Concert with John Cohen, plus a screening of John Cohen’s new film, “Roscoe Holcomb: From Daisy, Kentucky.”
2911 South Park Blvd
Shaker Heights, Cleveland, OH
6:30pm

Washington Square Park Folk Festival Sept 17th-18th

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[Banner by C. Cassano]

Hello everybody, just letting you know about the upcoming Washington Square Park Folk Festival.  I got hired by the Parks Department to produce the first ever folk festival in Washington Square Park.  Gonna be fun!

The festival is FREE and open to the public!

Its gonna be an excellent two days of music, with 9 of my very favorite groups (including my own) gracing the stage and myself on hand to serve as your MC.  Hope to see you there!

Saturday Sept 17th:

2pm The Calamity Janes – old time string band
3pm Feral Foster – original songs and blues
4pm East River String Band – country blues & old time
5pm Whiskey Spitters – country blues & old time

Sunday Sept 18th

2pm Bob Malenky – country blues
2:45pm Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues – jug band music
3:40 Frank Fairfield – Old Time songs and fiddle tunes
4:15pm The Dust Busters with John Cohen – old time string band
5:10pm Willy Gantrim & the Phantoms – original songs, country & blues
6pm Peter Stampfel and the Ether Frolic Mob – make a wish for a potato

Proudly sponsored by:

http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/images/misc/parks_logo.jpg

2011 also marks the 50th anniversary of the 1961 “Washington Square Folk Music Riot” when the City tried to revoke the permit for folk musicians to play and sing on Sundays in the park.  They needed to clear undesirable people out so that they could  satisfy local real estate interests and I heard possibly enact a crazy plan to extend 5th ave. through the park!  Luckily folkies resisted the attempt by the police to kick them out of their public space, resulting in the “riot,” and the planned extension of 5th ave never materialized. There’s been a film made about the “riot” and the film will be screened at the festival and is also posted below for convenient viewing…

Coverage of the so called riot has been offered by The Indypendent and NPR.

http://youtu.be/zHk_YkfOiiM

Brooklyn Folk Fest 2011 is Here! June 10th-12th

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Poster designed by Jose Delhart and Ernesto Gomez

Down Home Radio host Eli Smith is proud to announce the 3rd annual Brooklyn Folk Festival, to be held at the Jalopy Theater and Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition in Brooklyn, NY – Friday, June 10th- Sunday, June 12th, 2011.  The festival will feature the best young talent from Brooklyn’s exploding folk music scene as well as luminaries from the generation that made the 1960’s New York City folk music revival.  The music featured will include traditional styles such as old-time string band music, blues, jug band music, traditional music of Mexico, the Balkans, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and West Africa, local author-vocalists and more!  There will be concerts throughout the day as well as workshops on various musical styles, film screenings and a Sunday afternoon square dance!  This year will also inaugurate the Brooklyn Folk Festival “Banjo Toss.”  The person who throws a banjo the farthest will win a free banjo! 

The festival will feature 35+ bands including luminaries such as Grammy Award winner Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders and Pat Conte of the Canebrake Rattlers and Secret Museum of Mankind, two of the main creators of the 1960’s folk music scene in Greenwhich Village, but will also feature young Brooklyn based talents such as The Dust Busters, acclaimed blues musician Blind Boy Paxton, ballad singer Elizabeth Butters, Country singer Alex Battles, songster Feral Foster, Hubby Jenkins of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and many more.  Radio Jarocho, a Mexican folk music collective will perform a variety of styles of music and dance from across Mexico.  Clifton Hicks of Boone, North Carolina will be making a second appearance at the festival following his debut last year, playing his style of traditional banjo music of the Southern Appalachian mountains. The Brooklyn Folk Festival seeks to exhibit the cultural contributions from a diversity of Brooklyn communities, and in particular seeks to highlight the young talent emerging from those communities.

Come down to The Brooklyn Folk Festival in Redhook Brooklyn over the weekend Friday, June 10th- Sunday, June 12th to hear Brooklyn’s best traditional Folk musicians and song writers.  You will hear banjos, fiddles, mandolins, guitars, people blowing on jugs and harmonicas, a world champion whistler as well as great original songs.  If you want to learn how to play, come down to the afternoon instrumental workshops.  The festival costs $20 per day or $55 for 3 days, including the afternoon workshops and film screenings!

Friday’s show will be held at the Jalopy Theater and then, due to the huge crowds at last year’s event, the Saturday and Sunday activities will take place at a larger venue, The Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 718.395.3214 or on the Jalopy website: www.Jalopy.biz .

The Jalopy Theater is located at
315 Columbia Street
Brooklyn, New York 11231
(718) 395 3214
www.Jalopy.biz

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition is located at:
499 Van Brunt Street
NY 11231-1048
(718) 596 2507
www.bwac.org

The Carolina Chocolate Drops Live! at Jalopy

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[photo by Ann Chen]

Back in September the acclaimed old-time band The Carolina Chocolate Drops made a surprise appearance at The Jalopy Theater in Redhook, Brooklyn.  Luckily I had heard earlier that day what was going on and brought my recorder with me that night when I made the familiar trek down to Jalopy’s hallowed hall!  They played a great set and I got a good recording right off the board.  Here it is!

The Chocolate Drops performed as part of the Roots n Ruckus show, the awesome – free – weekly folk music show that happens every Wednesday night at The Jalopy Theater.  Well worth checking out.  I’m there almost every week!

Be sure to check out Jalopy’s new blog: www.jalopybrooklyn.wordpress.com

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are students of the elder African American fiddler Joe Thompson- check out my visit with Joe back in June of this year in the archives of Down Home Radio.

And big congratulations to the Chocolate Drops on their Grammy nomination for their new album, Genuine Negro Jig.

Interview with Jody Stecher

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[Jody Stecher (R) with Hank Bradley (L) at the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention 2006.  Photo by E. Smith]

On today’s show I speak with one of my all time favorite musicians, Jody Stecher.  Jody is a master of many instruments- banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, oud, sarod and sursingar and is a very fine singer.  I caught up with him at his apartment in San Francisco where he lives with his wife and singing partner Kate Brislin.  Since I recorded this interview I’ve had several listeners write into the show requesting an interview with Jody and I’m happy to finally be bringing it out on Down Home Radio! Jody Stecher is originally from Brooklyn, NY and was involved from a young age in the folk music scene in Greenwhich Village back in the early 60’s.  Since the late 1960’s he has lived in the Bay Area where he remains a very active and respected musician in the world of folk, old-time and bluegrass music as well as Indian classical music.  He currently plays with Peter Rowan in Rowan’s bluegrass band and has just this year released a new album with Kate.  Its great!  Check it out.

On the show we discuss Stecher’s influences, his time in the old Village folk scene, his musical activities out in California and more!  Jody was a student of Down Home Radio founder Henrietta Yurchenco when she taught Ethnomusicology at City College back in the 60’s.  Jody accompanied Henrietta on a field recording trip to Michoacan, MX in 1965 which resulted in the classic album “The Real Mexico” on the Nonesuch Explorer Series.  In the same year Stecher traveled together with Peter K. Siegel to Nassau Bahama to record Joseph Spence and the Pinder Family which resulted in another classic album “The Real Bahamas,” also for the Nonesuch Explorer Series, check ’em out!

Big thanks go to Steve French for editing this interview for airplay.

return_cover_resized.jpg
Check out Jody and Kate’s new CD

Some photos:

A Visit with Joe Thompson

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[Photos by E. Smith]

On a beautiful day in early June my band The Dust Busters paid a visit to the home of Joe and Polly Thompson.  Joe Thompson is 91 and lives outside of Mebane, NC.  He has been playing fiddle since he was 5 years old, way back in 1923 and is perhaps the very last traditionally schooled African-American fiddler in the world. Joe is a World War II veteran and is long retired from his job at a furniture factory.  He continues to play music at home and at gigs including taking his music to Carnegie Hall in New York City, the National Folk Festival and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the International Music Festival in Brisbane, Australia.  In 2007 Joe Thompson was honored with the National Heritage Fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts.  The Carolina Chocolate Drops have spent a lot of time with Joe and have learned a lot from him.  They continue to present many of his tunes in their performances.  We met Joe at the 2nd Black Banjo Gathering, held in Boone, NC in March of this year.

Joe Thompson with The Dust Busters Joe Thompson with The Dust Busters

We sat around the Thompson’s picnic table in the field behind their house and played a number of tunes as Joe recalled his musical family and his upbringing.  Joe and Polly were tremendously nice and hospitable and we were really touched and honored to spend time with them.  Here are some excerpts from the long afternoon that we spent at the Thompson’s home.

Big thanks go to Joe and Polly’s friend Larry Vellani for bringing us to their home that day, and a shout out goes to our friend Steve Kruger who joined us with his banjo and guitar.

Here’s the songs we played that you’ll hear on this recording:

I Shall Not be Moved
John Henry
Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
Lights in Valley
Georgia Buck
Molly Put the Kettle On
Ladies on the Steamboat
Molly Put the Kettle On
I’ve Got Oil in my Vessel
Careless Love

More photos below:


And don’t forget to check out our friends at the Old Time Herald Magazine – www.oldtimeherald.org – lots of great articles, reviews and more!