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Exploring links in… punk and old-time music?

Yep, in a new radio show from McKissick Museum

Join host and McKissick Museum Folklife Program Coordinator Ian Hallagan as he explores the rich multitude of connections and conflicts both between, and within the punk/metal and old-time/traditional music communities.

At first glance, these communities share very little. Over the past three decades, people who self-identify with punk and/or old-time musical communities have both found common ground and trod contested terrain. In this radio show, Hallagan talks with individuals situated in both musical communities about their experiences of making music that sits comfortably and sometimes not so comfortably at the intersection of what most people would regard as two very different musical genres. This week, Ian will sit down with multi-instrumentalist Mark Rubin. Known for his larger-than-life persona and muscular musicianship, Rubin is an unabashed Southern Jew. Oklahoma-born, Texas-reared, and now living in New Orleans, he has accompanied or produced a virtual who’s-who of American traditional music, while straddling numerous musical genres, including Country, Western Swing, Bluegrass, Cajun, Tex-Mex, Polka, Klezmer, Roma, and more in his 30+ year career. He is perhaps best known for co-founding the notorious proto-Americana band Bad Livers, though his more recent work as a first call tuba and bass player in the klezmer music scene has earned him equivalent notoriety. Today, he lives and works as a professional musician in New Orleans and makes a study of the musical traditions and cultures of South Louisiana. Punk & Old-Time: Conversations on Community, Conflict, and Cohesion airs weekly on WUSC Radio (90.5 FM), Thursdays at 2 p.m. and online.
The University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum tells the story of southern life: community, culture, and the environment. The Museum is located on the University of South Carolina’s historic Horseshoe with available parking in the garage at the corner of Pendleton and Bull streets. All exhibitions are free and open to the public with ticket reservations. The Museum is open from 8:30am – 5:00pm Monday through Friday, 11:00am – 3:00pm Saturdays. The Museum is closed Sundays and University holidays. For more information, please call 803-777-7251 or visit http://www.sc.edu/mckissickmuseum.
Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay

Jason Rapp

Ashley Carder preserves old-time music legacy

Fiddler Ashley Carder, a 2012 Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award recipient, was featured in an article in The State on Feb. 17: "The jam session in the back room at Bill’s Pickin’ Parlor rolls on into the night, local bluegrass veterans and relative novices alike feeding off the fiddle player with the engaging smile and impeccable playing style. “Play that waltz that sounds like taaaa-ta, ta-ta-ta-ta, ta-ta-ta-ta,” says Hershel Wise, whose 80-year-old fingers still can play the notes on his mandolin though his mind can’t recall the tune’s title. Ashley Carder considers the request for a second, then his bow takes off on the staccato notes of “The Westphalia Waltz.” The other musicians — Wise, two more fiddle players, three guitar players and a stand-up bass plucker — follow Carder’s lead even if they don’t know the tune well or at all. It’s impossible to estimate the number of fiddle tunes — from obscure old-time music to bluegrass standards — filed away in Carder’s head. He’s been stowing them away for decades as he learned from any old-time fiddle player who would show him the way. And as those old-timers have passed away, Carder felt a responsibility to preserve their legacy whether in sessions like the Friday night jams at Bill’s, in the multiple bands he plays with or in the recordings he has compiled through the years. Last year, Carder was honored with a Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award by the S.C. Arts Commission for his efforts to preserve the music of his predecessors. But he’s more of a rewards guy than an awards guy. He loves watching his mentors’ family members tear up when they hear the preserved songs or seeing novice fiddlers light up as they figure out how to play an old tune. His most recent project chronicles the career of one of his mentors — Pappy Sherrill. A legend in bluegrass/country circles dating back to the 1920s, Sherrill gained fame in South Carolina as the fiddler player in The Hired Hands." Read the complete article. Via: The State [caption id="attachment_4291" align="alignnone" width="600"]Ashely Carder 2012 Folk Heritage Awards Ashley Carder performs at the Statehouse after receiving the 2012 Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award[/caption]

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