Old time music, with its roots in the old world, is the ancestor of bluegrass. It’s lively tunes on fiddle and clawhammer banjo, ancient ballads adapted to life in Appalachia, played on front porches and in parlors and dance halls by self-taught musicians in rural America. It’s a rich tradition preserved in memories and on early recordings, and played today by modern interpreters who continue to create new, old time music.
There’s nowhere you’ll hear more old time music than Bluegrass Country. On Dick Spottswood’s Obsolete Music Hour and Ivy Sheppard’s Born in the Mountain you’ll hear an incomparable selection of old time recordings, many of them rare 78s from their collections. Frank Hoppe’s Bluegrass, Etc. features a mix of bluegrass, gospel, pre-WWII country 78s and old time tunes. And on Brad Kolodner’s Old Time Jam you can hear contemporary artists keeping the old time traditions alive.
