Version 1.0 appeared in 2010 as I marked my 60th birthday by posting fiddle tunes and other traditional folk music I had recorded over the previous 30-plus years. Some weird obsession led novice me to build my own website from scratch. I learned html coding as I went. And it all worked, but with some …
Author Archives: Paul Tyler
Indiana Fiddle Bands I (DDCD-112 )
Though I am a few days late, I would like to kick off this planned series of posts with an item that honors my native state of Indiana. In 2016, Hoosiers celebrated 200 years of statehood. My commemorative gift to my home state is an album of old-time fiddling recorded by musicians from Indiana, all …
Neil Rosenberg, Dean of Bluegrass Scholars
Neil Rosenberg, folklorist and author of Bluegrass: A History is visiting Chicago this week. He and his wife Terri will be part of a public conversation and performance on Friday (2/26) at the Northwestern University Library in Evanston. On Tuesday, they dropped by the Old Town School of Folk Music for an invitational jam session …
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The National Barn Dance
Happy 90th birthday. (I missed it by a day.) It was on April 19, 1924, a Saturday, that the National Barn Dance began it’s 36-year run on radio station WLS in Chicago. In fact, the Barn Dance had more than a run. It dominated. It was model for all the live country music radio jamborees …
DrDosido and Mr. Seeger
Like any respectable folkie I sang along with Pete Seeger in concert several times. All that took, of course, was a ticket. The somber news of his passing, and the many well-deserved tributes that sprang up on Facebook and other media made me pause to reflect on how his singular humanity and distinctive musical commonality …
A Guided Tour of DrDosido.net 2.0
Want to hear the music I’ve recorded in musicians’ homes and at community events over the last bunch of years (starting in 1976)? This post will show you how to get there quickly. Want to know a little more about these traditional musicians and the events they participate in? This post will also show you …
The Remaking of DrDosido
Welcome to 2.0 So here’s how it all started. As summer 2010 ended, I was approaching my 60th birthday. I visited a bookstore and bought a couple of beginner’s books on how to build a website. I had only read a couple of chapters when I decided to build my own site from scratch. Rather …
Back to backlog
You all figured out, of course, that Do-si-do is French for ‘back to back.’ I will set a few more square dance puns into this post intended to forward my plans for DrDosido.net. I really hope to corner the market now that all the exams are graded and final grades are turned in. As owner …
Dyngus Day
In 1987, as part of my Indiana Arts Commission grant project on Ethnic Dance Music in Northern Indiana, I visited South Bend to witness one of the largest Dyngus Day celebrations in the United States. A notable Hoosier I met that day was Frank O’Bannon, who was then running for the Democratic nomination for governor. …
The Search for German Old-Time Music
More accurately, today’s topic is the old-time music played by musicians from German communities around Hoagland, Indiana. The question of how much of the music played for barn dances and house dances was actually German is a question I’ve never been able to answer fully. There’s no doubt that square dancing was very popular in …
A Folksong Autobiography, episode 2 (not in chronological order)
I’ve been trying to remember, but I can’t locate the first seeds of my obsession with the fiddle. It must have had something to do with Hoagland’s passion for square dancing (see They didn’t know it yet, . . . below). But I can not recall a local wedding band at the Hoagland Hayloft in …
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The importance of being Hoosier
I always have and always will be one. A Hoosier, that is. But I’ve now lived in Chicago nearly half of my life. Twenty-four years, to be exact. The tendencies toward acculturation are subtle and strong, so I’ve forgotten a few things that are close to the essence of Hoosierness. Fortunately, my friend Eric Zorn …
A Folksong Autobiography, episode 1
I must have been about three. My sister was at school. Christmas time was coming and it was cold, so I was playing on the floor under the telephone right next to the hot air register. Mom was in the kitchen doing mom things at the sink. I was singing “Silent Night,” but I didn’t …
Good German Lutherans
On the home page of this, my website, I wrote “it is right and fitting” at this time to tell my story. What I really wanted to say was “it is meat, rice, and salad dressing,” but that would take some explanation. Here it is. If, like me, you grew up in the Lutheran Church-Missouri …
The scope of this project
I compiled some numbers. To be honest, I am stunned. Thus far I have built 40 web pages for DrDosido.net. At the beginning of October I didn’t have a clue how to build even one. I keep a running tune count on the What’s New page. A few days ago it read 212. That number …
Where are the tunes?
It has been a month since drdosido.net went online. After I announced it on several fiddle-oriented websites, the first comment I got was “Where are the tunes. I must have missed a link.” I understand that it can be frustrating to have to puzzle out how to get around a new site. So I put …
They didn’t know it yet, . . .
. . . but 60 years ago this coming Friday, Mildred Franke Tyler gave birth to Dr. Dosido, the only son and second child of Wade Edward Tyler. They named him Paul Leslie. They brought him home to a warm and comfortable house at the very eastern edge of Hoagland, Indiana. Only the school, Madison-Marion …
The website mostly works.
There are now 88 tunes posted in 6 out of 11 boxes. A few people have even listened to the tunes, and the inevitable corrections and clarifications have started to trickle in. I have to take a pause from posting tunes and tinkering with the site. I’m pretty sure all the links work. I installed …
Wow. I did it.
Last summer I started to conceptually design my website, but I had zero idea about how to actually get it up and running. I did manage to claim my domain name, and a friend and supporter helped me obtain adequate hosting. There things sat for several months, while I puzzled over how to get my …