I have two blogs. . . . Just as I have two worlds that I live in; two communities that I belong to. On the one hand, I am a scholarly thinker…
Category: Traditional Music
Kurtz Collection of Fiddler’s Tunes
In 1944, two fiddle tunes were printed in California Folklore Quarterly, then a new academic journal still published as Western Folklore. One tune appeared in a note authored by Homer H. Kurtz;…
National Barn Dance Centennial Tribute
100 years ago, April 19 was a Saturday, and in Chicago it was the first of a long string of Saturday nights that featured a live broadcast of the National Barn Dance…
An Adventure with Dance Tune Manuscripts
Events of this past week have prompted me to renew my venture into the world of 18th and 19th Century musical manuscripts. My main interest is with notebooks compiled, used, and passed…
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 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. …
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…