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 …

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 …

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 …