• Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail
Contributor Login
  • 0Shopping Cart
FolkWorks
  • Home
  • Events
  • Features
  • Resources
  • About Us
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • DONATE
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

OLD-TIME RENAISSANCE

OLD TIME ORACLE / David Bragger

LOS ANGELES OLD-TIME RENAISSANCE

By David Bragger

For decades, the greater Los Angeles area has been an unlikely nexus for some fine players of old time music including legends Mel Durham, Ed Lowe and Earl Collins. Contrary to what some have thought, there has always been old-time music here. However, in the past couple years, things have dramatically changed. We are experiencing the first chapter of an old-time renaissance. I’ve added my two cents by teaching old-time music, writing this column, and co-founding the old-time string band Sausage Grinder. But others have made different contributions that have really brought the spotlight back to Los Angeles. For starters, members of the old-time trio Triple Chicken Foot created an Old Time Social event that is in its fifth year now. It brings bands, workshops, jammers, and dancers together for three days. It is not to be missed. In all, L.A. has several old-time jams in a variety of locations to choose from, square dances (with live old time music), homegrown old-time performers, lessons & workshops, square dances and a strictly old-time festival. ‘Tis time to rejoice! Take a swig of your favorite homebrew, grab a fiddle and dance the night away.

JAMS

-Joe Wack’s OT Jam — 4th Saturday from 1pm to 4 pm at the Audubon Center at Deb’s Park (http://ca.audubon.org/debs_park.php)

– CTMS Old Time Jam –1st Sunday from 1pm to 4. Led by Steve Lewis

–Hyperion Tavern Jam-3rd Thursday from 9:00 onward at the Hyperion Tavern. Led by The Foot. It’s a neighborhood style jam, with beer and all the fun that comes with playing in a (ex-leather) bar.

PERFORMERS

Triple Chicken Foot — Having played together for more than five years, Ben Guzman, Kelly Marie Martin and Mike Heinle, have focused on playing straight Old Time music rooted gospel songs, archaic banjo tunes, or crooked fiddle tunes. They have also recently finished recording their second full length CD titled Tar River to be released in early May 2010.

Sausage Grinder — Sausage Grinder, Los Angeles’ premier jug band, has just released its debut CD, Delicious Moments. The six-piece acoustic ensemble – fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, washboard and jug – combines the old-time sound of bands like the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Camp Creek Boys with the low-down sound of old-time blues, topped off with a touch of ragtime and hillbilly jazz.

The Earwigs-an OT instrumental string band found at many of the local contra dances featuring the renown playing of Steve Lewis and Tom, Patrick & Mike Sauber. They’re practically a family!!

Frank Fairfield — California-based fiddle, guitar, and banjo player, and ardent 78 collector Frank Fairfield has made his living as a musician, often found playing on the streets of Los Angeles.

OLD TIME SOCIAL, SQUAREVOLUTION AND BEYOND

Five years ago Triple Chicken Foot launched the 1st Ever Los Angeles Old Time Social. Starting on the Thursday before the Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest, the Social invites folks to play music for four days straight. It is old time only, and takes place in the center of Los Angeles proper. Every year hosts a show at the Hyperion Tavern on Thursday. Friday is a sit down concert with three acts. Saturday is an all day event with jams, workshops in fiddle, banjo, guitar, and square dances for kids and adults.

Having been up and down the west coast attending various OT festivals and gatherings, The Foot wanted square dances in LA! They saw square dancing as the next step in community redevelopment and of course another opportunity to play music. In 2009 they put on over 10 dances! More are planned for this year. They have been thrown on traffic circles, at bicycle events, and community gatherings of all types.

Oldtimeisagoodtime.com is the TCF website informing the LA community of what is going on in the Old Time world. It is a production company of sorts, hosting concerts, putting on Square Dances, and facilitating information for the Los Angeles Old Time Social. The root purpose is to be an active voice of the Old Time community, and a resource to allow ideas in Old Time to be tried and fleshed out.

David Bragger is a Los Angeles-based instructor and player of old time fiddle and banjo music. He also photographs, films, and collects the lore of traditional artists, from puppeteers in Myanmar to fiddlers of Appalachia.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/folkworks-placeholder.png 432 432 Steve Shapiro https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FolkWorks-logo-large.png Steve Shapiro2010-05-04 14:55:512020-11-18 10:24:57

OLD-TIME RENAISSANCE

All Columns

Featured Columnists

  • Art Podell
  • Chris Wilson
  • David Bragger
  • Lindsey Terrell
  • Roland Sturm
  • Ross Altman

FolkWorks Partners

Join our E-mail Community

As a valued member of our e-mail community, you will receive updates on events, stories, performances and more in our monthly newsletter, along with the occasional special announcement to give you the latest news in folk/roots. We promise your e-mail is safe with us.  We don’t sell or share our database with any third-party vendors.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • LIKE US ON FACEBOOK
  • JOIN THE FOLKWORKS FACEBOOK GROUP
  • BECOME A FOLKWORKS DONOR
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
YOU TUBE INSTAGRAM TWITTER EMAIL PRIVACY POLICY

All Material Copyright © 2001-2023 FolkWorks. All rights reserved. Website by: Integritive

Scroll to top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website, analyze site traffic, and show event times in your timezone. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy