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Volume One, Number Eight The focus of this September issue was obvious. September seems to
be a popular month for outdoor festivals in the Northern half of Georgia and Alabama.We’ve got a good one for every weekend during the month. Many of you will see this issue before the last weekend in
August, so you can start your festival marathon with the Flat Rock, NC Music Festival 2001-Singer/ Songwriters. It was a
little too early to be covered within this issue (August 24,25,26), but you will find a brochure with complete details in the first printing of the September issue.Long time readers will remember my raves
about the Bear on the Square Festival in Dahlonega back in April. That was undoubtedly one of the best organized festivals in my experience, and most of the same folks are involved in planning and managing
the Dahlonega Fall Festival. Bear on the Square is held in downtown Dahlonega, but the September festival will move a few miles up the road to the R-Ranch Resort, where there is more room. Don’t miss this
one– sure to be the first in a long line of outstanding Fall festivals from the Folkways Center of the Georgia Mountains.The last
weekend in September is an earlier than usual date for the fourth annual Harvest Fest
at Atlanta’s Back Yard– near Fairburn, GA. T Dawg really works hard to make each of these festivals even better than the last one. Hopefully, this earlier date will break the “rain and cold” jinx that has hampered the first three Harvest Fests.
Take a break from the huge festivals on September 29, and ride over to Walnut Grove, GA (near Athens) for an old fashioned small town festival. You’ll hear some great music from a talented group on the
way up– Mountain Soul. Volume One, Number Seven This issue deviates temporarily from the practice of including an entertaining feature article– in favor of a more educational feature. Printed publications are necessarily
limited in the amount of content we can provide. The World Wide Web suffers from no such limitation, but the information you need can be very difficult to find.The center spread in this issue- “American
Roots Music on the Web”- bridges the gap between print and Web. Here you will find a logical approach to some of the best roots music sites. Notice I said “a logical approach”, not “the logical approach”.
There are undoubtedly many, many sites just as good as the ones I’ve chosen, and I will do my best to point you to those sites in future issues. This Web guide is just the first in a series. In future
issues, we will go beyond the history basics to find more in-depth historical resources. After building a sound foundation, we will move into the current state of the art. There are sites that provide
meaningful and well written reviews of both new and old albums. There are sites that keep track of multiple music news sources. There are sites that provide original commentary on roots music. There are
sites that specialize in charting the sales– or radio airplay– of roots music albums. There are sites that specialize in keeping track of live performance schedules. And you can’t overlook the many helpful
sites from artists, record labels, venues, and CD sellers. When you have a firm grasp on the Web resources, you can move on to the really helpful resource– e-mail listservs. This is word-of-mouth taken to
a global scale. Not only will you make new friends around the world, but you’ll benefit from (mostly) unbiased opinions. Volume One, Number Six
If this issue of Fiddlin’ Around has a theme, it would have to be this: Just when you think you’ve tracked down all the live music worth hearing, something
else pops up in an unexpected place.One of our discoveries may regret the publicity they receive. I predict that many folks will be tempted to move to Northeast Georgia when they learn the story
behind the Golden Hills Concert Series. A visit to one of their shows just might seal the deal. Then the Golden Hills
folks will have to worry about things like expanding their seating and managing sellout crowds.The story in the center spread of this issue is supposed to be a true one, but you know how these East Tennessee Fiddlers
are- as bad as fishermen, sometimes. So I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the facts are a tad exaggerated in spots. But the fact remains- when it takes a four wheel drive vehicle to reach the music, that’s an unexpected place!
Atlanta’s Chastain Park Amphitheatre
is not an unexpected place to find good music, but the lineup for 2001 is surprising. Chastain seems to be on the path towards becoming a hotbed of folk, blues and Americana music. Turn to page ten to find all the details about an incredible string of Chastain concerts in late July and early August.
The Chastain schedule may be an accurate reflection of the public’s tastes of late. I have seen an assertion that the attendance at MerleFest
this year exceeded that of Fan Fair. Attendance figures are statistics, after all, meaning that you can interpret them to say whatever you want to say.Whatever the exact figures, the fact remains that
MerleFest- a lightly promoted event held essentially in the middle of nowhere- achieved ticket sales in the same ballpark as Fan Fair- a heavily promoted event held in Music City, USA. Just another
confirmation of the trend first evidenced in the sales of the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack.Radio programmers take
note! We are going to support our favorite artists, no matter what you are pushing. Either get on the bandwagon or watch your station go down the drain.
Volume One, Number Five This month, we debut a new direction for the newsletter. The majority of our coverage will continue to be focused on the artistic aspects
of the acoustic performers work, but whenever possible, we will spotlight the connections between musicians and the causes they deem worthy.As you will read in the center spread, a large group of
artists have come together to produce a CD designed to benefit the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper
organization. Sally Bethea and her co-workers at the U.C.R. office have been doing an outstanding job of keeping the public focused on the problems, as well as actually implementing solutions wherever possible.
If you can’t make it to Eddie’s
for the show, please order this CD. While you’re at it, consider joining the U.C.Riverkeeper organization. Not only do they do good work, but they organize some very interesting hikes and canoe trips for members only. As a member, you also receive a well produced newsletter providing in-depth coverage of the issues.
Another area where musicians are quick to volunteer is in the preservation of music history. In this issue, you will read of the work of a group in Dahlonega who are continuing the work of noted
musicologist Dr. Eugene Wiggins. Georgia is especially rich in music history. In the area of old-time country music, Atlanta was– for many years– more important than Nashville. WSB radio’s clear channel
signal broadcast many live performances by string bands, and musicians from all over the Southeast came to Atlanta to record their songs. You can explore the history of old-time country, folk, and blues in
numerous books and websites. The Fiddlin’ Around web site has links to many resources, and we will be constantly adding more as we find them. One of the best ways to get started in the study of Georgia
music history is to pay a visit to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame
in Macon. There you can see one of the instruments used by Fiddlin’ John Carson when he helped to launch the country music recording business– as well as instruments and artifacts from every musical genre.
Volume One, Number Four There’s something very special about live music. It’s
fundamentally different from listening to music on a stereo– no matter how good your equipment. Even at a live concert, the ubiquitous amplification often detracts from the experience. So it stands to
reason that your best listening experiences will probably occur in small rooms where little or no amplification is required. Many artists are acknowledging this through their growing interest in doing “house
concerts”. If you’ve never heard that term before, the concept is very simple. Anyone with a roomy house (or yard) and co-operative neighbors can throw a party for all the acoustic music lovers in the
area. You invite a performer who’s passing through the area to stop at your house and play for your guests. The guests are asked for a “contribution” to provide some pay for the artist. The details of the
agreement between homeowner, artist, and guests is flexible and negotiable. There are many, many very talented performers who are not yet well known– and thus are eager to play house concerts. But many
“big-name” artists will also do a house concert- under the right conditions. Another good source of live music is the festivals that encourage everyone to bring their instrument and take part in a little
“parkin’ lot pickin’”. The stars of the festival often take part in these jam sessions, and a lot of the amateurs are just as talented as the stars! Next in the live music hierarchy is the “listening
room”. Usually providing seats for about 150 people, these facilities take care to provide a high quality, low impact amplification system, and are careful to eliminate as many extraneous noises as possible.
Moving on to recordings, you may surmise from all this that my favorite recordings are faithful reproductions of live performances. Actually, I prefer videos of live performances, but not many people are
doing that at the listening room level. One of our contributors– Vince Bell–
is trying the live approach for his new album. On April 19, at Bluewind the Art Bar in historic Franklin, TN, Vince and friends recorded a live performance. The recording will become his next album–
dust. You will find more about this project and Vince on page 9.A new contributor– Reid Mitchell– tells us about a couple of performers he has discovered in the listening rooms of New Orleans. In
honor of Reid’s debut, we have given him the two-page center spread to demonstrate his writing talents.
Volume One, Number Three Spring is here, and that means festival season is getting into full swing. You will probably see me handing out copies of
Fiddlin’ Around at the WRFG Peachblossom Festival in Marietta, and at the Bear on the Square Festival
in Dahlonega.There’s also a significant amount of Americana music connected to the Dogwood Festival and next month’s Music Midtown. If you feel like doin’ a little travelin’, you
can’t do better than MerleFest– up in Wilkesboro, NC. The next project for the Fiddlin’ Around website is a festival guide. You will be able to plan your weekend road trips by studying
monthly calendars that will help you visualize the festival schedule. The first resource project for the website is far enough along to be helpful. If you explore the “Audio–Video” section, you will find a
time grid for each day of the week displaying many of the live radio shows featuring roots music. Other entries in this section list radio stations that stream good music full time, as well as
Web-only stations and archives. In this issue, we welcome a few new contributors: Justin Marquez and his wife Linda are residents of Houston, TX- and active performers- who have a
special interest in the dulcimer family of instruments. They will be able to keep tabs on happenings around the East Texas hill country. Vince Bell is an accomplished singer and songwriter– originally from
Texas, but now living in Nashville. Upcoming excerpts from his Journal will demonstrate that his journal writing is as good as his song writing!
Volume One, Number One and Two This publication covers all the music you are not likely to hear on your local country radio station. The country music business
establishment tries its best to make country sound more like pop music- on the theory that country pop will sell more CDs. That's fine- there's a lot of good country pop out there.The problem is that
there are a lot of very talented musicians who prefer to stay closer to the roots of folk, country, and blues. When country goes pop, these musicians find it difficult to introduce new listeners to their
music. Fortunately, most of these talented performers stay busy giving live performances. Few things in life are more enjoyable than listening to good live music. We will tell you when and where to find
these artists, and what to expect from their show. We will tell you where to go on the World Wide Web to find more information - usually including samples of their work. We will also tell you which
non-commercial radio and TV stations in your area play this music, and when you should tune in. You can even find many radio stations that broadcast live over the Internet. Our columnists will
try to articulate the passions that figure into these more traditional musical forms. They even stray into fiction occasionally to get their point across. If you are new to these musical genres, you are
about to embark on a fascinating and rewarding journey. Along the way, you are bound to make a lot of new friends, because the folks who like this music tend to share other traits- including a very friendly
nature. Just don't forget to take us along on your journey. Have fun! Steve Robertson |
