New Lost City Ramblers
I should say something about the concert we saw last weekend. Mary, Laura and I went over to Berkeley to see the New Lost City Ramblers, who have been collecting and performing old-time, mostly Appalachian music since well before I was born. The leader is Mike Seeger, who is brother to Peggy Seeger and half-brother to Pete. (American royalty.) This was part of an annual old-time music festival that’s been getting bigger and bigger lately; it appears that this is another of those out-of-the-way genres that’s been due for a revival.
The atmosphere was that of a homecoming. These guys could do no wrong with this audience, and they didn’t. In demeanor they remind you a bit of some of those old-time Afro-Cuban players like Guaracheros de Oriente: the material is so powerful and the performance style so calm, almost casual, that you’re surprised when your heart has suddenly been torn out and shredded by what you thought was just a three-minute folk song. They sneak up on you that way.
An autoharp, when played by someone who knows how, can be the most beautiful thing you ever heard. Mike Seeger knows how.
The next day I went back with Laura and Lilly for the outdoor concert part of the festival. There were lots of string bands playing on the grass and we got to see some smoking banjo players (clawhammer style only — I felt like a turncoat for practicing Scruggs picking the way I do), plus a real live gut-bucket. We agreed to try to make one of our own as soon as we could figure out where to get one of those big galvanized washtubs.
Categorised as: Laura, Lilly, Mary, Music