About
About oldtime music
Here is an article about an old-time fiddle apprenticeship in West Virginia that has some nice descriptions of what this music is. It also mentions Helena Triplett's ballad apprenticeship with Phillis Marks Click here
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Appalachian Mountain music.
The Faustians are an old-time string band in Wellington New Zealand. In this far away corner of the planet, they sing the old songs of the pioneers; the
murder ballads, lonesome laments, farm humour, and tub thumping dance tunes, to lift the spirits of the under-privileged and downtrodden, warn the straglers and
frighten children back to bed.
Amongst this grim and merry fare is Helena's original songs - forged in the Old-time traditions and wrung from the dust and bones of the past, airy and dark but spiked with humour.
The Faustians - back to the mountain roots of Americana.
(Gabriel Trumpetblow, 1843)
