Re: Why old time and bluegrass are not the same.
Originally Posted by
Jim Nollman
Ranald, Thanks for the info about Big John. I had no idea. It makes me suspect that referring to a tune as Metis, often means that the tune has been embraced by these native musicians who make it their own by playing in the unique Metis style. Doesn't that also happen with Scottish tunes played within the Cape Breton community?
I'm with you Jim, a great many of "our" tunes, no matter who "we" are, are borrowed, put into our style, and played so much that eventually we have a kind of folk ownership of them. You're correct about Cape Breton. Many of the tunes everyone plays are from Scotland and Ireland, or even from Don Messer, but changed into Cape Breton style. "Paddy on The Turnpike" sounds much different with a Cape Breton accent, than when fiddlers in Ontario play it. Many American standards come from other countries as well.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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