Re: Need suggestions: the diffrecne betw old time jam and song ci
The premise of this thread seems a little unusual. There are gazillions of old-time tunes that have no words. Some of the more common old-time tunes have a verse or two, but they aren't "songs" in the normal sense. I guess you must be doing quite a few of the familiar tunes that have words -- or which are actually instrumental versions of songs, which originally were sung but now are mostly just played. If you started playing Spotted Pony or Road to Lisdoonvarna, I doubt anyone would have words to sing along with them.
Can you give us an idea of what tunes you're trying to play, that people start singing on? Offhand, I can only think of a few old-time jam tunes that usually evoke singing: Angelina Baker, for example, or June Apple, Old Joe Clark, maybe Soldiers' Joy a little bit, sometimes Train On the Island in one of its many variations. Mike Cross wrote some recent words for Whiskey Before Breakfast, I know, and of course there are popular songs that crop up at many jams in instrumental versions, like Tennessee Waltz.
I like the idea of divvying up the jam into "instrumental only" and "singing with instruments" segments, but I guess you don't want any singing at all. I have often thought that the old-time musicians didn't see such a divide between instrumental and vocal, and did a little of both; I've jammed with some of the well-known surviving old-time musicians, like Tommy Jarrell, and they might throw a verse into Yellow Rose of Texas, then go back to just playing the tune. Nothing like a "song circle" as you describe it.
You don't need to work with your entire e-mail list; start with a half-dozen musicians who are primarily instrumentalists, have a more-or-less private session with them, and grow it from there.
There's a big difference between a jam and a song circle, or "sing-around" as we call them here, but I would think that a strict "don't ever sing" rule might be a bit restrictive. It's all music, right?
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
Bookmarks