This description has a lot of merit when discussing old-time fiddle and banjo dance music (hoedowns, breakdowns, reels) but is perhaps a bit less relevant in discussing other old-time expressions.
A lot of scholars concur that old-time fiddle music, in particular, is the melding of Irish/Scottish/English traditions with African rhythms as disseminated through banjo music. Alan Jabbour (former director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and noted fiddler and tune catcher) and Tom Sauber (noted fiddler, banjo player, and one of the best old-time musicians I've ever met) have both posited the proposition that old-time fiddling is distinguished by syncopated bowing that--in varying degrees of subtelety--incorporates an African-based 3-3-2 (Bo Diddley) groove. Each can provide endless examples of how this is manifested in a large number of tunes. Those grooves are a little harder to articulate with a pick on the mandolin than they are with a bow on a fiddle, but that's what provides the right kick to old-time dance music.
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