The South County Old Time Music Jam meets 7pm to 9pm at the Kingston Free Library (Potter's Hall) on route 138 in South Kingston on the corner of Upper College Road near URI. This event is supported by the RI State Council for the Arts RISCA! Thanks.
It is very likely that the Kingston jam will meet twice a month starting in February. The meeting on second Monday will follow the format - 1st hour teaching session with guest artist, 2nd hour jam session. The meeting on fourth monday will be a practice for the contra dance to be held in May - we'll practice a set of tunes including a selection of commonly played traditional tunes, some of which are listed below. Everyone is welcome to bring their acoustic instrument to the band practices and to play in the contra dance band, if they are practiced up. Hey, you can do this!
Old Time" or "Old Timey" refers to the music played in rural America from about 1800 until about the 1940s, and continuing up to this moment in revival groups and dances around the country.
Much of Old Timey is instrumental music played on guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin. For over 200 years small bands have played for dances in rural areas from New England to Louisiana and on the furthest reaches of the Western Frontier. Many of the tunes have been passed down for generations, derived from older traditions such as the dance music of Scotland, Ireland, French-Canada or rural England. The music of Scandinavia, Central Europe and African American traditions have also influenced the repertory.
This music started to enter the commercial market in the 1930s as radios became common (exactly as shown in the recent movie "Oh Brother Where art Thou?") and eventually got transformed into Country/Western, and into the highly polished virtuoso performance music known as 'Bluegrass." But, thousands of musicians continue to play the original tunes of 50, 100 or 150 years ago, and many thousands of dancers continue to enjoy the contradance and square dance traditions.
For many Old Timey musicians, playing music is a historic tradition, and for many others, it is just plain fun!