The music that we're speaking of is a cultural resource that we've built up over thousands of years... Before we had radio and phonographs... The music from these earlier, old times endured through the generations because of its rich and varied sounds and lyrics and because it filled the needs of the people, who, after all, created it for themselves. - Mike Seeger
As many of you probably know, Mike Seeger died on August 7. I've been listening to some of his work and thought it would be cool to have some company, so I've made a station called Mike Seeger's Old Time Dream, based on our collections of Mike Seeger's music as well as our collection of the New Lost City Ramblers, the group that he founded and played with for more than 50 years.
Mike Seeger was a key participant and leader in the "old time music" movement, and if you're not familiar with this music, you're on the threshold of a very cool discovery. Even if you ultimately decide you don't particularly like it (doubtful, I bet), old time music's acoustic instrumentation, rough performances, and old shared songs preserve a powerful way of making music (and perhaps of living).
Old time music lets us hear the sound of music as it must have been before recordings were common. Back when performances would have been more idiosyncratic, less standardized, and would have come out in the same ways of speaking and being that the people used in everyday life.
It also takes old, unattributed songs as a main part of its repertoire. These days, assuming someone wanted to write those kinds of songs, modern copyright laws might make sharing them difficult, at least in their recorded form. But songs that were shared freely in the ongoing, practical use and performance of the songs by people in their homes would live on, as the traditional repertoire has for so long.
Mike Seeger's Old Time Dream, indeed.
There is so much to hear and ask about this music, but I'll beg off here and let Mike Seeger do the real work. Looking forward to hearing comments, and thanks for reading and listening!