A type of country music ensemble that includes fiddle, banjo, acoustic guitar, mandolin, and upright bass. Emerged in the early 1900s and was an important precursor to bluegrass. During the late 1800s, the Carolina Piedmont provided fertile ground for the cultivation of a string band tradition that combined Scots-Irish fiddle and balladry with African instruments like banjo and European guitar and mandolin. String band music was social music, played at dances, contests, and other community occasions. String band musicians were storytellers, performing songs of tragedy and revenge, love and friendship. Much of this music, whether blues or string band, has deep roots in both sacred and secular themes, creating dynamic music with emotional and personal meaning.
Today it is played primarily in circles where old-time country music remains popular, such as family picnics, square dances, fiddle conventions, and jam sessions. Rooted in British ballads and folk songs originally played on the fiddle in Britain. Country music has been aggressively marketed since the 1920s, developing numerous traditions within genre – honky tonk, western swing, and early rock and roll.
Content is provided by McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina.
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From the album "Cross-Country Swing" by Roger Bellow and Paul Anastasio, 1999. This is a Tommy Duncan number from 1951. Bellow - guitar and vocals, Paul Anastasio - fiddle, Ray Wood - non-pedal steel...
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J.R. Wilkie, McCormick (McCormick County) realtor who was a musician prior to WWII. Interview conducted by Anne Kimzey.
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From the recording "Vernon Riddle & His Fiddle." Features Riddle's wife Ruth on guitar.
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From the album "Success Street" by Roger Bellow and the Drifting Troubadours, 1988. This is an instrumental number with Bellow on guitar, Spanish Dobro, fiddle, mandolin, and bass.
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A traditional steel guitar or Dobro tune performed by Alda. This was a very familiar number to Alda - his father Ralph performed it often - along with several other steel guitar standards.
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T.C. Foster learned the ways of the fiddle at a very young age, often listening to his father play on the front porch for hours at a time. Sneaking around with his father’s fiddle at first, by the age...
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Ted Brackett was from Inman, South Carolina. His father, a farmer by trade, played an old time claw hammer banjo and Ted’s uncle played the fiddle. Growing up in a musical family, he soon showed...
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People who worked in the textile mills played in bands that would perform at events and competitions
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An original tune written and performed by Orris Smith, son of Ralph and brother of Alda. Recorded in Virginia in 1975 and transferred by Alda.
