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Berkeley Old Time Music Convention: Maria Muldaur & Her Old Timey Pals, The Onlies, and Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellows at Freight & Salvage
Maria Muldaur & Her Old Timey Pals
Long before her hit record Midnight at the Oasis, Maria Muldaur was an old-time fiddler. Raised in the bohemian community of Greenwich Village in New York City, Maria was at the epicenter of the 1960’s folk music movement. She befriended guitarist Doc Watson and fiddler Gaither Carlton (Doc’s father-in-law) on their first trip to New York, and subsequently paid several visits to them at their home in Deep Gap NC, where Maria learned many of Gaither’s rare tunes directly from the master himself. Bob Dylan acknowledged the deep roots and unaffected approach of Maria’s fiddling when he said “I like that rustic way you play.”
During the folk revival’s golden era, Maria had the opportunity to learn directly from renowned roots singers Mississippi John Hurt, Clarence Ashley, Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey, who mentored her in the fine points of performing and singing the blues. With the legendary Jim Kweskin Jug Band, she performed songs recorded in the 1920s by artists such as Jimmie Rodgers, Sara Martin and the Mississippi Sheiks.
Maria’s BOTMC set will include old-time and blues songs as well as tunes learned from Gaither Carlton, with stories about her journey though the world of folk music. She’ll be backed by Suzy Thompson (fiddle and guitar); Eric Thompson (guitar and mandolin); Candy Goldman (banjo); Karen Celia Heil (guitar); and Allegra Thompson (bass).
The Onlies
The Onlies are a young group of old friends who perform together in a stringband. They grew up playing fiddles, guitars, and banjos in their hometowns of Seattle, WA and Lexington, VA. With their latest self-titled recording, the band digs deep into performances of traditional American popular (old time) music. The music moves with a pulsating drive, sharp arrangements, and rich vibration — it resounds with the present. The Onlies are: Sami Braman, Riley Calcagno, Vivian Leva, and Leo Shannon, with Nokosee Fields on bass. Their new release (THE ONLIES) is their fourth full-length record, though it will be their first one as a quartet since joining with Leva in 2017. The band, all still in their twenties, won first place at the Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival in 2017, has toured the US extensively, and has performed and collaborated with Bruce Molsky, Elvis Costello, Tatiana Hargreaves, Foghorn Stringband, The Bee Eaters, John Herrmann & Meredith McIntosh, and Darol Anger, among others. Their newest record is produced by Caleb Klauder (Foghorn Stringband, Caleb Klauder Country Band), and features Nokosee Fields (Western Centuries, Steam Machine) on bass. It is a committed engagement with the histories and futures of old time fiddle music.
www.theonlies.com
Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellows
Darcy Ford-James (she/her) is a violinist and educator with more than two decades as a public school strings teacher. Darcey is co-founder of Stockton Soul, a nonprofit Soul Orchestra dedicated to educating, empowering, and inspiring audiences through the performance of Black Music.
Joe Zavaan Johnson (he/him) is a multi-instrumentalist, arts educator, and Black music researcher currently pursuing a Ph.D.in Ethnomusicology at Indiana University-Bloomington. His research puts the Black banjo reclamation movement into conversation with critical constructions of race, place, belonging, gender, and sexuality.
Patrice Strahan (she/her) is a lifelong musician who cultivated her love for music singing in church choirs and playing in bands. Her music practice is driven by her passion for communal music at the intersection of land stewardship/kinship and engaged spiritual social justice. Patrice is dedicated to ensuring that Black Old Time Music is learned and passed on to future generations.
The Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellowship (BBFF) is a two-year paid fellowship program that trains Black musicians in old-time music and its rich history. To repair the historical and cultural ruptures that erased the Black origins of banjo and fiddle music and to ensure that the tradition is sustained in Black communities, the BBFF also will train apprentices to teach the music, ensuring that it can be passed down from generation to generation. A collaboration between the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music and the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, the BBFF project aims to repatriate old-time music in African American communities and illuminate the Black experience in creating old-time music.
Objectives
Through the guidance and support of Teaching Artist mentors, fellows become proficient in old-time banjo and fiddle playing and deepen their knowledge of African American banjo and fiddle playing in the evolution of old-time music. They cultivate skills in teaching, performing old-time banjo and fiddle music, and leading jam sessions.
