Old Time, Bluegrass (and the Red Clay Ramblers)

I've never been clear on what makes "old time" different from bluegrass, and the other day on the radio, a guy explained that one difference is...the bass. Bluegrass features stand-up bass and old-time doesn't, giving that role to the guitar. Of course, there's a whole lot more that separates them, at least initially -- lately, lines are being blurred as bluegrass tackles everything from jazz to the Grateful Dead (old-time, as the name implies, maybe not so much). I backed into old-time, hearing Uncle Dave Macon songs via psychedelic tricksters the Holy Modal Rounders (as you'll recall, faithful readers. -- Smilin' Stan), who added their own
humor (and their contemporary take on modes of intoxication).  Uncle Dave Macon was quite the entertainer; I'd bet you could draw a line from Uncle Dave to David Lee Roth, as unlikely as that sounds. (Uncle Dave's onstage side-splits are legendary, even though his stage act came across differently on radio, or so I'm told).

The Fuzzy Mountain String Band, or the Fuzzies, as they are affectionately known, formed the band in the '70s, and listening to their take on old-time (and contra-dance - oh great, another classification), I actually missed my old turntable. We listened to this compilation of their 2 LPs in the car the other day, and since the songs didn't have a whole lot of variation, I missed the 20-minute cut-off when you'd have to turn the record over (and as irritating it seemed at the time, I thought that the  CD could have used some crackles and surface noise that would have been part of the LP listening experience).

KSER played a track from contra-dance band For Old Times Sake, not too far removed from the Fuzzsters, and FOTS has/had a Northwest connection with members from Seattle. Then I discovered local contra-dance events in Bellingham and Anacortes. I'd check one out if I thought they'd just let me listen; if I was forced to dance, another one of the Seventh Seals would be opened, and we can't have that just because my feet can't follow a simple beat. Anyway, as far as my limited exposure goes, contra-dance is based on traditional dance music (Celtic and Scottish mainly) and mostly performed for, yes, dancing.

So then there's the Red Clay Ramblers. I've only heard 2 of their albums, "Twisted Laurel" and "Merchant's Lunch", and I only heard "Twisted Laurel" because it was on the CD with "Merchant's Lunch". Stand back, tirade in the forecast: when the CD format came along, many folk labels adapted poorly.  Maybe it was concern that CDs wouldn't be around long, or weren't going to be adopted by the public-at-large (and I think I'm being generous there.) I actually wrote my only angry letter to a record label (which shall remain nameless) because they released one of my favorite albums on CD with a blank inner sleeve, no notes, nothing like what was included in the original LP. (Detect a nagging theme here, True Believers? --Just-Thought-I'd-Mention-It Stan). It felt like "Fine, you want this album on CD? Here you go, idiot! We don't care."

 Anyway, back to the Red Clay Ramblers -- for the 2 LPs to be packed onto 1 CD, they had to excise 1 track -- THE BEST FRIGGIN' SONG ON THE ALBUM!! Aaargh. It's an Irish-bluegrass-jig medley that kicks the shillelagh out of most other Celtic bands I've heard, and luckily I still have a poorly-recorded cassette copy somewhere. I just hope that when the Ramblers hit some anniversary date, the label will be able to add that track back. The Red Clay Ramblers are all over the map, featured on a mostly trad-folk label but they've got Dixieland, bluegrass, folk, ragtime, Celtic -- at the time, quite the unique and eclectic mix.