String Theory Media

coming up: radio panel at the national folk festival

The coming of the National Folk Festival this Labor Day Weekend is a huge occasion for Nashville and for music fans of all stripes. This prestigious event has been running for an incredible 72 years. From the official history:

First presented in St. Louis in 1934, the National Folk Festival is the oldest, longest-running and most diverse festival of traditional arts in the nation.  Championed in its early years by Eleanor Roosevelt, it was the first event of national stature to put the arts of many nations, races and languages into the same event on an equal footing. 

I'll be strolling a lot and enjoying the music and exhibits, but I also get to play a part. On Saturday, Sept. 3 at 3:45 I will moderate a panel called "If You Couldn't Sell You Didn't Eat": Country Music on Sponsored Radio. We'll hear from a distinguished group of country music veterans about how and why live commercial radio was so essential to country music careers in the early and mid 20th century. And they're all going to perform as well! Here's how the official program will describe our incredible panel:

DeFord Bailey Jr. will discuss the career of his late father, Country Music Hall of Fame member DeFord Bailey. Known as the “Harmonica Wizard,” the senior Bailey was one of the original performers on WSM–Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry in the 1920s and ’30s, and the first African American star in country music. DeFord Jr. also will demonstrate his father’s harmonica techniques on signature songs such as “The Fox Chase.” Mandolin player Jesse McReynolds, of legendary bluegrass brother duo Jim & Jesse, appeared on a number of radio barn dances in the 1950s and ’60s before joining the Opry in 1964. A member of the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame, Curly Seckler began his career in 1935 performing with his brothers on WSTP radio in Salisbury, North Carolina. He played mandolin and sang tenor for Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys for much of the 1950s and early’60s.  In addition to performing on WSM’s Opry programs, the group also appeared on the station’s daily early morning shows sponsored by Martha White Flour. Donna and Patsy Stoneman are veterans of radio and television. With other members of their musical family they were regulars on stations in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Craig Havighurst, author of Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City, will lead the session

Hope you can make it out to our tent and to the event in general. It's the can't-miss event of the Fall. 

 

 

music and my daughter, cont: grrrr.

Piano lessons have begun. We discovered that one of FongChong’s teachers from Saturday morning Chinese School (a remarkable Nashville institution by the way) is also a piano teacher. Her name is Grace, and she came over last week. I probably scared Grace half to death when she asked what we hoped she’d get out of lessons and I lifted off into an over-dramatic, cosmic discourse on the wonders of music. I saw my wife was aghast. I cut myself short. Just make sure FC knows that she’s free to play off script, I said. We’re about truly learning music and the discipline, but not acting like it begins and ends with the written page or classical music or heady goals of being a concert pianist. When it comes to music for kids, I believe in fun and rigor in equal measures. But all was fine. Grace seems far from the rap-the-knuckles with a ruler type. I think we’ll get along with her very well.

We didn't hover over the first lesson. They seemed to work happily together for a half hour. Off to a good start. Now one might think that after all the build-up and after all the reminders that piano lessons came with the responsibility of practicing, not to mention the luxury of a really nice, Chinese-speaking piano teacher whom FC liked right away, that DAY ONE of practicing would be easy. Not so.

new work: songs of fox hollow on NPR

Over the weekend my story about the new Red Beet Records tribute to Tom T. Hall's Songs of Fox Hollow album appeared on Weekend Edition. I wish there'd been more room/time to talk about Red Beet Records, the East Nashville boutique label run by Eric Brace and Mary Ann Werner and their ongoing collaborations with journalist/recording artist Peter Cooper. Yes, they are friends of mine, but I can safely say that even if I'd only arrived a month ago in Nashville I'd be pointing to Red Beet and its crew as one of the vibrant hotspots of creativity and music love happening in town. Their recordings have been beautifully curated, produced and packaged. They've made use of a bunch of excellent Nashville musicians at a time when gigs and sessions are more valuable than ever. And in the case of pedal steel guitar genius Lloyd Green, they - and especially Peter - have given a master a new lease on life.

The Tom T. Hall tribute was Peter's inspiration, rooted in a literal life-long fascination and passion for the work of this remarkable songwriter. When Peter and I worked at the Tennessean together, his rhapsodic soliloquies on Hall forced me to go listen more carefully and read the lyrics with my literary hat on. And yes, he was right. There is a quality and sophistication in Hall's writing that elevates him to the very top of the American canon. His detail-oriented short fiction-in-song would be utterly lost on today's country A&R machinery. I got to meet him a few years ago doing a story for WPLN, and it was a great treat to go back out to Fox Hollow for a visit and a walk around the grounds. As your fun audio bonus of the week, put your headphones on and enjoy five minutes of ambient sound from Fox Hollow, including the peacocks.

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