Guitar is not the only chordal instrument used in Old Time. So instead of mistaking us for a Bluegrass band, now they'll mistake us for a Celtic band. Since it sounds like a current style of Irish backup, it's going to muddy theĭistinction between Old Time and Irish Trad, which is already a little hard toĮxplain to the general public anyway. So it's probably going to be a hard sell, and cause controversy.Ģ. It's not going to sound "Old Time" anything like we're used to.Īnd a big segment of Old Time fans like OT it sounds old fashioned. But based on my previous experiences with the Texas backup for Old Time tunes and the DADGAD backup for Irish tunes:ġ. I have to admit, I haven't yet had the opportunity to hear Old Time fiddle with a DADGAD backup. The chord changes without distracting from the melody. My main problem is that it's not the subtle backup I'm used to, that highlights "Who let the New Age guitarist into the ceilidh band?"īut after some more listening and looking around, I realized it wasĪ development IN IRELAND that the Irish themselves were fine with. Overall, though, the sound was quite familiar.īut hearing contemporary Irish stuff, I was like. (well, the popularity of banjo-uke was a surprise, but evidently some of the bands recorded in the '20s used them) The developments in Old Time weren't earthshaking- different fiddlers and tunes were popular, but you'd expect that after 30 years, right? He never even mentioned the possibility of DADGAD guitar as backup for Irish tunes- if it was being done in 1976, I can't imagine it was by any means pervasive or accepted, or I imagine my Irish Trad fiddler friend would have said something about it.įast forward to 3 1/2 years ago and I get a fiddle again, and start listening to what's happening with both Irish and Old Time via the Internet. He was a stickler for authenticity in the Irish material,Īnd didn't want me to use the bass runs I'd been used to in Old Time backup for Irish tunes- that was fine by me, I left them out. The Irish fiddler/ OT backup guitarist used normal tuning, and backed up Old Time tunes just like he would Irish ones, which was basically Old Time backup guitar without bass runs. With the erstwhile Irish fiddler switching to guitar. Likewise, I was in a band in 1976 that had an Irish instrumentation and an Old Time instrumentation.įor Irish, we had fiddle, tin whistle, concertina, and guitar, with me on guitar.įor OT, we had two fiddles, with me on one of them, dulcimer, and guitar, It didn't necessarily sound bad, but it totally changed the character of the jam,Īnd we howled! But it really showed me how the backup instrument and style has the power to totally change the flavor of an ensemble sound. When he didn't know the tune on fiddle, he would proceed to get out the guitar,Īnd back up our Old Time jam with Texas sock chords. area with that stylistic preference, so he jammed with us. I have to say I'm not real thrilled with the idea.īack in the early 70's, there was a fiddler jamming with the Old Time crowd I hung out with who really was more of an aspiring Texas fiddler than anything else, but he was the only one he knew of in the L.A. I'm gonna restring that sucker as a DADGAD 6-string banjo! I just-now remembered that my homemade 12" rim banjo uses a (salvaged) GUITAR neck. Gotta tune a guitar to DADGAD and do some further exploring along this path.Īnybody else out there messed with it? DADGAD-tuned guitar for OT back-up?ĪHA. Dang, I'm not even certain of previously being aware that she even played guitar. Nothing prepared me for Evie's OT back-up guitar using DADGAD. Wish I'd recorded what Evie did behind 'Shoot That Turkey Buzzard.' Made that gnarly-bird of a tune soar anew and fresh. All kinds of chord substitutions, passing chords, partial chords, ambiguous-but-right chords, melody-matching, suspended fourths and sixths all over the place. At times it almost sounded like 'clawhammer guitar.' Also quite octave-mandolinish. What Evie did, to support the tunes, using DADGAD, really caught my ear. She has the proverbial 'big ears.' Even if unfamiliar with a tune, she nails-and then elaborates-upon, in a musically-bonafide way-the tune's harmonic structure by the second go-through. Also a savvy songwriter with a couple of CD's out there. Evie is an excellent keyboardist, has played in OT, contra, klezmer combos for many years, mainly for dances. I've heard celtic-oriented guitarists like Daith Sproule and John Doyle do wondrous things behind Irish fiddling in DADGAD tuning.īut we were playing hardcore-basic old time tunes. I'd switch to banjo when Jan called the tune. Recently I stumbled into an impromptu jam with two other gals.
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