Old-time music at the Big Muddy Folk Festival

Banjos, dulcimers, autoharps, basses and especially fiddles and guitars were common sights in Boonville last weekend, as the Friends of Historic Boonville's Big Muddy Folk Festival celebrated its 25th year on April 1st and 2nd. Musicians from around the country performed and offered workshops at Boonville’s historic Thespian Hall and other local venues.

The Missouri Folk Arts Program coordinate a backup guitar workshop Saturday that featured Steve Hall, who has led four apprenticeships through the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP). He explained and demonstrated his particular approach to old-time backup guitar, which places emphasis on the movement of the bass line. 

Workshop attendees also heard from Ellen Gomez, Mr. Hall’s current apprentice through TAAP. She is also an accomplished fiddler and plays other styles on guitar, and applied for the apprenticeship to learn Hall's approach and to fine-tune her skills.

Hall and Gomez certainly couldn’t demonstrate backup guitar without someone playing the melody line; master fiddler Vesta Johnson (Steve Hall's grandmother and first teacher) and her 2015 apprentice James Hall, who happens to be her great-grandson, supplied the waltzes, reels and two-steps.

Ellen Gomez, Steve Hall, Vesta Johnson and James Hall took turns picking old time dance tunes
during the rhythm guitar workshop at Big Muddy Folk Festival.  Photo by Tracy Anne Travis

Although Mrs. Johnson is an experienced performer and teacher (she's been playing fiddle since 1929), she mentioned that it was a special challenge teaching her ninth apprentice through TAAP, James Hall. She explained that it’s always a little different teaching family.

During the workshop for rhythm guitar, Ellen Gomez and Steve Hall accompany
James Hall as he plays a tune in one of his favorite dance forms--the waltz. Photo by Tracy Anne Travis

On the other hand, she's glad to pass on her knowledge of old-time music to another younger generation. During the workshop, and a session focused on fiddling later that day, she stressed the importance and value of young fiddlers learning tunes of an older variety (despite the appeal of flashy, quick, and newer styles that are not so firmly associated with a dance tradition). Examples of her vast repertoire were recently compiled on CD by The Field Recorders' Collective.

She teaches a style of North Missouri fiddling that is intrinsically linked to square dancing; a consistent, dance-able tempo and rhythmic integrity are her top priorities. Mrs. Johnson explained that fiddling has changed a lot since she was young, especially since there is much less opportunity to play for square dances.

Nonetheless, opportunities to hear old-time music continue. In Mid-Missouri, John and Betty White host regular monthly jam and dance at Hallsville Communty Center, and the weekly McClurg Jam on Monday nights is a another favorite. 

The Missouri Folk Arts Program and MU's Museum of Art and Archaeology will host a special old-time music event later this month. Master old-time fiddler John P. Williams, Jr. will play fiddle tunes with Bob Cathey and Kenny Applebee, as part of TAAP's new Then and Now: Apprentice Journeys series, at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, April 22nd in the Museum's European and American Gallery at Mizzou North in Columbia. The event is sponsored also with grants from the Missouri Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tracy Anne Travis is the Missouri Folk Arts Program's newest graduate intern who hails from Wichita, Kansas. A Masters student in the University of Missouri's Department of English, Ms. Travis studies Folklore. Beyond her studies, she is a tutor and a musician, who plays and studies old-time, Irish, and Baroque music.

 

On February 20th, the Missouri Folk Arts Program hosted Saint Louis-area master artist and African-American gospel musician Doris Frazier at MU's European & American Gallery in the Museum of Art and Archaeology. The concert emphasized that gospel music is rooted in community even though the museum gallery contrasts the style's more typical habitat--church.

After an introduction by Deborah Bailey, who coordinates Missouri's Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP), Mrs. Frazier in turn introduced her craft. She noted gospel's roots in the days of American slavery and that its purpose is to express devotion to Christ, but also to tell the community’s story.

Mrs. Frazier serves as music director at a church in the community of Westland Acres in Chesterfield.The historic community was named for Mrs. Frazier's late husband's ancestor, who was a freed slave who originally purchased and settled the land in St. Louis County.

Doris Frazier invited the audience to sing Down at the Cross and Down by the Riverside.
Photo Credit: Alex W. Barker

“I like audience participation,” Mrs. Frazier said. She started the concert with Down by the Riverside, saying “I’m gonna teach it to you, and it won’t take but two minutes.” And she was right. It wasn’t long before nearly the entire audience was taking part as Mrs. Frazier directed with her hands and voice.

The event also showcased the efforts of TAAP to encourage traditional arts in Missouri. Mrs. Frazier was one of the original master artists when the program began in 1985, and took on another apprentice again in 1992. With any traditional arts, much of its meaning and success lies in the student-teacher relationship, and this is what TAAP helps to cultivate and support. This year, Mrs. Frazier took on another Saint-Louis area resident, Peyton Boyd, as her TAAP apprentice in order to teach him gospel-style piano.

Peyton Boyd played gospel versions of hymns such as It Is Well With My Soul and Precious Lord, and concluded with a classical piano solo.
Photo Credit: Alex  W. Barker 

Mrs. Frazier and Peyton Boyd prepare to perform a duo of Thy Word is a Lamp Unto My Feet.
 Photo Credit: Alex W. Barker 

As the concert came to a close, Mrs. Frazier included two of her own compositions about personal insights and events in her family's history, accompanied by two of her daughters. She closed the concert with the hymn In the Garden, and again led the audience as they sang along.

Stay tuned for upcoming events presented by the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program this Spring!