Old-time Music And Dance

by Bealle, John

• ISBN13: 9780253346384
• ISBN10: 025334638X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-01
• Publisher: Quarry Books

Summary

In the summer of 1972, a group of young people in Bloomington, Indiana, began a weekly gathering with the purpose of reviving traditional American old-time music and dance. In time, the group became a kind of accidental utopia, a community bound by celebration and deliberately void of structure and authority. In this joyful and engaging book, John Bealle tells the lively history of the Bloomington Old-Time Music and Dance Group-how it was formed, how it evolved its unique culture, and how it grew to shape and influence new waves of traditional music and dance. Broader questions about the folk revival movement, social resistance, counter culture, authenticity, and identity intersect this delightful history. More than a story about the people who forged the group or an extraordinary convergence of talent and creativity, Old-Time Music and Dance follows the threads of American folk culture and the social experience generated by this living tradition of music and dance. John Bealle is a freelance indexer and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. He holds a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University and is an accomplished old time fiddler. During the time he lived in Bloomington, Indiana, he frequently accompanied Lotus Dickey.

Author Biography

John Bealle is an independent scholar who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is author of Public Worship, Private Faith: Sacred Harp and American Folksong and an accomplished old-time fiddler. During the time he lived in Bloomington, Indiana, he frequently accompanied Lotus Dickey.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction: Conjuring History	xiii
1. An Apocryphal Story	1	(10)
2. Old-Time Music Revival	11	(16)
3. Banjo Pedagogy	27	(8)
4. Back to the Land	35	(13)
5. The Green House	48	(7)
6. The Old-Time Community	55	(13)
7. The Jukebox	68	(9)
8. The Orange Sheet	77	(10)
9. Anne's a Bride Tonight	87	(13)
10. Opening Up	100	(5)
11. Gardening and Dumpstering	105	(12)
12. The Bean King	117	(10)
13. The Indiana Contra Dancers' Lament	127	(9)
14. The Gang of Four	136	(6)
15. Easy Street	142	(10)
16. Dance Camps	152	(8)
17. The Sovereign Self	160	(16)
18. Bloomington Quarry Morris	176	(7)
19. May Day	183	(6)
20. Dare to Be Square	189	(12)
21. The Shuffle Creek Cloggers	201	(6)
22. The Old Library	207	(5)
23. Sugar Hill	212	(12)
24. Young Audiences	224	(6)
25. Little Bloomington	230	(11)
26. Eight Miles from Town	241	(11)
27. The Piano Controversy	252	(10)
28. The Book	262	(5)
29. Collection Time!	267	(14)
30. The Reclusive Muse	281	(4)
31. Lotus Dickey	285	(7)
32. Breaking Away	292	(10)
33. Blue Spruce	302	(13)
References	315	(14)
Index	329