WORKSHOP:  Old-Time American Tunes for Tenor Guitar
This being the 250th year of the United States, I thought we would explore Traditional American “Old-Time” repertoire arranged for Tenor Guitar.  Old-Time is what record companies labelled traditional fiddle & banjo music in the 1920s indicating that this music was old even a century ago.  Playing Irish Trad for over 4 decades, I used to dismiss Old-Time as simple, derivative European fiddle music from the rural South.  I’ve since learned that Old-Time has its roots firmly planted in both West Africa and Northern Europe with influences from Indigenous Americans along with every immigrant population who have passed through or settled.  Old-Time is melodic and driving but with funk and lots of blue notes you don’t typically hear in European traditional music. 
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In this workshop, we will discuss the heritage & evolution of American Old-Time music and learn a few relatively simple but groovy-as-all-get-out Old-Time tunes arranged for Tenor Guitar in GDAE and CGDA.