Toe-Tappin' and Flat-footin' at the Carter Family Fold
I spent a pleasant evening at the Carter Family Fold, listening to Adam Steffey, Grammy Award winning mandolin player and five time winner of the International Bluegrass Association's Mandolin Player of the Year Award. Adam currently plays with the Boxcars, formerly with Alison Krauss and Union Station. Found a video on YouTube where the band is playing in a really neat setting... underground!
I have an appreciation for bluegrass music, although that is not my personal music preference. It is a musical heritage born right here in the mountains of Appalachia where I have lived my entire life. (I have a real southern drawl and I can say y'all with the best of 'em!)
The Carter Family Fold was established in 1979 to promote and preserve 'old time' music and to pay tribute to the original Carter Family, A.P., Sara and Mother Maybelle Carter, who first recorded their music in 1927. The songs they sang, "Keep on the Sunny Side", "Wildwood Flower" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" live on today. Every Saturday night, live bands playing old time acoustic music fills the Fold. The dance floor is filled with children, teens, and plenty of old-timers doing a style of dancing called flatfooting or buckdancing (I have never learned how). Tonight there was even a lady dancing with a dog! The Fold will seat 850 people and it is out in the middle of no where (where the Carter Family lived)! People come from all over the world to the Fold... tonight there was a group from Brazil and another from Canada. The only person that Janette Carter ever allowed on stage to 'plug-in' (that is, not play acoustic) was Johnny Cash - and that was only because he was married to June Carter! If interested in learning more, check out http://www.carterfamilyfold.org
One reason I wanted to hear Adam play in person, is that his mama greatly influenced my life and I am eternally grateful.
@nanalisarocks If you are ever nearby you should spend a Saturday evening here... there is a small museum next door with lots of Carter Family memorabilia!
@myautofocuslife Livia, I'm sure he loves his music... but he may have had extra reasons to smile... his twin babies and lots of family were sharing the evening with him and his lovely wife joined him on stage several times playing a clawhammer style banjo! So I really think he was beaming... he was close to home and he's been on tour!
Wow ... what a fabulous photo of a great American tradition. I really like Bluegrass and my husband LOVES it. In fact, he wants to move to TN to see more. Thanks for sharing this with us!!
Nice bit of music-making capture - old time music's relatively popular here among some of the folk music listening types - we have sessions and classes in what we call appalachian clogging.
Nice shot!