This week, host Tom Duffee invited fiddler Whitt Meade and pianist Kathy Anderson to perform a live studio session on A Country Ramble. The musicians played favorites from their repertoire of old-time tunes, and shared details about the history and composition of each song.
Both Meade and Anderson are distinguished musicians in the old-time tradition. On the program, Meade talks about studying with legendary fiddle players like Tommy Jarrell and Dayton's Jim Morrison. He and Anderson also talk about the role of each of their instruments–fiddle and piano–in old-time music. “Back in the old days, you had a piano in every home,” Anderson said. “If you also had a fiddler that would be perfect.”
Mead spoke about the difference between old time and bluegrass fiddle technique:
“A lot of the early bluegrass fiddling was the same as Old Time fiddling. They used the same southern down-bow technique that’s ubiquitous among all the states in the East. With time, after bluegrass came along, they started relying more on the rhythm section – the bass and the mandolin – to keep the rhythm going. This freed up the banjo and fiddle to just focus on the melody, and they started dropping some of the rhythms that they used to put in in the old days. To me that’s the main difference – stylistically, banjo and fiddle shifted and became more melodic.”
The musicians also talked about how they select songs to play. Anderson, who is also a renowned square dance caller, said that playing with Mead has given her an appreciation of “crooked tunes “– songs where an extra two beats are inserted each 16 bars. While crooked tunes aren’t played for square dances, the extra “snuck in” beats are a standard for old time fiddlers. Mead spoke about a visceral, physical quality that attracts him to certain tunes:
“I always wonder what draws me to certain tunes and not to others. The tune itself is one aspect of it, and then playing it is another. There is a physical connection you get to it when you play it. It just fits your style or something, and it makes you want to play it all day.”
Whitt Meade and Kathy Anderson performed for a live studio audience that included all three Duffee brothers and members of the band The Corn Drinkers. They ended the interview by sharing memories of hosting Rise When the Rooster Crows on WYSO.
