Fiddle Tunes at Centrum

Cornbread Nation: The Bluegrass/Americana World of Tim O'Brien

"People ask me what my hobby is, and I tell them, well, I like to cook and hang out at home or read history, but really it's music," says Tim O'Brien with a smile.

So what if that's what he's done for a living for going on three decades? And what if he became regarded as a pre-eminent Americana and bluegrass musician by doing so? "It's my hobby. And everything the hobby does feeds the repertoire," O'Brien, who will be at this year's Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, says.

At this point in his career, nearly thirty years after moving to Colorado where he would form his landmark band Hot Rize, repertoire is a major part of the Tim O'Brien story. For in addition to his own prolific and successful songwriting, this child of West Virginia and the WWVA Jamboree has never stopped mining the American music canon for great material. He's a song sponge.

Songs collect and abide in Tim O'Brien's world as comfortably as family heirlooms. They come from around the world, particularly the American South and Ireland. They morph into new ideas and new songs that update old truths about the human condition. They find expression in O'Brien's clear-as-ice voice on stages, in recording studios and at home with circles of gifted musical friends. O'Brien's relationship with songs embodies the very essence of the folk music tradition, always aware that the branches of the musical tree need sap from the roots.

O'Brien was so full of songs when he approached his latest phase of recording that they overwhelmed one album and became two. And yet with Fiddler's Green and Cornbread Nation, his original intent has remained intact.

The Journeys of Riley Baugus and Tim Eriksen

Riley Baugus and Tim Eriksen traveled very different routes to traditional American music. 

Baugus (pictured) grew up in the foothills of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, surrounded by and breathing the old-time Appalachian music.

Eriksen came to the old-time tunes by way of punk rock.

Tim Eriksen plays banjo, guitar, and fiddle, and is known primarily for his powerful voice and abilities as an innovator and leader within American shape-note singing traditions.

He started out playing Indian music on the vina, a seven-stringed traditional instrument similar to the sitar. He later became lead vocalist for the punk rock band Cordelia’s Dad.

Improbably, the band also played northern Appalachian music, and in 1995 compiled an all-acoustic album. They began going to more fiddlers’ and old-time music conventions, which deepened their love for the traditional mountain music.

“I just got more and more drawn into this nineteenth-century stuff,” Eriksen says.

But he found that not very many people knew the old songs. 

A Foot in Both Worlds: An Interview with Dirk Powell

We're pleased to be able to reproduce an interview with Dirk Powell that appeared in our first issue of Experience magazine in May, 2006. It it, Dirk talks about his heritage in the Appalachian style of fiddling, the uniting of roots music with modern sensibilities, and cultural racism.

Dirk Powell, the Artistic Director of Fiddle Tunes, has expanded on the deeply rooted sounds of his Appalachian heritage to become one of the pre-eminent traditional American musicians of his generation. In addition to acclaimed releases on Rounder Records, he has recorded and performed with artists such as Loretta Lynn, Sting, Jack White, Levon Helm, Jewel, T-Bone Burnett, Ralph Stanley, and Linda Ronstadt, among others. His ability to unite the essence of his culture with modern sensibilities has also led to work with such film directors as Anthony Minghella, Spike Lee, Ang Lee, Victor Nuñez, Steve James, and Edward Burns. The interview is featured after the jump. 

Liz Carroll and John Doyle

National Heritage Fellow Liz Carroll and Irish guitarist John Doyle are among the headliners at the 2007 Festival of American Fiddle Tunes.