Old-Time Music at East Tennessee State University

More photos to come, but here is the list of finalists for the 6th annual Upper East Tennessee Fiddler's Convention. We'll be posting the winners on the website soon. What a year! Perfect weather, great music, and a great community atmosphere. Our biggest event yet. We were close to capacity!

Here are a couple of the trophies for this year at the Upper East Tennessee Fiddlers Convention. I talked to the folks at Little Branch Pottery and they have more than 20 woman-hours in each one! They are located just down the road from Rocky Fork State Park - Flag Pond, TN. Old-Time Music at East Tennessee State University

Great to see the Upper East Tennessee Fiddlers Convention make the list! See you there, April 26-27 in Flag Pond, TN! 🐸

The 12 Best Fiddlers Conventions in the Southeast in 2024 - The Musically Sound Music Blog Do you fiddle? If so, there are a variety of entertaining fiddlers conventions in the Southeast well worth attending for musicians and spectators alike.

ETSU old-time band Appalachian Sojourn is spending this semester visiting Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc programs across Western North Carolina, sharing old-time music with kids. Last week they visited the Black Mountain JAM program led by former ETSU faculty and longtime veterans of the music Cary Fridley and Travis Stuart. We miss you guys up here! Appalachian Sojourn has seven more programs to visit this semester! Emma Hynson, Seth Conkin, Cole Larsen.

I've posted a little about this before, a few years ago, but the Hugh Bell fiddle we have is next in line for restoration — like the Alf Taylor fiddle before it. Bell (b:1812) was a fiddle player and maker from England who settled in Washington County, TN - just up the road from us here at ETSU. According to fiddler Bill Hensley (also born in nearby Carter County and gifted his first fiddle by Bob Taylor, brother of Alf) Bell made up the tunes "Green River" and "Georgia Belle". Hugh had a fiddle making brother named George. Maybe the tune was called "George Bell" back then? These are the things we geek out on here at Old-Time Music at East Tennessee State University. Thanks to Bell's ancestor Sharon Bell Ingram for connecting us with this cool instrument. It will sing with tunes again before too long.

ETSU Old-Time band Twin Taters opened for alum Amythyst Kiah this week at the Martin Center! Twin Taters played music from the Johnson City Sessions, just as Amythyst's student band did ten years before. It was an honor to share a bit of what we do as old-time musicians at ETSU, and to revel in the show that Amythyst and her band put on. What a joy it's been to witness her music evolve through the years!

The 6th annual Upper East Tennessee Fiddlers Convention is happening in just over two months. This year the Green Grass Cloggers will be performing Friday night, along with Flag Pond's own The Tennessee Bluegrass Band, and on Saturday we will have workshops with Daniel J Gellert, Kirk Sutphin, Carol Elizabeth Jones, and others. It's going to be a fun year. Lots of prize money, homemade trophies, special prize categories, kids competition, food trucks, camping. All the stuff! Hope to see you.