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I'd guess you haven't heard their new album, or the one that came out before that. Agreed that their 1st (Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind) was a bit too earnest - but they've moved forward since then, and have developed their own style. fwiw. Agreed, medjuck. (Very much, in fact.)

The Drops' shows have a lot of humor in them. They have a way with irony, too.

Allen: I have no quarrel with your dislike of the Chocolate Drops; the explanation you posted works for me. What bothers me is the way in which you've been expressing your thoughts on them - up 'til now, that is. As I said earlier, it's the sarcastic/nasty digs that don't work for me, and likely for a lot of other readers and thread participants as well. best, s.

"Chocolate Drips" Why get nasty? With all due respect... Allen, the whole thread would work a lot better for a lot of readers and participants without the sarcasm and nastiness. And "fraudulent" suggests that they're somehow knowingly scamming listeners. Granted, some of the conclusions that the group's members have come to might be wrong, but your deliberate (and repetitious) nasty comments about them are just plain tiresome. If you have issues with what they do, and why - go talk with them about it instead of posting digs here. (Goes for same kinds of comments on other folks as well.) imo, fwiw [ad infinitum, ad nauseam, whatever]

Indeed! (c'est la board, or c'est la software, or whatever...)

Ah. I think there's been a lot of talking past each other on the last page or so...

Why would they - ??? Sorry; kinda lost the train of thought there...

OK, so you're the arbiter of Stage Presence now? Seriously, other people who've been onstage from time to time are posting on this thread. (And no, I don't have a Facebook or MySpace Music page; someday maybe I'll get around to that, if I really feel the need...) fwiw, the worst insult that the people from The Other Place were able to come up with was that I am not/was not a musician. Which is kinda stupid, really.

TMG: are there "historians of the future"? (An entirely silly and lighthearted question... )

Well-played is well-played, even if the piece of music in which the good playing is done is pretty nondescript (imo, at least). Señor Sgry, I'm not gonna get drawn into that whole stage presence/pim angle - to me, it's not all that relevant to the discussion as a whole. (And again, that's just an opinion, and mine - nothing even close to being written in stone! ) And as Big Beat Steve has said (paraphrasing), all the chops in the world don't necessarily make for truly satisfying music. "T'ain't what you do, it's the way...," right? Or (referring to that blues & Timbuktu thread), boasting about being able to play more, better, etc. than someone else is one thing - doing it is another. (cf. Ali Farka Toure's boasts that people like Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown had nothing to teach him, etc.)

A perfectly placed note is all you really need for that "Shiver Test."

Ha! And of course people like Rod Stradling (of the Musical Traditions site) tend to want to pretend that they didn't hear all those references to popular music and radio, etc. - very much like a lot of the mythologizers of Delta blues and assorted other styles. Whether the original Carter Family group members liked swing music, well... I don't know. But I'm sure they heard it on the radio and on jukeboxes, and maybe they even bought records, and... The possibilities are endless, and no one will ever succeed in tying it all together. That's frustrating for historians, but also means that the thrill of chase is always available. * Rod's magazine: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/ And he's a fine musician himself, just a bit grumpy about the kinds of things Bev mentioned above.

No, poisoned Kool-Aid (actually something called Flavor-Aid) and mass suicide: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown

Funny - I really liked Commander Cody when I was in HS and college, too. I'd never heard anything quite like their music, and was able (eventually) to find some of their source music, back when that could be quite a hunt!

Now I get it [she says, with some amusement]. The David Bromberg example is great - I was a big fan of his work when I was in college, and - at the same time - no real fan of bluegrass or old-time. So I guess I can appreciate both sides of it. And I agree that there can be - often is - hostility on all sides of these questions, as far as tastes (etc.) are concerned. I guess I was focusing more narrowly on actual history, what with the question having come up pretty early on in the thread + JSgry's interesting comments about re-enactment/living history-type stuff. (or Disney's Animatronics, or whatever.) As a kind of P.S., I doubt I'd have bought any of Bromberg's records had I not heard him live - that sold me.

OK, gotcha - but I'm not clear on how "denial of the past" fits into the discussion that was going on regarding the Carolina Chocolate Drops, or other groups mentioned here, if only because a lot of these folks seem to be very well-acquainted with many eras and kinds of music. If you look at the influences that the members of the group cite - individually and together - there's a lot of history there!

kenny, while I appreciate the points you're making (and think they're worth further discussion), it's a little hard to follow through, due to the fact that so many posts made to this thread have disappeared. (I'm not sure exactly what you're agreeing with, out of what I remember of the things that Allen had posted, in other words. ) am also not sure what you mean by "denial of the past" in this context, but I'd like to understand more - so could you help me out? thanks!

Jeffrey Broussard & the Creole Cowboys - "Motor Dude Special" - (In case the embed doesn't work: )

Yes, I'm sorry that the thread took the turn it did, but we can always try to get it back on track. Good suggestions, too! * Don Vappie and Cassie Taylor (Otis Taylor's daughter) performing "Les Ognons," from Recapturing the Banjo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VesbqfoD-Q4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VesbqfoD-Q4&feature=PlayList&p=5363C6DFA4E46261&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=14 This is "old" music, not new... though I'm not sure how many people know about it. Canray Fontenot, fiddle; Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin, button accordion: just in case the player doesn't show:

Yes I do! here's a clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFwYueewzZI I really, really wanted to visit Katie Campbell's church, but never did get around to it... (when i was living in D.C.). Their denomination is House of God - Keith Dominion, but House of God - Jewel Dominion also uses pedal and lap steel in their services.

oh, I believe you about Uniontown... I have no trouble picturing the KKK being there, or the rumors - none of it. Steel guitar: I love it, though I'm a convert mainly because of the series of recordings Arhoolie put out in the 90s - I forget the name of the black Pentecostal church that all the players come from, but they rock! The Campbell Brothers (along with singer Katie Jackson, who's from Baltimore) are my faves. The C. Bros. are Floridians. Teaming them up with Katie was an inspired idea. Actually, those Arhoolie discs are a very good addition to this thread... Campbell Bros.' site is here: http://www.campbellbrothers.com/sacredsteel.html

but there's good stuff, too, that I think you left out... [smile] I've heard some music that hit me that way, both live and on records. (And a couple of people speaking, too, though they were just talking about their lives...) I'm not really a fan of old-time string band music, but I like some of it. And i do think it's moving forward; or rather, that some performers are genuinely doing new things with the music. And I like that, whether I enjoy their style or not. For me, the Chocolate Drops are just fun, and Dom Flemons' work on rhythm bones has inspired me to learn to play them myself. I guess that could be part of the "moving forward," although i don't intend to use them in old-time music settings.

Peaches: I remember it well! (and miss it, and other stores, large and small.) I grew up in - and now live in - rural PA, where there are lots of "mountain music" bands playing bluegrass (mostly, along with some old-time stuff) and I don't get the popularity/"lifestyle" aspect of any of that, or even why local people seem to identify so strongly with a lot of music that comes from pretty far south of the Mason-Dixon line. (We didn't have any record stores; you had to travel to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh or NYC to buy anything but Top 40 and country.) OTOH, there *are* active KKK chapters (both public and not-so-public) in PA, and this area is (from what I'm told) no exception. People here are either Scotch-Irish or German, mostly, although there are some Russians and Chinese and even - of all things! - a Vietnamese Buddhist monastery within 15 minutes' drive of where I live. The Scotch Irish have a claim on old time, bluegrass and country, but nobody sings in German except for the Amish - kinda weird, given the fact that PA German dialect was (once) spoken alongside English by people of my grandparents' and great-grandparents' generation. But hey, I've seen lots of Connecticut farm boys wearing cowboy duds and genuine 10-gallon Stetsons at county fairs, so there you go - America, they name is contradiction, maybe?

Not sure if that's true on the molecular level, but hey - I get your drift and agree.

a bit on Howard Armstrong (his NYT obit) - Pareles' opening sentence is incorrect, insofar as identifying Howard A. as "the last guardian," because there are other people out there. (Though fewer in number every day... like WWII vets.)