Old Songs to communicate Stories through murder ballads parking-lot picking
Old Songs to communicate
Stories through murder ballads, parking-lot picking
ALTAMONT Stories of old are told with the mournful twang of Mark Schmitts fiddle.
Many of the bluegrass songs he plays with his band, The Stillhouse Rounders, were sung 200 years ago. "They actually chronicled events," he said of the murder ballads that passed on news in the Appalachian Mountains years ago.
Some of those songs will be performed at this years Old Songs festival, to be held at the Altamont fairgrounds on the weekend of June 22.
Schmitt first discovered bluegrass at a similar music festival when he was in college. "What impressed me is what came to be known as parking-lot picking," he said. "It’s like a form of communication."
One person will play something and another answers, he said. "It wasn’t long before I went to get my first fiddle in a pawn shop in Dallas, Texas," he said. At the time, he was there as a graduate student, studying art. Now he lives in Altamont and works as a photographer for the University at Albany.
"For the next 35 years, I’ve been practicing," said Schmitt.
After he took up the fiddle, Schmitt, who played the guitar through high school, found out that fiddle picking was in his blood. In his native Illinois, Schmitts maternal grandfather had been a square-dance caller and his paternal grandfather had been a fiddle player himself.
The Stillhouse Rounders got together in 2000, he said. The group is a traditional composite of a string band, with Michael Fleck on the banjo, Geoff Harden on base, David Ziegler on guitar, and Schmitt playing the fiddle.
The traditional music that they play has influences from all over the world, said Schmitt; the fiddle brings an Irish influence and the banjo came from African culture, he said. Bluegrass itself grew out of Appalachian music in the late 1930s, said Schmitt, and it isnt learned by reading; its learned by ear.
Schmitt’s 8-year-old son is starting to catch on himself, he’ll be playing on his spoons as his father fiddles. "I’ll be playing my cat paws," Dylan said, as he picked up his wooden instrument, the color of brown sugar, and played a tune.
Other offerings
More than 30 performers are scheduled to play over the three day festival. Musicians will be coming to the Altamont fairgrounds, off Route 146 in Guilderland, from as far as Mali and Ireland.
Some of the musicians will also be teaching classes during the festival and there is an instrument exchange planned. Among the performers and food vendors, there will be puppet shows and jugglers.
Ticket prices range from $30 for a single daytime or evening ticket to $115 for all-festival tickets that include camping at the fairgrounds.
