We reported last year about a fracas at the venerable Old Fiddlers Convention, which has been held in Galax, VA since 1935. The issue arose regarding the use of an electric bass with a small amplifier in the campground jams, where most of the interesting music is played during the week-long event.

Our piece from August 4, 2009 (and a follow-up on August 5) described how officials with the Galax Moose Lodge, who has managed this event from the beginning, passed through the campground enforcing a ban on the use of these bass amps at jam sessions.

Galax has long been a bastion of “the old ways” of traditional mountain music, in both its bluegrass and old time variants. No electric instruments are allowed on stage during the competitions, and every band is required to have a fiddle. But according to Tracy Burcham, who was among the affected musicians, this was the first time such a ban had been applied to campgrounds as well.

From our post on 8/4/09:

“About 11:30 p.m., I began a jam session with three friends, each of whom is a current member of a headlining bluegrass band. I was playing my electric bass, which means, of course, that I was using an amplifier. About 8 or 9 songs into the jam, we were approached by two members of the Galax Moose Lodge #733 who advised that the rules stated that amplifiers were not allowed in the park, and that if I didn’t cut mine off, they would not only escort me out of the park, but would cut off the electricity to our entire campsite (several friends had gone in together purchase 18 consecutive sites, as we have done every year).

I have been playing this same electric bass and also my acoustic bass, both through an amplifier for each of the 21 years I have attended. I’ve never encountered a problem or received a complaint from anyone. I honestly thought one of my ‘devious’ friends was pulling a prank on me, and continued on with the jam session. The Moose members left the area only to come back later with two police officers. He repeated the same demand to cut off the amp and advised me that there would be no refund if I refused to cooperate and was booted our of the park.”

We received a lot of feedback from that piece, both from traditionalists who saluted the Moose Club for keeping out electric bass, and from jammers who felt it was a too-harsh interpretation of the rules. The Old Fiddlers Convention is as much a social as a musical event, and while the police keep a vigilant eye out for drunkenness and rude behavior near the stage area and along the “avenues,” what goes on in individual campsites is generally left alone unless it creates a particular disturbance.

And disturbance is a very relative term. Raucous jams continue until dawn, often involving dozens of pickers, and anyone who travels to this festival with sleeping on their minds is apt to be sorely disappointed. (more…)

Music has always been an integral part of Disney movies. So much so, that one of the annual youth events hosted at Walt Disney World is Disney Magic Music Days, which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year. One part of the celebration is raising money for the music education programs of the GRAMMY Foundation. As everyone knows, Disney is all about animated movies.

Accordingly, Disney has begun a program called Disney Art For Music. They’ve taken 5 Conn-Selmer upright basses and had the animation artists from Disney Studios hand paint each bass to represent a different Disney kid’s movie. These five basses will auctioned off later this year with the proceeds going to the GRAMMY Foundation’s music education programs.

There are five hand-painted string basses. A few of them celebrate Disney classics and others tell the stories of Disney’s newest characters. But it’s best to hear it from the artists themselves and learn how and why they transformed the Conn-Selmer, Inc., donated instruments into one-of-a-kind works of art.

The five basses are painted to represent these five disney characters.

1. Dumbo
2. The Princess and the Frog
3. Rapunzel
4. The Genie from Aladdin
5. The Cheshire Cat

If you have a young bass player in your life and wish to support music education programs for youth, then you might want to look into the auction for these basses. Though I’m sure they won’t come cheep, they’re only five of them, hand painted by the Disney artists!

J.D. Crowe & The New South has two new members to announce for 2010.

Kyle Perkins has come aboard to fill the bass spot recently vacated by John Bowman (now playing fiddle with The Boxcars). Just 24 years old, Kyle had worked previously with David Parmley, Larry Stephenson and Kati Penn. He is also a talented banjo player and is comfortable on most any of the bluegrass instruments.

Also new to the band is resophonic guitarist Matt Despain. Crowe hired Matt to replace fiddler Steve Thomas, who has left the band to pursue other projects.

Matt comes from Charlie Sizemore’s group, and had also worked with Bobby Osborne, Pine Mountain Railroad and Dean Osborne before coming to The New South. He can be heard on Sizemore’s latest CD, Good News, as well as the two most recent albums from Bobby Osborne.

You can follow the JD Crowe & The New South schedule online, and keep an eye out for the new lineup somewhere near you.

There is an interesting interview with Punch Brothers on the Paste Magazine web site. It features the guys sitting down with Paste’s College Music Journal correspondent to talk about the instruments they use.

If you are interested in old instruments and the stories behind them, you’ll want to give this a look.