Old Time, new times

Reviving my Old Time String Band songs with guitar was intended as a side-line, but it’s worked out well and I’ve been encouraged to give it more priority.

I'm not entirely sure why, but I feel more relaxed performing the American material and can pack more punch into it. This makes for a better performance and more engagement with (noisy) pub audiences, the milieu I often find myself in and most enjoy. The approach, and material, may be less appropriate for some folk clubs and festivals, where I will continue to focus on the trad folk repertoire.

Reviving my Old Time String Band songs with Guitar

I went from trad folk to Americana and back again, never feeling comfortable about pursuing both genres concurrently. But a chance to participate in a new session finally inspired me to revive my American Old Time String Band repertoire alongside my mostly English and Irish folk songs. 

Rather than use the Mandolin, I'm relearning the songs with Guitar as this is more appropriate as a solo instrument. I’ve had Guitars since I was a teenager. I’m not a complete beginner, but I’ve rarely played Guitar in public. 

Right: My Gretsch Jim Dandy parlour Guitar. I originally bought this for Delta Blues but that is another story...

Dread nought!

Washburn WD10SCE

I've had a guitar of one sort or another since I was a teenager. In order to get one, I had to promise my academically-orientated parents that I would "never join a group". Perhaps that parental injunction induced a lifelong musical inhibition. Anyway, the guitar has just been a bedroom instrument and I've never publicly performed with it as far as I can remember.

The guitar was my first serious instrument, but I didn't give it the time that I was later to put into the concertina and mandolin. I'm not backtracking (yet) on my preference for playing the mandolin, but I decided that I wanted to be able to perform in more varied ways and the guitar was an obvious option given my long if undeveloped association with it.

My last guitar developed a warped neck which made it harder to play than my mandolin. I therefore decided to replace it with a Washburn WD10SCE Electro Acoustic Dreadnought Guitar which is remarkably good value. Although I perform acoustic music I wanted a model with an electric pickup owing to the decline of folk clubs and the growing ubiquity of open mic sessions.

I got the guitar just after Christmas and began to work up some songs - two traditional folk songs I've dabbled with over the years and a well-known Blues number I first started to learn but never pursued almost fifty years ago! After nine days of attempting to refresh my skills, I played all three songs at the Orpy practice session - the first public appearance with a guitar of my whole life! Whilst the songs are all at an early stage of development, the performance went better than I expected and I received some valuable advice and encouragement.