Old-Time Guitar Style - who are your favourite players?

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by hovishead

I used to think bluegrass was my favourite guitar style but I think overall I'm a bigger fan of the old-time folk style with it's less virtuosic and far more minimal approach.

To me very little beats the sound of a singer, a fiddle and a talented minimalist guitar player that is devoted to keeping a strong boom chuck pulse whilst throwing in tasteful bass runs when required.

I've listened to lots of great players over the years but I'm interested in hearing which guitarists you folks admire from this genre (both from the past and the present)

Look forward to reading your replies.

This boom/chuck style with a flatpick to accompany songs is the primary style that I play. I love keeping things minimalist. Sometimes I'll use Woodie Guthrie's boom/chuck/ boom - hammer on/chuck backing, but that's about as complex as it gets! I use bass runs and fills on the chord changes.

Here is Sierra Ferrel doing the style in 3/4



And her is Brennen Leigh in the more usual 4/4 iteration:



Here's another:



If you go to the Western A F video channel on YouTube you will find many more contemporary players using this "old time" style of basic boom/chuck rhythm guitar accompaniment to songs. Some solo, some with string bands. I think that there are a lot of younger artists who are picking up on the old Americana styles of acoustic guitar playing.

[RoseAdi]

Always a fan of some Pokey:

https://youtu.be/seKAfbWFWCM

[davenumber2]

Tim Easton is pretty rooted in traditional styles. One heck of a player too.

[pickinray]

Another vote here for Tim Easton. He is a great folk/blues/traditional style player.

[Br1ck]

Sierra Ferrell sneaks up on you. Minimalist. Don't know if by choice or necessity but it works for her.

Doc Watson and Norman Blake ride the fence between Old Time and bluegrass.

And Jimmy Rodgers was the real deal. Mother Maybell was the master.

And the host of early blues pickers paved the way for the next generations.

[mrduke2]

Someone recently posted a video of Jimmie Rogers on another thread, and it reminded me what a total musician he was beneath his casual demeanor. His sense of timing was profound (in another life he could have been a drummer), and he could play interesting and varied bass runs like it was as easy as breathing. I don't tend to play in that musical idiom very often, but the Singing Brakeman may very well be the musical father of us all.

[cliff_the_stiff]

Originally Posted by Bluenose

Norman Blake who, if I'm not mistaken, is being inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame.

This also was the first name that came to my head as well

[Mr. Jelly]

I think I get it. I have been a major Norman Blake fan for many years. But he has done allot of different things from the down-home old-time country to guitar virtuoso type things. I like the stark production and the sound of the acoustic instruments. Like you I have been on a constant search for the basic acoustic music and from my experience it's very hard to find. Allot of it is slicked up and doesn't have much character. Though it's played on acoustic instruments. I could mention a couple of albums, but I have yet to find musicians that consistently do high quality recordings that have acoustic instruments that have character. Not long ago I think I figured out some things. Most musicians play their best high-quality instrument to do what they do. Modern guitars and mandolins sound great but don't have much character. An instrument that has character doesn't do everything well. They tend to lead you to playthings that their sound speaks to you about. They may be called one trick ponies. But if you want a sound with character that's what you have to deal with. Take mandolin and Norman Blake as an example. He could afford the best F-5 mandolin. And play it well. But it would just sound like a mandolin. He chose to search out mandolins that spoke to him and lead him to play songs that sounded like the old-time music he grew up with and wanted to play. High quality recordings of old-time music not slick acoustic virtuoso shred fests.

[docwatsonfan]

Ramblin' Jack Elliot

[sayheyjeff]

Great thread. Already been turned on to a few really good new to me artists. Lulu’s Fate is an old time, traditional trio based in Maryland. You can easily find plenty of recordings on YouTube and there is an hour long concert of there’s online easily accessed by googling Lulu’s Fate Millennium Stage Kennedy Center. Well worth it.

Jeff

[Jwills57]

Ivas John for old-time fingerstyle blues and originals. He's the real deal.

[bkepler]

So, I might be reading the question wrong, but it seemed like you were asking about Old-Time music with the capital O and capital T as opposed to what a lot of responses seemed to capture - music in an “olde timey” style. I love a lot of the artists listed but here in the mid-Atlantic area of the USA, an Old Time jam is pretty specific to fiddle/clawhammer banjo tunes that are accompanied by other instruments (usually guitar). Singing tends to be the exception, although in a band performance setting it tends to come up more often than in a jam. That being said, my two favorites within that style are Beth Hartness (accompanies Adam Hurt) and Reeb Willms (Foghorn Stringband). They both have such understated styles that are solid and harmonically rich.

https://youtu.be/N52oZyhOWSg

https://youtu.be/-UeJ7ZfGFgA

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by bkepler

So, I might be reading the question wrong, but it seemed like you were asking about Old-Time music with the capital O and capital T as opposed to what a lot of responses seemed to capture - music in an “olde timey” style. I love a lot of the artists listed but here in the mid-Atlantic area of the USA, an Old Time jam is pretty specific to fiddle/clawhammer banjo tunes that are accompanied by other instruments (usually guitar). Singing tends to be the exception, although in a band performance setting it tends to come up more often than in a jam. That being said, my two favorites within that style are Beth Hartness (accompanies Adam Hurt) and Reeb Willms (Foghorn Stringband). They both have such understated styles that are solid and harmonically rich.

https://youtu.be/N52oZyhOWSg

https://youtu.be/-UeJ7ZfGFgA

Yep, that's how I read the post, except that I thought it was more towards singing songs with boom/chuck than playing at an OT session. I thought it was worth embedding the Foghorn Stringband concert here - the problem with YouTube links is that in some countries we have to sit through ads whereas embedded videos play without them.

[hovishead]

Thanks for your replies guys/girls.

I've enjoyed reading them. Just to clarify, I did mainly mean guitar playing in the boom chick style but have no preference for players that play with vocalists or just in instrumental settings.

[6L6]

Patrick Sky

Dave Van Ronk

Paul Stookey

Gordon Lightfoot

Stephen Stills

Paul Simon & his brother

Rev. Gary Davis

Frankie Lee Simms