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Charles Creswell
Alda Smith
Fiddle & Old Time Country
A type of country music ensemble that includes fiddle, banjo, acoustic guitar, mandolin, and upright bass. Emerged in the early 1900s and was an important precursor to bluegrass. During the late 1800s, the Carolina Piedmont provided fertile ground for the cultivation of a string band tradition that combined Scots-Irish fiddle and balladry with African instruments like banjo and European guitar and mandolin. String band music was social music, played at dances, contests, and other community occasions. String band musicians were storytellers, performing songs of tragedy and revenge, love and friendship. Much of this music, whether blues or string band, has deep roots in both sacred and secular themes, creating dynamic music with emotional and personal meaning.
Today it is played primarily in circles where old-time country music remains popular, such as family picnics, square dances, fiddle conventions, and jam sessions. Rooted in British ballads and folk songs originally played on the fiddle in Britain. Country music has been aggressively marketed since the 1920s, developing numerous traditions within genre – honky tonk, western swing, and early rock and roll.
Content is provided by McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina.
For further information about any of the artists featured on Digital Traditions, send your questions and comments to hallagan@mailbox.sc.edu.
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A Claude Casey original that paints a vivid image of a rowdy young man, much in the style of later country musicians like Hank Williams,Jr. Also recorded in the late 1930s.
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Charles Creswell
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From the album "Success Street" by Roger Bellow and the Drifting Troubadours, 1988. Bellow - guitar, Bob Sachs - mandolin, Don Earl - Dobro, and Dick Daniels - bass.
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From the album "Cross-Country Swing" by Roger Bellow and Paul Anastasio, 1999. This is a Tommy Duncan number from 1951. Bellow - guitar and vocals, Paul Anastasio - fiddle, Ray Wood - non-pedal steel...
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Song featured on the "Fiddle Traditions" recording produced by Hairy Toe Productions. Clarence Green on guitar.
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From the album "Success Street" by Roger Bellow and the Drifting Troubadours, 1988. This is an instrumental number with Bellow on guitar, Spanish Dobro, fiddle, mandolin, and bass.
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Charles Creswell
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Charles Creswell
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One of the popular instrumentals performed by the Pine State Playboys, spotlighting the musical talent of band members like Jimmie Colvard on steel guitar.
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Ted Brackett was from Inman, South Carolina. His father, a farmer by trade, played an old time claw hammer banjo and Ted’s uncle played the fiddle. Growing up in a musical family, he soon showed...
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T.C. Foster learned the ways of the fiddle at a very young age, often listening to his father play on the front porch for hours at a time. Sneaking around with his father’s fiddle at first, by the age...
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Roger Bellow is a scholar, teacher and award-winning performer who has been a lifelong proponent of early country music traditions. He first learned about country music in Uptown, an area of Chicago...
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A multi-instrumentalist from the Piedmont, Nick Hallman is a life-long devotee of old-time country music indigenous to the South Carolina. As founding member of the Nickpickers, Hallman assembled one...
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Loyd “Slick” McGaha epitomized the essence of a traditional performer and nicely encapsulated the traditions of South Carolina as well. Slick learned to play “bones,” a traditional rhythmic technique...
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McCormick (McCormick County) realtor who was a musician prior to WWII. Interview conducted by Anne Kimzey.
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Master fiddler J.C. Owens learned from the best musicians in the South Carolina Upstate, his brother, Lonnie Owens, and the legendary Pink Cassels. Owens is a master of various fiddling styles native...
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Harold Vernon Riddle played the fiddle for well over fifty years. He was first exposed to the rural folk music of upstate South Carolina in the mill village of Glendale where he was born. He heard...
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Born and raised in a mill village in Converse, South Carolina, Gene Wyatt, or “Colonel Gene” as he was known on the music scene, first picked up the guitar when he was 10. From a musical family, Wyatt...
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Fernando Costro is a musician from Mexico, currently residing in Newberry County. He plays guitar and mariachi music with a local band, Mariachi Cabos. He learned how to play violin and guitar from...
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This native of Enoree claimed to have “been born with music in my blood.” He formed his first band at the age of 18 - “Claude Casey and The Pine State Playboys.” By 1938 they had recorded 10 songs for...
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Fiddler from Troy, SC (Greenwood County). Many of the songs he plays are short, so several are included here in their entirety. He is accompanied by Fred Watson on guitar and sister Fannie Creswell...
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Ashley Carder grew up in a home surrounded by music. His mother Shirley is a talented country singer and guitar player who performed often on regional radio in the 1960s and -70s. Carder’s extended...
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The South Carolina Piedmont has often been referred to as “The textile center of the world.” Alda Smith’s musical heritage is woven from the influences that migrated throughout the Piedmont during...
