Buckdancing from Tennessee, high-energy string band music from North Carolina, and old-time mountain singing from West Virginia are among the Appalachian traditions that will be celebrated at the 9th Annual Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, September 14-18, 2011.

Festival events include concerts, workshops and a film showing at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse; square dances, family concerts; a panel discussion at UC Berkeley, and more. Check the BOTMC website for details.

Making their Bay Area debut are Tennessee fiddle and banjo champions, Mike Bryant and Joseph Decosimo. Mike and Joseph have both been first-place fiddle winners at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, West Virginia (Mike has won twice and Joseph won last year), and as a duet made quite a splash last summer at The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, one of the largest celebrations of traditional American music. Playing guitar will be Karen Celia Heil, who accompanied Joseph for his Clifftop-winning performance last summer.

Buckdancing, also known as flatfooting, is a fluid, loose-limbed style of percussive dance that is an ancestor of clogging and tap dance. Thomas Maupin, one of the greatest old time dancers in America, describes himself as a "self-taught buckdancer with a flatfoot style." Thomas, who is 73 years old, will be accompanied by his grandson, Daniel Rothwell, who plays banjo, sings and tells stories, Daniel's dad, Danny on guitar and bass, plus the 2008 National Champion buckdancer Jay Bland. Last year's documentary film, titled Let Your Feet Do the Talkin' features Thomas and we'll be showing that film at 7:30 pm this evening.

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod are making their BOTMC debut. Craig is a virtuoso guitarist whose music truly sounds like it was being made 100 years ago—he plays with a fierce intensity that conjures up a long-gone world. Craig's guitar playing is featured on the soundtracks of the films Crumb and Ghost World. Meredith, who sings with Devine's Jug Band, is a powerful rhythm guitarist and blues singer who, like Craig, has made the music of the 1920s her own. For their BOTMC performance, they'll focus on old time hillbilly sounds.

The Berkeley Old Time Music Convention will hold several workshops at the Freight on Sunday, September 18.

Old-time Fiddle w/ Joseph Decosimo
Old-time Banjo w/ Nancy Sluys
Primitive Baptist Singing w/ Ginny Hawker
Old-time Fiddle w/ Mike Bryant
Old-time Banjo w/ Joseph Decosimo
Close Southern Harmony Singing w/ Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz

Visit Craig's website

Visit the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention

Listen to tracks from Mike Bryant & Joseph Decosimo, Thomas Maupin & Daniel Rothwell, Meredith Axelrod & Craig Ventresco