The Berkeley Old Time Music Convention (BOTMC) is back for the 12th year, celebrating old time music from September 16-21, at locations all over town. This five-day festival offers concerts, square dancing, a string band contest, workshops, and activities especially for kids and families, all in intimate settings where the line between audience and performer is as thin as a guitar pick. Participants travel from across America for the chance to hang out, dance, and pick and sing alongside some of the top musicians and dancers in the old time fiddle and banjo world. Starting at 5:00 p.m., Jim Mueller & Amber Rouillard will host a free jam session in the Freight lobby and, if weather permits, other BOTMC performers will host a jam in front of the building. The master of ceremonies for tonight’s show will be Peter Coyote.
The Bucking Mules are led by Joseph Decosimo, who grew up on Signal Mountain, Tennessee, learning fiddle and banjo from masters like Clyde Davenport and Charlie Acuff. He won First Place Fiddle at Clifftop in 2010, and the Bucking Mules won first place in the Clifftop Traditional Band Contest in 2012. Luke Richardson’s banjo playing has earned him a National Old Time Banjo Championship and a handful of blue ribbons. Originally from Tennessee, he now lives in Brooklyn. Our own Karen Celia Heil is a powerhouse guitarist, singer, and fiddler who plays locally with the Knuckle Knockers and often accompanies visiting fiddlers, including Rafe Stefanini, Mike Bryant, and Rich Hartness. Joseph “Joe Bass” Dejarnette has toured extensively as a founding member of the WIYOs, and now runs a recording studio in Floyd, Virginia. Joseph Decosimo and Luke Richardson will lead fiddle and banjo workshops at the Freight Sunday afternoon.
Franklin George & Kim Johnson epitomize West Virginia old time music. Frank, born in 1928, possesses an unusual archaic repertoire that includes jigs, hornpipes, and even some tunes in meters that nobody has quite figured out! His tales of rural life are full of wordplay and history, and he’s traveling again after many years of sticking close to home. This summer he and Kim performed at the Santa Fe Old Time and Bluegrass Festival. Kim, a generation younger than Frank, learned banjo from fiddle legend Wilson Douglas and has accompanied many other fine West Virginia fiddlers including Bobby Taylor and Lester McCumbers. We are pleased to welcome them back to the BOTMC for a second year. They, too, will lead fiddle and banjo workshops at the Freight on Sunday afternoon.
Twice As Nice is Penny Critchlow and Mark Olson, who live off the grid in the rural Sierra foothills. Mark took up fiddling during the 1970s and soon became a mainstay of the Santa Barbara square and contra dance scene before moving to the Sierras in the 1990s. Penny has a knack for unearthing gems from the country music repertoire and can be heard singing on Ray Bierl’s album, Any Place I Hang My Hat. Accompanying themselves on guitar, fiddle, and mandolin, Penny and Mark harmonize on songs from the string bands of the 1920s and the country duets of the Delmore Brothers and Louvin Brothers, among others.
Visit the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention's website
BOTMC Workshops
