Old-Time Music Makers of New York State - Hardcover

by Simon Bronner (Author)

Ask an old-timer what life was like in rural upstate New York during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
and you will hear about the dances and bees that brought villagers and farmers together. You will hear of favorite fiddlers who held center stage with dance tunes taken from early British and American sources. You will hear of old-time music and its significance to a people making the transition from a rural, agricultural life to an urban, industrial one.

Back Jacket

Old-Time Music Makers of New York State is the first book published on this rich legacy of traditional Anglo-American music and dance. It traces the development of old-time music beginning with its movement into New York State from New England in the early nineteenth century and to its combination with commercial country music in the twentieth century.

Author Biography

Simon J. Bronner is associate professor of folklore and American studies at the Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg. He is the author of Grasping Things: Folk Material Culture and Mass Society in America, Chain Carvers: Old Men Crafting Meaning, and American Folklore Studies: An Intellectual History.