Billy in the Lowground, Early Banjo & Percussion

Comment by Strumelia on November 17, 2017 at 5:07pm

I doubt it was only people sitting in audience seats listening to performances.  People also danced!  Dancing is a huge social outlet for every culture and class of people.  And dancing is all about the beat.  I'm a regular contra dancer and English country dancer myself.  Most early illustrations depicting slaves playing music showed people dancing and clapping or singing out along with the musicians.  I feel like there was a lot more participatory music going on back then than one might surmise from looking only at surviving published sheet music and tunebooks, and reading old newspaper accounts of theatre shows and traveling performers.

Comment by Chris Prieto on November 17, 2017 at 8:56pm

I long for another individual to play anything along with. I would even love for someone else to take the banjo and let me beat the tambo or jawbone for some time. It is kinda sad.

Comment by Tom Berghan on November 17, 2017 at 9:33pm

I agree Strumelia! Of course they danced! We have a bunch of paintings and drawings that tell us they did! And of course dancers make percussive sounds that add to the music. I love it! :-)

Comment by Tom Berghan on November 17, 2017 at 9:39pm

Chris, to find a good percussionist you might try auditioning some local drummers. If they have any good funk, jazz, or Latin chops, then they can easily fall into our bag! I know you have a donkey jawbone. Hand them THAT and see what they do with it. Might be fantastic!

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