speed of dark

This week's Time Travel Tuesday features an unusual combination of very, very old music and a young musician who brings it to life for today's audiences.

I heard from another member of the audience that Frank Fairfield, the young man who opened the Fleet Foxes' two Los Angeles-area shows at the end of June, arrived at our show at the Echo on his bike with his wooden chair and his instruments strapped onto his back, no doubt having just come from an afternoon of busking at a Hollywood farmer's market.



Fairfield, a street musician who plays banjo, fiddle, and guitar and sings traditional folk songs as you would imagine they were sung when they were first written, is only just getting used to the idea of playing music venues alongside rock musicians. He is also an avid collector of 78 rpm recordings of American folk and mountain music and is working on plans to build his own spring motor gramophones. On Saturdays he hosts a radio show of rare, early recorded tunes for The Pathway of the Gramophone.

Fairfield is not only unsigned, he hasn’t even recorded an mp3 yet, but he gives an absolutely amazing live performance. He is skilled at acoustic guitar, fiddle, and the clawhammer style of banjo; and when he performs it’s as if he channels some old mountain man or backporch country blues singer from the early 1900’s.



Luckily, a wonderful person has made two videos of Fairfield's performances so you can see himfor yourself. Here he is on fiddle, playing "Log Cabin In the Rain." The other video is a banjo performance of "East Virginia" that you can view on his MySpace page.



I asked Fairfield what were the songs he played for our show, and these are his own words below. Since he has no recordings of his own, I have looked up some of the songs that he mentions. This old-timey music is my personal favorite in the country genre. My husband, who picks a little bit of banjo himself, is even more into it and has a collection of mp3s.

Frank Fairfield, on his setlist:

1. The set I played that night at the Echo started with a fiddle tune which I tend to call "The Drunkards' Steps" a variation of the tune "Drunken Hiccups"
Mrs. Etta Baker Family and Friends: Drunken Hiccups

2. ...and continuing on fiddle with the regional tune, "Sugar Hill".
Dad Crockett: Sugar Hill from Mountain Frolic: Rare Old Timey Classics

3. Next, on banjo, was a variation on the tune that is commonly referred to as
"I Wish I was a Mole in the Ground" which that particular lyrical arrangement is accredited to Bascom Lamar Lunsford
Bascom Lamar Lunsford: Mole In the Ground
(Find Bascom Lamar Lumsford on eMusic)

4. Then I played "The Mournin' Blues" on git-fiddle (guitar), once recorded by Uncle Dave Macon, which he learned from the black blues singers busking on the streets of Tennessee, the tune being filled with regionalisms and common rural stanzas.
(Find Uncle Dave Macon on eMusic)

5. Then I played "The New Prisoner's Blues" on the banjo, an old traditional tune with couplets dating back to Britain that was devoted to wax by the great interpreter Dock Boggs.
Dock Boggs: New Prisoner's Song
(Find Dock Boggs on eMusic)

6. After that was "Mashing That Thing" a hokum (bawdy) blues on guitar common to the barrelhouses and jook joints of Mississippi, this specific version accredited to the great Bo Carter.
Bo Carter: Mashing That Thing from Banana In Your Fruitbasket
(Find Bo Carter on eMusic)

7. Then I suppose I played "Little Margaret", another ancient British ballad, again on banjo.

8. Last, was that great ol' cowboy ballad "Goodbye, Old Paint" on fiddle.

That last one was my favorite of all. I have never heard a version of that old cowboy song about driving the "dogies" to Wyoming done in the same style that Fairfield played it. The audience, who were so awestruck they didn't even clap in time to the music, exploded with cheers and applause. Hopefully we will see a lot more of him around.

Fairfield's next scheduled show is July 24 at 8 Stories above LA, a monthly event held every third Thursday in a Los Angeles apartment, featuring three performers playing three songs each. The cost is your donation.

Visit Frank Fairfield on MySpace