Old Time Music: High and Lonesome


Remember those house parties where folks just rolled up the rugs, pulled out the instruments and danced? Wish you remembered them? Listen, jam and dance with some of Iowa’s best Old Time musicians from Eastern Iowa. Guy and Hannah Drollinger, Bob and Kristie Black, and Alan and Aleta Murphy will play a mixture of bluegrass, Old Time and Irish tunes. They’ll also talk about their musical influences, family music-making and the Eastern Iowa style. Make sure to bring your own instruments and jam with some of the best at the conclusion of this two-hour program!

Availability: weekday evenings, weekend days and evenings

Fees to Artists (plus travel): $1,500

Participants: 6

 

Bios of Key Participants:
Alan Murphy is eastern Iowa’s premier fiddler. He has been playing since he was a teenager, influenced by his Uncle Leo, who was a fine old time fiddle player. Named 4 times Master Musician for the Iowa Arts Council Apprenticeship program, Alan continues to pass his skills and knowledge along to younger players. He first recorded in 1972 with banjo frailer Art Rosenbaum, a record that has become an old time classic. His solo fiddle album Through the Fields was named Fiddle Album of the Year by County Sales 1987. He has recorded widely with many type flight musicians, such as Greg Brown, Kenny Baker, Bob Black, and Guy and Hannah Drollinger. Alan performs both with his band Harvest Home and with his wife, Aleta Porcella.

Aleta Porcella has been singing and performing her entire life, beginning in the church where her minister father lead the congregation in his favorite hymns with his bass voice. She has been in love with the bass register ever since. Aleta has performed in groups with her sisters and other women’s groups. With Alan, she provided the music for the professional theater company Old Creamery Theater for 3 seasons, and she has been a long time member of Harvest Home.

Bob Black is another eastern Iowa treasure, who has recently written a book, Come Hither to Go Yonder: Playing Bluegrass with Bill Monroe. (University of Illinois Press, www.press.uillinois.edu/s05/black.html)

In 2002, he was awarded the Iowa Arts Council’s Arts Build Communities Award in the Traditional Arts. Born in Des Moines, Bob began playing banjo at age 15. He moved to Iowa City in the 1970s to play in The Bluegrass Union, a band that also included Alan Murphy. From there he went straight to Nashville and spent played with the legendary Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys from 1974-1976.

Bob is not only a world-class bluegrass banjo player, but he is also one of the few banjo players who plays a style called melodic. He knows and plays fiddle tunes better than almost any other banjo player. He has recorded two solo albums, Ladies of the Steamboat (1979) and Banjoy (1999). Bob tours nationally with the band Perfect Strangers, plays locally with The Banjoy Band, and with his wife, Kristie Black.

Kristie Black loves and appreciates music and musicians, and isn’t shy about letting people know of her enjoyment. She has been writing and performing music with Bob for several years now, and is always a joy to be around.

Guy Drollinger, one of Iowa’s premier folk artists, carries on a tradition that goes back for generations. Drollinger, who grew up in Iowa City, remembers his father, Lyle, on trumpet, and his grandfather, Charlie Drollinger, on fiddle, playing jigs, reels, old time and jazz. Guy started playing at age 12 when his grandfather gave him a guitar. He also attempted the violin but gave it up after a couple of weeks; he tried again a few years later, but nothing really took until he saw John Hartford play in 1976. That, plus backing up his granddad on guitar for a public performance around the same time made Guy realize just how much he liked this music and the fiddle. He started practicing two to three hours a day and hasn’t backed off by much since. In the traditional manner, Guy has passed his music on to his daughters, Megan and Hannah. Their music can be heard on the recording Rose in the Morning. In 1996, Guy and Hannah represented the State of Iowa at the Smithsonian’s Festival of American Folklife in Washington D.C. and at the Sesquicentennial Festival of Iowa Folklife in Des Moines. Guy has been a featured performer at several Folklife Teachers Institutes and performed with his younger daughter, Megan, at the 2001 Festival of Iowa Folklife in Waterloo. In 2002, Guy was twice named as a Master Fiddler for the Iowa Arts Council’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Guy currently plays in the Celtic band Stones in the Field, performs locally, and tours statewide, nationally and internationally with Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre.

Besides learning from their father, both Megan Drollinger and Hannah Drollinger also took Suzuki and classical violin lessons, and both are extremely accomplished and versatile players who play a diverse range of styles.

To sample some tunes visit www.banjoy.com (Bob & Kristie Black), http://folkindex.mse.jhu.edu/MP19.htm#Murpal (Al & Aleta Murphy), and www.stonesinthefield.com/stones.html (Guy Drollinger).