Keep It Old-Time: Fiddle Music in Missouri from the 1960s Folk Music Revival to the Present

For centuries, the violin has been both a “people’s instrument” as well as a “palace” instrument that spans the globe. Whether called “violin” or “fiddle” (they are the same, just with differing customs of learning and performance), it continues to be enjoyed across many different traditions and communities.

Howard Marshall, professor emeritus and former director of the Missouri Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Missouri, will offer examples of traditional fiddle music in Missouri today and will share the history and people behind the music. Marshall, himself a fiddler, will be joined by Richard Shewmaker (violin), Amber Gaddy (violin), Jim Ruth (five-string banjo), David Cavins (guitar), Asher Ferguson (penny whistle), and Kathy Gordon (bass).  The program will include a set of Irish fiddle tunes by Jim Ruth (violin), Linda Shumate (concertina), and Heinrich Leonhard (guitar), mainstays of the Irish music scene in Columbia.  

Marshall’s new book published by University of Missouri Press, Keep It Old-Time: Fiddle Music in Missouri from the 1960s Folk Music Revival to the Present, is the third book in his fiddle history trilogy. The book, along with a companion CD of music by 36 fiddlers, is available in the Richard Bookstore inside the Center for Missouri Studies. Howard will be available to sign books following the program.

The event is free to the public and is sponsored by the State Historical Society of Missouri and University of Missouri Press.