a different kind of string band

References AVAILABLE on request

For booking or information contact us by email.

Include your email address so we may get back to you.

JOHNSON BOYS

SHEPHERDS WIFE WALTZ

BOOTH SHOT LINCOLN

info@lcafband.com

Partial list of where we have performed:

* Lake Barrington 50th Year Celebration Barn Stomp

* Kenosha Civil War Museum - Lincoln & Liberty program

* Libraries in Arlington Heights, Mt. Prospect, Wheeling, Rolling Meadows,    Wheaton, Skokie, Lake Zurich, Evanston, Glenview, Downers Grove, Orland Park, as well as others in Illinois and  Wisconsin

* Rotary Green - Buffalo Grove - Summer Concert Series

* Long Grove Festivals

* Senior Retirement Facilities

* Taste of Wisconsin

* Taste of Park Ridge

* Sun City Huntley

1. *American Legion
   

* St. Paul of the Cross School - Lincoln & Liberty Program

* Chicago Botanic Gardens

LOOSE CHANGE AND FRIENDS

“ a different kind of string band”

celebrating and preserving the historic tunes of our  

American heritage

                          See below for an essay about the history of Appalachian music

AUDIENCES ARE DELIGHTED WITH THE MUSIC AND ‘SHOWMANSHIP’ OF THIS ‘DOWN HOME’ GROUP OF MUSICIANS!

                                “---darned the Super Bowl!  I vote for LCAF!”

                                                                 Glenview Library - February 7, 2010

  LITTLE DUTCH GIRL

PRETTY LITTLE DOG

IF YOUR COMPUTER IS UNABLE TO PLAY THE QUICK TIME SONG CLIPS ABOVE THEN CLICK ON THIS LINK TO PLAY MP3 MUSIC CLIPS

MP3 MUSIC

Our performance schedule:

                                                   2011

1. • Indian Trails Library  Wheeling, IL - Thursday February 10th - 2pm
   

            Lincoln and Liberty Program

1. • Beans & Leaves Cafe Long Grove - Saturday February 19th - 12:30pm
   

2. • Sedgebrook  Lincolnshire, IL _ Sunday February 27th - 2pm
   

            Concert and Square Dance

1. • Downers Grove Library - Downers Grove, IL   Sunday  March 20th - 2pm
   

           Music Of The Hills Program - Music America Grew Up With

1. • Time Warner Cable - April 23rd    Old Time Music Program
   

2. • Beans & Leaves Cafe - Long Grove  Saturday May 14th   noon - 2:30pm
   

3. • Lake Barrington - Saturday  June 11th - square dance private party
   

4. • Kenosha Civil War Museum - Sunday June 12th noon till 4pm
   

           Salute To Freedom - Pubic Invited     Hours: noon till 5pm

           Website:  http://www.kenosha.org/civilwar/index.html

1. • Grayslake Library - Monday June 20th  7 - 8:15pm   Old Time Music
   

           Outdoor concert weather permitting, indoors otherwise

1. • Vernon Library - Lincolnshire  Saturday July 9th  2 - 3pm+ Old Time Music
   

           Outdoor concert weather permitting, indoors otherwise

1. • Brookside Nursing Home - Kenosha  Saturday July 16th  2 -3pm
   

            Old time music, vocals.and sing along

1. • Taste Of Wisconsin - Kenosha - Sunday July 31st
   

            Snap-on Stage  12:20 - 1:20pm

1. • Beans & Leaves Cafe  Saturday August 13th   noon till 2pm
   

             Website:  http://www.beansandleaveslonggrove.com

1. • Buffalo Grove - Raupp Museum   Saturday August 20th    4 - 6pm
   

            Civil War Days Outdoor Concert and Picnic

1. • Long Grove - World Tour Days (formerly Irish Fest)
   

            Saturday September 3rd    10am till noon at Beans & leaves gazebo

            http://www.longgroveonline.com/international.html

1. • Wilmette Library - Sunday September 18th    2 - 3pm
   

            Civil War era music and vocals

1. • Lake Barrington Barn Stomp - Saturday October 1st   4:30 till  8pm
   

            Freier Farm on Kelsey Road    dinner, music and fun for the kids

1. • Sedgebrook - Wednesday October 5th   1 - 4pm  Music & Silent Auction
   

2. • Skokie Library - Sunday  October 16th        3 - 4pm
   

            Lincoln and Liberty Program  (Civil War era music/history concert)

1. • Sedgebrook  Lincolnshire - Sunday November 6th      2 - 3pm
   

            String band concert

1. • Park Ridge Library - Holiday Open House  Family Event; Refreshments
   

            Friday November 25th  6 - 8:30pm -  Old Time Holiday Music

2012

1. • McHenry Seniors - Private Party   Monday May 14th    1:30 - 2:30pm
   

2. • Fremont Library - Mundelein - Wednesday June 20th   7 - 8pm
   

             Music Of The Hills program with colorful DVD video

1. • Rolling Meadows Library -  Sunday July 8th - 2 - 3pm
   

            Program: Along The Crooked Road

Check back other events to be listed soon

Concert on General Store stage Bristol Virginia

Ron at Taste of Lincolnshire

Marcy at Long Grove Strawberry Fest

Bruce at Taste of Wisconsin

Lee at Taste of Lincolnshire

Lisa clogging at Chicago Botanic Gardens

Arlington Heights Historical Museum Courtesy of Anne Kauff

MISSISSIPPI SAWYER

SUNSHINE WATER

THE BAND

HISTORY OF APPALACHIAN MUSIC

INTRODUCTION

The Appalachian Mountain range stretches for approximately 1500 miles from Maine to Alabama.  As individuals and families moving out west settled in the Appalachians, they created a rich culture, and stereotypes, that are still associated with the region.  Living in Appalachia was difficult with poor soil for crops and rugged terrain which made communication and transportation difficult. The terrain made it difficult for large groups of families to live together so families often lived far from each other and led a relatively isolated existence.  This area had and still has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation. 

The nature of the people and its geography allowed it to develop and preserve musical traditions long after they had died out in the settled areas east of the mountains.  The areas with the richest musical heritage are concentrated in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.  Music from the area is referred to by several terms such as Appalachian music, mountain music, southern mountain music and hillbilly.  However it is referred to, it is a sub-genre of traditional American folk music that is easily recognizable by its unique combination of voice and musical instruments and influence on later musical styles.

HISTORY OF TRADITIONAL APPALACHIAN MUSIC

The early settlers in the Appalachian region were primarily immigrants from England, Scotland, and Ireland who moved into the region in the 18th and early 19th centuries.  They brought with them two main types of folk music:  ballads and dance music. Traditional ballads from the British Isles were often gloomy with stories about revenge, unhappy love affairs, the supernatural, and crime.  Over time, variations of these ballads developed creating songs with different names but similar melodies.  Dance music such as jigs and reels, from Scotland and Ireland provided more uplifting music.  Later in the 19th century, German, Polish, and Czech immigrants arrived bringing their folk music, particularly dance music like waltzes and polkas. 

There were also influences on the development of traditional Appalachian folk music from sources closer to home.  The building of railroads across the Appalachians helped introduce new musical styles and songs to the region.  First, the railroads provided a new theme for folk songs, many of which eventually became folk standards like “John Henry” and “Wabash Cannonball”.  Secondly, the growth of the railroads brought an influx of African-American slaves from the South who provided much of the labor for building the railroads.  They brought with them their unique singing and musical styles as well as songs.  Their spirituals and gospel music soon became integrated into the Appalachian music tradition.  The development of coal mining in the region provided yet another source for songs.

In an area where people often lived in small communities, church services, revivalist meetings, and various ceremonial occasions were opportunities to bring larger groups of people together.   Music for occasions such as Hymns, congregational singing, gospel songs and spirituals eventually came to comprise a large part of the reparatory of mountain music.  The combination of traditional church music sung by Whites with the religious and spiritual music brought in by African-Americans  created a rich pool of inspiration for mountain musicians to draw upon and constituted a major theme for the future genres of bluegrass and country music.

When Appalachian folk songs were played, it was usually at home for the family or a few neighbors and friends.  It would commonly involve a single singer or a few singers without musical accompaniment.  If the singer(s) had a musical accompaniment it would most likely be the fiddle.  At social functions, such as church socials or square dances, there would be more performers and stringed instruments would be used.  The banjo was an instrument played by African American slaves and came to the attention of white musicians through touring performers with “black-faced” minstrel shows, circuses, medicine shows and black banjo players themselves.  After the Civil War, the banjo came into wider use in Appalachian music and by the late 1800s the guitar, mountain dulcimer, harmonica, and mandolin were being used.   

COLLECTING APPALACHIAN FOLK MUSIC

Appalachian music was of great interest to folklorists and musicologists in the early 19th century who were interested in studying the old English, Scottish and Irish ballads in their original forms and their variations.  While performance of this music was disappearing elsewhere, it was still being played in Appalachia leading those interested in the old ballads to travel there to collect existing versions of these songs.   Two of the most prominent collectors of these ballads were Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles.  In 1917, Ms. Karpeles edited Sharp’s seminal study English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians.  The value of collections, such as Sharp’s, is highlighted by the fact that when Karpeles returned in the 1950s, she found that these ballads were no longer being performed in their traditional form.

The father and son team of John and Alan Lomax were instrumental in preserving American folk music from the South and Southwest through field recordings they made in the 1930s.  John Lomax eventually became curator of the Archive of American Folksong at the Library of Congress which included the recordings he and his son collected.  Another important folk music collector was John Jacob Niles.  From roughly 1917 to 1925, he collected and published many Appalachian songs in several folk song collections.  Later, he performed these songs as well as original songs inspired by the songs he collected.

POPULARIZATION OF APPALACHIAN FOLK MUSIC

One way Appalachian music began reaching a wider public was through the formation of old-time string bands.  These bands, which began around the 1920s, took music from several genres, including the Appalachian music tradition and played at public events and traveling shows. Using guitar, banjo, fiddle and other instruments, they played their own compositions as well as traditional songs.  Old-time music is still being recorded and performed for modern audiences.

It wasn’t until the radio broadcasts and recordings of the Carter Family (A.P. Carter, Maybelle Carter, Sara Carter) in the 1920s that Appalachian-influenced music truly  gained national attention.  A.P. Carter collected songs from folk singers throughout the South and transcribed them for his family’s performances.  Appalachian music was also being brought to the public’s attention through recordings of original performances of Appalachian music released by Folkways Records.  Folkways Records received material from numerous music collectors and performers of Southern folk music including Appalachian folk songs.  The most influential of these recordings was the 1952 release of, The Anthology of American Folk Music, compiled by musicologist Harry Smith. 

LEGACY/INFLUENCE

Traditional Appalachian folk music has had an enormous influence on American music inspiring modern performers interested in continuing the old musical traditions and leading to the formation of new musical genres.  The two new musical genres which emerged from the Appalachian folk music tradition were country and bluegrass music.  Country music had its beginnings in the 1920s with performers such as the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers and radio programs like the National Barn Dance (1924) and the Grand Ole Opry (1925).  While the Carter Family performed in a more traditional musical style, Jimmie Rodgers created his own eclectic style by combining a variety of musical influences including yodeling and the blues.  By the 1930s and 1940s, country music was developing a sound that moved away from traditional folk music and closer to the sound we associate with country music today.

The second musical genre to emerge from the Appalachian folk music tradition was bluegrass music.  Unlike country music, the bluegrass sound remained closer to its mountain roots.  Bluegrass is considered to have begun in the 1940s with the recordings of Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys from which bluegrass music derived its name.   The bluegrass repertory includes traditional folksongs but is dominated by newly composed music, including sentimentally reminiscent secular songs, religious spirituals, revival hymns and instrumentals. Bluegrass music is sung at a higher vocal range than country music and includes a greater variety of instruments such as double bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and dobro. 

Finally, Appalachian music found its way into American popular culture through movie soundtracks.  The most well-known is the song “Dueling Banjos” from the movie Deliverance.  It was written and recorded in 1955 as "Feuding Banjos" by Country star Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith.  While not an authentic Appalachian folk song, it became associated in the public’s mind with Appalachian music.  Cold Mountain, based on the bestselling novel by Charles Frazier, included several mountain folk tunes.  The most influential was the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?   This movie led to a resurgence in interest in and popularity of bluegrass music resulting in a live recorded performance, Down from the Mountain, by performers who appeared on the movie’s soundtrack.

BY: Jordan Roth

OUR PROGRAMS

LINCOLN AND LIBERTY - Music and history of the Lincoln years and the Civil War, as well as little known tunes from the strong, courageous, settlers who migrated west from the colonies into the region known as Appalachia.

MUSIC OF THE HILLS - Recounts the early history of the colonies and Appalachia thru the music that America grew up with. Along with the lively, often moving music of the “hill” country are historic facts and anecdotes about the region and people who settled there in the 18th and 19th century. A colorful DVD video is included as a background during this program.

ALONG THE CROOKED ROAD - A journey along Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. Travel the Crooked Road that winds its way through the scenic hills of southwestern Virginia and listen to old-time music that took root long ago in the “backwood” towns. Learn about the folks who made music “back then” and whose families are still continuing the tradition today!

We do other programs and concerts to suit specific themes including square dances with a professional caller.