Our friends at No Depression recently published an extensive and outstanding profile of Carole Ann Rose, Curly Miller and their latest project, The Old 78s.  Carole Ann and Curly will be bring their Old Time chops to to Fiddle Tunes in 2013.

Ernie Hill’s profile of the duo covers a lot of ground, with a bit of history, recording technology and album-review all mixed in. The Old 78s’ lastest recording  – “The Women Wear No Clothes” explores Ragtime, Early Jazz, Jug, Old Time and Early Banjo tunes in a collaboration with Ray and Melanie Palmer.

In his profile, Ernie asked Carole Ann Rose why they chose to dive into these genres:

“Many of the Old Time country fiddlers were drawn to the popular rags of the day and we, like them, have been working on Rags for years from various fiddle and banjo repertoires. This style of fiddle tune is deeply rooted in the Classic Banjo and Piano Rag traditions that developed concurrently from the 1890s through to the Charleston, Dixieland, and Jug band music, among others. The Jazz Era and music from both black and white musicians of the early 1900’s further developed this sound, attracting audiences and dancers of many stripes.
Our current mission has been focused on bringing select Early Jazz pieces that still have a Ragtime bent, into the string band format. Curly is finding 1920’s piano music, brass and woodwind band pieces, writing it out for our fiddle/banjo configuration to find out if they are playable in the string band format. We are now playing several of them with our current band-mates Ray and Mel. “

We’re excited to welcome Carole Ann and Curly to Fiddle Tunes June 30-July 7, 2013. You can register for the Festival online.