Imagine sitting on a front porch on a warm, summer Kansas evening listening to a spirited fiddle, a plunkety old fretless gut-string banjo, a pair of sun-dried buffalo bones and a skin-head tambourine.
Put all those unique sounds together and you [+]Imagine sitting on a front porch on a warm, summer Kansas evening listening to a spirited fiddle, a plunkety old fretless gut-string banjo, a pair of sun-dried buffalo bones and a skin-head tambourine.
Put all those unique sounds together and you have.... The Free Staters.
The Free Staters play fun, fast-paced, popular music from 1850s America. The greatest musical melting pot in our history was brewed from Irish jigs, English ballads, Italian mandolin orchestras and the new American popular music by such composers as Stephen Foster, Daniel Emmett and Thomas Daddy Rice, all overlaid with the unique syncopation of African rhythms.
These and other pieces of the American musical puzzle are performed by The Free Staters on period instruments, often from original sheet music or nineteenth century folk sources. Songs like"Old Dan Tucker" and "Oh Susanna," are ingrained in the American consciousness, but countless others, like "Angelina Baker" and "Old King Crow" are being kept alive by a dedicated few.
The music recreates a time in our nation's history when life was far less complex. Families spent time together gathered around the piano singing songs and neighbors gathered on their front porches to tap their feet and clap their hands to the spirited sounds of a fiddle, banjo or bones.
And that's what you'll discover in The Free Staters new release "Ho! For the Kansas Plains." The songs sound like they would have 150 years ago. Most of the songs chosen for this unique album could have been heard on the vast stretches of Kansas Territory from 1854-1861.
The Free Staters consist of four musicians who live in or near Wichita, KS.
Betsey Goering plays the fiddle and began playing the instrument at age 3. Her violin is a Stradivarius copy made about the turn of the 20th century. She was classically trained for 14 years and has since learned to fiddle and play minstrel tunes.
Jonathon Goering plays the guitar and minstrel five-string banjo, and sings. The guitar's roots can be traced to 15th century Spain. The origins of the banjo or "banjar" can be traced to Africa. Slaves first played the instrument in this country in the 17th century. He plays the fretless banjo "stroke" style - a method used by early minstrel players that predates the blue
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