That Finger Lakes Sound: From the field: Grassroots Culture Camp 2018
by Ben Haravitch –The Appalachian Plateau is a geologic region that includes parts of Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and yes… New York. In our state, if you live south of I-90 and west of the Catskill Mountains, you live on the Appalachian Plateau. The entire region is generally characterized by nearly horizontal rock layers that have been dissected by water to form the hills and valleys that define our homeland. Different rocks make for different hills, but the upshot is the same: many small, rural population centers separated by the topography. Separated enough that local and regional customs could be established, but connected enough that these customs could spread quite far.
I was thinking about our plateau geography last week as I drove along the Cohocton River on I-390 and I-86 between my house in Warsaw and the Grassroots Festival grounds in Trumansburg. The river cuts a path nearly parallel to the Devonian rock horizon where the older West Falls group meets the younger Canadaway Group. The difference in composition of the juxtaposed formations manifests a striking escarpment to the south of the river.
I made the pilgrimage to study at the Grassroots Culture Camp, which is held each year from the Sunday to the Wednesday before the illustrious Festival of Music and Dance. I learned about some traditional Appalachian music customs from a group of local masters. Customs that were born in grange halls and on back porches throughout Appalachia in the early 20th century, and then tweaked and honed in an Upstate New York revival of the music beginning in the 70s. Groups like the Highwoods String Band, The Correctones, The Swamp Root String Band, and The Henrie Brothers were some of the first in the Finger Lakes to give new life to Appalachian fiddle music by making the dance music more rhythmic and groove-oriented than ever before.
The Grassroots Culture Camp allows interested folks to learn face-to-face from many of the originators and torch-bearers of this regional dialect of a language spoken far and wide. Some of the local instructors (and their influential string bands) at this year’s camp included: Mac Benford (Highwoods); Brian Williams (Swamp Root); Richie Stearns, Judy Hyman, and Jeff Claus (The Horseflies); Tara Nevins and June Drucker (The Heartbeats); Jeb Puryear (Bubba George String Band); Rosie Newton and Steve Selin (Evil City String Band); Oona Grady and Leah Grady Sayvets (The Grady Girls); and Aaron Lipp (Mount Pleasant String Band). Not to mention the many visiting instructors teaching workshops on traditions which may be less local like Cajun accordion, honky tonk drumming, flat-footing, and Native Americana.
A day at camp begins at 9am with yoga accompanied by live music, then continues with one-hour music and dance workshops all day. This year I took an old-time fiddle workshop with Rosie Newton, a clawhammer banjo workshop with Richie Stearns, a fretless banjo class with JP Harris, and learned about the music business from Ben Greenburg, the band manager for Donna the Buffalo. And the workshops aren’t the only way to learn. I make new friends and catch up with old friends; folks I look forward to connecting with each summer like ‘Mississippi’ Jack Magee from Magee, Mississippi who I can count on to teach me a few tunes he picks up as he travels up and down the Appalachians each year.
At night a live band performs a traditional dance concert after a kindred homemade dinner is served. For example, last Monday I ate a delicious jambalaya, collard greens, and corn bread before two-stepping to Cajun virtuosos Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. I retired to my tent at about midnight and dreamed in fiddle tunes while it thunderstormed.
Our culture is sculpted as much by our separations as our connections, just as our hilly terrain is carved by rivers and rain. If you are developing your own voice in the context of our regional music culture, I hope you find corridors like the Grassroots camp to share and learn.
Ben currently lives in Warsaw, NY.
He teaches banjo, records music made by his friends, and performs with a variety of roots-based bands throughout the Finger Lakes region.