When Merle and I started out we called our music 'traditional plus,' meaning the traditional music of the Appalachian region plus whatever other styles we were in the mood to play.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Since the beginning, the people of the college and I have agreed that the music of MerleFest is 'traditional plus.'
I don't think my music's as traditional as people make it out.
Since the early Nineties it's been very fashionable to say, 'It's all about the music.'
First, it doesn't surprise me that traditional music has experienced a kind of exhaustion in the 20th century - not forgetting that many musicians started to look outside the traditional structures of tonality.
I have been long associated with British music. I have favoured it as my alternate music next to American.
Once you're in a particular country, and you're surrounded by musicians who are so adept at traditional music, you suddenly realize how much there is to explore and digest and learn and experience.
I've never set out consciously to write American music. I don't know what that would be unless the obvious Appalachian folk references.
The whole path of American music has been so much about the recognition of stylistic diversity, and the recognition of the importance of music which was from one of the vernacular traditions.
Country music historically has been sort of middle-aged people's music.
Progressive music probably wouldn't even really exist if not for the people of the United States having picked up on it and nurtured it in the way they did. It really is an American form of music in the sense that it was nurtured here. So it belongs here. It has become part of the fabric of American musical culture.
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