What

What am I calling old-time music? When I use the term, I mean the traditional folk music of the Southern Appalachians. This music wa based on fiddle music of the British Isles mixed with the influences of black musicians, both slave and free. The fiddle came over from Europe with the emmigrants, the banjo came from Africa in primitive form and was refined and developed in the US cities starting before the Civil War. The Civil War spread the banjo and the minstrel tunes popular in that time into the remote Appalachian mountains, where they were adopted. The guitar came somewhat later, around the turn of the century.