The Berkeley Old Time Music Convention is a five day music festival featuring a lovingly curated roster of local and national acts, with concert sets, rollicking square dances, workshops, jams and the illustrious string band contest in venues throughout Berkeley
Wed. Night Sept. 21: Welcome Party and Dance at Ashkenaz
with Ann Savoy, Thompsonia, Corn Potato String Band
Thurs. Night Sept. 22: Concert at the Freight
with Corn Potato String Band, Piedmont Blūz, New Vintage Revelers. Livestream tickets available too!
Fri. Night Sept. 23: Concert at the Freight
with Alice Gerrard, Tatiana Hargreaves & Reed Stutz, Earl White Stringband,
Skillet Licorice Allsorts Orchestra. Livestream tickets available too!
Sat. Night Sept. 24: Square Dance Party at Ashkenaz
with Earl White Stringband, Tatiana Hargreaves & Friends, Corn Potato String Band,
Right To Parlay, Evie Ladin, Robin Fischer, Mark Schatz.
BOTMC 4-Day Passes available for $90 (plus fees)
WORKSHOPS
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 at 4:30PM
Explore Open D Tuning on the Banjo w/ Clinton Davis
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 at 4:30PM
Fiddle Rags: How to Do Fun Variations and Accompaniment w/ Lindsay McCaw
Getting Started on Finger Style Banjo w/ Aaron Jonah Lewis
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 at 11AM
SOLD OUT: Adding Melodic and Rhythmic Variations to Fiddle Repertoire w/ Tatiana Hargreaves
Piedmont Style Country Blues Guitar w/ Valerie Turner
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 at 12:30PM
Black Americans in Old Time Music, Then and Now: a Presentation and Discussion with Earl White
How to Play with Another Fiddler, Seconding and Harmonizing w/ Aaron Jonah Lewis
Stepping Up Your Southern Appalachian Banjo Technique w/ Andrew Norcross
Berkeley Old Time Music Convention
Anti-Racism Statement
As appreciators and torch bearers of early American traditional music, the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention actively questions what it means to share this music in the context of systemic racism. We wish to acknowledge the immense contribution of Black and Indigenous musicians to the music presented by the BOTMC, in the past and in the present. We acknowledge the forces that have historically denied these contributions and that worked to sever their living connections to this music. We also acknowledge our own complicity in this oppression. As we play this music, we are reckoning with our history and present condition. We hope to build a road toward reparation.
Adapted (with permission) from the Plaid Strangers (Thomas Angell, Maxine Gerber, Karen Heil and Allegra Yellin)