Music as truth

[Steve Atwood]

Something about this music is very powerful to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn-VjRY5pGw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk_zJD90xd0

It's pure, natural, joyful, the result of commitment, great skill and hard work, and totally unpretentious and unfazed by all the fakeness and craziness in the world. It drives it away and banishes it to a prison somewhere.

Any thoughts on music as a force in the world? Examples?

[Lee Baucum]

I "discovered" Tuba Skinny a few years ago.

That is definitely happy music.

My feet cannot stay still when I listen to them.

The audience and the dancers are having so much fun.

Good medicine.

~Lee

[Joachim Kettner]

I thought that Dixieland wasn't played anymore. Thes guys are great! Just yesterday I listened to an album by Acker Bilk.
Please listen to this song from Mike Finnigan RIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4nJI9CxadY

[Ian Rae]

This style connects directly to the origins of jazz, and as such represents the first modern American music. African culture speaking through European band instruments would unleash unprecedented power!

Trad jazz is popular over here, but those who regard it as quaint don't understand where it came from.

[Andy Jones]

I've been listening to Tuba Skinny for a couple of years.I really like them.

For a real treat,search YouTube for Gunhild Carling.She and her children and husband play similar stuff and they are proficient on just about any instrument you can think of.

[Fred Treece]

Music, in its purest and most unpretentious (borrowing the OP’s use of that word for it) form, absolutely is The Force in the world. The attachment people have to it is love - whether playing it, listening, dancing, or doing whatever to it. Even some animal species are moved by it -
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IypL_EcI9XE
My dog relaxes to classical, especially after a hard frisbee session.

Here is the band I didn’t play steel in. We were not a Dixieland band at all, but this tune always struck a chord with our audiences.
https://m.facebook.com/brethartetheater ... 882154577/

[Steve Atwood]

I agree with Lee that Tuba Skinny's songs are pretty much all foot-tappers, but I think those two are on a different level, hair-standing-up-on-the-legs level. It just shuts up everything else that's going on in my mind and makes me want to work with more discipline on what I'm trying to do.

Thanks for reminding me of Acker Bilk, Joachim. Clarinet was my instrument in grammar school and I had one of his albums. Fun song from Mike Finnigan.

Liked your comments Ian, and thanks to Andy for Gunhild Carling - very enjoyable videos. The piano player reminds me of Teddy Wilson.

Fred said "Music, in its purest and most unpretentious... form, absolutely is The Force in the world. The attachment people have to it is love - whether playing it, listening, dancing, or doing whatever to it." You're right, and that's true about any endeavor, but for me music is the most powerful.

The first things that came to mind for me as examples were Benny Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing" performed in the classical venue Carnegie Hall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUbgwADLFPM

and "Swingtime in the Rockies":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdceZAQVcHs

[Joachim Kettner]

Fred, the vid with the cows is amazing! Is that you playing the acoustic with the other band?
Glad you liked the Mike Finnigan track, Steve.

[Fred Treece]

Fred, the vid with the cows is amazing! Is that you playing the acoustic with the other band?

Yes, that’s me, from a gig right before the pandemic hit and broke up the band.

The cow video flipped me out when I first saw it too. There are others, one with a small orchestra playing for a larger herd. I had a parakeet once that sang along with my guitar playing, though he always seemed to be in a different key. Maybe he was a jazz parakeet. Regardless, the universality of music clearly covers multiple species as well as human cultures.

[Chris Templeton]

Sometimes I play steel/dobro with a band called the The Prairietones and the bandleader, Paul Gittelsohn, plays 4-string tenor banjo in a jazz band similar to these folks. I sent him the video link and he emailed back:
"Tuba Skinny is great.
The woman singer, Erica, is the daughter of a good musician friend of mine
When they were here about 6 or 7 years ago I made hundreds of CDs for them".

[Lee Baucum]

I spent over an hour one evening last week, watching Tuba Skinny videos.

One of the guitarists plays some great Freddy Green rhythm on an old reso guitar. Perfect fit for their style of music.