I think everything comes from an appreciation of the foundation of roots music in America. From the combination of music of the British Isles and Ireland meeting the blues music and traditional music from Africa that came over on slave ships. Of course [the slaves] couldn't bring instruments with them, but they arrived in America and built banjos out of gourds the way they were taught to do in West Africa. And then suddenly this whole new language began. Everybody's black, everybody's white. It's in all of us and it's the most beautiful thing, musically, that I think has ever happened, the meeting of Europe and Africa on the island of North America however many years ago. |
I'm a big baseball fan for sure. I don't know why we started doing it. It was just kind of funny and we always pick out baseball names from my childhood, because that's when the whole baseball reverence happened to me. I guess you could say there is something about old heroes that always makes them worth conjuring up. |
Old ladies think we're cute. People our age think we're interesting and we have something new to say. People in their middle ages remember the folk revival of the '60s. |
The band was basically formed as a road act. We hadn't known all the players before. In fact, we had never played a tune together. |
We're playing the hell out of Georgia this fall. We're playing Macon, Augusta and Athens and then in Atlanta, so by the end of the month we should see a renewed and expanded interest in OCMS in the Peachtree State. |
We've never played the Fox and are really looking forward to being there, as well as playing with Nickel Creek. |