Get Up in the Cool - Podcast with Cameron DeWhitt.

As I've previously posted, this blog is not intended to be an authoritative look at Folk, Bluegrass, Celtic, Appalachian, Old-time and so forth but rather a log of my journey as I go deeper into this world I've only just stated to explore.

For that reason one of the things I'm doing is finding sources of good information to learn from. One of the best so far has been the Get Up in the Cool podcast hosted by Cameron DeWhitt. Cameron is a clawhammer banjoist and Old Time musician from Philadelphia. He has recently been touring and recording his podcast in Australia which is how I came across him.

I'll quote this from the podcast page:

Get Up in the Cool features conversations and musical collaborations with some of Old Time music's heaviest hitters, like Ken Perlman, Adam Hurt, Spencer & Rains, and Jake Blount. As an interviewer, Cameron balances an effusive curiosity for the potential of traditional music with a dogged respect for its origins. Serving as audience surrogate, Cameron asks illuminating questions to Old Time's best and brightest while telling the larger story of the tradition's modern era. 

The great thing (from my perspective) is that there is a significant, but not dauntingly huge, back catalogue to dive into already available. Even after listening to just several episodes I felt I was getting a far greater understanding not just of the music and its history but of nomenclature and other key aspects I was so far only vaguely clued into.

I've regularly listened to several podcasts on other topics in the past. Some make you feel like you are being spoken too and others (the best of them) make you feel like you are sitting in the room following along with a great conversation. Get Up in the Cool is up there with the best of them for the fly on the wall experience. For someone without access to an Old Time scene it is a godsend.

The mix of talking about the music and playing the music makes the podcast all the more useful because the discussion is not theoretical but intrinsically linked to the lived experience of the music in that moment. Its exactly what a podcast about any folk tradition should be - an extension of that folk tradition itself. This music is meant to be a small group of people sitting together and sharing songs and stories and that is exactly what Cameron has created with this podcast.

After learning about the podcast at Dorigo I started working my way though the early episodes as well as catching the new ones. I also dropped by when He was performing at a Newcastle pub last weekend. I grabbed this short take with my phone as the night was winding down: 



You can get to the podcast here or if you are reading on an iPhone just click here.

I also grabbed a couple of CD's from Cameron so I expect I'll post a "Now Playing" post(s) related to those at some point.