To get us started, here are some fascinating quotes from that excellent paper:

'What is Old Time Music' by Mike Seeger:

Firstly, he explains just exactly where Appalachia is:

"The Appalachian region stretches from the Blue Ridge and Southern Appalachian mountain regions of Virginia, West Virginia, southward through Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and barely into Georgia and Alabama."

Then he lets us know who settled there:

"After Native Americans, the first people to settle in this region came from the British Isles in the mid-1700's. These early settlers included Scots-Irish but were primarily English. A small number of immigrants later came to this area from Germany."

"Little slavery existed in the area largely because the hilly land didn't lend itself to the plantation system of the flat land to the east and south."

"Communities were also nearly self sufficient culturally, and almost everyone could either sing, play an instrument, dance, or tell a story, usually in a style distinctly their own. English-language culture was dominant."

But he doesn't actually say which accents or dialects were most common.

"The most popular instruments were the jew's harp and fiddle. Less often one would encounter a plucked or hammer dulcimer, some other home made instrument or possibly a flute or fife."

It is widely believed that the mountain dulcimer actually migrated into the Southern Appalachians from a German antecedant in Pennsyvania - the scheitholt.

"In the early and mid-1800's a few Anglo Americans began taking notice of African-American banjo music and songs, adapting them to their own use. Some were professional entertainers who learned to pick the banjo and composed songs based on what they heard African-Americans doing..."

"With emancipation in the 1860's, more African-American people moved into the mountain areas, which tended to be less racially polarized. In addition to bringing their native banjo to the region, by the late 1800's African-Americans had also introduced newly evolved guitar styles along with a new type of song, the intensely personal blues. In time the banjo and the guitar were blended with the old fiddle and song traditions to create the beginnings of a truly American string band tradition."

"Around the turn of the century some European instruments such as the french harp (harmonica), mandolin, and the recently invented autoharp made their appearance by way of mail order catalogues, travelling salesmen, and the increasing contact with national urban culture."

"Rural men and women didn't "play by note" (read music) and each devised their own personal way of playing rural-style music on their new instruments. This period between about 1870 and 1930 was the golden age of old-time southern Appalachian music."

I'm sure most of the country musicians in Ulster also learned their music by ear, from one another.

"By the mid 1900's fewer and fewer singers and musicians were transmitting local songs or participating in old-time family music, since virtually all were influenced by or learning totally from recordings by professional country-style musicians. The old songs and ways, which had built on centuries of tradition, especially unaccompanied singing and the quiet instruments such as the trump (jew's harp), fiddle, dulcimer, and later the banjo, simply went out of fashion."

There appears to have been a similar decline of country musicians in Ulster too during the first half of the 20th century, if my findings in North Antrim are any indication, see:

"The banjo and fiddle gave way to the guitar, which became the most prominent instrument amongst both professional and amateur players."

The Folk revival, from the 60's on, probably did a lot to spread an interest in the Guitar too, here in Ulster. Other factors which contributed to a decline in the interest for Old Time Music, as well as the old tunes here. I'm sure the first point Mike makes on this, would have been just as relevent here, aye and perhaps even his second too?

"Why did formerly rural people buy into this? For one thing, it was certainly easier to tune a radio than to learn to play an instrument."

"The older songs were associated with old times and hard work, with being "hicks" or "hillbillies," someone from the "lower" rural class."

For all the fascinating details, make sure you check out - Mike Seeger's:

What is Old-time Music?:

After setting up this page I had a fascinating E-mail from Ken, who had this to add to the debate on the question of just exactly where Appalachia is, which I'm sure you will find interesting:

"Hello Dick--I was browsing through your Scots-Irish site by way of Sugar in the Gourd. I found it interesting and informative, especially in light of my heritage: American of Irish (Donegal and Mayo) and Scots-Irish (Lowland) ancestry, born and raised in Appalachia. In fact, there's a famous trail that runs the length of the Appalachian Mountains (1,000 miles, give or take a few yards) which I could see from the house, it was that close. Somewhere on your site someone "defined" the Appalachians as running from Virginia and West Virginia down to Georgia. Well, the fact is that that's only the Southern half of the Appalachians. The Appalachian Trail, and the mountains themselves of course, run all the way north to the state of Maine. The popular image of the Appalachians is indeed that of the Southern hillbilly, but that misses an awful lot. Most Americans, too, are quite unaware of the NA's existence, much less its culture.

Musically, the Northern Appalachians share many characteristics with the SA, but there are also distinct differences. For one, NA music has a distinct Nova Scotia and Quebec influence that the SA doesn't have. Too, the SA drew heavily from African American traditions, which the NA lacks, being far from the slave-holding regions. Both the SA and NA were heavily settled by Irish, Scots-Irish and Welsh, and diverged in time, especially after the mid-19th century. The Germans tended to avoid the mountains and farm the richer lowlands; the Celts tended to settle more in the hills and took up the culture of moonshine, rifles and tax evasion. The Germans tended to be far more prosperous, but I like to think that we had more fun! (These are all generalizations, of course. Still I think they are as valid as generalizations get.)

Try this one out, the 'Swan Lake Breakdown':

Now he's an Appalachian fiddler from New Jersey who was playing near where I grew up as a boy. Thankfully, some of his stuff has been preserved. Hardly anyone can believe that New Jersey and New York (state, not city) have bits of the Appalachian mountains!

Hope this information interests you.

Ken"

Many thanks to Ken for this fascinating information.

My German born wife Sabine had a good laugh at the references to the Germans in Ken's letter. Well, if you can't laugh at yourself, it's a poor show isn't it, especially as wee ourselves are about as wealthy as Church Mice - but then she did make the mistake of marrying a Scot!

To find out more about these early settlers, read these two articles

by DL Ennis

'The Early Settlers of Appalachia - Part 1':

'The Early Settlers of Appalachia - Part 11':

"Many Ulster-Scots left the British Isles and came to America in the early 18th century. They came to Maryland and Pennsylvania but found the lands along the Delaware and the Chesapeake taken by earlier settlers from England; therefore, they moved west following the Great Appalachian Valley, moving southward into the piedmont and mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

These early settlers were descendents of hardy Scots who had survived many years of struggle against invaders who, time after time, had pushed them back into the hill country of Scotland but had never conquered them. Over the centuries of struggles they became great warriors with more of a love of liberty than life. Forced to live in the mountainous lands of the Scotland, they were sustained only through hard work and frugal living."

Another excellent look at this region is that of Charles H Ball, in his

‘Appalachian Celts And Their Music’

For yet another interesting slant on this idea that the playing styles & tunes came from Ulster & had a big impact on the musicians of Appalachia, can be read in:

For an idea on how much of an influence the Banjo was on this music, check out this page, which asks - "Old-time (oldtimey) Music What is it?

Anyway, for those musicians amongst you, who are not quite sure what the difference is between Bluegrass & Old Time.

And finally, introducing the 'Old Time Dance' group 'GIRLGERMS'.