Old-time, on this blog, anyway, refers to old-time music, which is arguably the most purely American form of music. I got interested in old-time music by way of bluegrass banjo. I tried playing bluegrass, or “3-finger,” or “Scruggs-style” banjo for a few years, but could never get those rolls rolling fast enough. Even worse, that heavy resonator banjo gave me terrible backaches. So I got an open-back banjo and started learning the old-time clawhammer style. Well, before long, I caught the fiddle bug. After all, clawhammer banjo and old-time fiddle go together like peanut butter and jelly. I’m not good at either banjo or fiddle, but I have fun anyway. I have friends who are really good. Here are a couple of them.