“Before it went commercial, music could be any length, about anything, include any instrument or none at all. Ever wonder why everything on the radio sounds the same? It’s no accident. It is so you will buy the right soap, wear the right fashions, attend the right concerts, and basically pour money into the right pockets.

Old-time music was less celebrity oriented. People in rural communities did the best they could with the instruments they had and the little time they had in a working life. They were miners, lumberjacks, weavers, farmers, mothers, and fathers. They taught each other music they remembered and music they created over generations as family and neighbors, men and women, old and young people, on porches, in kitchens, at dances, and while they worked.

The music from that time, pre-Bluegrass, pre-radio, was laden with regional distinctions you still hear in parts of West Virginia, Kentucky, and other states near the Appalachian range. We are a modest evocation of a time when music had no price tag, no volume knob, and needed no promotion. Musicians hired for a dance might never have any chance at rehearsal and might never have met before. They would find the tunes they had in common, and play them.

You can still still buy the right soap, wear the right fashions, attend the right concerts, and basically pour money into the right pockets if you want to. You can also give some money to us, and we promise to keep the spirit of the old ways alive. We are musicians who enjoy bucking the modern program. Pick up a fiddle and join us.

- Carol Denney, of Failure to Disperse Acoustic Revolt and Road Show