Bruce Molsky
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Welcome to the first of what we here at Scribblepinch World Headquarters aim to make a weekly Friday feature: A Pinch of Music!
Music touches nerves and pushes buttons. People passionately defend or deny their musical tastes and scrutinize such tastes in others with fanatical fervor. As with any art form, music can move and motivate or it can bore and irritate - often both, depending on who’s being asked! One man’s Tiny Tim is another man’s Mozart. One woman’s Juice Newton is another woman’s… I don’t know? Elva Miller?
Anyway. The point is: We here at Scribblepinch don’t judge. And we don’t promise you’re going to like whatever our eclectic musical meanderings might possess us to feature on any given Friday. At least not all of the time. All we ask is that you give next Friday a chance if this one doesn’t tickle your fancy. Fair enough? Enough with introductions - let’s get on with it!
Back in the summer of 2005, Scribblepinch went on a little field trip to the far-fabled city of Milwaukee for its 25th annual Irish Fest. Our initial draw to the event was the chance to see the legendary Liam Clancy and former bandmate Tommy Makem (both to be featured at some future time in this space), but three solid days with our pick of so many talented performers to see at any given time gave us the opportunity to enjoy acts we may otherwise have never discovered. One of these acts was American Appalachian old-time music enthusiast Bruce Molsky.
Molsky, himself from the Bronx, may seem like an odd champion of traditional mountain music and its surrounding legends and lore, but one listen to his masterful work (punctuated with fiddle, banjo, guitar, and vocals) will put any doubts to rest. A New York Yankee in Bascom Lamar Lunsford’s Court? Why not? A music born from such diverse roots (Scottish, Irish, English, African, French, and German, to name a few), is bound to have its seeds scatter in some pretty odd directions!
Anyway. Bruce Molsky. Check him out!
Picture of Bruce Molsky above published here with the kind permission of Staci Peters.
Tags: pinch of music, bruce molsky, appalachian, old-time music, traditional music, fiddle, banjo, milwaukee irish fest, clancy brothers, tommy makem, folk music