The UCSB Performance Ensemble Of Hill-Billy Music, in a program February 20, 2008. (James Wimmer, Barbara Taylor, Jared Stein, Philip
Murphy, Sean Anderson, Tim Cooley, Erin Putnam, Peter Feldmann,
John McDonnel, Justin Charbonneau, and Scott Burkall.)
I’ve been having a great time playing music with a group of students at UCSB under the auspices of the Ethnomusicology Department. We’ve been learning about the music by performing it, and having a great time to boot. Today, we gave a 50 minute show complete with lots of banjo – fiddle tunes, a Baptist lined-out hymn, play party songs, ballads, a couple of country blues songs and a nice gospel quartet. The weather was forecast to be rainy, but though there was some wind, we managed to get the sun to make an appearance as well. As you can see, we had trios of fiddles, banjos, and guitars. It would have been nice to get a jug bass in there, but no empty jugs made their appearance as of yet. The class runs into March, and perhaps we’ll get a booking elsewhere in the community, if not on American Idol.
Thanks, everyone, for all your effort.
About Peter Feldmann
Peter Feldmann has long been a musical mainstay in Santa Barbara and Southern California. Besides actively performing bluegrass and old time music with a variety of groups, Peter is also known as a bluegrass historian, collector, music consultant, teacher, and producer, both of live concerts and radio/tv programs throughout the area. His music has been heard in clubs, concerts, saloons, universities, pre-schools, at weddings, wakes, parties, barn-raisings, calf-ropings, rodeos, auctions, fund raisers, wine tastings and chili cook offs.
Peter founded Santa Barbara's Old Time Fiddler's Convention (1972), UCSB's Old Time Music Front (1964), and The Bluebird Cafe (1971). Through these and other outlets, he was the first to bring many prominent folk, blues, and bluegrass artists, including Bill Monroe, Mance Lipscomb, The Stanley Brothers, The New Lost City Ramblers, Fred McDowell, Furry Lewis, Rose Maddox, the Balfa Brothers, and many others to the Santa Barbara area. Peter also helped others access the music by teaching privately, and in group classes for Santa Barbara Continuing Education, UCSB Extension, and McCabes Guitars. He was the first on the West Coast to produce and market instruction Lps - three on How To Play Country Fiddle, and one each on Clawhammer Banjo, and Maybelle Carter Style Guitar. He still presents lectures on country music history at UCSB, Santa Barbara area libraries, and for various interest groups, festival workshops, etc. In 2006, he presented his monograph titled "The Big bang Of Bluegrass Music" (describing the origins of bluegrass 1938 - 1946) to the worlds first International Music Symposium at the University of Kentucky at Bowling Green. He has also been very active in radio, television, and film work, producing weekly shows on country and bluegrass music over a 21 year period on various commercial and public stations. Peter currently maintains three music-related websites, a music blog, and an entertainment service company, "BlueGrass West!", based in the Santa Ynez Valley in Southern California.
Peter performs tunes and songs from the heart of America's musical treasure chest. His shows can include fiddle, guitar, banjo, and mandolin. Well-known as a historian and teacher, Peter is first and foremost an entertainer, sharing his respect, energy and love for the music with his fellow musicians, friends, and audiences.
