"Music of the frontiers"
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Welcome! Truman plays a variety of folk music, chiefly on fiddle, solo or with the True West Band. These pages in progress include calendar notes, a little about the people, some videos and video links (at the bottom of the page), Songs of the Oregon Trail, a CD with Jane Keefer, with help from Mike Horner, a Rough & Ready CD with Wes (and either Taco or George Taevs on bass) and a few other related pages. |
- -  photo by Jesse Beam
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plays authentic and lively music(s) of the frontier, from Appalachian fiddle tunes and along the Oregon trail into the West, picking up a variety of influences along the way, including ancient ballads, Scandinavian fiddle tunes, blues, Norteno polkas, swing, etc.
The core of True West for years has been Truman Price, fiddle, and Wes Messinger, guitar and banjo. We often perform as a trio: Truman, Wes, and either Don "Taco" Austin , Tim Crosby, or Paul Clements (see "Some Folks" below). Or a quartet. Or with other good musicians.
We've never advertised, so performances are strictly due to word-of-mouth encounters, but we've done hundreds (and thanks to everyone for passing the word!): outdoor festivals in the summers, weddings, libraries, for years a second-and-fourth Saturday of the month 3-hour gig at the Old World Deli in Corvallis. It was good practice. A list of some of the gigs that turned into multiple repeat performances is shown below the calendars. We don't tour, although we occasionally play in Washington.
(Tru and/or True West have played three to many repeated performances at each of these:)
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In process: currently sticking photos with the past calendar pages - one or two each, so far
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2010
Beginning 2011...
1800's Reel at Newell House, April 30 - Fiddling and calling: Suzanne on the left
Busking with Gumbo, Corvallis Saturday Market - any free Saturday morning
photo by Jesse Beam
Guthrie Jam, January 2010
Some Folks
Early on, Truman's father assigned him to learn to play fiddle like his great-uncle, a one-room school teacher in the mountains of Georgia. This began an extended process of trial and error including a few years of childhood violin training, a few years residence in Appalachia, etc. On his father's 90th birthday, he played Ol' Dan Tucker and was rewarded with, "That's pretty good" (after years of "Nope"). In between, he had studied traditional fiddle styles, played hundreds of tunes and songs, forgot lots of them, made up some, and tried them for audiences of all sizes. He has been most influenced by J. P. Fraley, Woody Guthrie, Western Virginia fiddle conventions, Highwoods String Band, the Rounders, dreams of Grappelli ... and "Pa" Ingalls as described in Laura Wilders' books. Tru's pursuit of frontier fiddle techniques has enabled him to fiddle and sing, or even call dances, at the same time, and he loves getting people involved. The collection, Songs and Tunes of The Oregon Trail , with Jane Keefer, sold 1000 copies as a cassette tape, and is now on CD. Truman also calls oldtime dances, squares, etc., and has been artist-in-residence for 60 weeks in Oregon schools, teaching square & circle dances with live fiddle music. He is an antiquarian bookseller, with specialities in children's literature (with Suzanne's expertise) and folk music. A quick Newspaper Feature about Truman's Fiddling was published in the Salem Statesman-Journal 9/28/08.
John Wesley Messinger has rambled the Great American West most all of his life, but came of age in Dare County, North Carolina. This is where he had his first and only banjo lesson (what WAS that girl's name? She sure had a nice banjo...). The style is oldtime southern clawhammer. Wes also performs strange ancient ballads, traditional songs of the American West, and is a fine, if reckless, rhythm guitarist. Interesting stuff. He is a field botanist by trade.
Truman and Wes have played fiddle and banjo together for twenty years, and bounce tunes and songs off each other without even trying. They both began with immersion in Appalachian fiddle tunes, but have been easily distracted: Western Swing and Swing, rags, Mexican polkas and folkloric tunes, Scandinavian tunes, the Rounders, anything loose and vigorous, or just plain catchy. Both sing while playing. If needed they produce old-time square dances, taught and called on the spot. Wes' banjo style is outstanding for these dances, being dynamic, rhythmic, melodic and fast, all at once, and his memory for the lyrics of obscure ballads is remarkable. True West has performed countless times for audiences of every size and kind, including three-hour sets of authentic music of the pioneer era for the Champoeg Harvest Festival, Mountain Men Conventions and many other events.
Taco, nee Don Austin is an absolute virtuoso on the washtub. He does not thump or thunk: he plays notes, including sizzling chromatic runs; if we are in a swing number, he takes solo breaks. I've never seen anything like it, and I don't know how he does it. Neither does he, unless you count the old saw about "how do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Years ago he was a regular member of the True West Band; later he played most of the colleges in the Northwest as half of a duo, Austin & Ehart, tub and mandolin. Don makes up interesting songs, has a wonderful Brechtian voice, and is also a real nice guy. He's a farm handyman for the Olsons and in his spare time directs theatrical productions.
Tim Crosby is often in the group. He is a gifted multi-instrumentalist in many styles, on fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, bones, grin, pick. He has played with the trio Briarose for many years, and has released a solo CD of original and traditional cowboy songs, "Crystal Creek" by "Slim Crosby". He has played Irish music for years with The Flying O'Carolan Brothers. Since 2005 Tim has been so busy at major gigs with the hot Portland bluegrass band Phoenix Rising that it is sometimes hard to book him. Tim has played as part the True West Band, or as a duo with Truman, many times. They have enjoyed evenings which included a brief concert, followed by an oldtimey dance, followed by a campfire singalong, as a duo. Like the rest of us, he loves meeting people and swapping music lore.
Jane Keefer, despite her PhD in Theoretical Chemistry and Physics (or because of it?) and brief career as a computer programmer for NASA, made her living for eight years by teaching folk music around Salem, Oregon (try that sometime!) She plays and teaches folk styles on fiddle, banjo, dulcimer, guitar and mandolin, also plays hammered dulcimer, autoharp, piano, Paraguayan harp, penny-whistle, limber-jack, etc. She has transcribed music for over 2000 traditional tunes in both notation and written tablature for the main string instruments. While working on the East Coast for several years she developed the Folk Music Index, which lists and indexes all folk music on record, based on her personal collection. Jane has returned to Portland, where she teaches string band classes, performs with General Strike and is active with the Portland Folklore Society. We played together frequently when she lived in Salem, still do, and always love the music.
Paul Clements and Truman first played together near Blacksburg, Virginia, after raising a log cabin on Jude Deplaze's farm... 30+ years ago... Paul has been an Oregon State Forester for a decade or so, out of Eugene. He is wild and knowledgable, an exciting fiddle and guitar player, and we have been fortunate lately to have played several gigs together recently. An artist. Paul also plays regularly with Wes in the Eugene contra dance band, Barnstormers.
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From the desk window in Early Spring . . . . . . . Same thing in June, with organic Jerseys . . . . . . . Hey, Stop Scaring My Cows! (Sept 1) |
A recent set: (Tru, Wes and Taco, at Oregon Historical Society's main offices on SE Park, Portland, in the plaza beside the entrances, August 9 ... and weren't there a few other tunes?)
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Some Video:
June Apple: A bit filmed by Ray Leach at Centralia Campout August 2005, trio with Adam Price and Tom Peloso (of Modest Mouse).
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Two CD's for sale:
Books: We make our main living these days selling antiquarian books, especially children's literature, and have a site at http://www.oldchildrensbooks.com. As a side specialty, I offer a few hundred books containing or about folk music, which can be searched here. Use as keywords, folk music, or fiddle [leaves our site; return through back buttons].
Organic Beef:
We also sell some of that nice beef glimpsed in the photos above. Organically grown, mothers from a nearby
Organic Jersey dairy, raised on grass, supplemented in the fall by many buckets of apples and pears from our big old trees. Amazingly
good flavor - the best beef anywhere!
Contact -
Truprice@oldchildrensbooks.com
