| This research examines the construction and negotiation of musical genre through social interaction and performance at four old-time music festivals in North Carolina and Virginia. Musicians' understandings of what constitutes an aesthetically pleasing and authentic "old-time sound" are explored. The relationship between the articulation of genre boundaries and the construction of multiple notions of authenticity and tradition are analyzed through consideration of individual musical choices within differing performance contexts.The four conventions studied were the Ivanhoe Old-time Fiddler's Convention in Ivanhoe, Virginia, the Alleghany County Fiddlers Convetion in Sparta, NC, the Bluegrass and Old-time Fiddlers Convention in Mount Airy, NC, and Fiddlers Grove in Union Grove, NC. |
