On Nov. 17 we headed to Newark for the opening concert of the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music 2017-18 series. The quartet of Adam Hurt (banjo and fiddle), Beth Williams Hartness (guitar), David McLaughlin (banjo and mandolin), and Marshall Wilborn (upright bass) played a wide variety of bluegrass, old-time, and gospel tunes -- even George Jones's "She Thinks I Still Care" -- in addition to originals like David's entertaining "Skeleton Dance" and "Going Back to Old Virginia."
Adam used a West African gourd banjo to play "Old Molly Oxford," a Morris dance tune -- talk about genre-bending! He explained that the gourds are grown between boards so that they develop into the right shape and size. In introducing Washington Phillips' "What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?" Adam also mentioned another instrument I'd never heard of: the manzerene, a sort of home-made zither with violin strings that Phillips would assemble before every performance.
The show closed with a rousing singalong of the Carter Family's "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountain."
In the next show in the Old Time Music series, The Herald Angels will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, at the Unitarian Universalist Hall, 420 Willa Road, Newark.
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