You too can be a folk musician

A middle-aged woman opens the door to a vegetarian restaurant in the heart of downtown Blacksburg. She reclines props the door open with her arm because she is trying to load in what seems to be a fiddle case. She pulls up a chair, comfortably sets down her belongings on the opposite side of the table, she exchanges a smile and a familiar nod with a waiter and sits down.

She opens up her case, pulls out an antique fiddle and starts to play. No one objects. She does not ask for permission to begin playing her fiddle, because she has obviously done this many times before. A couple of minutes later a few more people trickled in only to follow the same suit, but with different instruments. Eventually, what seemed to be a band formed by the end of the night, making the corner of College avenue and Draper road echo with reminiscent tunes of old time music.

A group of some of the most dedicated musicians has been keeping the Open Jam session tradition alive at Gillie’s vegetarian restaurant every Tuesday night for the past four years. However, its history reaches far beyond 30 years. In order to stay true to tradition, music practiced during the Open Jam session has been limited to old time music only, rarely allowing bluegrass to be played. “Playing old time music is my way of connecting to all of the music that people have been playing for years and years,” said Bill Richardson, the most experienced musician in the group.

Bluegrass music and old time music are similar, but to an extent. Seeing as bluegrass was derived out of old time, it tends to have a greater variety of instruments and vocals. Old time is more restrictive in instrument use; for example, it would be complete blasphemy for any old time band to have an electric guitarist or a drummer, something that today’s modern bands would have a lot of trouble relating to or even imagining. “It’s within a tradition, it’s about continuity. It’s not self-made or self-invented, it’s very restrictive in that way. Which doesn’t mean it’s not evolving, but you’re always kind of looking into what you learn from it. You don’t try to change it, you have to let it change you, because if you try to change it it’s not Old Time,” added Richardson.

People have gathered around this tradition long enough to give birth to a small subculture in Blacksburg, wrapped around the desire to reminisce about times when things were a lot simpler and purer. The oldest open jam musicians credited the Hoorah Cloggers Virginia Tech campus club for bringing them together as dancers and cultivating their energies to make them the musicians that they have become.

Before the open jam migrated to its current location, it moved around quite a bit. “In the ‘70s, it used to rotate one day a week from house to house and Bill was the one who brought it out to Roni’s,” said Randy Marchany, fiddle player, as he reminisced about the now closed pizzeria which had become the first downtown venue for the Open Jam session.

“It’s moved around town businesses for 25 years. We played any place that would let us have music,” said Cindy Cook, another fiddler who joined in on that evening’s session.

After the Open Jam moved out of Roni’s, it made its way to Champs, Top of the Stairs, South Main Café (currently known as Cabo Fish Taco) and has currently settled at Gillie’s.

But it seems that the forced constant movement of this tradition has affected the way audiences perceived the music, because the dancing aspect was forgotten somewhere along the way.

“People that have had the money never saw the need for more music venues, the university was just intractable when it came to creativity. Good ideas go to the petty bureaucracy,” commented Richardson

Regardless of what hardships this tradition has gone through to stay alive, the Open Jam session has paved and still continues to pave the way for the creation of bands such as The Jugbusters, The Full Nelsons, The Bubbatones, Wild Turkeys and many more to come.

So if you’re interested in witnessing or being a part of the Open Jam subculture, you can find it every Tuesday night at Gillie’s vegetarian restaurant in downtown Blacksburg at 9 p.m., since it is not restricted to those who are already a part of it according to the tradition’s motto, “Music belongs to those who persist at it. You too can be a folk musician.”

(This article has been cross-published at the Collegiate Times' online and print editions)