THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September, 2, 1994 TAG: 9408310132
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
The Chesapeake Central Library will ring Sept. 10 with the tunes and melodies loved by the soldiers in blue and gray.
As a special feature for this year's Chesapeake Civil War Days, the Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission made a special grant available to bring in the nationally known Tuckahoe Social Orchestra, led by founder and music director Joe Ayers of Bremo Bluff in Fluvanna County.
The orchestra, which will perform at 7 p.m., is made up of Ayers' children and will perform the pop hits of the mid-19th century. Tuckahoe's program will include parlor music penned by Stephen Foster, dance music of the day and the songs loved by civilians and soldiers on both sides of the war - the popular tunes from minstrel shows, the much-maligned mid-19th century American entertainment that featured white performers in blackface, dressed in flamboyant costume singing and playing songs and melodies rooted in African-American music.
Like the Union and Confederate soldiers, Ayers became enamored with minstrel show tunes, too.
He said he enjoys mid-19th century American music thanks to his own musical research and to the influence of his grandfather, Richard W. Ayers, a traditional square dance fiddle player.
``I caught him at the end of his career,'' Ayers said. ``He was in his 70s when he died in 1958 so he had a connection to the 19th century. He always had an air of another time about him. It's something I picked up on, and it captivated me. I spent some intense time with him during his last days.''
With his grandfather's zeal for early music, Ayers then set about his journey to the popular American music of a century and a half ago.
``I got to it working back from early rock 'n' roll and working forward from Renaissance and baroque music,'' he said.
Influenced by the classic rock of Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino, Ayers took up playing guitar, but he soon longed for more traditional, acoustic music with a beat. That led him to discover the music of bluesman Taj Mahal and later led him to champion the music of such classic blues artists as Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake, Robert Johnson and Charlie Patton, known as the King of the Delta Blues.
``It took me back to the very earliest days of broadcast music, in the 1920s and '30s,'' Ayers said. ``But then I thought, where did those guys get their stuff? There must have been some earlier guitar player or singer who influenced them.''
Eventually, the journey led Ayers past early blues, country blues to ragtime and beyond.
``That search led me to the music of the minstrel shows,'' he said.
In similar fashion, Ayers also was interested in Renaissance and baroque music, playing classical guitar in several early music ensembles, including one that featured members of his own family.
He said he began to follow the evolution of guitar music to its Spanish and Moorish roots, which led him to the music of Africa, then back to the New World and again to the minstrel shows.
``I'm just fascinated with history,'' he said. ``I'm into the past to know how to act today. What we perform on stage presents a collective American experience - one shared cultural event taking in influences from all sides.'' MEMO: The Tuckahoe Social Orchestra will perform a free concert at 7 p.m.,
Sept. 10, at the Chesapeake Central Library. More information is
available by calling 547-6591.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by AUBREY WILEY
The Tuckahoe Social Orchestra will perform Sept. 10 at Chesapeake
Central Library. The orchestra is led by Joe Ayers, with banjo.
by CNB