Learning Trad
Through our Learning Trad folk and traditional arts education initiatives, Kentucky Old Time Music, Inc. has hosted lectures, classes and workshops; sponsored traditional arts apprenticeships and cultural exchanges in the U.S. and abroad; assisted in the development of regional folk and traditional arts curriculum for schools and cultivated community engagement through place-based folk and traditional arts programs.
Traditional Arts Teaching Partners
Appalachian Flatfooting Academy
The Appalachian Flatfooting & Clogging Academy by Carla Gover offers a step-by-step process for beginner and intermediate dancers that teaches tons of steps plus how to combine them to become a smooth and musical dancer.
Whether you’re…
A beginner who’s always wanted to learn more about the style but hasn’t had access to the right teacher or community.
Someone who knows a bunch of steps but needs some extra support and a proven formula for putting it all together to improvise with fluency.
An experienced dancer in another genre who’s always wanted to learn this particular style of dance.
A performer or musician who regularly finds yourself in jam sessions and attending festivals where you want to make real “music with your feet” and even showcase your dancing onstage as part of your set.
If you’re someone who loves Appalachian music, dance, and culture, and you’re ready for an accessible, thorough, and FUN course that contains EVERYTHING you need (yes, everything!) to become a great dancer at your own schedule, pace, and location.
Catfish Alley Folk School
Catfish Alley Folk School (CAFS) is a creative platform by Brett Ratliff offering opportunities for community engagement in folk and traditional arts. CAFS offers various musical instrument classes, workshops, concerts and much more. CAFS was founded on the idea that cultural constructs are the pillars that uphold societal structures, encompassing the shared, collective ideas or notions that originate from a culture. They play a significant role in shaping our worldviews, thoughts, and behaviors. Cultural education binds people together through shared practices, values, and norms, fostering a sense of belonging and unity. This framework also offers an interpretive lens through which we understand our world and navigate social interactions. In an increasingly mainstreamed society, understanding the nuances of different cultures and their constructs becomes critical to fostering inclusivity and respect for diversity.
Joan Brannon is the founder and lead facilitator for DrummingWorks and a teaching artist for Kentucky Centers’ ArtsReach and Ky Arts Council. She has been playing percussion instruments for 20 years, founding drumming collectives, Sisters of the Sacred Drum and the Sacred Drum Ensemble. Joan teaches drumming empowerment classes for youth, enrichment circles for women and she facilitates workshops in a variety of settings to bring the power of percussion into community.
Workshops include…
Corporate and Business Team Building - Improve productivity and communication. Promote wellness and show appreciation.
Drum Circles - Facilitated Drum Circles are accessible to all populations and encourage multiple levels of participation (from beginning to experienced)
Schools and Youth Groups - Rhythm exploration is a powerful way to inspire and nurture the creative voice.
Women - Beginning West African drumming and meditative flow drumming in small groups. Suitable for women of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.
Joan respects the drum as a sacred instrument that utilizes rhythms for celebration and as a tool for communication, empowerment and community building. Joan has performed and drummed throughout the United States, and throughout Guinea, and West Africa.
Traditional Arts Community Partners
John Ryster builds custom Appalachian violins from his home shop on Hogtown Ridge in Rowan County, Kentucky. He learned how to build instruments from Tommy Case of Georgetown, Kentucky through the Kentucky Arts Council apprenticeship and has been busy building them for folks ever since. Musicians from all over the U.S. are proud owners of John's violins.
Honeyshine Pies
For those of us who play music, Stephanie Duckworth doesn’t have to explain how deeply connected to someone you can feel while in the moment of a song, or the amazing energy that can be shared when playing with a group. Like music, food can also bring people together in a powerful way. When she makes a pie for her friends, the hope always is that they will share a moment or two together, pausing in the busy day to enjoy something sweet and beautiful. Pies and live music are both ephemeral – to enjoy them, we must always be present in the moment, for the pie will soon be eaten and the plate washed and put away; the song will eventually end and the band will pack up and go home. But the connection is deep and long-lasting and the memories can be summoned and enjoyed again.
Educational Programs
Preservation through Performance
Did you know Aaron Copeland’s “Hoedown” actually came from a version of “Bonaparte’s Retreat” that was innovated by Salyersville fiddler Bill Stepp? Did you know that Bill Cornett, the former state representative for Knott and Magoffin Counties, a Democrat, won his seat in a landslide without even campaigning because people loved his banjo playing? Did you know Cornett is widely thought to have written “Man of Constant Sorrow”?
Kentucky’s rural diaspora has been a major tributary for the river of American music, but the rural communities themselves have all too often forgotten their auspicious artistic inheritance. In this concert series, we travel to specific sites of cultural innovation and perform tributes to the artists those communities once called neighbors. Want us to come to your neck of the woods? Be in touch.
“Hillbilly Highway” Reading Series
The “Hillbilly Highway,” also known as the Appalachian migration, holds a significant place in American history. This monumental internal relocation of countless poor and working-class individuals, black and white, has unfortunately received limited attention from historians. However, delving into the depths of this long-overlooked story brings to light its profound impact on various aspects of American society, like the modern industrial labor movement and the postwar urban crisis, but it also becomes evident that the influence of the Appalachian migration extends to the rise and development of a large aspect of today's working-class. The Hillbilly Highway was a parallel to the better-known Great Migration of African-Americans from the south. Many of these Appalachian migrants went to major industrial centers such as Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Toledo, and Muncie, Indiana. Many of the Appalachians lived in concentrated enclaves, an example being Uptown, Chicago, which was nicknamed "Hillbilly Heaven" in the 1960s. While most often used in this metaphoric sense, the term is sometimes used to refer to specific stretches of roadway, such as U.S. Route 23, or Interstate 75. The migration was not a finite process, as it continues today and migrants commonly move back to their home states in retirement. The Hillbilly Highway Reading Series is a rural-urban exchange of words, music, and ideas where writers and musicians from Appalachia to Detroit, and other urban centers associated with the “Hillbilly Highway,” engage to explore this mass-migratory event and the complex narratives it involves.
Past Events:
2018 - Hamtramck, MI
Venue: Bank Suey
Readers: Ronni Lundy, Imani Mixon, Rebecca Gayle Howell, Anna Clark, Nandi Comer, & Courtney Balestier
Musicians: Norma Jean Haynes & Brett Ratliff
2020 - Lexington, KY
Venues: The Burl & ArtsPlace
Readers: Silas House, Ada Limon, Jason Howard, Rebecca Gayle Howell, Nandi Comer, Imani Mixon, & Ansil Elkins
Musicians: The Codgers, The Winetree, Giant Rooster Sideshow, & The Possum Queens