Album Notes

The music on this CD captures the true feeling of an old-timey barn dance or contra dance in a way that might be unique. Recorded live at an annual dance festival held in the woods of eastern Missouri, the tunes on this CD showcase some of the Midwest's finest contra- and square-dance musicians in a way seldom heard in recorded music: the tunes are played for not just for 3 or 4 minutes like you commonly hear on recordings of traditional music, but for as long as needed for the dance that was happening at the time. While you may get fewer tunes on this CD, you instead get musicians playing in a groove for a room filled with dancers. When the music is this good, you don't ever want it to stop. Think of the music played here as representing the true origin of jam-band music, or as an extended dance mix from 100 years ago!

The Kimmswick Dance Weekend is organized in St. Louis and draws heavily on that city's local musical talent, but attracts musicians from across the region. On this CD, the musicians come from the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas. "Old-timey" musicians featured on this CD include National Heritage Fellow Bob Holt, Matt Wyatt, The Flying Mules, Barbara Weathers, Billy Mathews, Jim Nelson, Jeff Miller, Dave Landreth, Rhys Jones, Steve Rosen, Geoff Seitz, Curtis Buckhannon, Euphoria Stringband, and Roger Diggle, among others, with an interlude of swing-dance music provided by the St. Louis band Crazy Rhythm.