Old-Time Conversations

Craig R. Evans is a filmmaker, author, and musician documenting today’s North American traditional music community. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“In this testimonial to the five-string banjo, Craig Evans—author, musician, and filmmaker—finds a spiritual home and therapeutic community. His study centers on contemporary builders, players, and historians who tell a story of health, of a living tradition and sources of its longevity. From witnessing Doc Watson penetrate the core of a tune to coping with latter-day Jim Crow practice, from a disabled artisan making a surpassingly beautiful instrument, to a great scholar’s summation of broadcast minstrelsy, Old-time Conversations explores the fellowship of Southern Appalachian traditional music in the 21st century.”—Stephen Wade, author of The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience