What Dreamers Do
Hi, I’m Carla Gover, an Appalachian musician, flatfoot dancer, mama, and DREAMER from Kentucky. I'm on a mission to share fierce love, good humor, and inspiration to help you live a life of creative freedom. I decided to start the What Dreamers Do Podcast to help answer the question: How can we use our gifts and talents to build a better world, and have fun along the way? You’ll also find musings about Appalachia as well as interesting conversations with songwriters, poets, dancers, educators, world-changers, social justice warriors, and other people like you who are working to make a difference using their art, their skills, or just the way they live their lives. On every episode, you’ll hear ideas, conversations, and actionable items to help you unlock your creativity and live your purpose. Grab a mason jar full of sweet tea (or something a little stronger) and pull up a chair, cause it’s time to get YOUR dream on!
What Dreamers Do
Blurred Lines: Flatfooting & Clogging & Bluegrass & Old-Time
As an artist who performs traditional Appalachian music and dance, I get lots of questions about the styles of music and dance that I play.
"You play banjo--does that mean you play bluegrass?"
"What's the difference between flatfooting and clogging?"
And, quite often, "Will you play Dueling Banjos?"
In this episode, I sketch out the major differences (and similarities) between all those things, and share how I came to understand them in spite of a background where we tended to just call it all "music and dance."
And I discuss the fluid nature of folk music, along with the phenomenon of "prescriptive culture" and the tendencies of traditions to evolve over time, even as there are some groups and individuals who would wish for it to be static or to fit neatly into boxes or rules.
Links Mentioned:
Cowan Creek Mountain Music School
Appalachian Flatfooting & Clogging Academy
Listening Links:
Lee Sexton
Paul David Smith
John Harrod
Marion Sumner
Art Stamper
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