He performed and recorded with the Double Decker String Band and is a member of the Hoover Uprights. Bill has been playing traditional music for over 40 years both professionally and socially. He attends festivals such as the Appalachian Stringband Festival and Mount Airy. He’s performed at folk festivals, old-time music festivals and stages such as the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Bill is also an artist and art teacher. I first met Bill in 1974 while traveling the “circuit” with former partner, Duck Donald. I had been playing banjo about two weeks when I met Bill and to his credit, he didn’t laugh at me (in person)! We’ve had many a good jam session together and he is delightful to play music with. So, 37 years later, I’m honored to interview him for the Old Time Way.
Cathy Fink: Bill, what got you interested in old-time music in the first place? What old-time were you first exposed to and what did you start playing?
Bill Schmidt: I’m a child of the folk revival of the 1960’s. When I was in my teens, a friend had a uke and showed me some chords. I bought my own uke and then before long, moved on to guitar. I started out as a Kingston Trio fan and gradually worked my way up the musical food chain. A pivotal moment was discovering the New Lost City Ramblers when I was still in high school. They changed my life. An art school colleague of mine has what he calls the “entrance ramp” theory: what you do creatively can be traced back to that seminal moment when you “get on the highway.” For me it was the folk revival in general—and the Ramblers opening this huge door for me. For others it was Highwoods, or maybe the Fuzzy Mountain Stringband, or the Round Peak sound. The NLCR provided the template for me. So, I went from uke to guitar, which I learned how to finger-pick in high school. After a brief (and fun) stint in a rock and blues band while in grad school, I got back into more traditional stuff and started playing banjo seriously around 1973. I met John Coffey (fiddler/record collector) and his wife Betsy Rutherford, who was a relative of Fields and Wade Ward. They had just moved to Baltimore and I began playing with them; this was what really got me immersed in old-time music. I learned so much about fiddle by accompanying John on banjo and guitar, so when I actually started playing the fiddle (I guess around 1974) I had already internalized much of the rhythm and feel of the instrument; I knew how it was supposed to sound.
OTW: Who influenced your banjo playing both via recordings and in person?
BS: Having the NCLR as an early model was important because they helped me realize that there is no one thing called “old-time banjo”; that there are a multitude of approaches—2-finger, 3-finger, up-picking, down-picking, etc., etc. I discovered Charlie Poole through them and then in art school a friend had a copy of the first County North Carolina Ramblers LP. I’ve always loved Wade Ward’s playing; its simplicity is deceptive. Oscar Wright has a very distinctive sound that attracted me early on. At Galax in the early 70’s I heard an old-timer named Herbert Pitzer who played what was decidedly old-time finger-style banjo. He made a real impression on me. My friend Pete Huey, who was in the band with me and John and Betsy Coffey, learned Scruggs-style in Baltimore in the ‘50’s and has developed a way of playing great old-time back-up. He’s been a big influence. I’ve been playing fiddle to his banjo on and off since the 70’s. I love the 3-finger playing of Ronnie Poe who was in John Ashby’s band. His playing sits right between bluegrass and old-time. And I’m very drawn to other transitional 3-finger players like Snuffy Jenkins.
OTW: Can you talk about the history of the two bands you’ve played with? How did the groups come together and what made them so different?
BS: Well, they both started in much the same way—casually, without a long-range plan, or a “marketing strategy”. The initial premise in each case was, “Hey wouldn’t it be fun (and sound good) if you and me and so-and-so played some?” I should say, though, that it was a bit different with DDSB (Double Decker String Band). Susie Robbins, rest her soul, lined up a gig at a coffee house and that was the impetus for our first session together (but I think it would have happened eventually, anyway). It never occurred to us that the band would be around 30 years later. John Schwab provided the catalyst for the Hoovers (Hoover Uprights). Again, it wasn’t born of an attempt to make a band, it was some folks getting together to have some fun. I had played with John lots over the years, but barely knew Kate (Brett) and Kevin (Enoch) and had never played with them. And little did we know at the time (winter of 1992) what a solid and terrific thing we had stumbled on. In spite of the similar genesis, they are very different bands, largely because of the sensibilities and interests of the respective members. DDSB follows the NLCR model; everyone is a multi-instrumentalist and singing was at the core of what we did. In the Hoovers, Kevin Enoch is our utility man, playing uke, guitar, banjo, or bass, but everyone else sticks to one instrument. Although I do play banjo very occasionally with the Hoovers, “fiddle player” is my job description. And we’re more of a dance band—we do some songs, but left to our own devices, it’ll be tune after tune after tune.
Double Decker has a pretty amazing history. Bruce Hutton, John Beam, Susie Robbins and I were the founding line-up in 1977. Susie left after two years or so. Craig Johnson had recently moved to the DC area and was on our radar immediately. He was pretty much waiting in the wings and joined right after Susie left. After much agonizing, I decided to leave the band in 1986 (or thereabout). Then sometime around 1999, the boys asked me to rejoin the band, and I foolishly said “yes”. As many of you know, Craig passed away in December of 2009. (Susie died in ’09, as well.) Bruce, John and I now perform occasionally as a trio.
OTW: In both Double Decker String Band and The Hoover Uprights, you play both banjo and fiddle. Though you are a fine clawhammer player, you’re playing in the band is mostly old time fingerpicking, and often in a very supportive role. How did you develop that style?
BS: As I said, I had an early interest in Charlie Poole, so the idea of a three-finger chordal style was imbedded in me from the start. I really formed my approach in the first two years of Double Decker, playing behind Susie’s fiddling. A lot of the things we were drawn to were raggy tunes and songs that weren’t well served by clawhammer, like stuff by the Leake County Revelers. And in general, a lot of songs, I’ve always felt, call for finger-style banjo. A crucial experience was playing regularly at the Red Fox Inn in Bethesda in our first year or so together—I refined my approach to finger-picking on the job. I had the basics down: some workable rolls, a kit-bag of chords, and an idea of how I wanted to sound. Backing up Susie’s fiddle on stage at the Red Fox a few times a month (in front of what was not always a big crowd) helped me refine and expand what I was doing. I found new chord inversion and runs, as well as different ways to get from point “A” to point “B” and back again. Let’s hear it for on-the-job training!
One of the other things that compelled me to play in this manner was that, at least back then, not too many people were playing old-time finger-style and it was a way for me to do something different. And, I guess a certain amount of laziness was a factor—I didn’t really have to “learn” a tune; all I needed to know was the chords, and that was easy for a guy who started as a guitar player.
continued in the print edition of the January 2012 Banjo Newsletter