CARVETH concertina & fiddle
About CARVETH
1974 2nd Place, Clawhammer Banjo, Galax Old Fiddler's Contest
2018 Winner of Woolen Mills Championship, English Concertina Division
A Life in Old-Time and Trad
Carveth is from Toronto, Ontario, but has lived in Central Virginia since 1983.
Carveth attended the 1971 Union Grove Fiddler's convention and began an annual rhythmic return to the Blue Ridge Mountains in search of old time music. From 1973 to 1976, he was a summertime apprentice to Dave Sturgill in his banjo and fiddle shop in Piney Creek, North Carolina. As banjo player for Sturgill's band, the Skyland Strings, he squandered his youth attending scores of fiddler's conventions. He won 2nd place at the Galax Old Fiddler's convention in 1974.
In the later 1970s, Carveth vagabonded to Blacksburg VA, Halifax NS, and Staunton VA in search of new music. He landed in Charlottesville, drawn to its lively, authentic traditional music scene. He plays fiddle (American Old-Time), tenor and claw-hammer banjos and English concertina. That is, he plays music for dancing and novelty tunes.
If you'd like to hear some, CLICK HERE
Lecture Series on the Craft of the Fiddle Tune (2019 and 2020)
I produced and delivered two 5-session courses: lectures and demonstrations on Irish and American fiddle tunes. Subject matter included:
Roots of the fiddle tune in piping and harping
The nature of the Old-Time and Trad markets
Why there are no jigs in Appalchia
How to find your way through a "twisted" tune
What;s up with the hornpipe?
Fiddle tunes and dance - can't live with 'em and can't live without 'em.
What are the Best Irish and Best American fiddle tunes (I just happen to know the answer here, folks.)
I performed two meditations for concertina at lent in the nave of St. Paul's Memorial Church, Charlottesville, VA. in March, 2018.
Author, with Kurt Leichtle, of the first complete biography of Virginia manumitter Edward Coles (2011, Southern Illinois University Press).
Edward Coles (1786 - 1868) was born into Virginia's society of privilege, pleasure and obligation; all grounded in a slavery economy.
Yet in 1819, at the age of 33, Coles emancipated 17 slaves willed to him by his father. He placed his position, wealth and cherished family relations in jeopardy to make a personal gesture affirming the Declaration of Independence. In this, and more, his story is entirely unique in Virginia history.
Edward Coles expensed the exodus of his slaves to Illinois, freeing them in a touching and magnanimous ceremony on the Ohio River. He gave them property and encouraged their success in a strange new land of opportunity. Then, as Illinois' second governor, he fought a titanic political battle to keep slavery out of the state constitution. And as friend and associate of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson he pressured each to act on his professed dislike of slavery. Yet in private life neither founding father struck a personal blow for freedom quite like Edward Coles.
Click here to read about John Carveth, Mayor of Penzance, Cornwall.