On the second Thursday of the month, Oddfellas Cantina hosts an old time music night. When they bill it as old-time music, they aren’t kidding. This music is before Bluegrass, before Carter family music, even before Gospel. The tunes you will hear are early Scottish and English melodies, mostly reels and other dances.
This group consists of a core of regular players and a lot of others who walk in and start playing as the mood strikes them. The level of skill was quite evident as the music never faltered as players joined in or left the stage to eat their suppers. The old-time music just kept on coming.
Phil Woddail is one of three core members of this group. He coaxes more music out of a harmonica than I thought possible. Lester Gillespie is another of the original members and plays the bass. Mac Traynham, not shown here, is the third member of the core group and plays the fiddle.
Chris Youngblood, the blond guitar player, is the only other member of the group that I could identify. If you readers know the names of the other players, please let me know and I will see that their names are added.
Rob Neukirch, the owner of Oddfellas Cantina hosts live music five nights a week. That’s pretty spectacular for a county that has only one stoplight, but then again, Floyd, VA is a different kind of place…