Joseph Decosimo
To say that 24-year-old Joseph Decosimo of Signal Mountain likes oldies music is an understatement.
And we are not talking about Woodstock era music, but music played around the woods in rural Appalachia and other parts of the South 70-100 years ago.
“I play old-time music, the precursor to bluegrass, which came along in the 1940s with Bill Monroe,” said the son of Nick and Karen Decosimo and grandson of Joe Decosimo. “Bluegrass music draws on jazz influences - instrumental breaks. On the other hand, old time is proto-bluegrass or parent of bluegrass, in which all the instruments play all the time, creating a wall of sound.”
Although he can play multiple instruments and has won awards for his skills, the David Brainerd Christian School English teacher is more interested in preserving the music instead of his name.
“This style of music is not too much in demand,” he said. “My interest is to keep it preserved - to keep some tunes alive that would otherwise fade away.”
The 2001 McCallie School graduate’s literal journey into music history began when he received a banjo while in the seventh grade. He originally was interested in Irish and Celtic music, but, by the 10th grade, he had focused his playing more on old-time mountain music.
He also started playing such other instruments as the fiddle, mandolin and guitar.
In high school, he went to Alcoa, Tn., to visit with Charlie Acuff, a cousin of noted musician Roy Acuff. Charlie Acuff, now 86, had learned to play from his grandfather.
“I started playing banjo and fiddle with him and got most of his tunes and studied him,” he said.
He later played with Mr. Acuff around Knoxville and also met and played with other people. With all of them, he wanted to know their knowledge of the music as well as how they became accomplished musicians.
He also spent plenty of time at the Mountain Opry on Signal Mountain.
“I would go up to the Opry and kind of learn,” he said.
After enrolling at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, he majored in English but also took a number of folklore courses. He also continued his music history education, learning informally about the old-time music played in that area. “It’s a fantastic place for music,” he said.
He also spent some recent summers working as a folklorist for the Cumberland Trail State Park. Part of his work was to document the musical heritage of the region. This included recording some of the old tunes, which are now in the state archives.
The old-time music was in large part like square dance music, he said. A lot of it was played in the homes, but public places such as a courthouse lawn, a school or other buildings would also be gathering places for musicians.
One place on Signal Mountain where he learned old-time music was played was the old square dance pavilion formerly located at the top of the W Road.
The old-time music has a strong Scotch-Irish-British influence, he said, as well as influences form Africa. For example, Mr. Decosimo said he has played with an 82-year-old African-American fiddler.
“If you study up on it, it brought people together who wouldn’t end up together,” he said, adding that the music was played in the rolling and flat lands as well as in the mountains.
Besides trying to learn as much as he can about old-time music, Mr. Decosimo is also involved in teaching by giving lessons in old-style music on the banjo and the fiddle.
He has also shown to be a pretty good instructor by example, as he has won the fiddling contest at the Uncle Dave Macon Days old-time musical festival and dance in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
He also performs locally with the River City Roustabouts, which will be at the Riverbend Festival.
“What I have done is just play some tunes I learned from the recordings,” he said.
Mr. Decosimo added that he does not listen to much contemporary music, although he has sometimes wonders how the acerbic judge, Simon Cowell, would react if a banjo player performed on “American Idol.”
He does occasionally go to Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra concerts to watch the strings players.
But for him, old-time music is his favorite.
“I am into the local sound and what people played and what they sounded like,” he said.
(Mr. Decosimo can be reached at jodeco@gmail.com).
John Shearer
Jcshearer2@comcast.net