Carr, Joe 2012-06-15
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General Interview Information
Interviewee Name: Joe Carr
Additional Parties Recorded:
Date: June 15, 2012
Location: Levelland, Texas
Interviewer: Andy Wilkinson
Length: 02:23:40
Abstract
People who aided in development, 4 men, Gerald Jones, Slim Richie, Alan Munde, John Hardin, Otter Nonsense, Pun, 1975, West Coast, “The lighter than air Otter”, His music that he wrote, Dog music inspired by gypsy blue grass, Pull string electric, Clarence White, Jean Clark, Acoustic and electric- learning White’s music, Rolland White, White Book Guitars, Album, Wrote a few songs for Otter Nonsense, Alan Munde provided a couple of songs, Mandolin player- primarily, 1977, Composing, The writing was more vocal than notes, He played the rhythm from the T.V’s background noise, Relied on Alan Munde for a lot of help and ideas, “I believe…” the mandolin solo, The Writing Process, When he has to write, he does not feel a muse to write, Written a lot in general, Wrote a book, John Hartin helped him get into teaching writing, Through writing, a few publications, Mandolin, guitar, ukulele, South Plains College, Left the band in late 1984, Started working at SPC in 85’, Blue grass specialist, Taught private lessons prior to teaching at SPC, Sharon Gilchrest, member of Dixie Chicks before Natalie Maines joined, She was one of Joe’s students, His input came from John Hartin, When you walk into his classroom, you start with an A, In other classes you start with a zero and have to work your, Way up, he is not like that, His attitude: just don’t screw up, Some teachers are inappropriate and do things that Joe doesn’t, Like The Program, It started as a country music program, Once Alan and Joe got there, students wanted to learn, About bluegrass, It wasn’t part of the original program, but it’s what the Students wanted to play, so Alan generated a bluegrass class, Ricky Turpin- fiddle solo artist/student, Started a swing band, Joe would often play in the band, when there was a student who, Couldn’t play all of the instruments, He has identified 160 members of student band members, Joe wants to have a reunion with all the students, Singer/songwriter ensemble, As far as numbers go, they are doing good, but the actual, Bluegrass program is depleting at the moment, Irish bands, He started the Irish bands, Does not make it every semester, It depends on what students sign up in the spring, After learning about it in the fall, It is similar to blue grass in which it requires a higher, Level of playing compared to other music, Different words mean the same thing, Ex) “drive” in bluegrass means “left” in Irish, Book for teaching, A book to help learn how to play the mandolin, It took a great deal of effort and time, Ronni Music, Slow downed, Allsup, A group of students wanted to get a drink, he said ok, The students ended up coming back some time later with Cups from the Allsup’s, He learned that he has to be specific to what he says, Attitude, Over the past 10 years, his attitude went from being a musician, Who is making money teaching, to now being a music teacher, Motivation, The book, Susan Miller- from Oklahoma, met Alan Munde, Alan said he would take on the job of writing the book, And so Joe agreed to work on it with him, Susan worked with them like they were going to walk away, On the first bit of uneasiness, Susan was the editor of their book, Favorite Character, Early fiddlers, Elijah Cox, Des Morris, Tommy Hancock, Some good stories did not make it into the book, When they were collecting the stories, they did not get any, Gossip scoops, They did not include the brother and sister fiddle group, Nathan Stevenson, and his sister, Joe Stevenson’s aunt and uncle, There was a big story to get into, but they left it alone, The sister was really good really young, about 10 years old
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