Blowing Off The Dust

The emergence of music festivals in America during the last century contributed greatly to the preservation and appreciation of the nation’s musical heritage. I have

I came to the Internet’s social media late but have benefitted immensely from the discovery. It can be unnervingly controversial, or thought provoking, and informative

I have been thinking a lot about our ragtime community these past months in forced isolation. Not that I have been unaware of the other

I am blowing off the dust this month with Max Morath. There are so many stories from his long career, but I am beginning with

As I watch civilization slowly emerge from our pandemic hibernation, I realize we still live in a dangerous world. I find myself in a tentative

For many admirers, a personally signed autograph is a treasured keepsake. For over fifty years I avidly accumulated these bits of personalized ephemera. It all

If anything can dispel the gloom of a negative historical anniversary, it is music. That seems to have been what motivated Dr. Michael J. Budds

I believe I have made more valuable and lasting friendships in the past year of so-called social isolation, than I have made in the past

As I begin writing this column for February, we are only a week into the new year. However, I have already had what will be

It doesn’t seem like five full years since the first issue of The Syncopated Times began appearing in our mailboxes. Since the February 2016 issue,

Recently, I have been considering the relationship between ragtime and the railroads more intently than ever. First, because Marcello Piras wrote to inquire about railroad

When I get a message from Ed Berlin, it gets my immediate attention. Last month I received a most fascinating document Ed was passing along,

Last month I began my comment on the confusing heritage of Sedalia’s Maple Leaf Club (MLC). Was it the benign men’s social club of the

“There has to be a balance between literally white-washing or ignoring history and presenting it in actual context…it appear(s) no matter what approach is taken,

Several years ago, I met a remarkable young man at the Sedalia Ragtime Festival named Brandon Byrne. Later, I discovered an on-line newsletter he produces

Like many reading this, I suspect you are nearly overwhelmed by the negativism accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a pessimistic time and for many

One of the great ragtime adventure stories I ever heard was of Peter Lundberg’s tour of America in 1963, vising and interviewing ragtime greats across

I grew up in the 1940’s reading science fiction stories of time travel and of mysterious flying carpets. Today as I sit here in still

As I was contemplating a column for this month, I came across a Facebook posting that inspired this article. It was a recent photo in

The docents at the KATY Depot Visitors Center in Sedalia regularly receive inquiries about the city and its ragtime heritage. Since the folks there are

This is supposed to be a column for the new year, but I find myself beginning to write on Thanksgiving Day, thinking of all the

I knew Treemonisha. Well, I should have written “a Treemonisha.” I certainly knew her as surely as if the fictional heroine of Scott Joplin’s opera

My column requires a disclaimer this month because frankly, it amounts to little more than a grandfather bragging obnoxiously about his grandchildren. That written, I’ve