The Old Town Saginaw Music Association (OTSMA) is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting traditional acoustic music and related arts in the greater Saginaw area. We meet regularly to make music together, and to make music available to the public. We warmly welcome anyone, young and old, who enjoys playing or listening to a variety of traditional music. All levels of skill are welcome. Just bring your favorite songs, your instruments, your voices and your ears.
OTSMA "round robin” jams consist of members of OTSMA who get together to play music. Here’s how it works: we sit around a circle, and form a spontaneous ensemble – guitars, basses, fiddles, mandolins, bouzoukis, dobros, banjos, drums, bodhrans, pipes, whistles, harmonicas, and more. The musicians range in skill from beginners to professionals. You can take a turn leading a tune. Or you can follow. You can play along or sing along. Or you can just tap your toes and enjoy the experience. The number of musicians at these events varies from 5 up to 15, and we are an ever-changing and dynamic ensemble. OTSMA is whatever you bring to the mix. EVERONE IS WELCOME.
Influences
Music played at OTSMA sessions has included celtic, bluegrass, blues, gospel, cajun, zydeco, chanty, children’s songs, and folk ballads, and more, including old favorites from pop, country, folk-rock, alternative and reggae, all played on acoustic instruments (electronic keyboards also, as pianos are usually too large to throw in the trunk). Some members perform original songs. Other members keep us well rooted with their knowledge of traditional musical forms.
Sounds Like
Family sing-alongs around the campfire, accompanied by good instrumental skills, covering a wide ranging repertoire.
OTSMA was formed in February of 2003 by local musicians and other members of the community who love music and think people should enjoy making music as well as listening to it. Those founding members saw the need for a grassroots effort to keep traditional musical styles alive in the Saginaw area. The present OTSMA members and the larger community are now benefiting from that vision.
We encourage people of all ages to come out and join in the fun of making music. Initially, we got together in public places a couple times a month for "round robin" jam sessions. We began been meeting at Fuzzy’s Ice Cream Parlor on Court Street, then held open mic sessions at the Jerome School, then at a school in Zilwaukee, at the White Crow Conservatory and at various churches. We occasionally perform at the Haggerty's Ice Cream Parlor in Zilwaukee. We have bounced around from here to there as members have arranged for the various performance and jam locations.
Beginning in June of 2005 we began to take live music into senior care facilities and other elderly residences, as well as other public venues. We continue to do that today, and rotate the location so that we cover as many places as we can within our area. For these performances, we are presently calling ourselves the “Saginaw River Log Jam”. We ask that elder-care residence managers, or folks with family or friends who live in a elder-care residence please contact us if you would like to see a residence included on our “Saginaw River Log Jam” circuit.
When we are not performing as "Saginaw River Log Jam", we are currently meeting in Saginaw for weekly sessions to jam and prepare for the “Saginaw River Log Jam” performances. We do not have any regularly scheduled open mic session, but the fact is that all our Saginaw River Log Jam sessions are essentially a blend of open mic and open jam sessions. They are generally built around the "round robin" format, but we never know in advance exactly what will happen, what tunes we will be doing, whose songs we will be playing, or who will be up at the mic. We do have some tunes we love and play often, but the repertoire keeps growing, and every session is a new experience.
The Fiddler's Tour web site describes how a typical round robin jam might go among a group of fiddlers. OTSMA jams are not built around traditional fiddle music, so some of what the Fiddler's Tour do won't apply at an OTSMA session, but you can get the basic idea about round robin etiquette from looking at their site.
All of our OTSMA friends are invited to the FMSM (Midland) festival this upcoming weekend, August 21-24. Check out the FMSM webpage at www. folkmusicsociety. org for the details. I hope to see many of you there!
Artists/bands on this week's show include: Gram Parsons, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Dana Fuchs, Jerry Cantrell, The White Iron Band, The Smokin Bandits, The Muggs, and Pearl Jam.
