Ketch: At some point music went from being something people played to being something that lives in a box in the corner of the room, like a toaster. It's gone from being something from within to something that's given to you. forced on you," Ketch explained that morning. "I feel like when we play, people can feel the timelessness. They can feel that they're rooted in something. Like we're able to play for a collective feeling that's lost, that used to be a big part of everything.

From the author: To the modern ear, old-rime sounds a little like sped-up, drunken children's songs-it plunks and scurries and trips. It's a little dirty, clumsy. It falls apart just enough. If bluegrass is a sturdy, groomed horse, old-time is a mule. (New hot country would be a painted carousel pony.) It's akin to punk rock; it has the same sophisticated lack of refinement, the same defiant authenticity.

I didn't even join as a member until June, at which time I became too embarrassed to post my "arrival" and admit I had been lurking for so long. But here I am now.