Cameron DeWhitt
Host of Get Up in the Cool
Cameron DeWhitt is a clawhammer banjoist and Old Time musician living in Philadelphia. He hosts the weekly podcast Get Up in the Cool, which features conversations and musical collaborations with some of Old Time's heaviest hitters, like Ken Perlman, Adam Hurt, Spencer & Rains, and Jake Blount. As an interviewer, Cameron balances an effusive curiosity for the potential of traditional music with a dogged respect for its origins. Serving as audience surrogate, Cameron asks illuminating questions to Old Time's best and brightest while telling the larger story of the tradition's modern era. And with over 80 episodes released and no signs of slowing, Get Up in the Cool is quickly becoming one of the largest available archives of new Old Time recordings.
Cameron is the innovator behind "pitchfork-style" banjo, a three-finger clawhammer technique that allows the player unprecedented access to melody, harmony, and rhythms typically roped off from clawhammer players. With pitchfork-style, he improvises over tunes in a way that most old time banjoists would only attempt with meticulous arrangement. In Cameron's hands, traditional melodies are transformed from repeated statements into philosophical discussions, accelerating the folk process in a single performance.
Cameron DeWhitt has hosted 436 Episodes.
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Episode 20: Stephen Landis (Fiddle Hermit)
November 16th, 2016 | 1 hr 9 mins
cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, fiddle, get up in the cool, kentucky fiddling, old time music, stephen landis
Welcome to Get Up in the Cool: Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends. This week’s guest, Stephen Landis, is a close friend of mine, and I often look to him when I’m contemplating how to be; which is why I’m releasing his interview now, even though I only recorded it a week or so ago. Also, Stephen introduced me to Old Time, and I’m very grateful to him. Not just for teaching me my first tunes, but for sharing his reverence for the tradition.
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Episode 19: Alex Lacquement (Old Time Bass)
November 9th, 2016 | 41 mins 30 secs
alex lacquement, bass, cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, old time music, string bass, upright bass
Welcome to Get Up in the Cool: Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends. This week’s friend is Alex Lacquement, and he’s a bassist! A Get Up in the Cool first, and hopefully not the last.
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Episode 18: Ron Buchanan (Square Dance Tunes)
October 26th, 2016 | 44 mins 41 secs
cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, fiddle, old time music, ron buchanan, square dance
My guest today, Ron Buchanan, is an Old Time bodhisattva. He’s one of the warmest, gentlest souls in the community; he’ll play with anyone, anytime, and thank them for it. But nobody plays the fiddle like Ron.
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Episode 17: Jane Rothfield (Chasing the Old Time Muse)
October 26th, 2016 | 48 mins 59 secs
cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, fiddle, get up in the cool, jane rothfield, new old time tunes, old time music, out of thin air
Welcome to Get Up in the Cool: Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends! This week’s featured friend is very dear to me, and I’m sure to many of you as well: fiddler, banjoist, tunesmith and vessel of the Old Time muse, Jane Rothfield.
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Episode 16: Adam Hurt (Early Galax Fiddling)
October 19th, 2016 | 1 hr 25 mins
Welcome to Get Up in the Cool, Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends! I’m real proud to present my jam and conversation with fiddler and melodic clawhammer banjoist extraordinaire Adam Hurt. Adam wanted to do an episode on early Galax fiddling, a subject about which he’s very knowledgeable, so I expected this to be an educational episode, and it is.
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Episode 15: *SEE EPISODE NOTES* Nikos Pappas (Kentucky Fiddling)
October 12th, 2016 | 45 mins 39 secs
cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, fiddle, get up in the cool, kentucky fiddling, nikos pappas, old time music, old-time
This week’s guest is Nikos Pappas. Please see the full episode description for important updates regarding this interview.
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Episode 14: David Bass (Round Peak Fiddling)
October 5th, 2016 | 46 mins 54 secs
cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, david bass, fiddle, get up in the cool, old time music, round peak
Welcome to Get Up in the Cool! Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends. This week's friend is David Bass!
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Episode 13: Jody Kruskal (Old Time Concertina)
September 28th, 2016 | 1 hr 3 mins
cameron dewhitt, clawhammer, clawhammer banjo, concertina, get up in the cool, jody kruskal, old time music
Welcome to Get Up in the Cool: Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends. This week’s friend is concertinist Jody Kruskal. If you don't know what a concertina is, that's normal—Jody will explain everything, just know that you're in for treat.
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Episode 12: Luke Chohany (Baltimore Boys Part II)
September 21st, 2016 | 58 mins 19 secs
bluegrass, cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, get up in the cool, guitar, luke chohany, old time music, stringsound
Welcome to episode 12 of Get Up in the Cool: Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends. This week’s episode is the second installment in the Baltimore Boys trilogy, featuring Luke Chohany.
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Episode 11: Alex Kramer (Alex Kramer)
September 14th, 2016 | 56 mins 1 sec
alex kramer, cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, fiddle, get up in the cool, old time music
Welcome to Get Up in the Cool: Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends. This week’s friend is Alex Kramer. When we recorded this I really didn’t know anything about him, but I knew that I liked his playing quite a bit and I perceived him to be a bit of an eccentric. I’ll let you be the judge of that.
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Episode 10: Deb Justice (Hammered Dulcimer in Old Time Music)
September 7th, 2016 | 45 mins 49 secs
banjo, cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, deb justice, deborah justice, get up in the cool, hammered dulcimer, old time music
Hi friends! I hope you’re all ready to Get Up in the Cool, by which I mean, get transported to a magical fairy land because this week for episode 10 Deb Justice brought her hammered dulcimer.
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Episode 9: Chris Dalnodar (Sarah Armstrong Tunes)
August 31st, 2016 | 50 mins 41 secs
banjo, clawhammer banjo, derry, fiddle, old time music, pennsatucky, pennsylvania, sarah armstrong
Welcome to episode 9 of Get Up in the Cool, Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt, and Friends. I’m Cameron, and my featured friend this week is fiddler Chris Dalnodar. Seeing as we both live in Philadelphia and his was the first local episode of the show, Chris thought it would be nice to do some Pennsylvania, or more specifically, Pennsatucky tunes.
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Episode 8: Jake Blount (African American Fiddle Music)
August 24th, 2016 | 1 hr 3 mins
banjo, cameron dewhitt, fiddle, jake blount, music, old time, podcast
Welcome to Episode 8 of Get Up in the Cool, Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends. This week I’m proud to present my interview and jam with Ethnomusicologist, Fiddler, Banjo player, and BFF Jake Blount. This week’s theme is African American Fiddling!
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Episode 7: Keith McManus (Honorary Mayor of Clifftop, actual Mayor of Greensboro, PA)
August 17th, 2016 | 52 mins 18 secs
banjo, cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, fiddle, get up in the cool, keith mcmanus, old time, old time music
Welcome to Get Up in the Cool, Old Time Music with Cameron DeWhitt and Friends! This week, I’m proud to present Episode 7, featuring Keith McManus, honorary mayor of clifftop, actual mayor of Greensboro, Pennsylvania. Also joining us are Jim Meckley and Vince Farsatta from Keith’s band, Stewed Mulligan, on guitar and banjo, respectively, as well as Mike Hall filling in on Bass.
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Episode 6: Brian Slattery (I learned this tune from...)
August 10th, 2016 | 54 mins 11 secs
brian slattery, cameron dewhitt, clawhammer banjo, fiddle, get up in the cool, old-time
Welcome to Get Up in the Cool, episode 6, wherein I jam and chat with renaissance man Brian Slattery. I really love the theme of this episode: Brian doesn’t learn old time tunes from source recordings, so he chose tunes that he learned from specific people, in person. In a way, Brian is more old time than my nerdiest guests (God bless them); his sources are all relational.
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Episode 5: Bach Bui (Mack Blalock Tunes via James Bryan)
August 3rd, 2016 | 48 mins 3 secs
bach bui, banjo, cameron dewhitt, fiddle, old time, podcast
Hello Friends! This is episode 5 of Get Up in the Cool, wherein one of my favorite people ever, Bach Bui, plays James Bryan playing Mack Blalock; I’ll let Bach explain the details.