Elizabeth Anderson, center, plays guitar while Olivia Anderson plays the fiddle during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Whether you’re wandering the grocery store, watching a movie or attending the local farm show, you’re going to encounter music.
When you go to a concert to hear a live music act or a comedian, there’s music playing while you wait for the headliner.
Even in the silent era of movies, music was such an important element to the experience that the film was accompanied by live musicians.
The music playing around us requires talent and dedication. Over the weekend, during the Butler Farm Show, that talent and dedication was on display in the form of the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest.
Eagle staff writer Irina Bucur was in attendance for the contest, and she found the reverence for the genre was on full display.
The competition has been a fixture at the Butler Farm Show since 1984, said contest coordinator Kim Thomas, of Sigel.
“It’s just unique,” she said. “I mean, this is full bluegrass, whatever you want to call it — Appalachian. The fiddling has a lot of different styles. People might do bluegrass, they might do Texas swing, they might do old time.”
Lucian Mikush, 17, who plays the mandolin and violin, said he sees himself carrying on the bluegrass tradition.
“I like a lot of the simplicity of folk music, and to fit into that simplicity, you kind of have to play one of these instruments,” Lucian said. “It's kind of interesting to see, like the American roots and kind of the music that's been around in this area for hundreds of years,” he said.
Lucian is a great example of the passion for music that needs to be instilled in young people. And we applaud the farm show for its inclusion — for the last 40 years — of this competition, with the understanding that it’s not just about the cash prizes. It’s about the future of music.
It’s about the advancement of the Butler Symphony Orchestra. It’s about the next musical put on at Butler County Community College. It’s about the Independence Day parade full of high school marching bands. It’s about the Christmas concert and the guitar Mass at church. It’s about the preservation of culture.
We encourage you to encourage yourself and those around you to be more musical, for all the reasons listed above.
— RJ
Emmaline Anderson, left, watches Elizabeth Anderson play in the guitar division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Ceyson Magagnotti plays in the guitar division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Elizabeth Anderson plays in the guitar division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Lucian Mikush plays in the teen fiddle division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Olivia Anderson plays in the championship fiddle division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Coraline Inglis plays in the teen fiddle division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Olivia Anderson plays in the banjo division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Leighlynn Magagnotti plays in the junior fiddle division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
David Anderson plays in the banjo division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Tim Cicotello plays in the banjo division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Lucian Mikush plays in the teen fiddle division during the Old Time Fiddling, Banjo, Mandolin and Flat Top Guitar Contest at the Butler Farm Show on Saturday. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
