Rhythm Bones have been played since prehistoric times and are amoungst the oldest musical instruments in the history of the world, yet in the hands of a master, rhythm bones can effectively articulate the rhythms of Twenty-First Century popular music.
Dr. Mel Mercier, Ireland
Preface
This is an unusual book. It was edited so it could be printed, however, it is most useful as an electronic book due to the large number of links to other stories. It is, in essence, an index to the Rhythm Bones Player newsletter of the Rhythm Bones Society.
There is no organization to the stories and articles in the newsletter, and this book presents the most important content in an orderly manner with links to original stories in the newsletter. These stories and articles are summarized briefly in this book, and the reader can click a link if more detail is desired.
The Introduction Chapter describes rhythm bones and gives a brief history. The Rhythm Bones Society Chapter describes how the society was formed and presents short biographical profiles of current and former Board Members. The Bones Fest Chapter describes the annual festival with a brief summary of every Fest. The Individuals Chapter presents brief summaries of most of the know rhythm bones players.
The Rhythm Bones Player was authorized at the first meeting of the Board of Directors following ratification of its By-laws at the organization meeting of the society at Bones Fest III. Steve Wixson was selected as Editor and the inclusion of color which was expensive at the time was approved. There was only one issue in the first year since the organizational meeting was held in late September, and there have been four quarterly issues ever since then. Initially there were four pages and soon the number of pages grew to eight except for two large special issues that each summarized a decade of Bones Fests. Color is used on Pages 1 and 8, with color on pages 4 and 5 for newsletters with Bones Fest Highlights.
The newsletters are online in Adobe PDF format at rhythmbones.org/documents/RBP.pdf. There is a tremendous amount of material in these newsletters, and they can be searched directly using the Adobe Find (cntl+F). Alternatively, they can be search using the Rhythm Bones Player Combined Table of Contents at rhythmbones.org/RBPTOCs.pdf (Reference in book). Each newsletter has stories or articles preceded with a title in Bold text, and almost all of these are included in this book.
In addition to stories, there are columns in each issue, and many of these are not included in this book, but can easily be found using the RBPTOCs TOC (reference.) These include Executive Director Editorial with comments on the state of the Society or rhythm bones, Editor Editorial which mostly introduces the main stories, Letters to the Editor which are small stories sent in by readers - most are not in this book, and Bones Calendar which lists upcoming NTCMA and All-Ireland competitions. (See chapter titled Contests), Recorded Bones Music which list the most important recorded rhythm bones music (see chapter titled Recordings), Website of the quarter which was useful in early newsletters but was discontinued as the number of rhythm bones website grew from about 100 to over 13,000 in 2021, and Tips and Techniques which presented short instruction articles. There are also Ads for the next Bones Fests which are not in this book.
Over the years, a copy of the every newsletter was sent to the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, and in 2017 we received a letter stating “The American Folklife Center is proud to be a repository for the Rhythm Bones Player. We recently re-cataloged the newsletter with full subject classification and it is now fully cataloged.” This is a much appreciated honor.
Table of Contents
Dedication
To the memory of members and Bones Fest attendees known to have passed away during the years of the Rhythm Bones Society.
Joe Birl
Elwin Shorty Boulet
John Cahill
Everett Cowett
Dan Cowett
Vivian Cox
John Davis
Paul Duhon
Dan Dwyer
Dr. Fred Edmunds
Norris Frazier
Mel Harvey
Ron Harvey
Ann Hoffman
Carl Hedrick
Will Kear
Yirdy Machar
Matteo Vitucci
Jerry Mescher
Russ Myers
John Perona
William Rexroad
Ida Mae Schmich
Mary Seel
Jim Steakley
Rhythm Bones have been played since prehistoric times and are amoungst the oldest musical instruments in the history of the world, yet in the hands of a master, rhythm bones can effectively articulate the rhythms of Twenty-First Century popular music.
Dr. Mel Mercier, Ireland
What are Rhythm Bones
Rhythm bones are sets of slabs or sticks, held two (or more) in each hand, and made to strike each other to make snapping and rolling sounds. Rhythm bones are one of several types of clappers, but there are also clappers which are held one in each hand and struck on the other, and clappers which have two parts tied to a handle that strike each other, and these are not rhythm bones. Rhythm bones should not be confused with spoons, which are also clappers, or with dom-inoes, which are flat blocks of bone, or plastic inscribed with 1 to 12 white dots. Names such as clappers, sticks, spoons, clackers, and knicky-knackers have been subscribed to rhythm bones. The name is derived from their original composi-tion and nomenclature, namely bones. Originally rib bones of animals were used since their size and shape fit the hand. For different sounds, tones and conve-niences other materials, particularly wood are used.
Brief History
Rhythm Bones are likely prehistoric with the first physical artifacts found in China and Egypt. They had a thousand year history in Egypt and migrated to Greece and Rome before migrating across Europe to England. In the play, “A Mid Summers Night Dream,” Shakespeare has Bottom to say, “I have a rather good ear in music. Let us have the Tongs and Bones.” Europeans brought them to the United States and they had their heyday in the minstrel era with minstrel troupes
taking them all over the English speaking world. They declined in popularity though many people learned to play them from their father or grandfather who had learned from minstrel players and who thought they were the only player left. A few players kept the tradition alive including, Brother Bones, Ted Goon, Percy Danforth in the US and Paedar Mercier and Ronnie McShane and others in Ireland. Today, the Rhythm Bones Society with its website, newsletter and annual Bones Festivals (Bones Fests) continues to keep rhythm bones alive.