Sounds of the Past

Musicians converge on Pipers Pub in Skillman for a twice-monthly old-time music jam.

By: Jim Boyle
    It’s an average Tuesday evening at Pipers Pub in Skillman. Customers are enjoying a night out. A crowd of twentysomethings is chatting at the bar and families are sitting down for dinner. Baseball games are on three big screens at one end of the room. At the other end, in front of the fireplace, four gentlemen begin to move tables and place chairs in a circle.
    No one seems to notice the men. Everyone is wrapped up in their own conversations. There are a couple of quick glances when somebody points out that the quartet is getting out instruments. There are a couple more confused faces when Bon Jovi’s "It’s My Life" stops playing and the lights dim.
    The musicians quickly tune their instruments and, without any introduction, start playing. The fiddle player begins and the rest follow his lead. A few minutes later, a guitar player shows up and joins in the fun. The patrons turn to see what is happening and nonchalantly return to their conversations. They’ve unwittingly become spectators for an old-time music jam that occurs on the first and third Tuesday of every month at Pipers Pub. The jam starts around 7:15 p.m. and usually lasts for three to four hours. This is obviously not the target audience for the music, but a few of them absent-mindedly tap their feet and bob their heads.
    Joe Mazotas came up with the idea for this twice-a-month event after long drives to New York City and Philadelphia to jam on his banjo with other musicians left him exhausted.
    "I wanted to have something in between those areas," says Mr. Mazotas. "I checked local groups like the Princeton Folk Music Society to find people to invite."
    The jams started out at Mr. Mazotas’ Princeton residence. On the night of the inaugural event, 8-10 people showed up, despite a snowstorm. In April, Mr. Mazotas approached Larry Smith, owner of Pipers Pub, which opened in March.
    "We moved the event to Pipers Pub because we needed more room and parking," says Mr. Mazotas. "The main reason it has been working out is because Larry loves fiddle music. He frequently travels to festivals."
    The first night at the restaurant had about 8-10 players. Thanks to word-of-mouth and good promotion by radio hosts such as John Weingart, host of Music You Can’t Hear on the Radio on WPRB in Princeton, the jam averages 10-15 musicians.
    "We started out on the little stage," says Mr. Mazotas. "There was so many of us, we had to move in front of the fireplace."
    Mr. Mazotas is quick to establish the type of music played. The untrained ear might classify it as bluegrass or country, but, in fact old-time music predates even those genres.
    "The stuff we do is before music got commercialized," he says. "It started out in the Appalachians and New England. They played for themselves, for their own enjoyment. Most tunes have British Isle roots, but many original tunes came from rural America as settlers got ‘trapped’ in the Appalachians as they moved westward. They got trapped not because the Appalachians are so tall, but they are a rugged mountain chain."
    Mr. Mazotas and his wife Nancy travel throughout the Southeast and Northeast to participate in the numerous music festivals. They’ve been a part of festivals in places like Clifftop, W. Va., and Mount Airy, N.C., the model for Mayberry, the setting of The Andy Griffith Show.
"We listen and play the music almost non-stop until it’s time to pack up and go home," Mr. Mazotas says.
The Old-Time Music Jam takes place at Pipers Pub, Route 206, Skillman, every first and third Tue. of the month, 7:15 p.m. For information, call (908) 431-4233.