The sold-out-in-faraway-Charlotte (for most of us, anyway) Carolina Ragtime Contest is tomorrow. If you’re like me and wish you were there to see Ethan, Bill, Martin, and Russell rock that joint, perhaps you can take solace in a couple more tunes from the 2010 World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest in Peoria, again courtesy of Ragtime Press.

Here’s a gorgeous, swoon-inducing “Rockin’ Chair” from Carolina Ragtime host Ethan Uslan:

Or how about “Maple Leaf Rag” from “Perfessor” Bill? Guaranteed as a “Maple Leaf” you ain’t never heard before:

A lucky couple hundred folks in Charlotte are going to be treated to some old-time piano awesomeness this weekend. Four titans of ragtime will perform at the first ever Carolina Ragtime Piano Contest. One of our Entertainers, Ethan Uslan, is responsible for this event. He wanted to bring some of his friends into town to flex their tricky fingers in front of piano fans, and “Perfessor” Bill Edwards, Russell Wilson, and Martin Spitznagel obliged. The three will square off in two shows, where a contest winner will be determined by audience vote. Ethan will emcee.

Ethan has busted his tail to put these shows together, and, no surprise, they’re sold out already. I know I’m sorry I won’t be there. I’ve seen all these guys rock the bejesus out of a piano, and these shows are going to be fantastic.

To supplement our collective sorrow for missing out, here’s a clip of Ethan explaining why the piano is the best instrument:

And I’m going to link to clips of each performer in the next few days. Here’s Mr. Russell Wilson slaying “When The Saints Go Marching In” in Peoria just a few weeks ago, courtesy of our friends at Ragtime Press:

Michael’s post the other day on Disney’s role in ragtime made me want to dig up a couple of comments from “Perfessor” Bill Edwards, who should be a paid endorser considering the high esteem he holds for the Mouse. Here is a brief snippet from one of our interviews with him:

I just spent a day at Disney’s California Adventure with some friends, and it reminded me of the strong affinity for Disney shared by more than one of our Entertainers.

In addition to the early 1900s setting of Main Street USA, which was modeled on Walt Disney’s home town of Marceline, Missouri, Disneyland (and World) both feature quite a bit of ragtime music. In fact, Disney is one of the few places that employs a full-time ragtime piano player. (At least that’s what we heard.)

Check out this video of longtime Disneyland Ragtime Piano Player Rod Miller playing the Maple Leaf Rag. It’s pretty darn good.

Nice article on the 2010 J.W. Blind Boone Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival that’s playing in Columbia, Missouri today and tomorrow (June 10).

It features, among others, our very own Adam Swanson. Also appearing will be Frederick Hodges, one of the most respected ragtime pianists out there, with whom Adam has made a new CD.

If you’re around, check out the show! It’s playing at the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts. Take a look at the schedule here.

Courtesy of the Elite Syncopations listserv (a great ragtime resource full of helpful information and up to the minute news) and our pal Brett Youens:

The results from The Train Town Rag Contest at Sedalia.

Out of 26 entries:

4th place: William McNally

3rd place: Jack Rummel

2nd place: Brett Youens

1st place: Martin Spitznagel

Thanks for the update, Brett!  And congratulations to all who entered.

A nice article about this weekend’s Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Mo.

It mentions not one but TWO of our Entertainers — Brett Youens and Bill Edwards!

Check it out.

Well, the crew is back in our respective corners of the world, but just wanted to say again what a great weekend it was in Peoria.

Thanks again to all the players for their time and talent. You guys are amazing! And to those who are going, hope you have a blast in Sedalia!

Also big thanks are due, as always, to Barbara, Judy, Ted and the rest of the OMPA gang. We couldn’t do this without you, and we really appreciate all your hard work.

Great to see Nick, Paul, and Seth, and to have a surprise visit from Brent and his lovely wife Jackie! We didn’t think they were going to be able to make it, but I am sure glad they did. (And not just because Jackie saved me from death by sneezing with a timely Claritin!)

Editing update: yesterday I logged and transferred all the footage I shot on the two little cameras at the contest. Kind of happy about that, since it took about four months to do that for the oodles of stuff we shot last year.

Nick shot more than me on the big camera. But I think we got a lot of great stuff that won’t take too long to put in the mix. And we are going to keep pushing forward.

Signing off for now –– more news soon!

Tags: News

Hello, world! We are back in Peoria for the 2010 World Championship Old Time Piano Playing Contest. It’s great to see lots of friendly faces and hear some amazing music.

Since we’re giving lots of updates to people here, we thought we should send one out to everybody in the rest of the world too!

We’ve been working hard to put together a rough cut. In fact, we’ve edited together about two hours worth of footage so far (out of the 230 some hours we shot).

That rough cut will probably keep growing for a while as we fit everything in, and then we will whittle it down to what we hope will be a 90 minute film.

We’re here to shoot some B-roll and a few little things to use for transitions here and there, but there are only four of us this year, which is a little more low key than it was with the eighteen we had last year!

It is so great to be back at the contest — while we have been spending lots of time watching these guys on video, there’s no substitute for the real thing.

Make sure to check out Adam Swanson’s new web site for all things Adam Swanson. He’s one of the best. He’s seven-freakin’-teen. And he’s got World Championships coming out of his ears. Check it out here.