Presented in conjunction with the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention

Live Performance (starting at 3:30) by Kenny Hall & the Sweet's Mill String Band

Old-time fiddler/mandolin player Kenny Hall may be blind, but he sees landscapes and atmospheres in the musical keys he plays. F is the ocean; B#, a cloudy day; D is warm like the Sacramento Valley. You could say whenever he plays his instrument, he evokes a sense of the world-Kenny's world, a world that is generous, plucky, infectious, and well-weathered. Considered one of the more important practitioners of traditional music, Hall, now in his eighties, has shunned the limelight, preferring instead the joy of unvarnished performance, the backyard shindig, and the chance to pass on the thousand-plus songs he's mastered. Chris Simon's bouncy portrait catches Kenny Hall at his best: among friends and fellow players, conjuring a folksy world, filled with cranky wisdom and an embracing warmth like Fresno in June. Sounds like the key of D.