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MUSIC & LANGUAGE Ashland High grad, professor, author and musician plays here Friday Scott Knickerbocker performs at Oberon's Comment By John Darling For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Jul. 28, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated Jul 30, 2015 at 12:04 PM By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Jul. 28, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated Jul 30, 2015 at 12:04 PM » Social News Scott Knickerbocker, a 1994 graduate of Ashland High School, college professor in Idaho and the author of “Ecopoetics: The Language of Nature and the Nature of Language,” is also a master of performing “old-time American roots music” on banjo. He will be playing it at 7 p.m., Friday, July 31, at Oberon’s Three-Penny Tavern on the Plaza, delving into the blues and Appalachian traditions of the 1920s and 1930s, with some tunes of Doc Watson and Woody Guthrie — but mostly unknown tunes, he says, such as “Crawdad Hole.” Knickerbocker, 39, a literature Ph.D. from University of Oregon, teaches environmental studies, nature writing, literature and outdoor education programs at College of Idaho, a small, liberal arts school in Caldwell, Idaho. He is the son of Brad and Carol Knickerbocker of Ashland. Brad is a longtime journalist with the Christian Science Monitor and Carol is an artist. Growing up here, he “always had a passion for music” and mastered classical guitar and classical viola. He now plays guitar, fiddle and banjo, all self-taught. He plays with his band, the Hokum Hi-Flyers, based in Boise. They do monthly square dances there. He will solo at Oberon. “We are part of the living tradition of ‘old, weird America,’ (with) songs of love and murder, sin and redemption, whiskey and whimsy,” his band blurb notes. Knickerbocker picks up many of his tunes on YouTube, old 78 records and jamming at the National Old-Time Music Festival in Weiser, Idaho, where musicians camp out and jam in small circles all day and night. “It’s like an oral tradition, but in music,” he says. “You learn a lot of new tunes, slightly modified each time as they are passed along.” His “Ecopoetics” book is “a study or a certain group of American poets who wrote about the non-human, natural world, such as Richard Wilbur, Sylvia Plath, Wallace Stevens and Elizabeth Bishop. I look at the way they represent nature in sophisticated, experimental ways in their poetry.” Here's how his publisher, University of Massachusetts Press, explains it: "'Ecopoetics' probes the complex relationship between artifice and the natural world in the work of modern American poets — in particular Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, Richard Wilbur, and Sylvia Plath. These poets relate to nature as a deep wellspring of meaning, although they all avoid using language the way most nature writers do, merely to reflect or refer directly to the world. Each of these poets, in his or her own distinct way, employs instead what Knickerbocker terms sensuous poesis, the process of rematerializing language through sound effects and other formal devices as a sophisticated response to nonhuman nature." It’s an academic, scholarly book, he notes, that graduate students and professors would enjoy. He will have copies for sale at Oberon. On sabbatical now, Knickerbocker is writing his second book, this one about traditional, old-time music. Here's how he explains what he's working on: "By 'old-time' I refer to traditional American 'roots” music in the southern Appalachian Mountains. This style emerged from a cultural blend of immigrants from the British Isles, whose instruments included the fiddle, and slaves from western Africa, whose instruments included a plucked gourd instrument, the ancestor of the banjo. In terms of genre, bluegrass emerged from old-time in the 1940s, yet old-time is still a distinct genre with its own sound, set of conventions, and even ethos. It also remains a living tradition still practiced, performed, and recorded by musicians today, as well as a robust subculture animated by regular regional and national festivals, concerts, square dances, jam sessions, potlucks, and publications like The Old-Time Herald." His met his wife, Megan Dixon, in college. She teaches geography, environmental studies, Russian literature and writing at the College of Idaho. They have a son, Rowan, 5. His music at Oberon isn’t exactly dance music, but people like to get up and move around to it, he notes, and he provides the downbeat with a “stomp box,” operated by his foot. His band’s Facebook page is at www.facebook.com/HokumHiFlyers . John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected]. By John Darling For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Jul. 28, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated Jul 30, 2015 at 12:04 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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