The Iowa Friends of Old Time Music started as a faculty organization at the University of Iowa but in the early nineteen nineties, after years of not receiving funding from the University, the group became a non-profit enterprise. According to their bylaws, “The purpose of the Iowa Friends of Old Time Music is the promotion and preservation of the many traditions of old time music.” Harry Oster and Art Rosenbaum, the well-known folklorists, were primary organizers of the group. The main way they promoted and preserved the music was by having concerts, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. These featured such artists as Bill Monroe, Robin and Linda Williams, the Battlefield Band, the Boys of the Lough, David “Honeyboy” Williams, Mike Seeger, Liz Carrol, Elizabeth Cotton, The Red Clay Ramblers, John Hartford, Joe Heaney, Martin Carthy, Johnny Moynihan, Utah Phillips, and Claudia Schmidt among many others, including local acts like Harvest Home and Greg Brown. This writer remembers attending one of these concerts – I believe it was a Touchstone concert – in which the band brought an unknown dancer with them. It was a last minute thing and he didn’t receive any billing. It was Michael Flatley.

In the 1990s decreasing revenues concomitant with rising prices for bands curtailed concerts and the focus of the group switched to activities that were more economical – dances and jam sessions. The jam sessions still occur on Tuesday evenings at local pubs.

The event organized by the group that has had the biggest impact on the community, however, is their annual Fiddler’s Picnic, which has been going strong since 1969 and is still being held every September. In 1969, a few fiddlers gathered at a farm on Sand Road and about thirty people attended. Shortly thereafter it was moved to the 4H Fairgrounds, where it has been held every fall since. There is a Main Stage, which features musicians who sign up for a time slot, and many parking lot jam sessions. It was emceed for many years by Harry Oster, who paid some people or bands to come, but this custom was soon done away with because there were enough people who wanted to play for free. Keith Dempster of the Mill Restaurant provided a piano for many years and the moving of the piano was a ritual undertaken rather reluctantly by the organizers. Sound was provided for many years by Dennis Jones. Posters and T shirts were designed by David Hicks. After the death of Harry Oster, emceeing duties were taken on by Dennis Roseman. Also after the death of Oster, the organization instigated a Board of Directors to manage the group.

Some of the musicians named in the sign-up sheets (which are unfortunately not dated) are Jon Kasper, Ward Calvert, Dave Radeke family, Charlie Drollinger, Leo Murphy, Ed Kasparek, Glenn Klyn, Susan Shore and Nathan Bell, Gene Kunkel, Dale Thomas, Art Rosenbaum, Leo Delaney, Bob Black, Dave Moore, Catfish Keithi, Holly O'Dell, and Buzz Fountain, among many others. There are several multi-generational groups, such as the Murphy family (Leo, his nephew Alan and Alan’s wife Aleta Porcella), the Delaney family (Leo Delaney, his sons Pete and Steve and Steve’s wife Duffy) and the Drollinger family (Charlie Drollinger, his grandson Guy, and Guy’s daughters Hannah and Megan).