Breakin' Up Winter  Breakin' Up Winter is an old-time music 'retreat', a gathering of old-time string band musicians that began the first weekend of March, 1994. It eschews the contest approach common to the larger festivals. It brings together hundreds of old-time musicians in a state park setting where the first focus is on educational programs and presentations by scholars and icons of the old-time music worlds. And, of course, jamming. It is presented by the Nashville Old-Time String Band Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that began as an offshoot of a community education class in Nashville, Tennessee. The first Breakin' Up Winter retreat was just that - an informal gathering of friends who shared an interest in and love for old-time string band music. Fresh from another small old-time gathering in Athens, Alabama, they wanted to create that same atmosphere in Middle Tennessee. The first gathering was held in the Cedar Forest Lodge of the Cedars of Lebanon State Park near Lebanon, Tennessee, about 30 miles outside Nashville. The retreat continues at Cedars of Lebanon, but now encompasses the entire state park. Legendary old-time fiddler Charlie Acuff was a guest of honor at that first event and has been a central artist through the years. Charlie Acuff was the first in a long line of widely respected "heritage artists" - icons of old-time music - to headline Breakin' Up Winter. There developed a theme for the first day of the event - 'Roots of Old-Time Music' - that brings in noted researchers, authors, and performers. Noted traditional music researcher/author/folklorist Charles Wolfe was a mainstay until his untimely death in 2006. Each year, the event begins with scholarly presentations by researchers and authors and demonstrations by musicians with deep roots in the music. "Participatory music like old-time music involves a great deal of gifting—passing along tunes, playing with others, learning from others, sharing, and coming together for events such as Breakin’ Up Winter to do all of this," writes Jeff Todd Titon, professor of ethnomusicology at Brown University. In addition to Charlie Acuff and Charles Wolfe, presenters and performers have included:   Some call it "mountain music" or "old-timey" or "fiddle tunes." It's the heart of this retreat and the mission of the Nashville Old-Time String Band Association: ". . . to preserve, promote, and perform old-time string band music."