"Good music was gone in '55, that was the end of that," said Slim Goodbuzz, flatly and without brooking any argument as he camped outside the Artubus Folk School waiting for the Olympia Old-Time Music Festival to kick off. "After '55 is when they brought the drums in and bang-bang-bang and I'm a teenage queen bang-bang-bang. It was all commercialized for the bucks. Elvis Presley was around with that squealing, hip-shaking shit, and those cockamany screaming girls. And then you had those lousy Beatles and those Rolling Stones and all that crap."

Hey Goodbuzz! Has it gotten worse since the '60s?

"Are you kidding?!" Goodbuzz exclaimed. "Nobody pays any attention to music anymore. Music is a word to describe something that no longer exists, quote-unquote!"

Check that Goodbuzz. As you know, the Olympia Old-Time Music Festival pays attention.

The Olympia Old Time Festival is held annually President's Day weekend. This year, events take place Thursday, Feb 13-Sunday, Feb 16 at the Urban Onion, First Christian Church and Goodbuzz's favorite Arbutus Folk School, all in downtown Olympia.

Workshops, live music and dancing - set in the spirit of the '30s - are all part of the fun.

"Our mission is to spread our love of traditional, American old time music and create a good excuse to interact with real, live, people, through music, craft and dance and pie-eating," says Shanty Slater, volunteer organizer for the event. "People come from all over to partake, teach, dance, jam and share."

One of this year's headliners is Carl Jones. Hailing from Virginia, his pre-show hype claims, "He is widely respected for his instrumental talents and original songs about the joys and tribulations, of day-to-day life in the South." The Barn Owls, The Lowest Pair, Porterbelly Stringband and Erynn Marshall are also set to play.

Workshops will include shape-note singing, clawhammer banjo, fiddle, clogging, instrument repair and more. Workshops and music geared toward kids take place Saturday.

OLYMPIA OLD-TIME MUSIC FESTIVAL, Thursday, Feb. 13-Sunday, Feb. 16, downtown Olympia, $30 weekend pass, kids 12 and young free, details at www.olyoldtime.org/index.htm