Gardner Winter Music Festival

Taylor Runner

2015 GWMF Heritage Award Recipient

Taylor Runner from Morgantown, West Virginia has been organizing and calling square dances for over 30 years, as he says, “All over the place.” He regards what he does to be a tribute to Worley Gardner for all of Worley’s years of square-dancing activities. Taylor wants to pass that on, just as Worley did. For these and many more reasons, it is fitting that Taylor Runner receives our 2015 Heritage Award.

Taylor photo

Taylor Runner

Taylor learned to call dances from Worley at Marilla Park in Morgantown, West Virginia in the 1970s. At that time, Worley played with a band called the Country Strings and used to sing square dance calls to old time tunes. Taylor would record Worley and other callers to help learn the calls. Some of Worley’s dances are featured in the book West Virginia Square Dances by Bob Dalsemer, another one of Taylor’s influences.

Taylor didn’t really plan to become so involved in square dancing, he just, “Fell into it,” he says. Taylor grew up on bluegrass music and eventually gravitated to old-time music and square dances. When Taylor was a student at WVU, a group known as Students for Appalachian Awareness Progress (SAAP) organized dances in the Mountainlair and Percival Hall, and Taylor began calling for them.

Taylor learned a great deal from Worley and many other well-known traditional square dance callers in West Virginia. Taylor is a featured caller every year at the West Virginia Folk Festival in Glenville, the Appalachian String Band Festival in Clifftop, the Vandalia Gathering in Charleston, and at the Morgantown Friends of Old Time Music’s regular square dances still being held to this day at Marilla Park, where Worley called so may years ago.

Taylor calls in the old time style, usually squares and large circle dances. He doesn’t call fancy, intricate dances, but instead, he prefers dances that are accessible to all, even those who have never tried square dancing before. Taylor makes sure the participants in his dances have fun. There used to be a sign on the door as you entered the square dance that read, “There are no strangers here, only friends you have yet to meet.” It is still true today.

Taylor regards the square dance at the Gardner Winter Music Festival to be one of his favorites. The crowd at this dance is diverse, and for many, this will be the only time they dance all year. Because of the diversity and some fine musicians, this dance always has great energy.

Taylor has been involved with old time music and square dances for over 40 years, and old time music has been good to Taylor. He met his wife Isabel at a Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music Festival in 1976. He thought “Friends of Old Time Music” would be a good name for like-minded folks back in the Morgantown area, and so Taylor, along with Keith Brand, founded the Morgantown Friends of Old Time Music and Dance while he was a student at WVU. Over the years, the Friends have brought great bands to Morgantown, such as Trapezoid, John McCutcheon, The Battlefield Band, and many other traditional music bands from the US and British Isles. The Morgantown Friends still have monthly dances at Marilla Park.

Because of his critical role in sustaining square dancing and old time music in West Virginia, PattyFest, through the Gardner Winter Music Festival, is proud to bestow the 2015 Heritage Award on Taylor Runner.