MOWEAQUA - The past has a good beat, and you can dance to it.

Just listen to Joe Readnour saw out "Marie's Wedding" on the fiddle, a kind of get-down-and-boogie yesteryear party piece based on an ancient Scottish tune, or the lively "Have You Ever Been A Courtin' Uncle Joe?" an American hoedown number set to the music of an older Scottish reel.

There's a lot of emotional range here, too. Readnour extracts a poignant version of "The Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond" out of the dulcimer, an instrument he describes as a "bagpipe with strings" built by Scottish immigrants who couldn't reproduce their beloved pipes. And the song, it turns out, is about the grim procession back to Scotland of the hanged, drawn and quartered bodies of executed Jackobite rebels who had seriously annoyed their English conquerors.

It's a hauntingly sad little ditty, but it would be sadder still, perhaps, if these theme tunes among the settlers who created the New World in their image were allowed to fade and die. That's where Readnour, his wife, Kathy, and their Flatbranch Pickin Parlor in downtown Moweaqua come in.

Created out of a former shoe store, the interior, or the parlor, is made to look like a log cabin with a spacious front porch, just the type of place where America's first musicians would have gathered for an impromptu jam session. The Readnours plan to use the parlor as a venue to host all kinds of musical events but have a particular passion for Irish and Scottish folk music and their homegrown American versions.

"We're talking about the Appalachian music that preceded country and bluegrass and which grew out of Scottish and Irish music in the hills of Appalachia," said Joe Readnour, 49, who plays fiddle, dulcimer, banjo, mandolin, tin whistle and highland bagpipes, to name a few. "This was the music Americans played on their front porches."

It's taken a year to get the old shoe shop fixed up. The Pickin' Parlor will stage the first of what's hoped to become regular musical gigs on Friday, when a bunch of seven or so musicians perform from 7 to 10 p.m. For details, call 521-3664.

Don't be surprised to find the Readnours and friends looking like the past as well as sounding like it. They like to attend festivals and events re-enacting yesteryear, with him often kitted out as a colonial member of a highland regiment or an 18th century Rogers Ranger - a kind of colonial commando from the French and Indian war of 1754-63 - while his wife prefers the looks of an 18th century Irish peasant.

"With us, it's never a question of where we are going this weekend but when are we going to in time," explains Kathy Readnour, 49. "We love living in the past."

Her husband and friends are much in demand to play in costume at weddings and parties and, accompanied by Kathy Readnour, are happy to show up at schools to mix some live education with their live music. Sometimes, however, a few of the details get lost in translation. Among the Readnours' keepsakes is a letter they got from a second-grade Mount Zion student thanking them for a recent class visit.

The letter said: "Dear Joe and Friends, thank you for coming to our school. You are so good at the bad pipes ?"

"We particularly like that one," says Kathy.

Tony Reid can be reached at treid@herald-review.com or 421-7977.