The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127151 Message #2832927
Posted By: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
08-Feb-10 - 11:20 AM
Thread Name: Should folk songs be sung in folk clubs?
Subject: RE: Should folk songs be sung in folk clubs?
... which is another way of saying that although my musical tastes are wonderfully broad and eclectic (but don't necessarily extend far beyond Roy Harper, Nick Drake, Bill Fay and a select handful of others when it comes to 70s singer-songwriters*), I would hope that when I went to a folk club there was a decent proportion of folk music - either traditional songs or newer songs in the folk idiom. My local singaround very clearly defines itself as "mainly but not exclusively traditional" (which neatly segues with what I want to hear at a folk night), but even so, there are nights when it seems the word mainly is taken with a very big pinch of salt...
Still, bottom line is, if I don't like it, no-one forces me to go. I can listen to plenty of traditional music done well at non-folk venues. If people want to get together to sing 60s and 70s pop songs, far be it from me to spoil their fun ... as long as they put a warning in their publicity! Cos isn't what a lot of this is about? Accurate advertising?
* And much as I love the music of these particular individuals, I wouldn't necessarily expect to hear it at a folk night...