The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127151 Message #2833024
Posted By: Phil Edwards
08-Feb-10 - 12:53 PM
Thread Name: Should folk songs be sung in folk clubs?
Subject: RE: Should folk songs be sung in folk clubs?
Spleen: I can listen to plenty of traditional music done well at non-folk venues.
Can you? Where?
Spleen 2:With the exception of the Beech singaround, I always seem to end up at nights where there is hardly any trad folk.
M3 T00, which is why I don't generally bother going anywhere but the Beech these days. (I'm considering giving Chorlton another go this Thursday.) But if there's plenty of traditional music going on at non-folk venues, lead me to 'em.
MikeL2: I can't understand why traditional and contemporary folk music can't exist side by side.
Up to a couple of years ago, I would have said exactly the same thing - I liked having the chance to hear whatever people felt like playing & sing whatever I felt like singing. Then I started going to the Beech & realised that, back at my usual venue (which I think you also know!), trad and contemporary weren't existing side by side - trad was existing in a small corner, with contemporary songs making up 75-95% of the average evening. This was rapidly followed by the realisation that an evening of (mostly) traditional song (mostly) done well was a damn good evening.
The reason I prefer to hear traditional folk songs in folk clubs is that, like Jim, "I prefer to be able to choose what I listen to and when" - and I'm concerned, like Dave, that "contemporary music has other outlets but traditional music is being squeezed out of its only outlet".