Is Folk Dead

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: theleveller
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 08:40 AM

"Some folk is dead. Some folk is alive.

Very hard to tell with others."

LOL! Best summary of the folk scene I've heard in years.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 08:35 AM

Here is some excellent live music - familiar yet strange:


R & S


L in C#

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 08:30 AM

Some folk is dead. Some folk is alive.

Very hard to tell with others.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 08:24 AM

folk is still more than just the sum of its generic parts.

Hear, hear!

And yes, Folk is alive & well & thriving - no longer a derided specialism, it's an integral multi-facted essential aspect of popular music internationally. Here in the UK I'd have to say it was never better really.

I might even say that FOLK is an idea whose time has well & truly arrived.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 07:58 AM

"When I listen to recordings of folk music (which I do VERY rarely, mainly when I'm listening to old tapes my dad has in the car, or when I'm researching different versions of songs) it sometimes seems like a subgenre of pop music more than something like the people singing and playing their own music."

yep, and that's a whole different discussion again!

Folk as a live music scene – people standing up and singing traditional songs with other people joining in, or musicians playing at sessions - still seems alive and well.

And that aspect of the folk scene is different enough from other contemporary templates for music-making (most of which have an ideal of pecuniary success as their driver) for me to remain convinced that folk is still more than just the sum of its generic parts.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 07:57 AM

Judge as you find us:

Every Wednesday M21 9EG

L in C#

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: Richard from Liverpool
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 07:49 AM

I think that there's a certain kind of professionalisation of folk music - artists with well polished reworkings of traditional and pseudo-traditional material - that has been on a long decline. Obviously there is an aging population going to folk clubs, there#s a demise of many venues and radio shows, and although there's a new generation of professional performers coming through the Newcastle University course, they're probably going to need to look to other venues.

There's a bigger question, in my mind, of whether any of that was folk to begin with. When I listen to recordings of folk music (which I do VERY rarely, mainly when I'm listening to old tapes my dad has in the car, or when I'm researching different versions of songs) it sometimes seems like a subgenre of pop music more than something like the people singing and playing their own music.

There are still venues for traditional music (I like to hunt out places where I enjoy listening to people play and sing, and to find places where I can sing traditional songs myself), I think it's just becoming more disconnected from the limited commercialisation of folk that we saw in the 60s and 70s. It's becoming smaller, but in spite of that perhaps a little bit closer to what it once was - people of varied talents and abilities enjoying and passing on tunes and songs amongst themselves.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: bubblyrat
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 07:35 AM

It's alive and well here in Winchcombe, where a new club / session started up two months ago (at The White Hart) and it's been a great success ; plus we have our own Border Morris side ,"Happenstance" ,with whose band I am priveleged to play ,among such luminaries as folk-lorist Gwyllym Davis ,melodeonist and sometime collector of Gypsy tunes and songs .Plus a monthly trip down to the Coachmakers Arms in Wallingford to play in Bill McKinnon's session is always a great treat .Folk thrives , and life is good !

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: MikeofNorthumbria
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 07:27 AM

As John Maynard Keynes sagely pointed out "In the long run, we are all dead".

Astrophysicists assure us that our sun will eventually become a red giant, and evaporate the earth. Well before that happens, human beings will cease to be interested in what we call "folk", and find other ways to enjoy their leisure time.

But not quite yet, I think. Meanwhile, let's enjoy it while we can.

Wassail!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 07:08 AM

People have been writing the obituary of folk music for tens of years.
Still not dead yet though.

Reports of it's death have been greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase Mark Twain.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: Will Fly
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 07:00 AM

I forgot to add that, by the end of the last Bull session, most of the punters drinking in the bar - including a punk in a black suit and boots with a bright yellow mohican haircut - were dancing their socks off.

And - as an aside - if you do mean Folk as we knew it has almost gone, do I care, not really, then why bother to post here anyway?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: Leadfingers
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 06:57 AM

This is a 'The Same Old Story' thread ! In 1965 an extra verse was added to the parody 'The Songs They Are A-changing' (1963 ish) with a line - "For Dylan is out and Donovan is in and the death of Folk Music's about to begin" - Over FORTY years ago , and its still not happened !

Subject: RE: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: Will Fly
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 06:50 AM

You seem to take a 'mass market' view of the music - but environment and form are everything.

As far as 'traditional' music (interpret that as you will) is concerned, I see no sign of its demise down here in Sussex, with several busy ceilidh bands, sessions galore, and singers and musicians delivering the music all over the place - plus several clubs in which traditional music is still sung and played.

I don't take any interest in many "folk" festivals, but the recent Lewes Festival - hugely successful, by the way - didn't have anyone of the ilk of Jools Holland or any of the others you mention. So, my view would be that, at grass roots level, the music is alive and well and healthy - and who cares about what's on the radio or the TV? At the last acoustic session at the Bull in Ditchling, we had around 20 musicians - almost too many for comfort at times - and they were a mix of all ages from old greybeards like me to kids in their teens. And the musical content was 99% traditional tunes with the odd song here and there.

Dead? No - just minding its own business and getting on with it as usual.

Subject: Folklore: Is Folk Dead
From: GUEST,Gibsonboy
Date: 16 Oct 12 - 06:32 AM

There seems to be a need for Folk to make it appeal as broad as possible in order to survive. You only have to look at the some of the artists appearing at folk festivals, Jools Holland, KT Tunstall, The Proclaimers etc etc, This trend must mean that eventually Folk will cease to exist as a enity. I would argue that this has already happened, evidence, Folk programmes on Radio being axed, Folk Clubs closing down, or at least being run on an ever decreasing budgets, the emergence of "open mic's" probably the new generation of Folk Clubs, pop music being performed albeit in an acoustic way. Folk as we knew it has almost gone, do I care, not really.