Folk- how do you relate to 'it'?

Subject: RE: Folk- how do you relate to 'it'?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 06:20 AM

I think the same thing obtains nowadays Mike. A lot of the people who are into folk clubs simply have nowhere else to go musically.

The commercial music marketplace is a harsh place, with harsh disciplines for the unprepared, undetermined and unwary. The hearth and home nowadays is usually the province of the strictly come X factor celebrity twaddle.

Folkmusic is the spiritual home for the awkward squad, and the talent and originality of the practitioners of this black art is occasionally stunning.

Subject: RE: Folk- how do you relate to 'it'?
From: Musket
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 10:24 AM

Ah, just to clear up interpretations; I originally asked for what it means to you, rather than what you think it should be. Hope that was clear (!)

Some good replies and my point is; if that is what your "folk" is to you, then beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that, what you call your folk is indeed folk. However, that's another debate...

Whether it be the company and creic, the musical styles, the collecting and perpetuating how peoples' thought processes have developed over the last few hundred years or indeed the easy route to performing in from of others, it is all folk and just about every aspect came out as ways how we relate to it.

Even so, some people do get a little precious about their folk and perhaps like folk to mean just their take on it. One post above said the folk wing of the music industry should use a different word. Perhaps I agree, but only in that the music industry has to make money by selling to a wide market, and your wish, however strange, has to a degree been granted. Roots and world are genre used in order to sell folk without connotations of weird hippies, as the press tend to badge people with such an interest. (I don't know which jars most, the weird beard with a fried brain or the librarian with socks and sandals. Neither match my experience, and Morris dancers provide their own lampooning...)

So, whatever it is, it appears to be folk after all! So, that's alright then........

Subject: RE: Folk- how do you relate to 'it'?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 10:46 AM

This is by no means the only reason I love and respect Folksong and the other Folk arts.

Interesting; I would have thought the opposite actually - that the so-called Folk Arts only appeal to those who can appreciate them academically, hence their prevailing demographic and general lack of appeal to the population as a whole, especially those of the lower orders, who generally have their own thing going on with respect of Popular Culture.

I'm not drifting here; one of the things Folk means to me is dialogue and discussion, so I relate it through debate.

Subject: RE: Folk- how do you relate to 'it'?
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 12:55 PM

Well Ian
You pretty much summed up 100% what my folk means to me. I love to hear live music in traditional pubs played by all standards of performers, new, old,young, beginners, old timers playing real instruments. Sadly the trad pubs are all too fast diminishing, I'm not British but it truly saddens me to see such a large part of British culture getting less and less. If you haven't got a folk club in your area and have a nice pub, why not start a club, or just a simple Singaround, do your bit for folk and maybe save a pub at the same time

Subject: RE: Folk- how do you relate to 'it'?
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 06:55 PM

how many folk club organisers were burglars?,Fred was unique

Subject: RE: Folk- how do you relate to 'it'?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 09:25 PM

The jean genet of the folk world then....?