Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 May 20 - 06:59 AM

Some are, some aren't in my opinion Bonzo - but nowhere near enough to make a real difference
One of the main problems is that the scene has been deliberately ripped up from the grass roots to make room for wannabe professionals, which means cap-doffing to the music industry and pleasing the media rather than using it
I think Peter is spot on, other than his view of the clubs
Iris music can and will survive in a session environment, but sessions offer no future for singers, who require attention for say, longish ballads and narrative songs
Music Sessions can be too noisy but a good one usually manages to rise above the noise and win a listening environment
THat is yet to happen for singing
Jim

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 May 20 - 07:26 AM

But the "wannabe professionals" will make a pretty wide audience aware of the traditional roots from which they take their style, however commercial - they have to eat don't they! So from that audience, there will come a few more who are interested enough to perform traditional songs, and may even write new songs to become part of the tradition in the future.

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 23 May 20 - 08:10 AM

But the "wannabe professionals" will make a pretty wide audience aware of the traditional roots from which they take their style, however commercial - they have to eat don't they! So from that audience, there will come a few more who are interested enough to perform traditional songs, and may even write new songs to become part of the tradition in the future.
I agree there when considering the BRITISH folk scene. Without folk song as a "community" experience the first introduction for most people will be from commercial sources. In my young days this was The Spinners or Bob Dylan.

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 23 May 20 - 08:18 AM

'I think Peter is spot on, other than his view of the clubs'

I have very little experience with English/UK folkclubs, just an impression gleaned from different sources. Not even an opinion or a view but an impression although perhaps not a particularly favourable one.

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 May 20 - 08:54 AM

"will make a pretty wide audience aware of the traditional roots from which they take their style,"
I used to believe that Bonzo - from the days whan Shirley Ellis recorded 'Rubber Dolly'
It never worked out - they create audiences for what they do to the tradition rather than the tradition itself
The problem with many these singers is that they all have potential but no real interest in the tradition
You mentioned Nancy Kerr earlier - I remember her as a child
Her parents, Sandra Kerr and Ron Elliot are/were wonderful performers (Ron, a tremendous Northumbrian piper died far too young)
I performed with them both occasionally, though they both were far better than I was and Sandra and her former husband John Faulkner, were incredibly kind to me when I moved to London
Sandra visited Ireland shortly after we moved here and gave us an early recording of Nancy - spooky - it was the young Sandra I remember
Nancy maintained what she got from her mother while moving not too far away from the tradition
A great example of intelligent use of the old forms (though I confess I haven't herd her or James for a while)
Jim

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 May 20 - 08:56 AM

I started my folk life in the Liverpool Spinners Club Peter
I tried my best to like Dylan but failed miserably
Jim

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 23 May 20 - 09:27 AM

"The problem with many these singers is that they all have potential but no real interest in the tradition" - Jim, above.
That I would say is also very much the case at the moment in Scotland, and even more so for instrumentalists.

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 May 20 - 10:16 AM

i am lucky in that in my locality and within 50 miles there are good musicians who play in the sliabh luchra tradtion

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: Joe G
Date: 23 May 20 - 10:49 AM

Nancy Kerr is one of my favourite folk artists. I enjoy both her more traditional material as well as her own excellent songs

Jon Boden is another artist who is doing much to keep folk song alive - his Folk Song a Day project for example. He is another excellent songwriter in the folk tradition - I consider his album 'Songs From The Floodplain' to be the finest folk album of the 21st century so far

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 May 20 - 11:38 AM

"as well as her own excellent songs"
Her mam's a great songwriter too - something else she inherited
Wonder if she inherited the game of making up new names for folk songs Sandra, John and I used to play on long car journeys

FOLK FOODS
The Grey Co Au Vin
The Unquiet Gravy
Dowie Dens of Marrow or Alan Tyne of Marrow
or the American - Hang Down your Head Tandoori

FOLK ANIMALS
The False Kite on the Toad
Terrapin Hero......

Used to keep us awake on the longest journeys
Jim

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: GUEST
Date: 23 May 20 - 01:44 PM

nused on here really

Subject: RE: Hope for folk music - Jon Doran!
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 May 20 - 01:52 PM

nused ??