American Folk for English Singers...

Subject: American Folk for English Singers...
From: Suzanne Wilkins. UK
Date: 20 Jun 97 - 09:23 AM

As our merry little band (called 'Pidwigeon' or 'Screamin' Weasels', depending on the nature of the gig...) is getting itself established, I'm starting to look round for some new stuff. As a fairly keen writer I've been delegated to write some of the new material myself (lyrics only - I'm not a musician, just the singer! The music comes from the other two magicians I work with). Which brings me to my query - What actually makes an American folk/C & W song? Subject matter? Chord Structure? Phrasing and Vocabulary? Singing Style? Instruments used?... I'm aware that this music genre does have its own wonderful style, but how would all you first-hand pros and practitioners describe it? All answers gratefully received and considered, with a copy of the new stuff posted up as soon as it's born.

Warm regards and Happy Solstace!

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From: Bert Hansell
Date: 20 Jun 97 - 10:27 AM

Suzanne,

Now you've started something. We just went through this procedure trying to get a definition of folk music.

So here's my two penn'oth.

C & W is derived from (and therefore part of) American folk music.
Subject Matter: Varied,includes humorous, maudlin, lovesick, religious & patriotic. Often highly moral to the extent of being "Goody - Goody"
Chord Structure: Usually very simple, often as few as two or three chords.
Phrasing: again usually simple.
Vocabulary: limited, corny, full of cliches
Singing Style: Southern accents predominate.
Instruments: guitar, fiddle, banjo with some honky tonk piano and one still hears the occasional dulcimer.

It is one of my favorite types of music, which probably tells you quite a bit about me.

Bert.

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From: BillD
Date: 20 Jun 97 - 11:00 AM

As an American who loves traditional Scottish music, but was not raised with the accent and history, let me suggest.....be careful & listen a LOT...it is not easy to write & think that way! You can wind up sounding like a bad parody.Get soem records and try to do exact copies until it feels like you have it down.Or, go with intentional parody and humor...that sells too!) American C&W is FULL of cliches' and repetitious themes of lost love and cheating lovers and pick-up trucks and beer drinking....but with a mind-set that you almost have to live to appreciate...have fun, but go slowly!!

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From: Barry Finn
Date: 20 Jun 97 - 10:51 PM

A country singer I'm not but a fellow I used to sing with, who was born and raised in a family of tradititonal mountain singers/songwriters/musicans always claimed the hardest part of singing country was the phrasing and people like George Jones & Merl Haggard had the music of the mountain in their mouth. Barry

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From: Bob Clayton -- http://members.aol.com/rjclayton/
Date: 24 Jun 97 - 02:53 PM

As a songwriter myself, and frequent reader/contributor to songwriters' newgroups, I'd say that country songwriting is formulaic, but the mold can be "bent" a little here and there. Typical comments about lyrics being critiqued on news groups include an admonition to keep the language "down home," and to keep the language "conversational." Poetic flights of fancy do not "fly." Multi-syllabic words are to be eschewed, and the subject matter should be of concern to the "common man."*

The prototypical American country audience member is a working-class bloke with a 9-to-5 job, a couple of kids, and more bills than he wants. His ambitions do not include becoming the boss, just getting a raise and some time off to enjoy his hobbies. He likes to stop by a neighborhood bar (sorry -- neighbourhood pub) for a couple of beers with his male friends, and isn't above some casual flirting with the females there. He loves his country, although he doesn't much like how it's going now, and longs for the old days when things were simpler.

He is a realist, so his songs can talk about death, mayhem, divorce, and such things. But he is NOT into "social action," so his songs, if they touch on the need for such, will be personal songs about the subject, not picket-line slogans and "preaching to the choir" protest songs. He champions the underdog, and loves songs that show a common man getting the best of the upper crust, whether it's a "Take This Job and Shove It" or a blue-jeans attitude song.

The folkier songs in the "country" repertoire often feature the acoustic instruments of bluegrass and old-time (hillbilly) music: guitar, mandolin, 5-string banjo, fiddle, and bass. The newer country songs use electrified versions of the guitar, pedal steel guitar, bass, and fiddle, plus drums. After 30 years of influence, rock music is finding its way onto "country" stations, too, despite the incompatibility of some aspects of the two indigenous American styles. Ditto the influence of outright rhythm and blues and African-American styles (I say "outright," since the African element has long been a part of Southern folk music in America, since long before "country" OR "western" music was even intimated in the songs of Jimmie Rodgers or the music of Bob Wills.)

Well, this may not be enlightening, but it IS long! I should shut up and let someone else speak.

-- Bob Clayton

*(Note: They say that Lincoln said that the Lord must have loved the common man, since he made so many of 'em. My feeling is that he didn't like 'em too much, though, since he made 'em so common.)

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From: Angus McSweeney
Date: 24 Jun 97 - 07:24 PM

I would also suggest checking out Steve Goodman's parody "You Never Even Call Me By My Name". He tries to cover every subject that is usually covered in CW- Mother,Trains, Prison, Car Wrecks, Rejection,etc. It has my favorite country line, "You don't have to call me Darlin, Darlin - but you never even call me by my name". I find that CW that I enjoy usually is the older stuff and with more of a gospel edge. I just can't abide the "common man looking for a fight" stuff, personally. My two cents. We will look forward to the results.

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From: LaMarca
Date: 25 Jun 97 - 01:00 PM

A lot of the modern pop-country writers seem to have a good sense of humor about the cliches of country music, and write humorous songs in the genre. I don't listen to commercial country radio that often, so I don't know the names of the artists/songwriters for these, but a couple of my favorites are:

"I've Got Friends in Low Places" - a song about the delights of the favorite bar/pub, not a high-class establishment...

"Sometimes You're the Windshield, Sometimes You're the Bug" - a philosophical song about life and love with lots of twisted metaphors...

Wrting a country-style song from outside what passes for "culture" here in the US may be a bit of a challenge, but will probably work if you start with the humorous end of things!

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From:
Date: 27 Jun 97 - 08:09 AM

You have raised some interesting and challenging questions, Suzanne, but I find that my answers and suggestions excessively long and involved--too much so for me to try to go into them here. If you're interested, please e-mail me. In the meantime, listen to Emmylou Harris and Hank Williams Sr. And in your writing, remember George Hays' constant reminder to the original cast of The Grand Ole Opry: "Keep it down to earth, boys!"

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 27 Jun 97 - 02:36 PM

Dear Suzanne,

It's probably worth taking a look and listen at some of the Country Western-flavored tunes penned by musicians on your side of the Big Ditch, too. Jagger and Richard, of course, have cranked out their share of such tunes ("Honky Tonk Woman", "Country Honk", "Dead Flowers" and "Girl With The Faraway Eyes" come to mind immediately) with greater or lesser degrees of C&W versimilitude. "Blood on the Floor" from the early 70s, Danny Kirwan-era, Fleetwood Mac (the album is "Kiln House") is somewhat over-the-top in the Steve Goodman "You Never Even Call Me By My Name" vein.

Among American singers and songwriters to absorb, don't overlook:

Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson.

Good luck.

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From: Alice Flynn, Montana
Date: 28 Jun 97 - 12:45 PM

Suzanne, if you really want an understanding of American folk music, get a copy (inter-library loan possible) of the book "Folk Songs of North America", by Alan Lomax, 1960, published by Doubleday & Co. There are melodies, guitar chords, piano arrangements, and lyrics, as well as a detailed history that is broken down into chapters chronologically, regionally, and by style and subject matter. It will be a great help if you can find a copy of it. Good luck.

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From: David Martin
Date: 01 Jul 97 - 06:13 PM

Suzanne,

A few odds & ends. I don't think anyone mentioned yodelling, which crops up a lot. Where's that from? Were these folks Swiss refugees? Early oddity is Emmet Miller, a mintrel show performer who did the version of "Love Sick Blues" which according to Hank, Jr., inspired the Hank Williams, Sr. classic, which when he debuted it at Grand Ole Opry received multiple standing ovations (he had to keep encoring the song for an insatiable audience). Miller's recordings made in late 20's in NYC were backed by the best Jazz session musicians of the day--Dorsey Brothers, et. al., just as Jimmie Rodgers recorded some sides with Louis Armstrong backing him. Jimmie Rodgers tried all sorts of different combinations of backup musicians. Another persistent element is slide guitar. There was a kind of craze for Hawaiian music which may have been an influence (as with Jimmie Rodgers), and Delta blues musicians had developed a very sophisticated slide guitar style.

Some of the folk songs of the British Isles were still being played in the hills of Appalachia long after they had become extinct in their homeland. Styles mingled of course, and categories are mainly useful as marketing tools. From early on, Black and white musicians influenced each other--"blues" and "country", just as much later Sam Phillips found his "white boy who sings like a black" (Elvis), and Chuck Berry was giving a country twang to R&B.

But check out the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and lots of earlier stuff that's probably available on Smithsonian and/or Folkways Recordings with descriptive names such as string bands, etc. Lomax went around the country making "field recordings" of this stuff back in the 20's and 30's.

Like deep blues, the best "country" stuff has this thing going on in the soul with God and the devil, the spiritual world and the material, blissful joy and utter despair, acceptance and yearning.

Of course, modern stuff like, "All My Exes Live in Texas" is fun.

Subject: RE: American Folk for English Singers...
From: David Martin
Date: 02 Jul 97 - 11:29 AM

Afterthoughts: Two legends, still alive and playing and singing are Doc Watson and Ralph Stanley. Both come from southern mountain families where songs have been handed down for generations. Each is a virtuoso, Doc on guitar, Ralph on banjo, and a great singer. Ralph has that kind of ethereal high voice that seems indigenous to this music, and one guesses that this style of singing goes way back. While we're on the subject, one characteristic of this traditional mountain singing is that it emphasizes head voice, with little or no vibrato. Check out Doc's records and especially those with the Watson Family (maybe there's just one), and the Stanley Brothers, or any Ralph Stanley albums. Also Jean Ritchie, who comes from similar background. In fact, there's a fine, classic album of Doc and Jean, Live at Folk City, recorded during 60's folk era in NYC. Jean also has beautifully recorded Child Ballads. Child was a guy (Harvard scholar?) who collected and catalogued many of the traditional songs originating in British Isles. Have a blast!