The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #85514 Message #1588561
Posted By: Celtaddict
22-Oct-05 - 03:49 PM
Thread Name: 2005 Getaway Reflections Here...
Subject: RE: 2005 Getaway Reflections Here...
This does bring up an idea that could make a thread of its own but I am leaving it here because I am asking it of myself specifically with the next Getaway in mind.
Some of us dearly love the music but are not performers. It's that simple. A friend of mine explained this role in the Folk Process to me years ago: we don't create, we don't perform (mercifully), we don't even really collect (just accumulate). He says we are Carriers. We pick up CDs or tapes or scratch paper and go to another person and say, "Have you heard this song?" If we do this long and often and well we rather often have the reward of hearing a song we love sung in what we think is just the right voice or venue.
At the Getaway there is such a richness of singers that in a circle that probably will not make it all the way round before the end of the allotted time, it seems a shame to take up time in which a "real" singer could present a song. I have seen threads in which people bemoan the participation at circles by singers who don't know the song well or do not carry the melody well or otherwise are not performers. I have seen other threads in which people are very supportive of all participation, the "if you can talk, you can sing" approach, and even threads in which people comment there is something not quite right about not taking one's turn with a song, not unlike not standing one's round (and even as a non-drinker I know better than that). I personally feel rather selfish if I soak up all the grand music without contributing, but also figure I am not the only one who would rather hear singers who are better at what they do. I love it that if any two aficionados sit down together, they will know something they can sing together and each will also know a song the other does not, and I have plenty of songs I can virtually guarantee you have not heard elsewhere.
SO, what should I do at the Getaway?
My personal compromise so far has been to listen in the circles/workshops, bring recordings to pass on to folks I think should hear them, and sing myself only in the late-night informal small circles or to this or that individual. (Of course this means I have sometimes placed myself in the absurd position of singing only to "real" musicians I admire, which does not help the self-consciousness a bit!)