Hmmmmm.......

"Folk music is for intellectuals"

Really?

But WHAT is an intellectual? Is that YOU? And if so, do you think of yourself as being more intelligent than others? Can you only like or *understand* folk music if you've been to University, College...whatever?

You see, you could of all found the answer for me. Because I 'found' folk music about three years ago and I have been RAVING about it on messageboards ever since..BUT, I keep being told that I don't belong, that I am a troll, that I am thick, stupid etc. etc. etc....

Perhaps I am, after all I packed in my A levels as I wanted to join the real world. I took my kids out of school so that they could truly learn, I dance at folk festivals and love folk rock...also some bluegrass.

But...if...IF I am so thick, stupid and un-intelligent, then WHY does this music mean so much to me? Why can I sit spellbound listening to John Tams, or George Papavgeris all night long?   Why does the music of Coope Boyes & Simpson sometimes make me cry? And when Mike Harding sings 'Bombers Moon' why does he take me up there inside the Lancaster Bomber where his father died and makes me think of so many other things? And WHY do I still cling on madly to this music, when some of the very people who assume that they know better than I, should have put me off folk music for the rest of my life??????

Why?

For my children. Pure and simple!

I KNOW that the messages held within these songs are important! I KNOW that the wisdom from the writers in the folk world matters! I KNOW that this music should *not* be in a box, but out there in the wide world, surrounding us all...not in a select club of Self-Appointed Intellectuals who assume they are brighter than the rest of humanity!

Intelligence needs no exams. It cannot be measured...it is in your heart and your soul! You can be a person who is unable ever to read or write, but you may be able to write a song filled with the *deepest* wisdom. Your words may never be written down by you personallly, but they will be sung by a million people across the world.

So..speak not to me of intellectualism!

Folk music is the bringer of wisdom and the guardian of history.

And if you don't believe me, then listen to John Trudell singing the words of Crazy Horse, one of the most wise and intellectual people that I've EVER heard!

http://www.myspace.com/johntrudell


"One does not sell the earth that people walk upon. We...are the land"




Lizzie