Please note that this, apparently, is the latest topic of obsession by our resident obsessor. For the uninitiated that means that he will nitpick it to death and continue to pry it apart until you all tire of it.

This topic demonstrates the wisdom of folks like Art Thieme and Bill D. I remember (way back in time) when the whole "What is Folk Music?" argument started and raged forever. At that time I disagreed with my friends as to what constituted folk music, as opposed to folk type singers and folk type songs. This discussion is doomed to be much like that one. They will ignore the commonly held view of people who really have spent a good portion of their lives in this endeavor, collecting and cataloguing, and viewing their work in a preservationist way. They will parse the word, apply faulty definitions, and generally be very happy with themselves.

I will only say this about the subject. Among learned folkies a source singer is a respected source. They are often very fine singers and interpreters. They are the artists sought out by singers to find songs and historical performance data. Usually they are people, such as Jean Ritchie, who have grown up steeped in the songs and lore, as opposed to a Sandy Paton who sought them out on the front porches of mountain cabins with folks like Frank Proffit or Jeannie Robertson in Scotland. Jean Ritchie's performance artistry has been celebrated and recognized at the highest levels. She is universally respected as a performing artist, as well as a source singer. Jeannie Robertson completely blows the contention that a source singer is something less than a great singer/interpreter. Here is what Dick Gaughan says about her on his website:

The best singer of the Muckle Sangs (classic Scots ballads) I ever heard. She possessed a supreme artistry and what would now be called professionalism with a skill comparable to that of a Shakespearean actor. When she sang, she knew and understood every nuance of the relationships between the characters in the story, their motives and the consequences of their actions - and by the time she'd finished, so did the listener.

The notion of the untrained, primitive unconscious "carrier" of tradition collapses in tatters when confronted by Jeannie.


The source singer then is a person who is the source of a song, or a specific style of performing/singing. They may or may not be a performer on the larger stage, but they have been singing these songs in family and community gatherings, usually their whole lives. They usually are the caretakers of a tradition passed on over the generations, such as playing with a goose quill. They hold within them the evolutionary changes to songs or styles (known as the folk process colloquially) peculiar to their region, community, or even family. A grand example of this would be the source singers of Beaver Island, MI. These were finally collected and released on a CD titled "Beaver Island House Party" where we heard the last of the old ones performing Irish based music and song that had evolved over the generations into a unique form. They, then are the source for those that come after.

The term is an honorific among those that know what they are talking about. This is not in dispute except among the uninformed, or those that just like to read their own words. They have a need to try and pedestrianize the term, I suppose because they don't want to invest the time. These are folks that sit and comment on the process as opposed to participate in it.

I bow to the wisdom of folks like Bill and Art. Should have listened to them years ago.

Just my two cents worth.

Mick