Recently, (last week) I was preparing for a TV interview to publicize the Green Pastures Folk Music Club, here in Central Indiana. In writing a little briefing paper to be given to the TV interviewer in advance I discussed the music we do at the club meetings. I said something like this:
For many thousands of years people have sung and played to, for, and with each other, for various purposes: religious/ritual; work songs; lullabies (or is that just more work songs?); blues; storytelling; dance; and general social time-passing. The good songs were passed around, tweaked a little here, polished a little there, personalized, made relevant to current topics of interest, adjusted to the current singer's instrumental or vocal abilities (or lack thereof). When a singer didn't remember a song he'd heard, he might make a new song on the same story, or tell a new story with "That good old tune that Uncle Jeremiah used to play." The music that resulted, that was passed down, is what we call folk music. At Green Pastures we sing those songs for and with each other, and other songs in the same spirit, just for the joy of making music together.
Dave Oesterreich