Hi Kids: Just got back from YouTube where I find Jesse Winchester(who used to call me "The Silver Fox!" HA Ha Hee Hee Hee, Luv ya Jess..) Anyhound, Jesse's being interviewed, and is asked, "People call you a Folksinger. At least that's how you are categorized in the record shops(para.) What do you think of that?" So Jesse replies as he looks at his acoustic/classical, " Well, I guess that comes from playing the acoustic guitar, so I get called a Folksinger. I don't like it." Interviewer asks, "Well, how would you describe your music?" Jesse replies," Country, mixed with Rhythm and Blues. Pop." He does "Biloxi" in the same segment...
Tex Koenig(Bless) used to tell me about stuff he heard. One group, "The New Tradition" played Folk songs, sea shanties, etc. A real love there in wanting to keep that whole thing alive. All this gets swirled around. It's really about the music. Not about categories. I'll leave that to the "Categoristas".
I went for a walk this afternoon thinking about all of this and asking myself, "If Woody Guthrie were here today, would he be a "Folksinger?" Maybe his "dustbowl" would be Iraq, and his "do-re-me" would be a credit card. Maybe he'd be a black kid playing beats on plastic buckets outside a subway station like his life depended on it. Or some tatooed 20-something with piercings singing what she considers "traditional" Green Day!
Or what if Celine Dion picks up an acoustic guitar and sings "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore" in one of those computer generated digital things with Luciano Pavarotti, Man, they would be some Folksingers...
GOT TO TELL YOU THIS ONE: So my walk ends up in Lenscrafters where I ask the girl if they carry ROUND-lens glasses like John Lennon? She replies,"Who?" I reply, he was a singer in a group called The Beatles. They were pretty good...
Nite All...bob