The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128206 Message #2869566
Posted By: Jim Carroll
22-Mar-10 - 06:43 PM
Thread Name: What is the future of folk music?
Subject: RE: What is the future of folk music?
Jim M
You are quite within your rights to do whatever you wish with songs - folk or other, but as you do it in public, I, as a member of that public have every right to express an opinion on what you do with them. For me, your approach made no sense whatever in relation to the text - sorry - put me down as a totaly unconvinced listener. A little presumptuous, I thought, of your suggesting that because I didn't like your singing I couldn't have been listening - tsk-tsk. And please don't tell me how I listen to songs. I tried hard to like it - I really did - failed miserably - and the rap bit; well.......!
"I can't recall the traditional singer's name,"
Walter Pardon - who treated the songs that had been handed down to him by his family with respect, and expected the same from others that he gave them to.
"Now we can move on to the future...."
Sorry Leveller - just a break in the hostilities while the two sides sing carols and have a game of football. I think you will find that the question will run much longer than The Moustrap.
What is presented at our clubs under the name 'folk' and how is is performed lies at the heart of everything we do and is certainly the answer to the op's question.
I have no objection whatever to Jim M doing what he does to folk songs - experimentation has always happened. We were rockin' up folk songs in the sixties after chucking out time; never stopped us enjoying the real thing.
Looking back at all the different cul-de-sacs that the revival took, the thing that strikes me is how old fashioned it all sounds now - the singing pullovers, the mini-choirs the electric soup..... all gone, and I'm sure, more tomorrow - if there is a tomorrow for our music.
One thing is for certain; it is the stuff that is being documented and archived as 'folk' which will still be available for future generations to see what a fist they can make of it, long after we've all gone to join the 'choir invisibule'. I also know what the youngsters here in Ireland are doing with the music and how well and sensitively they are doing it - and how well it is being received; surely a lesson for us all?
Jim Carroll