The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #131549 Message #2971059
Posted By: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
23-Aug-10 - 08:55 AM
Thread Name: Traditional singer definition
Subject: RE: Traditional singer definition
examples of vauable traditional singing styles can also be heard when listening to some revival singers.
Is that really true, Dick? There are any amount of revival Conceits and Affectations which may be sourced accordingly - which is to say I hear lots of great singers in The Revival but their traditional singing styles can only ever be a matter of C&A, and hardly valuable with respect of The Tradition, unless of course it engenders a prospective urge in the listener - as happened to me recently when in listening to The Young Tradition I was moved to listen to The Copper Family.
That said, I can, and will, listen to any singer in a folk club or festival context; I especially love sessions and singarounds where the songs are so much more important than the singers. In this I respect all Revival Singers who are Created Equal with Respect of the Tradition. We have been thus called, and I will listen even to the most humble of them feeling that in this we at least approach the humanity which gave rise to The Tradition in the first place. But ours is a lesser world operating at some considerable remove from that which hath inspired us, and the more we seek it, so the further away it gets.
So - Revival Conventions, whilst being traditional in and of themselves, are not The Tradition - rather part & parcel of the religiosity attending The Revival as a whole, which is why, no doubt, JC in his guise Defender of the Faith publicly denounces my own efforts in this respect as heresy. Me, I would never stoop so low as to assume there was ever a right way of doing anything other than the one that works for you in the hope that if there's one thing Revival Singers do have in common with our Traditional Idols, it is a willingness to be exactly what we are, warts and all.