I posted this on Facebook in response to a post by my friend Judy Goddard. It's the flip side of "What is tradtional folk music." I don't mean to rile folks up, but then getting riled up is very good for the circulation.


That's so true, Judy. I've heard "folksingers" at open Mics talk about their influences being Paul Simon and James Taylor. I am definitely not a purist, but that's pretty far removed from the tradition, although both Paul and James knew tra...dtional folk and may have dabbled in it themselves when they were young.

To me on an elemental level, music is music That attitude would create chaos in a record/CD store. I hear black gospel in rhythm and blues groups, and disco in contemporary "Praise and Worship" music of Mass choirs. Old country blues are easy to hear in Rockabilly and improvisation is as common in black gospel as it in in jazz.

Folk singers like Doc Watson, Charlie Poole, and blues singers like Mississippi John Hurt Listened to the radio, just like we did when we were growing up. If they liked a song they did it and made it their own. Charlie Poole did broadway pop songs, and so did Mississippi John Hurt. People Get Ready is as much a church song as it is soul music. I could go on and on. Maybe that's why I wrote two songs in the style of the old R&B groups now called Doo Wop. Ten Pound Radio is an affectionate remembrance of the days when groups sang around street lamps, and May I abide in You is a gospel song with a message that a black gospel quartet would be comfortable doing. The Five Blind Boys recorded "Oh, Why?" which is straight doo wop, and Archie Brownlee, lead singer of the group introduced loud, high pitched shouts and screams to build excitement, just like James Brown later did.

But then, I AM going on and on...