The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #143134 Message #3302434
Posted By: GUEST,Derek Schofield
05-Feb-12 - 07:15 AM
Thread Name: Independent Article on Folk Awards 2012
Subject: RE: Independent Article on Folk Awards 2012
A few observations.
As others have said, Vic is right about the financial liability of folk club organisers and quality of guests.
I am amazed at one part of the folk scene's determination to wreck the biggest annual showcase for folk music in the media. The time will come when the BBC gets fed up of this bitching and says, "sod it, if you don't want the awards, we won't run them".
It may be a great showcase, but it is just one aspect of the diversity of the folk scene, which ranges from the small, local singaround and music session, morris side dancing outside the pub, local folk clubs, ceilidhs, local festivals, concerts at the well-known concert halls up and down the country, and the biggest folk festivals - cambridge, Shrewsbury, Sidmouth and Towersey. It's everything from singer-songwriters to unaccompanied ballads. Rejoice in that diversity and strive to make all of it better. There must be a cascade effect down from the folk awards media coverage to all these events.
The Folk Awards are not the Brits, which covers pop music and which by its nature therefore will be dependent on fashion. Folk music is about tradition - it is inevitable that some names will crop up every few years or even every year (though I bet an analysis of all the nominations over 13 years would show a turnover).
And yes, I am sure there are very good singers and songwriters in local clubs and festivals that some people rate more highly than the people nominated. There is no fixed marking scheme. But just look at the song nominated this year about the Morecambe cockle-pickers. Christy Moore heard it on a Cd put out by the Bothy Folk Club in Southport - the song is written by one of their residents. A great song, given prominence by a great singer.
I find that the nominations do not completely reflect what Mike plays on his programme. Yes, most of the songs / music have been played on his programme but he also plays a lot of other stuff that doesn't feature. Perhaps these are the songs that John from Kemsing has in mind - and the point is that when it comes to nominations, they don't feature in the final lists.
I have faith in the process. Suggestions that the results are rigged are absurd. I am on the panel of judges and I see all the documents sent out to ensure fairness. Requests to publish the list of judges would, if followed, just shift the argument from the music to the credentials of the judges. What might be an idea - as suggested elsewhere - is to publish the list of all the nominations, and I think that would show that a wide variety of artists and music are nominated - it's just that some of them don't get enough nominations as the ones that get chosen.
Derek Schofield