Floor singers – are they a help or hindrance to folk music?
Posted on December 17, 2014        by Jacey Bedford

Pete Willow reflects on a common experience for folk club audiences – sitting through a performance by the enthusiastic but musically ungifted amateur floor artist. This provoked some interesting discussion from respondents during his PhD research on amateur music-making.

Folk club audiences are generally a tolerant bunch. But do we secretly seethe inside when a floor-singer stands up and regales us with a hesitantly-performed, poorly-rehearsed, out-of-tune set of songs that charted in the 1960s?

The issue of musical quality and professionalism in performance was given a considerable airing from respondents to my doctoral research on amateur music-making. I've been reminding myself of some of the notes I made when I conducted an admittedly unscientific survey on Facebook a couple of years ago. One question that I asked was:

For an enjoyable night out at the folk club, how important is the standard of music being played? Is this the most important factor or are there other things more important?

It was by no means the first time such a question had been posed at folk followers. This sort of thing often crops up in places like Mudcat but it nevertheless produced some spirited responses. For example:

I'm quite happy to see artists who are still on their journey towards a better expertise – as long as they perform with belief and passion.

The music at folk clubs I visit is important; the overall standard of that music is a little less important. After all folk music is often a form of storytelling and can be very entertaining if delivered well regardless of whether the performer is a gifted singer/musician.

I'd rather see an average performer with great material than a brilliant performer with poor material.

For singer's nights, I don't expect quality – but I do expect commitment. Even the poorest performers deserve respect as long as they are doing their best to give a performance.

These were some of the many voices who rated passion and commitment in delivery as more important than expertise; these views suggested that folk clubs are indeed tolerant spaces for the technically less gifted performer, at least as floor singers. Guest acts are of course expected to be worth the admission fee. As one respondent said:

…having worked professionally as a singer … I do expect to see a higher standard of performance at a folk club from a 'guest'- particularly if I know the guest is being paid to perform; if my expectations are not met I feel quite irritated.

I am very tolerant of truly dreadful performances from the floor (I haven't worked out why) but not from booked guests. I think we all recognise the possibility of some tension between the wish to provide a good evening of entertainment at one's folk club and maintaining a policy of openness to all comers. In the end we should remember the important point that (usually) people pay to come in.

However, some floor singers themselves see the whole purpose of folk clubs as places where they can perform, guests notwithstanding:

Musicians go to these things to play, i.e. to get involved ourselves in the music making process, as well as to listen (which I admit I do too, I love to play music!!). Which I think begs the question – what is a folk club? Is it one where people sit quietly and listen to a talented performer, or one where like-minded musicians get together to play music with each other and inspire and challenge each other?

That sounds like a wonderful ideal which presents folk clubs as communities of people who like to play music and assume that everyone there is happy to listen to it. If only that were always the case. It didn't take long for the voices of dissent to emerge in reply to the initial survey responses. One object of particular concern was the 'singaround', which is of course used by many clubs to subsidise guest nights as well as provide a space – or circle – for a community of amateur performers:

Some folk singarounds feel like criticism-free therapy for the players, and I feel that as an audience, I am validating a claim to be a 'performer' which feels false, because they are simply not trying to entertain or engage.

The format of singarounds has greatly depleted the standard of performance. Where a beginner can now sit in a circle and be accompanied by more experienced musicians and singers – this has taken away the need to fully practise a set before actually performing it, and so the standard is pretty poor as a whole now. A knock-on effect is that if someone who hasn't experienced a 'folk club' goes to a singaround, pays £2/£3/£4 on the door to get in and then is treated to a circle of beginners who play wrong chords, wrong keys, and forget their words, they will go away with a very bad impression of folk music!

This post only scratches the surface of the threads of animated and thoughtful discussion that arose from my Facebook survey but the message that clearly emerged was that amateur musicians and singers are tolerated, indeed enjoyed at folk clubs if they appear to make the effort in practice and demonstrate passion for what they perform. In a culture of commodified entertainment, it is not surprising that commercialism insinuates its way into the folk club experience. The higher the admission, the more audiences expect quality. And professional artists themselves have bills to pay so would not thank clubs who drive audiences away by indulging poor floorsingers.

Nevertheless, if folk clubs don't provide a space for passionate amateurs to perform and share the music that matters to them, arguably they wouldn't be doing their job.
Pete Willow

Pete Willow

Pete Willow
Pete has run folk clubs and concerts on and off for over 40 years, mainly in Coventry and Warwickshire. He has a particular interest in music promotion and PR and his writings include a regular folk column for the Coventry Telegraph with articles also appearing in the Birmingham Mail and the Metro. In additon, he writes the programme copy for the Warwick and Bromyard Folk Festivals. His 'day job' is an academic, teaching and researching media, communications and public relations. He has recently been awarded a PhD for his thesis on amateur music making as a social and cultural activity, basing part of his research on three case study folk clubs in the Midlands.