The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #165660 Message #3981211
Posted By: Dave the Gnome
10-Mar-19 - 03:52 AM
Thread Name: UK 60s Folk Club Boom?
Subject: RE: UK 60s Folk Club Boom?
Believe it or not, Jim, I would love to see more traditional unaccompanied singers at folk clubs. I was not lucky enough to see the heyday of the singers but one of my favourite artists was Ian Woods who had a vast repertoire of songs he could sing unaccompanied, including some he had written that were indistiguishable from the "real thing". Mind you, I also saw Fred Jordan at a couple of concerts and can't honestly say I enjoyed a lot of his stuff. I think that may have been the venues though and am sure he would have come across better in more intimate surroundings. Sadly, both of those have passed away, as have the ones you have mentioned.
Wind the clock back 70 years and there was not the availability of instruments there is now, nor was there the mass communication media. Entertainment was at home or in the pub. Lots of people learned and performed unaccompanied songs. There is neither the need or inclination to do that now. Sad but the introduction of affordable instruments and instant global communications have done more to reduce the number of folk singers than a couple of Beatles songs ever did.
In my opinion.