The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #166789 Message #4013591
Posted By: Jim Carroll
14-Oct-19 - 08:35 AM
Thread Name: The current state of folk music in UK
Subject: RE: The current state of folk music in UK
"My previous post was explicitly responding to comments about "clubs"."
For me, if the clubs go, then so does the song - the music has found a comfortable niche in the sessions, though, as Jack said, its origins were in homes rather than pubs
Song is presented with a massive problem in the sense that it is not at home in pub sessions - nobody wants to stop drinking to listen to a song - let alone a ten verse ballad
Sam Larner once made the point perfectly when he said, "Yes, we sang at 'The Fisherman's Return' every week, but the serious singing was always done at home or at sea"
If festivals and concerts are the future, then we return to pre-revival days of being passive observers of performances - which is what we tried to move away from
That youngsters are capable of making and sharing music in a social environment is beyond doubt
When I started visiting this West of Ireland Town I saw youngsters learning to play from scratch
Two of our leading local musicians were teenagers learning their craft
Bríd O'Donoghue is still playing superbly, but her greatest contribution to Irish music is the hundreds of youngsters she has encouraged and taught
BRÍD'S FAMILY are all fine musicians in their own right
EDEL FOX has become one of Ireland's leading concertina players, but she also has a track record of teaching young people to play
As I say, singing has some way to go but IT'S BEGINNING TO HAPPEN
Jim Carroll
None of this would have happened if we'd settled for being passive audiences