The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #169915 Message #4110605
Posted By: Tattie Bogle
18-Jun-21 - 05:47 PM
Thread Name: folk song art song
Subject: RE: folk song art song
Just to be clear: Jim is a very engaging and entertaining performer, whether at clubs, festivals or in pubs. I guess you didn’t mean it that way, Sandman, but sometimes the term “pub performer” is used in a less complimentary sense, as if to say the person or group concerned is not up to doing folk club gigs or concerts. We had Jim for one of concerts in Edinburgh some years back, and he was excellent, with a great knowledge of the Durham mining songs tradition (the theme of the whole concert was songs about mining.)
And on another subject, re crossing the genres: one song that springs to mind is “Summertime “ from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”: now you say you wouldn’t sing anything operatic in a folk club, and in its original form it is sung by a very high operatic soprano. But it does get sung often enough in folk sessions, usually by low husky-voiced altos, in a more folkie style. And it does seem to make the cross-over quite well.