re: the folk implosion :)

i second the comment on the folk alliance conferences -- and the regionals are just as bad. not only is it performers mobbing presenters, but the air is seething with some kind of something -- is it competitiveness? at NE folk alliance, i felt like i was hangin' with a bunch of first year law students.

i've been gigging just over a year, with a lot of success within the city (NY). but stepping outside this enclave is so brutal. there's such a tension between love/exhuberance of the music itself, and then the bogheadedness of trying to find something good in this very weird and sharky "folk" environment.

overall the implosion is reflected not only how musicians socialize these days, but the general quality of what's in circulation. weird . . . i hang with a bunch of city songwriters who are so good, it's ridiculous. i sing backup for a band that is like what lennon/mccartney woulda been doing had the beatles never been signed. they just churn out these amazing melodic folk-rock songs one after the other. And this coming from a nerd-traddie backup singer. they could be huge as an acoustic duo, but they're not, because they know what the folk-world "hustle" is like. i don't blame them, and i look to it myself [for my own "carreeah"] with trepidation/terror.

so i'll be playing next friday at midnight at the finest club on avenue a, with a bunch of the finest songwriters this city has to offer in any and all genres, many of whom are my friends, and i'm going to give them all a rose since it's my first friday night gig & it's taken me a year and a half to get one. the place will be packed, and we're all going to kick ass, hug, and then go home. maybe it really doesn't get any better than that? especially since i'll be singing willie o' winsbury . . .

i'd take that over 1000 folk alliances