Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 01:33 PM

Why would someone ask such an absurd question..unless it is designed to stir up the nutters. I see that some have stirred already.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,LynnH
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 01:29 PM

A while back there was a documentary on TV(?) about The Critics Group and EMcC...This included Charles Parker(?) singing "The Strawberry Roan". Unfortunately, his upper class accent did nothing for the song at all. This may be because he was trying to sing an american song.His plummy voice rendition almost made me fall off my stool laughing!

I would say therefore that it depends upon how 'posh/upper class/Eton/Harrow/Roedean'your speaking accent is and that you should perhaps, if necessary, choose your material accordingly. Otherwise....just sing and do the songs justice.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,Bignige
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 01:22 PM

But only to and from India

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 01:19 PM

John Jacob Niles was pretty posh - yet very successful, wasn't he?
Was there anyone posher than Peter Peers.

folksongs haven't been ringfenced, anyone can have a go.

as far as i'm concerned Musket, you're still a barmaid's idea of a gentleman. the offshore account is the sort of thrifty measure that any Lincolnshire shopkeepers daughter would have taken.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 11:38 AM

Pretty sure that the original OP was put up just to start another endless and pointless bit of sniping.

However,for what it is worth, in the early days of the Ballads and Blues Club in London Rory and Alex McEwen (cousins to HRH) were regular performers at the club alongside Ewan & Peggy. They used to sing Blind Gary Davis songs among others.

Somebody said he didn't know what POSH was. It's an abbreviation for "Portside out, starboard home". Cabin choice for wealthy folks when cruising.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 11:23 AM

Looking at the audience and many performers of BBC4 folk awards shows,

why wouldn't it be a reasonable assumption that the modern 21st century folk music 'industry'
is run by and for a 'traditional' bohemian dopey twat looking upper middle class cultural elite...?????

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,achmelvich
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 11:14 AM

i'm sure anyone can enjoy any type of music they like, and if that includes singing it -why not? (however, i do take exception to david cam***n attending a gillian welch gig) but i don't think the upper classes can create good art- their role is to buy and sell it. i don't know why this is. usually musicians lose some or most of their creative edge when they have made enough money to be comfortably off.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 11:11 AM

"Ewan MacColl was pretty posh himself."
No he wasn't
His parents were Scots, higlaand and lowland, with broad accents
His accent started working class Salford and ended up neutral, but with a good command of a range of accents
Dessribing that a "posh" is absurd - but don't let that get in the way of a bit of grave-dancing, after all, he's only been dead for a quarter of a century!
Describing the revival as "posh" is as silly as it gets
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: Musket
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 11:08 AM

If MacColl were alive today, I'd run off screaming... Despite him being a songwriting hero of mine. Don't worry, MacColl's offshore account where most of his royalties went proved a bit of an embarrassment when their Calum let it slip...

There are some people who think folk is something to do with working class struggle etc. Well, it certainly has, like protest and Elizabethan tunes for royalty to dance to, become part of what is now called the folk tradition. So have many other styles. Most old traditional lyrics are class neutral, being about "sporting and playing" or yearning for past experiences. Cecil Sharpe and co wanted traditional tunes to delight guests sfter dinner when the ladies retired to the drawing room. Posh?

A club I go to fairly regularly is stuffed with £3k plus guitars and the car park makes my BMW look down market.

In fact, going back thirty odd years, in a town with over three thousand miners, there were two of us regularly attending folk clubs to my knowledge. Mostly, it was teachers, social workers, accountants etc. Fairly posh from my perspective...

That's a thought. Hey Al! Back then, I was the bit of rough and you were the posh git!

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: Jason Xion Wang
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 11:05 AM

I don't know what the word "posh" means but I think anyone can sing folk songs.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 11:00 AM

There's way of singing you sometimes come across in which the song is just a vehicle for the singer singing notes, and that tends be in what can be called a posh voice. But you can get decidedly non posh singers who fall into the same trap.

The point is the song not the singer, and if you put that first it doesn't matter how posh your voice is.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: mayomick
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 10:54 AM

Whatever your accent, you stop being posh when you're singing folk songs.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,Bignige
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 10:48 AM

Come think of it, quite a few Folkies who become popular do end up reasonably well off. So may be we should introduce a cap (maybe similar to the Bankers Bonus cap), that excludes any artist as soon as they start to earn good money.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,Bignige
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 10:43 AM

Let me think, eh no no still don't give a shit.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: Acorn4
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 10:40 AM

Really looking to the royal Christmas release of "All Around One's Hat"!

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 10:32 AM

Just sing in your natural voice. Don't try and pretty it up, but don't try to yokelise it either.

Blandiver. Did nobody bother to tell the posters of that video that the opening dance was rapper sword, not Morris?

BTW. Anybody know who the lady violinist was. I can't help thinking it's Maude Karpeles, except that I never heard she played she played the violin.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 10:19 AM

"They must be posh because their shirts aren't plaid?"

No, they must be posh because they're princesses. The point of it is that they are enjoying dancing. (Singing wouldn't work as it is a very old film and there isn't any sound.)

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 09:42 AM

What's the point of the video? They must be posh because their shirts aren't plaid?

Lady Diamond, BobKnight basically said it all: "If you love singing, sing!"

There are many kinds of folksong in this world. If a song appeals to you, and if you don't feel uncomfortable singing it, then it's good that you sing it. Your instincts will tell you which songs to avoid.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 09:41 AM

Found it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRBb_PltQ0o

(it's a bit slow to start, but the dancing bit is near the end, about the last 20 seconds)

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: Airymouse
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 09:40 AM

Rich, well educated and urban people can and do sing folk songs. Nellie Galt's songs are recorded in the Library of Congress. Her Mulberry Hill, for example, clearly meets any reasonable requirement to be a folk song. Old Nellie lived in Louisville KY and she took voice and piano lessons. I learned a song, "Cosy Mosey," which is a really interesting version of The Cutty Wren that came from Scotland, but had spent 5 generations in Pennsylvania, from a teacher at Duke University. My father went to a boarding school, Andover, and got a degree in chemistry from Harvard, and I promise you that he knew old folk tales and folk songs.
I know Rick Ward's Jobal Hunter, but I can't sing it with his North Carolina accent and style, and I concede that it loses something in the translation. It is a good thing to preserve the old ways of singing ; e.g.,Elizabeth Laprelle, but not all old songs were sung in a peculiar style. My wife's grandfather sang a version of The State of Arkansas, and I don't think I sing it significantly differently from the way he did.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 09:23 AM

Didn't they release a bit of film recently of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret doing a bit of improvised folk dancing?

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 08:47 AM

and clogdancer.....

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 08:46 AM

Yes. Her Majesty has a keen interest in the culture of the lower orders and could have pursued a career as a professional folksinger if her duties had not decreed this path was not open to her.

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,Blandiver (Astray)
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 08:46 AM

Ewan MacColl was pretty posh himself. In fact The Folk Revival is a posh person's game so I'd say you're in good company. Folk Oiks (like me) are exceptions that prove the rule; but we know our place and are quite happy to fling ourselves in the nearest ditch out of deference if not outright authenticity...

'I say, you chaps - anyone for a spot of the old folk dancing? Or should we proceed direct to the jolly old incest, what?'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuqhEix8lGY

Subject: RE: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: BobKnight
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 08:39 AM

If you love singing - sing!!

Subject: Can Posh People Sing Folk Songs?
From: GUEST,LadyDiamond
Date: 21 Nov 14 - 07:36 AM

Hello

Just wondered what you thought about posh people singing folk songs.

To provide context, I am posh in the sense I went to a boarding school, speak rather nicely and buy a lot of smoked salmon. I also love folk music - political songs and all - and don't put on a fake accent when I sing The Dowie Dens of Yarrow. Therefore, more often than not, I sound like a posh bird singing a folk song.

Am I a pariah leeching from the ordinary man and woman? Do I just sound really out of place? If Ewan McColl was alive today, would he run off screaming? Or am I a person who enjoys life and music and doesn't sweat the small stuff? Would love to know.

Must dash now - off to the golf club.

LD