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Old Folkers
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Subject: Old Folkers From: GUEST Date: 06 Apr 02 - 07:11 AM Sorry if this has been discussed previously, but, I'm in late 50's and whenever I mention to young people that I play guitar and sing I have to have a quick look to see if I've grown another head. (In other words, they look at me as though I have.) Does this happen elsewhere????? Curious Guest |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: RichM Date: 06 Apr 02 - 08:44 AM Many people, young or old-are in awe of anyone who can play or sing. You need to find other old-or young-folkers. There's strength in numbers. Rich McCarthy |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Midchuck Date: 06 Apr 02 - 09:00 AM I've more or less taken it for granted that the majority of folkies are in my age group - late 50s, early 60s, or else in their 20s or teens, and the ones in between have no clue. There are exceptions, of course. Joke for the day: My wife has been teaching high school for more years than she'd want me to admit on the 'net. A year or two ago, a female student mentioned to her that she was really interested in this great new singer she'd just discovered. My wife asked his name, she said "Bobby Dylan!" No lie. Peter. |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Gypsy Date: 06 Apr 02 - 10:28 PM Yer right, Midchuck. My nephews were astonished to find that i listen to Pink Floyd, and have since they started. Ah, to be 18 and think that everything is new..... |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Cappuccino Date: 07 Apr 02 - 04:15 AM Serious question - do you not find that people who have been playing music all their lives tend to have a young attitude, and * look * younger for their ages, than those who don't? I'm sure that people like me, in their 50s and still musicians, dress younger and act differently from those who have been in some desk job or selling insurance all their lives. Or maybe I'm just hoping I look young!!! - Ian B |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: John P Date: 07 Apr 02 - 12:55 PM You should have seen the look of the faces of my young co-workers when they were talking about how great Led Zeppelin was and I said something like, "Yeah, I remember when their first album came out -- it sure changed the face of rock." I think they couldn't conceive of anybody they were having a conversation with having been alive back then, or of their boss knowing anything about rock music. On the other hand, at a company party a couple of years ago, a couple of us started playing old Beatles songs. Everyone there, from the eight-year-old kids to the grannies, knew most of the words to most of the songs we played. John Peekstok |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Louie Roy Date: 07 Apr 02 - 09:56 PM The group I play with we have been playing together since 1985 and we still play at least 10 gigs a month.I am the youngest at 77. 3 excellent fiddlers age 85. 1 excellent fiddler at 78. 1 mandolin player at 78. 1 guitar player and an excellent vocalist 78. and me at 77 also a backup guitar player and a vocalist.I might add we play for all age groups and it might surprise some but many of our repeated audiences are teenagers.One other thing I might mention we always survey our audience and plan our program accordingly. Louie Roy |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: GUEST,mick /punch the horse Date: 08 Apr 02 - 06:23 AM i am 57 and front a band( name above)I am the oldest in the group,the other three behing in there mid thirties, AND WE HAVE FUN!!!!! THAT IS THE NAME OF THE GAME!!!!! that is the object of the exercise!!! Age has nowt to do with it. I find critism comes from the non contributers. I agree with Ian b that performers all seem to have a young attitude, that keeps them young. To close all can say in the words of the late great woody Guthrie is: "TAKE IT EASY, BUT TAKE IT!!!" |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: GUEST,Strollin' Johnny Date: 08 Apr 02 - 08:51 AM I don't think this phenomenon is just restricted to folk. Until recently, as well as being a folkie performer, I also played and sang in a band doing late-50's R&R. Often, despite the fact that our average age in the band was about 57, we would be besieged at the end of a gig by young people (i.e. teenagers) telling us how fantastic we were (we weren't that good, but it's nice that someone thought we were!). I asked a few of them why they were so enthused by a bunch of B.O.Fs playing music that's 30 years before their time, and the reply was invariably "Because all we ever get to hear are discos and boy/girl bands miming". My kids didn't want to play rock like their Old Man, they wanted to be DJs. Anybody else been in this situation? |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Cappuccino Date: 08 Apr 02 - 01:57 PM Good point, Johnny - real live music must be a novelty for today's kids. Mick, why are you punching a horse???? - Ian B |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Skipjack K8 Date: 08 Apr 02 - 04:42 PM Mick, your fiddler's a lot closer to his bus pass than you think, mate! His exploding boils only started when he passed forty. Skipjack |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: GUEST,Oakley Date: 13 Apr 02 - 06:27 AM Skipjack I am 39. My singular boil (called Geoffrey) is a loyal and devoted companion and your trousers are so tight that I had to write a tune about them and their contents. I think that Mick makes a good point, but I still hate standing behind him during gigs. Particularly after the whelks, Guinness and home made mashed-sprout curry incident. I nearly fainted twice. |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Bullfrog Jones Date: 13 Apr 02 - 06:51 AM The great thing is that there's a lot of pop/rock music about at the moment that can be taken to a session and played on acoustic guitar -- Oasis, Travis, Stereophonics, Coldplay etc... My teenage boys thankfully have very catholic tastes, but these are the bands they turn to for working out chords and playing along. They grew up mostly listening to whatever I did, particularly in the car, which covered a lot of ground (the music, not the car), but leaned heavily towards Neil Young, James Taylor, Steve Earle kind of stuff, and that feel for melody and acoustic guitar stuck with them. A couple of months ago we were listening to the radio in the car when a James Taylor song came on being sung by someone else. I vaguly recognised the song, but it wasn't one of the better known ones that my kids might have heard, and I was so proud when Michael (13) said 'this sounds like it could have been written by James Taylor'. I guess what I'm rambling on about is that I agree with IanB that music keeps you young, but it helps if you've got a couple of teenage kids who can introduce you to their tastes! |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: GUEST,paddymac Date: 13 Apr 02 - 04:39 PM Speaking as probably the only old fart to ever play hammered dulcimer in a heavy metal band, and one who plays in an Irish pub band with his son, music seems to me to be more about your state of mind than your state of encroaching decrepitude. I get a great boost out of looking out over an audience and seeing the youger ones actually listening to the lyrics and learning them. Had a lovely young lass tell me not long ago that the thing she liked the best about the group was that it always seemed as though we were having a good time too. Pass the metamucil, and bring me another pint! |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 13 Apr 02 - 07:24 PM "Ah but I was older then, I'm so much younger now" |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: GUEST,Lynn Date: 13 Apr 02 - 08:03 PM I played last Thursday with my buddy at a high school talent show (mentioned this in another thread). We weren't the talent, we were the OFs showing the others how it was done. The first song was a new one for us. 'Flowers on the Wall', last heard in Pulp Fiction. I go to sing the last verse in harmony with my buddy and I can't see the @#%$! words on the music rack. Not only that, I'm looking through my bifocals at the wrong verse. Next song, I break a string on my Guild - a fairly new set of Elixirs, so I was as surprised as any. Finished the song OK (AIMEE, what you gonna do???) with some chord formations other than what I had intended (making do without a G string....no comments, please!!!) Fortunately, for the rest of the set, my buddy was playing mando, so I could borrow his Taylor. We did a bang-up job on Guy Clark's 'Home Grown Tomatoes' with guitar and mando, and they gave us a standing O. The moral from the OFs - don't let on that everything's breaking down on stage (eyes, guitar, vocal cords, etc, etc) and 98% of them won't know the difference. Proud to be an old folker, Lynn |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Bullfrog Jones Date: 14 Apr 02 - 08:13 AM I think Paddyamc and Lynn make good points. The Bullfrogs often get told how clear it is to the audience that we're enjoying ourselves, which we are, and how tight we are, when we know that we've sometimes been anything but! I think maybe being a bit older allows you to relax that much more because you don't give a sh*t about looking cool! |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 14 Apr 02 - 05:55 PM There's no chance of "being cool" anyway now. There never was, the truth is. The way to go is laid back, as opposed to laid out. Laid back but in a forceful manner. |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Dave Bryant Date: 15 Apr 02 - 05:32 AM OLD FOLKSINGERS NEVER DIE - They just mislay their song lists. |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Jimmy C Date: 15 Apr 02 - 10:44 AM I am closing in on 62. Been playing and singing since my early teens and hope to be doing it for many more years to come. My attitude to everything is as George Carlin would say " don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff". Remember that science with years and years of research has yet to prove that being serious is good for you. I do believe that most singers of folk songs have a more youthful outlook than people in other fields. Going out to play now. See ya. |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: GUEST,mick/punch the horse Date: 15 Apr 02 - 01:30 PM just to set the record straight ian B, we dont punch horses, that is just the name of the band. john smith, well known ceili euphonium player,told us the yarn about a milkmans horse in cottingham called punch. since at the time we didnt have a name for the band we used that, and so it will be for evermore. Referance "fiddling"dave oakleys boil "geofrey" and daves anal emmisions, all I can say is I have observed both over a long period of time with great interest and wonder and fondly seen them grow in perfect harmony. |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Mudlark Date: 16 Apr 02 - 12:18 AM I got interested in blues and folk music when I was about 17...and right from the beginning had admiration for all the then old-timers who were recording. They might not have sounded as "beautiful" as Joan Baez, but those hill folk were a lot more authentic, and I appreciated hearing the music, even back then, from the source. I was not alone in this...folk clubs in LA often showcased relatively unknown singers from Kentucky, the deep South, etc. The same thing was true for jazz, another music medium I loved (and love). "Oldtimers" were greatly revered. I've been out of the mainstream for so long I don't really know, but from up here high above the tideline, it seems to me that that sort of reverence for "roots" not as prevalent in 80's and 90's with young people...is that true, or is that just BOF talk, I wonder.... |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Mrs.Duck Date: 16 Apr 02 - 06:25 PM In the light of this thread I shall be celebrating my 21st birthday at the Yorkshire gathering in May. Some may argue that this is 20 odd years too late but hey if it's worth celebrating!! |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Don Firth Date: 17 Apr 02 - 01:18 PM Time:— the early 1980s, during The Dark Years, when I worked as a telephone operator. Scene:— the break room at Pacific Northwest Bell. It's lunch time. I'm sitting and talking with a new-hire whom I am sure I recognize, but I can't remember from where. He refreshes my memory. He's a non-performing folk music enthusiast who haunted the coffeehouses twenty years before when I was singing just about anywhere and everywhere in the area. He had heard me many times. We get to talking about the Good Old Days and begin playing "What ever happened to old what's iz name?" Then he begins asking me about famous folk singers I have met during my perambulations to folk festivals, etc. Pete Seeger? Joan Baez? Doc Watson? Jean Redpath? As we converse, another new-hire walks in. She's about eighteen, fresh out of high school, just beginning her first job. She listens respectfully to the old geeks for awhile, and soon realizes we are talking about folk music and folk singers (I learned later that her mother had some Peter, Paul, and Mary records— that's how she knew). She also realizes that some of the names being mentioned are The Gods of Yesteryear. At length she asks, "Who is Joan Baez?" I felt old. I felt very, very old. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: GUEST,aesop Date: 17 Apr 02 - 01:29 PM I first started playing guitar when I was 12 in the 1950s. When I carried my guitar in public people stared as if I had two heads, and sometimes yelled "Hey Elvis". By the 1960s it became "cool" to be a folk musician and everyone was doing it. By the 80s it was "uncool" again. Now with "oh Brother" in the movies and winning grammys maybe it will become cool again. History repeats itself. Young people have always been ignorant of the music of the previous generations and invented music of their own.But folk music has somehow survived, even when it hasn't been mainstream. Keep it going! |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: harpmaker Date: 17 Apr 02 - 06:15 PM I sympathise with Oakley, I know an old folker that farts a lot. Punch the Horse John. |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Stephen L. Rich Date: 17 Apr 02 - 08:33 PM IanB -- keep in mind that we are in one of the very few types of music in which a performer with touch of grey is far from "washed up". It lends one credibility. |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Celtic Soul Date: 17 Apr 02 - 08:40 PM We've had the dubious honor of playing exactly 2 High Schools. I just don't think they got it. We weren't (insert pop icon of the time here), and we were ooooooooolllldd. Ah well...youth is wasted on the young in many cases. Was on me, that's for sure. |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 17 Apr 02 - 09:25 PM There's a quote by Michael Collins, speaking as a young man, that I always think ties in with the way there are always some young people who turn their back on the stuff that's sold to them and look for music with a past nd a future, and not just a present:
"I am much more at ease in the company of old people in the dark than I am with young people in the light." |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: GUEST,Lynn Date: 18 Apr 02 - 12:32 AM Another famous quote from a famous old folker - of sorts - Shel Silverstein. At the end of 'The Perfect High' 'Yes, Lord, it's always the same Old men or bright eye'd youth: It's always easier to sell 'em some s**t Than it is to tell them the truth.' Is that apropos ANYTHING??? |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Cappuccino Date: 18 Apr 02 - 04:38 PM Thank you, Stephen - I've just looked in the mirror and discovered that I have credibility!!!! - ian B |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: Crane Driver Date: 18 Apr 02 - 06:34 PM I have so much credibility I almost believe myself! |
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Subject: RE: Old Folkers From: harvey andrews Date: 18 Apr 02 - 07:17 PM FADING VOICESbr>
FADING VOICES ALL AROUND
THE ROAD, THE GIRLS, THE SUN AT DAWN
OLD SOLDIERS NOW AS YOUNG ONES COME |
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