Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST,In My Humble Opinion
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 04:44 PM

Seth was slipping there, back to the top of the charts with him.....

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Peace
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 04:39 PM

LOL

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Lowden Jameswright
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 03:15 PM

Back at the top of the folk charts where he belongs - what a hero!

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: In My Humble Opinion
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 03:15 PM

Then Seth launched into hs 301st rendition of The White Hare

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 03:13 PM

Then he shouted 300

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 03:13 PM

Seth said 299

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Lowden Jameswright
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 03:10 PM

Can't have Seth dropping out of the Mudcat charts before he reaches 300 now can we?

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Banjiman
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 11:30 AM

Accidentally saw him at Broadstairs Folk Week a couple of years ago.....thought he was great live, bought Freedom Fields on the basis of this and like that too.

I agree that he is not "FOLK" enough for some folk but some folk do have very narrow horizons. More power to the lad for making it.

This debate reminds me of when I was a teenager and deeply into Heavy Metal (as well as Morris). We described anyone who dared to have a recognisable melody in their music as "posers" or that they had "sold out to the Americans" (sorry to half of the 'Catters out there).

We grew out of it though..........

Paul

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Zen
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 11:21 AM

Following Peace's theme... I bought a copy of Seth Lakeman's "Freedom Fields" (going cheap at my local record shop) on the basis of all the hoo-ha here since, as I mentioned below, I wasn't very au fait with his work.

I find it a most creditable effort indeed.

Zen

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST,In My Humble Opinion
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 11:18 AM

Though Seth Lakeman isn't exactly to my taste, I do admire the fact that he has gotten on on the world and made something of a success of himself, sold a few CD's etc..etc..which is more than can be said for alot of people, the green eyed god will always rear its ugly head, that's another aspect of this world.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Peace
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 11:15 AM

Do you people in England ever root for your home teams? I know it happens in soccer--so why not in music? Snarl, bite, rip, tear. It's fookin sad. Seth worked his way up. Built a music career that sustains him. Not too many here have done that.



GOOD FOR HIM!

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST,In My Humble Opinion
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 11:10 AM

Then there are those just love to indulge in name calling, eh, eric the red. What do you think we should call people like that?

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: folktheatre
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 07:00 AM

It's pop music isn't it? Most record buyers who got that album in the chart wouldn't care if it was folk or not. Make folk sound like pop music they might buy and it gets in the charts. not my cup of tea. Can you tell?

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 02:23 AM

I don't think anyone would really argue about how good a singer/songwriter/musician Seth Lakeman really is [ overemotional for my taste ] it's just the morons like Lizzie Cornish etc. and try to make out he's gods gift to folk music and the world when he clearly isn't, this doesn't do the lad any favours, just the opposite.

eric

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Gervase
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 05:40 PM

Q.E. frigging D! Eye thangewe Mr Bridge. Honestly, you couldn't make it up!

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: In My Humble Opinion
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 05:35 PM

Well as a newish memeber, actually I just joined, my observations tell me, there more than a few self appointed experts in everything.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 05:32 PM

Terrible.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 05:32 PM

Hmm, so Gervase knows best? Just a spot of solipsism maybe?

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Gervase
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 05:21 PM

Fuck me sideways - this is heading for 300 posts. No wonder the Yanks shake their heads and snigger at the parochial Big-Endian obsessions of the Brits. Do any of you still hanging in here and trying to piss higher up the wall actually realise how pathetic an advert this thread is for the British f**k music scene? It manages to reinforce every prejudice and stereotype going.
Anyway, chaps, carry on digging!

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 03:19 PM

1) oh yes!
2) just be your natural self Richard.

I think you're maybe taking it all a bit more seriously than it warrants, however! Acoustic magazine's idea of an in depth interview is asking Kate Melua what makes her feel warm and fluffy inside - (she didn't answer a skilfully wielded feather duster), I forget what the right answer was.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 02:47 PM

"Seth thinks that cream rises to the top. You lot deserve the ignominy and failure that is your lot. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

1. And naturally this is true of all types of music is it?

2. Should we get nasty and personal?

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST,Shameless Promotions Inc
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 01:10 PM

The Old Scrotes Band
appearing at:
The Duck and Prime Minister
Much Blathering, Glos.
9pm
Friday 18th July

session from the floor opens the proceedings

'caterwauling Child ballads and sticking our digits in our earholes'

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Snuffy
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 12:59 PM

But if you take the example of politics, isn't it the scum that rises to the top?

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 09:08 AM

Seth thinks that cream rises to the top. You lot deserve the ignominy and failure that is your lot. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: theleveller
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 09:05 AM

Oooh, hope my copy will be waiting on the doormat (if the dog hasn't eaten it).

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 08:17 AM

Just a message to all his admirers on Mudcat Old MegaSeth is on the cover of Acoustic magazine this week (ubiquitous moi?), which has just dropped through the letterbox.

I will away to read the article and find out the quetion that vexes us all - whither folksong........

Will it some old scrotes caterwauling Child ballads and sticking their digits in their earholes,....... or will it be Seth and his funky hip hop mates.

either way, I don't reckon there'll be much in it for the rest of us, but I will report back!

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: glueman
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 07:50 AM

Very much agree with the production values point, the average studio is guaranteed to suck the life out of decent music. It's the difference between film making (multiple takes, people fussing with hair and spots, runners talking into ear-mics everywhere) and live theatre.
Takes a helluva producer to reproduce the atmosphere of a micropone stuck in the middle of a bunch of people having a good time.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 07:19 AM

Ahhhh - Faggots Frozen Brains! Not had them for years!

Slim Shady for next president of EFDSS. Kylie ditto for the Morris Ring. That'd shake the buggers up!

:D

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 05:49 AM

who needs a steak, when you've got Brain's faggot!

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 02:12 PM

yes and readers wives to the playboy channel......

and jake the peg with wooden leg to the royal ballet....

and give me a Lada over a mercedes any day....

macrobiotic, that's us....

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 10:47 AM

..thats why i prefere listening to bootlegs
of home demos and informal rehearsals
for most artists i like

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: theleveller
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 07:59 AM

Interesting point about the production values, Matt. I must agree that I prefer the stuff recorded in 'the piano kitchen', but then I tend to like it when musicians produce their own recordings, even when they're a bit rough round the edges. Probably why I prefer hand-made furniture to Ikea, beer from micro breweries to mass-produced stuff and home-cooked food to packaged ready meals.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 07:49 AM

Have you listened to his album "Freedom Fields"? - if so I suggest your get an ear implant

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: matt milton
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 07:29 AM

If you're serious about music (as opposed to simply beng serious about taxonomy and categorisation) and you genuinely enjoy music, the question surely is NOT "Does Seth Lakeman make folk music?"

It is instead "Does seth Lakeman make good music?"

For me, the answer's no. For me, his music sounds utterly deathly. For a number of reasons. Some of them are: airless studio production (all the space filled in, over-use of compression); unimaginative guitar strumming; middle-of-the-road tunes; unimaginative violin scrubbing; and vocals that strain too hard to emote, sounding peculiarly constipated instead (à la Sting or the singer from Green Day).

Watching him live on stage, he's in the zone: he's a sincere musician giving it his all. But for me it's a case of a passionate musician who makes music that lacks any passion. There's no attitude there; it's all bland.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: glueman
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 07:01 AM

She has that honour too.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 06:56 AM

doesn't fit the 1954...........

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: glueman
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 06:53 AM

What's wrong with Kylie FFS?

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: melodeonboy
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 06:27 AM

'Seth Lakeman has sold over 100,000 CDs to people who mostly don't give a toss about "folk music".'

"His songs are currently heard by several million listeners tuning in to Radio 2."

Multiply the figures by ten (or more) and you could be talking about Kylie! Cor, what a recommendation!

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 04:51 AM

I could snog his face off!!

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 06:43 PM

Jack Campin writes: I don't think Lakeman holds workshops on performing his songs, does he?

Seth Lakeman has sold over 100,000 CDs to people who mostly don't give a toss about "folk music".

His songs are currently heard by several million listeners tuning in to Radio 2.

As a result, posses of teenage lassies are turning up at Folk Festivals for the first time to see him - and by default other folky acts - play (since the bulk of his work is still on the "folk scene")

Quite how his time would be better spent - right now - in the interests of folk music - teaching half a dozen folk fiddle in community hall is mystifying. He has the whole of his life to teach and this one tiny window to make a big public impact that might make more folk interested in actually being taught ...

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 04:29 PM

Stay away from the woodshed too.

G

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: greg stephens
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 04:27 PM

WLD: watch out when the scent of the sukebind is heavy in the summer air.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 01:04 PM

wld, you're beginning to sound like Flora Post.


G

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 08:32 AM

Perhaps you should not project that on to us.

You can decide to which line of yous I refer...

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 03:18 AM

yeh I did. for 15 months through my church, when I was fifteen. that's where I learned to fingerpick guitar, and its where I learned I was from the gutter - unlike my fellow pupils.

I still think Seth (all us fans call him that) is a bit of alright.

D'you remember that Lily Savage line, after the Indecent proposal film.
"Robert Redford offers this woman a million dollars for a shag...... he could have 'ad me for the taxi fare."

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 02:36 AM

Shades of "Willie of Winsbury":

"If I were a woman as I am a man
My bedfellow you would be".

Are you sure you didn't go to public school Al?

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 10:40 PM

he's a gorgeous looking guy - sort of young looking Simon Cowell looks.

I think the folk Revival should pay his transfer fee, for that 'strength in depth' that Bob Latchford gave the Birmingham City team of 1971.

I can see why the guys who say Annie's Song isn't folk don't like him. But I can imagine a lot of young guys trying to be like him, and who knows it may draw in someone really good.

At the moment the songwriting doesn't really set your mind on fire, but he's quite promising. I hope it works out for him.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST,pat Cooksey
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 09:06 PM

Sounds rather good, Hero I dont think, but bloody fine singing all the same. Well done Mr Lakeman, keep up the good work.

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 08:56 PM

Subject: RE: Seth Lakeman - Folk Hero!
From: Lord Batman's Kitchener
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 03:41 PM

Welllll..according to Lowden Jameswright we are closed minded musicians, the guardians of that infamous blackhole which would have us all sucked back to the year 1954, if we don't agree that Seth Lakeman is a 'folk' musician. Personally, as I believe I've already stated elsewhere, Lakeman doesn't do a thing for me one way or the other and has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to be sucked back to 1954(which I don't) or any other year.