Traditional Song/Music 'Outreach'

Subject: Traditional Song/Music 'Outreach'
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:30 AM

Wasn't quite sure what to title this thread...
And that sounds awful but sort-of sums it up.

On athother thread (and there's often discussions of like ilk) some posters feel frustrated by the low presence or indeed virtual absence of traditional songs in the folk clubs they know. Other posters simply support the rights of folk clubs to offer up to their audience, the music that pleases them - which may or may not include traditional music.

Baring in mind that the audiences for folk clubs are culled from a relatively narrow slice of society, My personal feeling is that placing too great an emphasis on traditional song in folk clubs is possibly a red herring, and that the most useful thing people can be doing, is bring traditional song OUT of the folk club circuit and into the world at large. Not to force it down people's throats, but to simply say: "Here you go, this is yours and you might find it interesting?"

I'm interested in:

a) what initiatives people *are* already working on, both in an official and non-official capacity, to simply expose people in the world at large to this common treasury of music and song?

And..

b) what other initiatives *could* be taken as individuals and/or groups / organisations to do same?

Subject: RE: Traditional Song/Music 'Outreach'
From: Banjiman
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:38 AM

Are you specifically talking about English Trad or Irish, Scottish, American and I guess Welsh as well..... and from other places?

Subject: RE: Traditional Song/Music 'Outreach'
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:38 AM

Hmm, just realised - I think this may have been discussed already..

Subject: RE: Traditional Song/Music 'Outreach'
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:39 AM

Traditional musics from England principally - Ireland, Scotland and Wales seem to be pretty well sorted.

Subject: RE: Traditional Song/Music 'Outreach'
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:45 AM

Yes, I asked a similar question last Spring: thread.cfm?threadid=121061&messages=80#2638624

A year on now & what's new...
Well on a broad scale I noticed the FAF Week for starters. And locally Sugorgeous' Bristol based Tradsong group. Any more?

Subject: RE: Traditional Song/Music 'Outreach'
From: sian, west wales
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 06:26 AM

Well, trac has now held two 3-day residential events ("The Big Experiment") and we're getting more young people and there's always a good percentage of people who are 'new' to the session scene.

I also often preach that the Media would do well to perceive a trend over the past couple of years: Springstein doing Pete Seeger, Sting doing folk/trad, Eurovision being won by an obvious 'folky' entry from Norway; in Wales, a number of 'pop' stars going 'unplugged' and drawing repertoire from trad music.

Also in Wales, the Arts Council and Tourist Board are trying to put together a Cultural Tourism European project with an emphasis on trad musicians. I know that there is interest in taking part down in Cornwall and a few European partners have put their heads above the parapets.

sian

Subject: RE: Traditional Song/Music 'Outreach'
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 07:52 AM

Are you including festivals as "outreach" or "world at large" settings CS?

I think there's a fair bit of activity at a lot of festivals, either focussed on "having a go" in terms of workshops, beginner sessions etc, or more generally in terms of performances of trad material at it's best.

Obviously folk festivals are within the "folk world" and appeal to the converted, but there will be many people local to the area who just fancy a look & listen out of curiosity.

I think the festival circuit is pretty healthy both in terms of large stage events and smaller free gatherings.

Cheers,

Pete.

Subject: RE: Traditional Song/Music 'Outreach'
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 08:45 AM

"Obviously folk festivals are within the "folk world" and appeal to the converted"

Yes, and they are pricey too.

However, there are some free folk festivals out there.
I didn't see much of our local one last Summer so I'm not sure how much traditional stuff was on show. I think there was one local traditional singer scheduled to perform one day.

Subject: RE: Traditional Song/Music 'Outreach'
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 08:47 AM

Oops - I didn't absorb the tail end of your post BC.