BS: Obligation of new performers to help old

Subject: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 11:12 AM

As it appears that the "old folk" performance genre is being impacted by fusion and modern singer songwriters perhaps one way of leveling the playing field would be for there to be a fee paid by contemporary new folk performers to help support the old trad folks that they have displaced from the limited number of stages and media venues.In this way an old trad performer preserving centuries old techniques and material who can not get a job can still be aided in the good work they are doing.

Space for singer songwriters and fusion folk in the media and at festivals has to come from somewhere and much of it most likely came from old trad folk who now are being most likely financially impacted.

So if we dont get venue sharing then maybe we could get them income sharing.
Conrad

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: Smokey.
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 01:54 PM

Yes, they should have a similar arrangement for old rock musicians too.

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 01:57 PM

Getting weirder by the day Conrad. That's the daftest one you've come up with to date.

In the UK at least there is scope to more than double the number of venues by allowing the small venues exception to the Licencing Act 2003.

That would actually make sense.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: John P
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 03:30 PM

Conrad, why are you so full of obligations you think other people should take on? Perhaps you should live your life the way you think it ought to be lived, and leave everyone else alone.

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: Smokey.
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 03:56 PM

Clear and concise definitions of "contemporary new folk performers" and "old trad performers" would be required. Perhaps a committee might be formed, and an enforcement squad.

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: GUEST,999
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 06:03 PM

I`d be most grateful if you`d send me some of whatever you`re taking, Conrad.

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: olddude
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 06:07 PM

contributions gladly accepted ... I have my eye on a pocket watch that I want LOL ... so if you want sure ... here is my hat. I am an old folkie .. I hope that counts.

-teasing-

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 06:21 PM

Take all of assorted and wacky dumbfuck ideas, put them in a 3 inch diameter pipe, and make it however long it needs to be. Weld the pipe onto a piece of boilerplate and put 4 legs on it. Sit on it and rotate.

Or just go off and fuck your own self........whichever you prefer.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 08:12 PM

Conrad, I bought my first guitar in 1951 or 1952. The first time I got paid for singing was in 1956. I was offered a television series in 1959, and for the next umpteen years, I made my living singing, mostly traditional songs, in various venues, from coffeehouses, to the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, to the Seattle Center Hootenannies in 1963, to colleges, arts festivals, in living rooms and in concert halls all around the Pacific Northwest, Montana, Michigan, Colorado, and California. In Canada, I've sung many times in British Columbia and as far east as Kingston, Ontario. And I have participated in many folk festivals, both singing and taking part in workshops, and I have done more television, on both educational and commercial TV, since the first "Ballads and Books" series. At the Seattle Center Hootenannies, I sang for outdoor audiences of over 6,000 people.

I'm saying this not to brag, but to let you know that I've been there and I've done that.

I am now 79 years old. The last concert I did was with my old friend and sometime singing partner, Bob (Deckman) Nelson in October of 2007, for which we both got paid quite well, thank you!

Bob, now in his early 70s and having recently retired from the carpentry/deck-building business, is doing a lot of singing (concerts) these days. For various reasons, I, on the other hand, consider myself at least semi-retired. I have recently purchased some computer-related recording equipment, including a couple of good studio microphones, and am concentrating my efforts on doing some high quality recording of the many traditional (and a few other) songs I have learned over the years (several hundred) with an eye toward, first, archiving them, and second, putting out a number of CDs. Not unlike Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, who retired from the concert stage to concentrate on recording.

But—were I actively seeking singing jobs and looking for venues where I could sing, I would have no difficulties. Like Bob, I am in the enviable position where all I would need to do is make a few telephone calls letting it be known that I am available, and I could have a long string of singing engagements set up very quickly. Bob is singing actively, but I think he's getting more offers than he can really cares to take (but I should not speak for him).

Also, my wife and I own our own home outright (no mortgage) and we are debt-free; among other things, we pay off our credit card every month, so we don't have to pay any interest. We are not wealthy, but we are financial secure and quite comfortable, thank you.

Nor, as I say, am I currently looking for venues where I can sing.

NOR am I interested in being supported, neither partially nor fully, by having someone extract (extort) money from younger performers to pay me some sort of stipend in order to save me from penury and to honor of my longevity as a singer of traditional songs.

Singers just starting out oftentimes have it tough enough without someone coming along and picking their pockets out of some misguided notion that we older singers of traditional songs need to be saved from spending our declining years sitting in some back alley leaning against a Dumpster and drinking screw-top wine from a bottle concealed in a brown paper bag.

Thank you for the thought, and for caring, but I think you could turn the throbbing power of your brain to more creative and productive pursuits.

Or not.

How about gluing a bunch of garden gnomes to the hood of a brand new Rolls-Royce Corniche? That would certainly spark some interesting comments.

With warm regards,

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: Smokey.
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 08:12 PM

"I`d be most grateful if you`d send me some of whatever you`re taking, Conrad."

Nah - get y'self round here, 9..

"Don't take the brown acid." (Wavy Gravy, 1969)

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: olddude
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 08:41 PM

Don is absolutely right ... so make the check out to me ... LOL
here ya go support my bad habits of antique watches and expensive guitars :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 09:02 PM

Gnu performers are rare

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: Smokey.
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 09:13 PM

There was Hawkeye the Gnu.

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 11:35 AM

I misread the thread title. I thought it said, obligation of old performers to help new. Which- apart from the connotations of "obligation"- is the essence of tradition really. Then I read it properly and thought, what a stupid, ill-informed, impractical suggestion.

Subject: RE: BS: Obligation of new performers to help old
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 01:46 PM

I see the irony-challenged are still among us.