Reasons to go to a folk club

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,Guest So
Date: 28 May 17 - 09:40 AM

Singers and Instrumentalists not specifically one or tother

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 28 May 17 - 10:48 AM

'Etymologically related to "oud"'

and, I imagine all going back to the arabic العود   like the English word lute, Dutch luit and German Laute

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 28 May 17 - 11:55 AM

I play the lewd... 😜

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: JHW
Date: 28 May 17 - 05:22 PM

Well I thoroughly enjoyed my night at Mickleby last night and wrote all about it as a Reason to go to a folk club, ie why I'd go again but as its not here i cba to explain it all again.
Sorry for being serious.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,Andiliqueur
Date: 29 May 17 - 10:05 AM

It was my first visit to Mickleby last Saturday and yes that was what I wish from a Folk Club. It was well run and friendly in a private room where we could all share our love of songs,words and stories. Where else could I do that but a Folk Club?

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,Andy7
Date: 29 May 17 - 10:21 AM

Open mic nights? Some of those can be friendly and welcoming.

But I agree, there's nothing that quite matches the ambiance of a good folk club.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 29 May 17 - 11:23 AM

People do change their names but rarely change their character to go with it as the above exchange demonstrates. But, yes, let us stick to folk clubs. Folk clubs are an exceptionally good way to meet and get to know the artists. Unlike a concert venue they are sat amongst you and easily accessible. To clarify my earlier comment about good reasons not to go, this proximity can be a two edged sword. There are some artists that would be better kept separate from the audience.

DtG

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 30 May 17 - 01:43 AM

Alex just got back from the road. The Email is [e-mail] or the old business one [e-mail]
kind regards
Nick

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 May 17 - 05:29 AM

i always think that there is a sense of the lineage of the English folk club movement by some of the audience in a folk club - something that is missing in open mic nights. And that awareness is to me what makes it folk music - rather than an adjunct of the music business.

The movement was a lot broader than some allow. for me the ghosts are there - Jansch, MacColl, Capstick, Ian Campbell, Derek Brimstone....

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 May 17 - 08:21 AM

I like the cut and thrust of any gig - not just folk clubs (which I do occasionally) - banter from the audience is always great fun and applause is always welcome.

And I love the ever-changing face of a regular session, where familiar tunes can take on a different style and character depending on who turns up. every one is different.

What's also great fun is when a guest appearance turns into something more embracing. My mate Wolfie and I were doing two 20-minute guest spots at a charity evening at Shoreham Airport a week or two ago. The other people at the event (the hosts) were a piano/bass/drums trio and a saxophone quartet. We were halfway into our first set when we could sense the musicians behind us joining in in their heads. So we said, "OK - we've got the makings of a big band here - let's crack into Sweet Georgia Brown." Which we did - with solos from Wolfie on guitar, a double bass player, and an ancient clarinettist called George - who swung the socks off everybody. Great fun! At the end, there was a communal jam on C-Jam Blues.

You don't often get that sort of session-style jamming at a folk club. If you know of one that has it, let me know!

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 May 17 - 09:46 AM

i was doing a gig on the strip in Benidorm about 12 one night. IN walked a black guy, an American who introduced himself as Max Sax who was part of the Drifters backing musicians, and he'd finished his gig at The Benidorm Palace - just wanted to blow a bit of jazz. did my best to oblige.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 30 May 17 - 09:53 AM

"You don't often get that sort of session-style jamming at a folk club."
Mike, This may be because The Shoreham Airport do has always been a jazz session and in getting on for 60 years of going to folk clubs, I have never encountered a "piano/bass/drums trio and a saxophone quartet" in one.

I you say "Armstrong" in a folk club, people will think that you are talking about Frankie and not Louis. Mention "Davis" and will think you mean Rosie and not Miles.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 30 May 17 - 09:58 AM

.... and I should have thought of this one:-

Mention "Brown" and they will think of Shallow and not Sweet Georgia.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 May 17 - 10:33 AM

Oh, I'm quite aware of the differences between jazz and folk sessions, Vic. I was just imagining the kind of impromptu musical collaborations you often get in a jazz setting - but in a folk setting. It's the difference between being a guest who gives a performance, and a guest who invites other performers to join in the performance.

I have seen it in folk clubs. The nearest you get to it is probably when a guest singer encourages the audience to "join in the chorus".

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 May 17 - 10:44 AM

I've also just remembered an occasion at a folk-ish club in Chichester where Ian Chisholm and meself were playing the last guest spot of the evening. The organiser and his friends played mandolin, dobro and double bass, and we decided to ask them up to sit in with us and finish off the evening in style.

They looked very surprised at being asked - I don't think it had ever happened before - but came up and sat in, and we did finish the evening in style.

It's good to break down the fourth wall occasionally.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 30 May 17 - 10:47 AM

At a jazz concert, impromptu musical collaborations don't take place but at informal sessions they do.
At a folk club, impromptu musical collaborations don't generally take place but at informal sessions they do.
I write "generally" for folk clubs though I can remember quite a number of occasions where they have done. For example, at our folk club we presented the first ever performance outside America of a remarkable multi-instrumentalist called Dave Ruch and he was joined on some numbers by a local guitarist called Mike Ainscough.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,Pete from seven stats link
Date: 30 May 17 - 10:57 AM

I go to a folk sing around that does just about what it advertises - so it wouldn't please some posters here due to being accommodating to all levels

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 May 17 - 11:02 AM

He was indeed - and one of the numbers was "Sweet Georgia" - not "Shallow" - "Brown"!

As I recall, Dave contacted me (via Mudcat) beforehand to see if I could back him with guitar on SGB. He was looking for someone to play it in F, rather than in the more popular key of G. Luckily, F was the key that I usually play it in - as at Shoreham Airport a fortnight ago.

There's a meaning in all this, somewhere - but I'm buggered if I know what it is!

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 May 17 - 12:16 PM

I was just imagining the kind of impromptu musical collaborations you often get in a jazz setting - but in a folk setting. It's the difference between being a guest who gives a performance, and a guest who invites other performers to join in the performance.

I have seen it in folk clubs. The nearest you get to it is probably when a guest singer encourages the audience to "join in the chorus".

Our local accordion and fiddle club used to do that - at the end of the evening anybody with an instrument (i.e. all the people who'd done floor spots) got up on stage for a medley (described as a "stramash") with the guest band. Worked very well, but the club is in decline and they haven't done it for a few years now. One reason why I don't go any more.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Dave Ruch
Date: 31 May 17 - 07:53 AM

Vic and Will - I remember it fondly! Thanks for making it possible.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 31 May 17 - 01:17 PM

Vic and Will - I remember it fondly! Thanks for making it possible. 
Good memories here, Dave, of the time you performed for us and stayed with us.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 04:29 AM

"I first started going to folk clubs as a professional under age drinker. I was, of course the youngest person in the club. Now, forty years on? I looked around and I was the youngest person in the room. "

A club settles down with the same audience for a decade or two and it becomes a closed group and some can be quite uncomfortable for the casual visitor.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,Desi
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 06:24 AM

Opportunity to buy a raffle ticket and possibly win a bottle of very questionable quality wine or a CD by someone you've never heard of

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Johnny J
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 09:49 AM

These days there are so many different arrangements and organisations claiming to be folk clubs, therefore any number of reasons.

My regular folk club tends to be busy according to whichever guest happens to be booked although there can be occasional abberations.

Last night, there was a very good guest but one who doesn't usually attract a large local audience which is a bit of a shame. Sadly, in Edinburgh, the punters tend either to support the "tried and tested" perennials or whoever happens to "flavour of the month" at the time.

Anyway, I was pleased to see that the audience was fairly healthy for a change but realised that it had been swelled by several members of another folk club who had just come along to support some of their own members who were doing the "floor spot". That's fair enough I suppose and I'll make no comment on the standard of the support although the main act was streets ahead. However, it would also be nice if the "visitors" might choose to make a return visit to the club or even just make a point of going to see the main act again somewhere. However, "I hae ma doobts" as the might say in Midlothian.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 10:19 AM

Slightly unfair that: I thought the floor spot duo were very good, with a wide choice of material well-performed. As for the roving support, several of us attend both clubs, and others, on a regular basis: luckily for us, there is a vast array of club nights and sessions to choose from in and around Edinburgh. For the Club Treasurers, it's all "bums on seats", so no bad news there, especially as non-members have to pay more to get in. And you are not in a position to know whether those doing the floor spots have other regular commitments elsewhere on that night of the week: very possibly they do. And they did stay for the whole evening, unlike some who just come to do their floor spot then immediately leave: not very courteous to the guest when this happens.
Last night's main guest has appeared in the past as guest at that same club you are talking about, where he was well received too.

On another tack, and thinking about those clubs who do both guest and session nights: in those I go to, it is very apparent that we have 3 different populations:
Those who only come for sessions and never bother with guest nights (prefer to perform themselves rather than listen?)
Those who mainly only come for guest nights, perhaps attracted by the main guest, and
Those who do support both (which includes club Committee members who have jobs to do!)

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Johnny J
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 10:35 AM

OK. I'll make a comment on the "floor spot". They were fine in their own way. ;)

I've not been that good at attending other folk clubs of late and, not even my own, for good personal reasons. So, I Maybe shouldn't be too critical.
However, speaking more generally, there often seems to be times when people come just to support their pals whether from another folk club or not. I agree that it's courteous and respectful to stay for the whole night and many times this just doean't happen.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 01:47 PM

i once went to a folk club for three months, a club i didn't like very much because i wanted to win a raffle prize that no one ever picked - but i wanted.

i got it in the end.

right gang of arseholes!

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: JHW
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 02:37 PM

I listened to the Radio 4 Soul Music programme on Siegfried Idyll. Wonderful. Soul Music (R4 link will expire)
(Yes I know about Wagner being antisemitic)

Point is I can't play an orchestra, only a guitar and sing, so where can I go to do that - down the folk club.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,Guest Sandman
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 03:07 PM

JHW, You are a good singer

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,Pete from seven stars link
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 07:23 PM

I don't really think we can expect audience to stay the whole evening if they don't want . But I think it ill mannered when performers do their spot and disappear soon after. But it's even worse when they stay and talk through everyone else's turn , if those people have had the manners to listen to them

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 08:50 PM

It's off-topic I know, and, once I've listened to the Soul Music edition featuring the Siegfried Idyll I may start a thread on it. I detest Wagner's views and won't have his music in the house, but I've known that piece for many decades and, well, struggle to see the man in the music. Back to the fray...

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 01 Jun 17 - 08:54 PM

There are some people who are, shall we say, a wee bit lacking in the art of listening and/or chosing a time to leave.

In sessions, it's not cool to look through your book, send texts or to carry out long conversations during someone else's turn.

It's also not cool to leave immediately after your turn. Best to stay until one other performer has sung a song or played a tune before making your exit. Or better still, leave just before it's your turn.

Alas, I have to hold my hand up and admit I've done all of the above no-nos at one time or another. ;-)

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,abcd
Date: 02 Jun 17 - 08:45 AM

Good singing.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,A bloke from near where Al used to live
Date: 02 Jun 17 - 10:45 AM

I've seen some raffle prizes in my time Al, but who donated the right gang of arseholes and why did you covet them?

I once won some rump steak at The Brown Cow. Does that count and were you buying up books of tickets to beat me to it?

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Jun 17 - 07:15 AM

To see quality professional performers,some singers at singaround clubs are not prepared to try and listen and learn and try and improve.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 03 Jun 17 - 01:13 PM

well when i got the lp home and played it, i could see why no one had picked it in the last three months.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Jun 17 - 02:43 PM

If our folk clubs were in The US, we'd not only have ignorant people in the exact same way as here, but you'd have strange people trying to moderate anything beyond their narrow dim intelligence and try to bonk you out of the pub...

And floor singers with concealed firearms.

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Jun 17 - 03:33 PM

"And floor singers with concealed firearms" marginally worse than floorsingers with concealed music stands

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 05 Jun 17 - 08:32 AM

"Opportunity to buy a raffle ticket and possibly win a bottle of very questionable quality wine"
I am proud to say that at our folk club we offer our raffle ticket purchasers a choice of wine should they win - cheap or cheapest!!

Subject: RE: Reasons to go to a folk club
From: GUEST,Pat Cooksey.
Date: 05 Jun 17 - 04:01 PM

I have lived and played in Germany for many years and could if I wanted play in pretty big halls. The English folk club circuit I did for many years and with great musicians we had a great time. Here in Germany folk's know the songs I wrote and I play only where I wish.