BS: FOLK MUSIC

Subject: FOLK MUSIC
From: StandingBear (inactive)
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 01:31 PM

Hey! I am a newbie (although I have watched from afar for a good while), but I had this great idea today!

FOLK MUSIC! LET'S TALK ABOUT (this is nuts!) FOLK MUSIC!!

I'd like to hear some "conversion" stories. I came from a decidedly hard rock/heavy metal background after drifting into the cesspool of rap and barely surviving with my I.Q. intact.

I'd love to hear about favorite songs, or songs that have played at major points in your lives.

I'd like to discuss folk music. I am not a person who is given to long arguments just because a topic is controversial. I LOVE deep coversations, but only on EQUAL ground. Enough force-feeding of dogma. Let's talk about stuff we will all feel at home talking about.

"A magazine dedicated to blues and folk music."

WELL?

Peace on you,

StandingBear

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: DougR
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 01:46 PM

Standing Bear, welcome!

I'm more of less of the Burl Ives school of folk music. I am a latecomer to many of the newer writers and performers of folk music, but find that those I have been introduced to, I like equally well. John Prine, Dougie MacLean, Mary Black and folks like that.

You will stir up some good conversation, I'm sure.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: StandingBear (inactive)
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 01:53 PM

I LOVE Burl Ives! I, too, am an "old school" folkie: Seeger, Guthrie, Clarence Ashley, Eck Roberts, Fiddlin' John Carson, Carter Family etc. I don;t have too much use for "modern" or "contemporary" folk... a folkie is a folkie is a folkie. You write songs what get passed down and adapted and changed and loved and appreciated? You a folkie. You write for the sake of making hit record? I don't care if you sing 16th century Welsh funeral laments; if you doing it for any other reason than "BECAUSE", then you ain;t no folkie nohow.

Teaho! (Peace on you)

'Bear

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Matt_R
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 03:35 PM

Don't worry, StandingBear, you will learn to hate me in time.

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 03:36 PM

I confess that I got my start on the "Pop" side of folk music. In my early teenage years, I had two regular babysitting jobs. One family had all the Peter, Paul and Mary records; and the other had all of Kingston Trio. So, that's where I got my start. It's only over the last 10 years that I've developed more sophisticated tastes in folk music.
And I still like KT and PP&M.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: StandingBear (inactive)
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 03:42 PM

Matt_R, I have heard about your alter ego Mbo (if that is in fact the case). I will NOT learn to hate you; No one takes music to heart and uses it to calm their fears and soothe their hurts if all they care about is money. The Good Book says that if someone loves, then he is born of the Spirit of God because God is Love. If someone does not love, he cannpt be telling the truth if he says he knows God.

I am not telling you that my God is the right or only God (that's not my point); I am just saying that if you say you LOVE music, you can't just be doing it for money. Anyone who has music in their heart and not just their budget is a "folkie"; the music is being carried on in their heart, which is more important than what radio station I find it on.

Peace on you,

'Bear

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: GUEST,Bill Foster
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 03:56 PM

I reckon I couldn't help an interest in folk music--I was born into it in the southern Appalachians and grew up hearing it every day from my family. Just about the time I was entering college, the Kingston Trio came along to reinforce what was already there. I tend to prefer the early stuff, and I'm partial to the early string bands around the southern mountains, but I perform anything that appeals to me, and I have nothing against new songs that capture the essence of the soul of what I consider MY music. I must admit, though, that I don't enjoy long conversations about the music, as they generally degenerate into various definitional frenzies and proclamations.

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Art Thieme
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 04:05 PM

Standing Bear,

We have been discussing a ton more folk music here over the last couple of years than might be obvious from the recent threads. These were great discussions about the real thing. I'm gonna look back over some of the good ones and resurrect 'em for you and for anyone else who might want to add to them.

All thee best,

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 04:37 PM

Hi Bill!!!! I hope this one doesn't and you and your wonderful knowledge hang about again. If you missed it, I ran a thread on the Museum of Appalachia.....There was no way this year, but I'd love to make Homecoming 2001. Karen and I had a fantastic time at Norris and I found #8 and thought of you a lot while we were there.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 06:17 PM

First of all, either sit down or put some clothes on.

Just kidding. I came to folk by both the front and back door - heard some Clancy Brothers, Kingston Trio, Weavers, Chad Mitchell, Harry Belafonte (the front door) but it never took hold until I heard the Byrds, Dylan, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the other folk rockers (the back door).

I really have eclectic taste but am prone to lean toward the country-folk artists - Hank Williams, Steve Young, Guy Clark, Bill Monroe, Marty Stuart and all them there Texas pickers 'n singers.

At any rate, welcome. I think you'll find a stroll through the old music threads an education and a half. I know I am.

Calmly, brother bear
Bart

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 18 Oct 00 - 10:02 PM

Hey, 'Spaw--

I kept hoping I'd see y'all there--looked all over for you. Five days of good traditional music, traditional food, traditional crafts, traditional folks. Plan on it next year

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: selby
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 01:43 PM

Folk music is all things to all men I have heard Oasis tracks played acoustcally by youngsters & you would be forgiven for thinking they were modern folk songs. So does folk music mean feeling & passion?

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Naemanson
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 04:08 PM

How about this for a definition: If your a great musician and you can't make money at it it must be folk.

Just Kidding!

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: StandingBear (inactive)
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 04:09 PM

I have always thought IMHO that "folk music" is a music that is made by, felt by, carried on by, sung by: folks. Not some slick-haired Vegas crooner; not some manufactured "pop" teen icon; REAL people who are the same in performance as they are at home. Oasis qualifies; Anyone with the chutzpah to call George Harrison an old fart and risk the wrath of 100 million middle-aged housewives is definitely down to earth enough for me! (Not that I dislike 'ol Harrison; I LOVE his playing and writing) I believe that the "folk" in the person determines the "folk" of the music.

ANY TAKERS?

Peace on you,

'Bear

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Rollo
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 06:58 PM

Yeah, that's it to me. Folk music is what the folks do. whenever someone grabs his git or whatever he does at the camp fire or maybe at home, and others listen to it and join in and deliver some other pieces of music, then it's folk music. there may be some traditional styles or song heritage. but don't forget o'carolan was a court musician, like orlando di lasso or haendel. vivid folk music reflects "commercial" or "main stream" music and blends it with everything allready contained in it. and in the end you will find that songs by modern pop artists have become a part of folk culture in the same way songs of steven c. foster or some dead middle age court poet are.

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: GUEST,Perry Terhune
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 07:27 PM

Hello, I'd like to add a brief note to all Folk mmusic lovers. Have you visited American the Folk Songs page? If not, you are in for a surprise. It contains 150 arrangements of great folk songs. That includes, music, lyrics, chords, and audio. Download, print or just browse. It's free and non-commercial. Check it out and tell another Folk song lover about it.

http://www.guitar-primer.com/Folk/

Yes. it my page and I'm proud of it. Perry Terhune [e-mail]

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Fortunato
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 07:52 PM

Standing Bear thanks for the thread. You sound like you have the Old Time String Band Music book published by the New Lost City Ramblers. I do too. Great book. Folk music is hard to pin down, I think, because it's a living thing, not a dead animal for dissection or mounting like a specimen of insect. It must include the sea shanteys and the weaving songs and the delta blues and the cowboy ballads and broadside ballads and field hollars and on and on and it's growing and shrinking and changing all the time. it's in the mouth of crab shuckers on the Eastern Shore and fisherman in Puget Sound. Well you know, its all the people making all their music while they work and play and fall in love and out, and dance and fight and give birth.

regards, chance

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 08:33 PM

I think you sussed out Matt well, bear. Definitely into the music, not the music-machine, and that's the crucial distinction.

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 08:51 PM

Don't forget the bands in showbars,strip clubs, night clubs, and roadhouses--the arrangements that they play, the licks, bass lines and all, are picked up out of the air--even the songs they write are just re-working of old songs, and old stories played with whatever beat happens to be popular that week--

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: GUEST,Scoattie
Date: 20 Oct 00 - 02:27 AM

I'll aye remember some "knocker" trying to tell our resident bunch of pickers bangers and blowers what "folk music" is. "Folk music," says Tony the chanter,"Is what folk play and sing!" Perfect answer. Scoattie

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: mousethief
Date: 20 Oct 00 - 08:18 PM

I think it's Blind Lemon Jefferson who was asked if a song he had played was a folk song.

"I ain't never heard no horse sing it," he said.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 12:21 AM

I grew up on Pete Seeger and Burl Ives records, so I had an appreciation for folk music at an early age, but my listening to it went into hibernation in my teens. In my mid-twenties I had a major rebirth moment when I chanced on a New Lost City Ramblers record at the local library. I became hooked on their albums. My biggest folk music religious conversion moment took place in the Fall of 1985 when, again at the library, chanced on The Bothy Band's first album. I must have played the 2nd track about ten times in a row that day. I'd never heard a fiddler like Tommy Peoples before, never heard such exciting and passionate music, and that album literally changed the course of my life. I took my violin out of it's 12 year hiatus in the closet, and started bringing it to a Tuesday night session in my hometown. One evening, a young fiddler showed up and blew everyone away. Turned out to be Alasdair Fraser, and I had my second converson into Scottish music. My third major conversion (without sacrificing the other two) came in late 1989, when some friends I met through the Irish session took me to a chantey sing aboard an historic ship in San Francisco. A National Parks Rnger was leading the sing, and it just hit me that that would be my dream job. I went up to her at the end of the evening and told her I was interested in becoming a Ranger there. She got me started volunteering, and in June of '92 I was hired. It's amazing how one thing leads to another in this kind of music - all because I chanced on a record at the library and was curious enough to try it out. It makes you think of your life as divided between the "before" and "after" getting turned on to folk music. It's hard to imagine back to the "before" period sometimes. How did I live without it? Do you ever get the feeling that you were born to have this passion for folk/traditional music, and that it was just waiting for some incident to happen to get you involved? It seems both accidental and inevitable.

-chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Gypsy
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 12:33 AM

1. Perry, your site is terrific! I recommend that everyone check it out. 2. Grew up with folk music, and i too, went into a hibernation during my 20's. got back into it later, particularly Child ballads, cuz i read a lot of Michener. He talks about them at length in The Drifters. 3. Apropos to folk, didja know that Pete Seegers "The Rainbow Quest is available on video tape? Cool, huh? (www.nross.com/rquest.htm

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: richlmo
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 01:01 AM

Just recently read a quote by Louis " Satchmo" Armstrong on Folk Music. I might not remember it exactly, but he said, " It's all folk music. I ain't never heard no mule singing. " Sorry if I messed that up.

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Thyme2dream
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 01:19 AM

Nice to see so many folks commenting on folk music without getting all "purist" about it!!(I'm still tripping on the Robert Johnson Kareoke idea from another thread--wild! ;-)).
I have had a delightful life so far trying to define FOLK MUSIC...as a wee girl I slept under my mamma's chair at hoots while "folks" played songs they learned from the Weavers, Pete Seeger, Peter,Paul and Mary and Ian & Sylvia. In grade school I stymied my 4th grade class by playing and singing a bloody broadside ballad I learned from the Joan Baez songbook I had...and I went on to learn stuff from the likes of Gordon Lightfoot, Simon & Garfunkel, and John Denver as they became "popular culture".
During my teen years my parents got into Bluegrass, and I spent several amazing summers at festivals like Bill Monroe's Beanblossom doin's, watching and learning from some of the most incredible musicians on the face of the planet--all playing into the wee hours of the night around campfires!
From my bluegrass days I became a fan of some of guys like Ricky Skaggs that crossed over into country (nice to see Marty Stuart mentioned in a folk context Bart, Ive always thought he had a folkie's soul!).
Somewhere in there I also fell in love with Celtic music(Scots variety in particular)and two years ago, during my first ever trip to the great American Southwest, I discovered a wonderful Navaho singer called Sharon Birch, whos CD now has pride of place in my collection. To further the musical hodge-podge in my house, my children have been bringing home some interesting CD's they've discovered themselves(anyone heard Sister Hazel or Live?)and some of that is creeping into my head as well.
If I've learned anything over the years, it's been not to limit the music I love to a genre label---if it comes from deep inside someone's soul, its worth a hearing! Some of it will connect with something inside me, and some won't, but listening is always an adventure if it's done with an open heart!!!
Seems to me this Mudcat place is a great haven to find folks that understand what it is to be passionate about simple music--good thread ya started here, Bear...it's been fun reading everyone's folk sojourns!!
Smiles all!
Thyme

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: John P
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 06:24 AM

Does anyone really think there are musicians out there playing -- in any genre -- that DON'T have music in their hearts? Why would they bother to learn to play music otherwise?

If folk music is music played by people with music in their hearts, then all music is folk music. Why bother having a discussion about it? Why bother having any such distinctions on newsgroups, discussion forums, or in record stores?

If folk music is music played by people who are expressing their lives, by people jamming for the fun of it, then rap is folk. Rock is folk. Classical music is folk. Country is folk. Folk is folk.

If folk music is anything that the damn horse doesn't sing, then anything that might be vaguely described as music and is produced by a human being is folk music.

I'm not going to try to define folk music just now, but I'm pretty sure we need a slightly more narrow definition than most that have been posted here if we are going to try to discuss folk music as an entity separate from anything else.

Actually, that's not true. We don't need any definition at all. I know what folk music is, and so does everyone else, and I see no reason for any of us to agree on all the details of it. We only need a more narrow definition if we decide that defining it is important.

John

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Matt_R
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 11:16 AM

Thyme2Dream, yes I do know Sister Hazel and Live. Sister Hazel had their biggest hit back in the summer of '97 (THE song of the summer) which was "Hard To Say". They're a kind of country rock band from Florida. Everyone everywhere was playing "Hard To Say"...if any song was destined to become a folksong in the future, it's that one. Great song too. Live is pretty cool band as well. "Lightning Strikes" is an epic...starts with dreamy arpeggios and builds up to a huge chorus. "Turn My Head" is awesome to...a superb melody. Here's a tip...check out Creed. Everyone is raving about them (including me) as being a fresh break from musical commercialism.....a rock band with a folk philosophy...who'd a thunk it?

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: GUEST,Tommy Henry
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 11:56 AM

Mousethief/Alex attrributes a quote about folk music to Blind Lemon Jefferson.

Richlmo misquotes it and attributes it to Louis Armstrong.

The person who actually said it was Big Bill Broonzy.

It seems that every time I visit Mudcat, I see people posting who don't know what the hay they're talking about.

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Matt_R
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 11:58 AM

That's "what the HEY"

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: GUEST,Tommy Henry
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 12:09 PM

No, Matt R, I meant to say "what the HAY." If you'd bothered to know what I was commenting on, you would have known that it was a quote about horses. I said "hay" because that's what horses eat.

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 12:14 PM

Don't expect an intelligent response from the "asshole formerly known as Mbo."

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: John P
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 12:29 PM

Conversion story:

I was a keyboard player in hard rock bands, sometimes straying into prog rock and jazz fusion. I also, embarassingly enough, spent some time as a new age piano player. To me, folk music was semi-acoustic pop stars like Cat Stevens and Simon and Garfunkel. I had a girl friend who was starting a folk band and dragged me along to play the guitar. All my protests that I wasn't a guitar player were silenced when we got there and I turned out to be the best guitarist in the room. Oh well, I started practicing the guitar. My girlfriend's friends started giving me music to listen to and within a few weeks I was introduced to Malicorne, Steeleye Span, Martin Carthy, Alan Stivell, and the John Renbourn Group.

Since this type of music speaks to me in some deep way, I never looked back. Also, folk musicians are generally easier to work with than rock musicians.

John

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 02:00 PM

I think there are horses who sing better than some people. And of course there are gibbons who have great singing voices. And then there are the birds - but I suppose birdsong is better referred to as yolk music...

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 02:23 PM

Only until they break out of their shell, McGrath.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 21 Oct 00 - 11:48 PM

Matt - any recommendation on a Creed CD?

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: harpgirl
Date: 22 Oct 00 - 11:57 AM

I'm tired from a long road trip, so, I'm not going to discuss all those "Johnnies come lately" in folk music. You know who they are, post Ives and Seeger.
A pop song is anything that dies out after a month or so...a folk song is one that is still being sung after 100 years or so.. IMNSHO

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: harpgirl
Date: 22 Oct 00 - 11:58 AM

tHAT WAS ME, kENDALL. i DONT DARE MESS WITH HARPGIRLS COOKIE sPAW..

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: GUEST,marty D.
Date: 22 Oct 00 - 12:10 PM

So Matt R. doesn't get a joke, and for that he's "an asshole"?

I don't get here very often, but maybe that's a blessing. Funny how some people get their kicks.

For years I thought that Pete Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary, Tom Paxton and Dylan were "folk". Doc Watson, Flatt and Scruggs, and Grandpa Jones were "country". I think I got it mixed up somewhere down the line.

marty Dawson

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: JamesJim
Date: 22 Oct 00 - 02:20 PM

Ah! At last a topic about something dear to my heart. Thanks Standing Bear! I have become addicted to the political threads of late and this is a welcome change (some might argue it is not a change, given the fact that many folk songs are political). It's good to break away for a change.

Actually, the first time I heard Burl Ives, I had no idea he was singing "folk music." I was too young to understand any of that. I just remember my dad singing several songs, including "Old Dan Tucker," and "Jimmy Crack Corn." As I grew, so did my interest in folk music. Sure, I had a crack at rock and roll, but I kept coming back to songs that either had a purpose and a thought behind them, or kept my interest by telling a story about people. The harmony of the Weavers and then later, the Kingston Trio caught my attention as well. I loved the instruments -- I knew I just had to learn to play the guitar.

Later came heros like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, then much later came local heros (to me) of countless numbers, who sang beautifully and played a number of instruments. I had always sung, now I knew I had to play an instrument (or two, or three). Like so many, I learned about harmony in the youth church choir. My interest in folk music has grown over the years. I love to hear others sing and play, but more than anything, I enjoy singing and playing myself, whether alone or with others. The greatest blessing from all of this is the great friends I've made over the years. I hope you will have that same blessing.

Jim

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: richlmo
Date: 22 Oct 00 - 11:54 PM

Tommy Henry, What is your problem?

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: GUEST,pict
Date: 23 Oct 00 - 12:13 AM

I'm Scottish and when I think of folk music the US never springs to mind.Although Guthrie,and Seeger etc are considered folk music in America I think of them more as protest singers I am in no way being derogotary of American folk music by saying this it is just that my perception of what folk music is is different.I generally think of music and songs that have been passed down for centuries through the people of a nation like the Orain luaidh(waulking songs),Muckle sangs or piobaireachd of Scotland or Sean Nos of Ireland or contemporary music that closely emulates it.

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Thyme2dream
Date: 23 Oct 00 - 12:42 AM

Scotland's folk tradition is wonderful...I know that folk as we know it here in the states is still alive and kickin, but it vibrantly permeates the whole culture in Scotland-every village seems to have it's own Folk Club, and everyone knows most of the songs that are shared there! Here in America you have to search a bit to find a folk group, and lots of people look at me strange when I walk around work singing the newest tune Im working on...you're lucky to live be a Scot, Pict!

You have to remember tho, our American folk music is full of history and tradition as well...we just don't have as MUCH history yet! I remember sitting in The Ensign Ewert in Edinburgh this summer and being amazed at the thought that the pub itself was built before my country had even thought about it's place in the world. (seems silly I know, but I wasn't much of a world traveler til this year, and Kansas is awfully 'new' historically!)Even when you take into account our native heritage, most of the oldest societies that we have a record of are still very young compared to the peoples that built the stone circles scattered here and there in Scotland!

One thing we do have going for us here is the diversity of our cultures mixed all up in the music we call folk. I find it fascinating to observe the roots of American folk music--many who grew up listening to the ancient tones from your country, brought them along when they moved across the ocean...and yet they changed and evolved into something uniquely American once they were here for a generation or two.

Just recently I've been spending sometime listening to American and Scots fiddle tunes...it's amazing how distinctly different they can be, and yet so similar! I know you aren't dismissing our music, Pict...but give some of it a little closer listen, you might be hooked:-)!

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 23 Oct 00 - 02:39 AM

pict, are you familiar with African American folk traditions, passed on orally since slavery? There is an excellent book called Black Culture And Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought From Slavery To Freedom, by Prof. Lawrence W. Levine. It was written in the late 70's by a reknowned history professor, and is a pioneering work in that he was one of the first professional historians to publish a major work on what was previously the realm of the folklorist. It is a real eye opener. It is a major study of many forms of singing and games, from African roots through American development. One of Levine's points is that the same treatment can be done with other American ethnic groups. It would be hard, though, to find folk music here that doesn't owe alot to its various ancestral homes - but that's the nature of our traditional folk music. As Thyme2dream say's, it becomes something uniquely American.

Subject: RE: BS: FOLK MUSIC
From: Melani
Date: 23 Oct 00 - 01:12 PM

There are so many different kinds of folk music that it truly boggles the mind. My son has very eclectic taste and has introduced me especially to African and South American music, both of which he loves passionately. As a young kid, the music my mother played on the radio didn't really fill my needs, but then I got a record of The Highwaymen for my birthday. (For those of you too young to remember, they were the Kingston Trio knockoff who made a hit of "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore".) That's the one that changed my life. Within a few years, the folk revival was in full swing and Peter, Paul and Mary were on juke boxes and Ian and Sylvia were on TV, and even my mother was playing guitar. My daughter has been brought up on the more traditional sounding stuff that is in fashion now. I recently played an old Kingston Trio album for her, featuring their "ooo-ooo" version of "Santyanna," which she knows as a traditional chantey. She was on the floor in hysterics. But in the '60's, that was such an incredible and wonderful departure from what was on the radio that it really did open my ears.

Since then I've gone through the urban folk and protest stuff to tradional Celtic, which I discovered about 1978 through KPFA, the local Pacifica station, and sea music through chantey sings at the Maritime Park. It's defintely been a life-changing experience all the way through.