I want to get deeper into Folk Music

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Johnhenry'shammer
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 07:58 PM

That's right Denver. I'm also thinking of buying an accoustic guitar. Any suggestions?

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:17 AM

Buy a telecaster. have a long career in rock n roll. Sell millions of albums.

Then get a Martin and sing all the songs that the amateurs used to sing forty years ago.

worked for Springsteen......

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:59 AM

Probaby not the right place for this but apropos the above:

Recently saw the Springsteen latest offering on TV, what a load of crap. It realy did sound like the massed ensemble of British skiffle groups of the fifties only worse and they amplified it too. What a mess. Why do they do that? ok, I know, it's because they can.
And now Steve Adams is taking up the guitar and recording again, is morning about to break again?

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Peace
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 03:50 PM

You hvae neglected to say how much you wish to spend.

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 04:32 PM

Is that Steve Adams of Tamworth - Are You there Sigmund Freud? Cannabis Triffidus Fame?

I hope so. Always loved Steve.

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 04:33 PM

Does the Denver Folklore Center not exist any more ? If it does then I suggest you go and talk to the folks there.

Hoot

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Johnhenry'shammer
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 10:54 PM

I'd be willing to spend up to $300 and yes the Folklore Center is still around. I mean to go there one of these days when I can get around to it.

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:27 PM

If you've never played any kind of guitar before. I'd be inclined to say - spend about a third that much on a decent nylon strung guitar - its easier on the fingers to start with. you will need an electronic tuner and there are some good instructional computer software packages, but really a decent guitar class for beginners will help you with advice of where to go.

Ask around and take someone with you who knows a bit about guitars to help you make a good choice. If you go to a class, perhaps the teacher will advise you. Soft cases make the guitar go out of tune - and keeping it in tune is really difficult to start with.

If you decide to buy privately, its really important to take an experienced guitar player with you. as peoiple tend to pass trouble on to the unsuspecting.

anyway best of luck. its a nice hobby.

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: open mike
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 11:38 PM

if you search here i am sure you will find good discussions
about guitars...no need to re-invent the wheel by starting
a new thread here...people will not look here for guitar
info because they will not see that in the title. best
to find an article discussing guitars specifically.

go to the little box that says" lyric and knowledge search..."

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: GUEST,Tinker
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 03:36 AM

Forget the guitar. Get a b/c box and discover the Celt in you.

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 09:47 PM

Go to the Folklore Center and talk with Harry Tuft. He's the head honcho there and a warm and wonderful fellow. He can give you all the advice you might need for folk gatherings in the area, including the Swallow Hill programs. Tell him Sandy Paton sends his best wishes.
    Do get a copy of Rounder 1500 from Dick Greenhaus at Camsco. It's gotta be the folk music CD of the decade!
    Sandy

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Severn
Date: 08 Jun 06 - 10:03 PM

Now that you're at least waist deep, all us big fools say to push on!

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: CET
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 07:33 PM

You mentioned Odetta. You bet she's worth checking out. She has a beautiful deep voice. She is still performing and if you hear of a concert in your neighbourhood, beg, borrow, steal - just do what you have to do to get a ticket. Her early reputation I believe (I stand to be corrected) was based on traditional folk songs. I think she is concentrating on blues right now. I saw her play a side stage at the Ottawa Blues Festival a few years ago. We stood there with the rain bucketing down and listened to her sing the blues with just one piano player for accompaniment. One of the best concerts I've ever heard.

Like Buck said above, it's a question of following the sign posts. For me, the first sign post was the Clancy Brothers. That led to Scottish and English music thanks to Alistair Brown of the Cuckoo's Nest Folk Club in London, Ontario. I kept finding one group or another (too many to mention) that grabbed my attention. Eventually my interest moved on to include traditional Southern U.S music, so my musical journey has gone more or less clockwise, from Ireland to Scotland to England and back to North America. Along the way I found that I loved country music as well, something I certainly did not when I was younger.

I think the most important factor, if you are really going to be serious about this, is the people you meet who open up music to you in a way that is completely different from the performances you listen to on recordings. I could name several, among them Alistair Brown, who has a couple of very good solo albums as well as the stuff he recorded with Friends of Fiddler's Green, Brian Peters, who really introduced me to the traditional English ballad, Margaret Christl, Brian MacNeill, formerly with the Battlefield Band, and Sean Keane. I sang with and learned from all these folks at the Celtic College in Goderich, Ontario, where Charmion and I have been going for the first week in August for the past six years. Goderich is fair piece from you, but I would really recommend you get involved in some similar activity where you can go away for a week or two and just do music till it's coming out your ears. I would bet the Folklore Centre could give you more information.

As you can probably guess, my musical path has tended (but not exclusively) to lead me to traditional British and American songs. That might end up not being your journey at all, but if you look you will find the signposts and the guides.

Edmund

$300? You poor misguided fool. It won't end there.

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Johnhenry'shammer
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 11:53 PM

Could you explain what you mean by, "$300? You poor misguided fool. It won't end there." That's a very cryptic thing to say.

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Hrothgar
Date: 10 Jun 06 - 05:06 AM

You'll buy a guitar.

And a case.

And a tuner.

Then a few CDs.

Then a better guitar.

Then a better case.

Then a better tuner.

Then a few more CDs.

Then .......

There will be no end to it - just try to enjoy it.

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Tootler
Date: 10 Jun 06 - 06:21 AM

It's known as Instrument Acquisitive Disorder.

It doesn't matter what your instrument is, once you start you can't stop. You always need another one which is better for ... (insert your own reason here).

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jun 06 - 10:03 PM

And you'll no doubt branch out into other instruments. The disease has exponential characteristics. . .

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Jun 06 - 11:41 PM

It's like that with dachshunds too, strangely enough.

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Don Firth
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 03:40 PM

Dachshunds buy lots of musical instruments?

Subject: RE: I want to get deeper into Folk Music
From: Johnhenry'shammer
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 03:52 PM

Not nearly as much as Norwhich Terriors!