datamusicata

My friend, Bruce Hayden, a concert promoter and music afficianado, wrote this post to a list I subscribe to. I really enjoyed reading it and I hope that you do as well.

From Bruce Hayden:

As I prepare to leave in a few weeks to attend the FAR West Folk Alliance Conference (see www.farwest.org) in Vancouver Washington many thoughts have been going through my mind. The exchange on those email list from those who will participate and some who will not be able to make it this year as always are inspiring.

Cindy is one of those who will not attend this year and this I feel is a loss to me and the conference as her showcases are among the best at the conference and her observations from the conference are always an influence to me. We each come away with something different and share it. I know I will miss her not being there.

As always the exchange of the emails are full of suggestions for workshops, panels and showcases. With these suggestions often come some obscure bit of information regarding music, be it business, history or in the art of the music present and past.

The arts, be it the fine arts or the performing arts, are truly the soul of a culture or nation. Within these histories we find the roots of our soul as a collective culture. Perhaps my passion for music comes in part from my interest in history and culture.

The history of our culture of the music of North American is very much reflective of each period of our history, be it regional, national or international in influence. For the most part Canada and the US have one of the most diverse cultures on Earth. Because of this the music within the borders of our two countries is more diverse than anywhere else. Nearly all genres of music exist with the borders of Canada and the US as the music influence is truly international.

Classical, which is principally a Europe influence came out of the Folk music of the Balkan’s. Blues and Black Gospel out of the music of African slaves with the their field hollers, Jazz morphed from the blues and added some classical touches along the way with Gershwin, Ellington and Basie. Hip Hop owes its Roots to the talking blues of Woody Guthrie, Rambling Jack Elliot, spoken word, folk poetry slams, Jack Kerouac with his blending Poetry with Jazz as well as several other folk artist dating back over 50 years. Rocks roots are in the blues and hillbilly country, later the Beatles added touches that were also classical in nature. Traditional Black string bands from the Minstrel days into the 20’s were influenced and lent their influence to the Appalachian/European traditional music string bands from which early country leading gave us Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and later Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass boys added Bluegrass music. Today’s modern country added Rock to its sound. All music is related with the genesis coming from original Folk Music.

Today we see young musicians “Genre Bending” as they borrow freely from the history of the musical forefathers. Never in history has music been so hard to categorize as its continual quest for something new and interesting as well as captivate the listeners ear, mind and soul. Music is art and as such is always redefining boundaries.

Today many young artists are digging back into those traditional roots of folk music as evidenced by the young groups such as The Duhks, The Bills, The Wailing Jennies, Crooked Still, Outlaw Social and many more. Some are classically trained on their instruments, others have punk rock background but all have been influenced by the roots music of folk. From all of these roots they have developed a hard driving acoustic based sound with tight, exceptional instrumentals and vocals. They are showing the way to the new music and will be influencing the future artists as well. Creativity never sleeps, but it is rare for anything to be truly original. As it is said, “Good poets borrow, great poets steal”. So it is in music.

Suddenly folk music is becoming cool again, Vanity Fair has featured a recent piece on the “Folk Revival” which features photos by Annie Leibovitz of some of the newer folk artists as well as some icons and Arlo Guthrie’s family, a large increase in downloads and CD sales has not gone unnoticed. The largest music festival in the US is not a rock festival, but a Roots, Folk and Bluegrass festival in San Francisco called Not Strictly Bluegrass, this year with nearly 750,000 people. An increase in attendance at Folk related music festivals has also not gone unnoticed as well as the number of new related music festivals cropping up everywhere

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Below is a from a blog that was posted to the Folk Alliance Listserv from the President of Oasis Micah Soloman:

There is nothing flashy about a Folk Alliance conference. The Fashion Police, luckily, don’t make rounds here, or they would have the whole lot of us rounded up and arrested for multiple violations. More importantly, there’s precious little snobbery here; this is as close to a level playing field as you’ll find in the music business.

The level of notoriety of the performers here ranges from not-so-much to nationally famous. At the very same time I was listening to Jaime and shooting this video clip, Grammy award-winning songwriter Jon Vezner* was performing a similar guerilla showcase literally next door, in similarly austere surroundings.

Louis Meyers, the Executive Director of the Folk Alliance and the legendary co-founder of South by Southwest, put it this way to me, earlier today: “If there’s one thing we have here,” Louis said, “It’s the songs. We may not have the flash, but we have the substance. And more and more, Nashville and LA are realizing this and are coming to these conferences looking for the hits — and licensing-friendly material — of tomorrow.”

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Bruce Hayden

www.qnoteproductions.com

http://www.myspace.com/folkmuse1