tBS: Jam Session and other things which go bump in the night

[Alex S. Garcia]

>> And let us not forget folk music, which had a brief time of glory in the
>> late 80's, early 90's, with Suzanne Vega, Eddie Brickle, Tracy Chapman, and
>> several other artists.
>
>        Ach, it is blasphemy to my ears!!  No, no, no!  Death to False Folk!
>(if using a Manowar reference in conjunction with the word "folk" was not
>bad enough :)
>
>        These people are/were singer-songwriters with acousticky type
>instruments.  I firmly hold to the belief that music needs to either be
>traditional or "traditionally-styled" to be labeled folk.  These artists
>were seldom employing such techniques--they primarily performed self-penned
>material with little influence from traditional American (or Anglo-Celtic,
>or anything else) styles.

My apologies. I was simply referring to "folk" in its most reknown
incarnation. Though, of course, you are correct in saying that the term is
being misused.

>        Even the reknowned Richard Thompson isn't really "folk".  SOmetimes
>I even have my doubts about recent Fairport ... but there's always Tempest,
>Wolfstone, June Tabor, Steeleye Span, the John Kirkpatrick Band, the Oyster
>Band (no relation ;) , Clarion, Io ...

Uh... Bob Dylan ? Leonard Cohen ? Joan Baez ? Neil Young ? Sheesh, no. I
guess those would also fall into the "false folk" category... though I'm not
familiar enough with their music to be definitive. Kind of strange, though,
since they were the ones (especially Dylan) who made the word "folk" famous !...

BTW, if we can't call "folk music" what all these artists do, then how
should we call it ? Just wondering.



Alex S. Garcia.

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