Folk Music Friday #1

On 03/01/2013 at 12:05 AM by Ranger1

Several regular bloggers on 1up were doing weekly music blogs. Homelessrook had Metal Monday and Punk Tuesday, sneenlantern did Modern Classical Wednesday, and I had just started doing Folk Music Friday. With the move to PixlBit, we decided to keep on doing this. This was my first entry, and then my laptop crapped out on me, and then I got the news that 1up was closing, so the momentum got a little lost. Apologies to anyone who's read this before.

Folk music is one of those things that everyone has a different definition for, including folkies, and it can get pretty heated and nasty, believe it or not. I get people telling me all the time that they don't like folk, but to me, that's kind of like saying you don't like classical or you don't like rock. There's so many different types, how do you know you don't like it if you've only listened to a small sampling of what there is? I'm not going to even try to define folk, other than to say that it's the music of the people. I once got into hot water with a bunch of the hide-bound, dusty, ancient folkies on the folk music community I belong to by saying that rap could be considered folk. I no longer discuss what is or isn't folk with them.

I got into folk music at a very young age. We lived with my paternal grandfather when I was a baby, and he was always singing to me. My grampa was French-Canadian and had been both a farmer and a mill worker and he had a broad repertoire of songs that he liked. Some were very old French ballads, some were popular songs when he was a kid, some he learned from people he worked with in the mill. The thing these songs had in common was that they could be sung by anyone and without instruments. I found out many years after he died that a woman from Vermont named Margaret MacArthur had come and recorded many of his songs and family stories, and I managed to get my hands on a copy. I learned that he and his next-older brother had been in high demand for most of the local dances and get-togethers, my grampa as a singer, and my great-uncle as fiddler.

I've always liked folk music, but I didn't always let on that I did. I was not one of the popular kids in high school, it was bad enough that I was a girl who read comic books and science fiction and played computer games, I certainly wasn't going to let on that my musical tastes were anything other than whatever was popular at the time. It wasn't until shortly after I graduated that I went public about liking folk music. I invited a boy I liked to what looked like an interesting concert, he said “sure, why not?” and we both enjoyed the music. And that was where I met the two people who would have a huge positive impact on my life: Julia and Fred of the group Castlebay. They introduced me to people who introduced me to other people, who got me to sing. I'll never be good, I lack the confidence to sing solo in group settings, but I have fun.

As I said above, there are many different types of folk. There's traditional (or what frequently gets pigeonholed in music stores under the label of “world” music), there's singer-songwriter, there's sea shanties, there's the folk music revival (think Pete Seeger), there's cross-over stuff like the Pogues and Flogging Molly, there's even a bunch of electric folk done by groups like Steeleye Span. What I hope to do with this blog series is to introduce people to music they might never discover for themselves and maybe even turn a few people into folk fans. I'll be all over the place, some blogs will feature better known names, some will feature friends in informal settings. So I guess all there is to do now is sit back and enjoy the music!

Everyone knows this song, but how many of you knew who wrote it? Woody Guthrie was pretty influential, but I have to admit to not really knowing a whole lot about him, other than his guitar had "This guitar kills fascists" on it. And he wrote a lot of songs that I've heard other people perform.

Pete Seeger is probably the most famous singer from the folk music revival. Most people know this song from The Byrds, but Seeger wrote the music and adapted the original words from Ecclesiastes.

Another one from Pete Seeger . He didn't write this one, it was written by the wife of a miner who was a leader in a strike in the coal mines of Harlan County in the 1930s. It's pretty powerful.

Phil Ochs was another influential person in the folk revival. I didn't know much about him until I started writing this blog entry. He wrote a lot of anti-war protest songs, as well as protesting poor working conditions.

Patrick Sky was a complete unknown until last night. He was one of the few useful suggestions I was given when I asked for suggestions for influential musicians and singers from that era. I'll be doing some more digging later to find out more about him.

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem did a lot to make traditional Irish music better known and also popular. I thought we needed something fun after all the serious stuff of the previous songs.

Steeleye Span did kind of the same for a lot of English and Scottish folk songs that the Clancy Brothers did for Irish trad. I love the harmonies in this one. Sung in Latin, in case anyone was wondering.

John Roberts and Tony Barrand. They do a lot of English folk songs and also have several Christmas albums as Nowell Sing We Clear. I don't know much about Tony, but John is a good friend. I found out after I'd known him for a while that he's kinda famous in the folk music world. Bedlam Boys is a great song, and many folk singers have covered it, including Steeleye Span, which was who I first heard do it.

The Corries were an incredible group that sang a lot of traditional music, but also wrote a lot of their own music. I don't now much about their history, but they definitely have a Scottish Nationalist lean. Flower of Scotland was written by one of the band members and has become the unofficial anthem of Scotland.

I know this was a long blog, but I hope everyone found something they liked and are interested in finding out more. If you are interested in the folk music revival, my friend Bob Nelson in Washington State just finished a five year archive project and gave me permission to share the link to it: The Bob Nelson Collection. There's biography info, music to listen to, etc.

EDIT: I just edited the youtube playlist these are on to public. Click here to find it.

Super Step Contributing Writer

03/01/2013 at 12:50 AM

Yeah, I was still doing Tunes Tuesdays on here as well, and I may start doing ska-punk Saturdays, depending on feedback. Nice to see so many music blogs, although I never seem to have time to listen to all of it, which is why it's nice you have yours on a Friday. lol

Glad to see those awesome tunes back up, and I've commented them before, so you know what I think of, I believe all of them.

I do love games, but out of movies, music, books, TV, etc., music speaks the most directly to my soul so to speak, hence why my CD collection is so much larger than my movies and games collections.

Ranger1

03/01/2013 at 07:41 AM

I debated starting with a new one, but decided since I'd just started the series, I'd just start over with the one I'd just written.

03/01/2013 at 08:26 PM

Don't blame you, plus a whole new slew of people get to check the stuff out.

thederpmaster

03/01/2013 at 12:52 AM

I'm surprised I actually have most of these on my ipod. Really interesting peace!

03/01/2013 at 07:42 AM

Thanks! These take a bit of time to put together, so I'm already working on my next one. Hope you'll read that one, too.

Phantasystar77

03/01/2013 at 02:40 AM

Irish folk music is the best. You simply can't beat stuff like Luke Kelly and The Dubliners.

03/01/2013 at 07:46 AM

Hey Scott! Welcome to the neighborhood! I have to say, I'm not a big fan of The Dubliners, but hey, it's all good.

Homelessrook

03/01/2013 at 07:45 AM

Alright! Tami doing some Folk! I love seeing and hearing these blogs.

03/01/2013 at 07:47 AM

Wouldn't have started them without the encouragement I got from you and Snee.

03/01/2013 at 07:51 AM

Ashley got me started with his blues thursdays. These music blogs just fit. Thank you for doing it. I can not wait to see what Joe puts up tommorow. Also I think Peter is going to do something on the weekend.

smartcelt

03/01/2013 at 10:51 AM

Woody Guthrie is well known here in Oklahoma,along with his son Arlo. They have a big festival celebrating his music each year. You included some great artists in this blog,some of which I am not familiar with. But will definitely be checking out. I'm really big into Irish folk and Celtic folk music in general. Great blog,this is very interesting to me.

03/01/2013 at 11:22 AM

Wayde, glad you liked it! I still have the music you sent me from a while back, found it when I moved two months ago. Keep your eye on this space every Friday!

mothman

03/01/2013 at 11:07 AM

Nice selection of tunes. I've not listened to them yet. I'm using my phone to access the site right now. I may have some weekend stuff coming up. I don't know what yet. I'll be back later once I have access to my laptop again.

03/01/2013 at 11:24 AM

Peter, will this help?

03/01/2013 at 01:50 PM

Nice. I love the fact that I've hooked up with a bunch of music lovers and I'm glad you've joined in on the (almost) daily music blogs.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

03/01/2013 at 11:14 AM

I like Steeleye Span and the medieval harmonies. I really like medieval music. It's really haunting.

Thanks for posting this. It was nice to spend the morning listening to folk, which I usually don't know much about.

03/01/2013 at 11:26 AM

Matt, I'll do some digging around and find some more recommendations for you. Are you familiar with madrigals at all? And there's always Gregorian chants. I'm not religious, but there's something about them that I find soothing.

03/01/2013 at 11:31 AM

I'm not really religious either, but that's kind of where Western music began and was preserved through the dark ages. People still compose music like that (modern classical style) because of the history and tradition. I personally really like it, and love listening to it, even though I don't really have that Christian bent. It's the melodies and harmonies that get me.

03/01/2013 at 11:35 AM

That pretty much sums it up for me, too. We did a unit on faith as part of a world civ class in college that included spending a weekend at a monastery. Listening to the monks during services was one of the highlights.

Machocruz

03/01/2013 at 02:20 PM

Is 'Man of Constant Sorrow' considred folk? I liked the songs they had in 'O Brother Where Art Thou' even though the whole country lifestyle isn't my thing, but I don't know what genre they belong to. Also 'Oh Death' by Ralph Stanley.

03/01/2013 at 02:37 PM

Old Time (like the music from O Brother Where Art Thou) and country both have their roots in folk music (that crappy new country shit not so much). Old Time music is kind of the bridge between what is thought of as folk and what we tend to think of as country. However, I tend not to get too hung up on genres, because the lines are extremely blurred.

A note about the soundtrack from O Brother (and also Songcatcher): the CD soundtrack doesn't include the actual songs from the movie. They "prettied" it up and went with professionals instead of the people that sang the songs in the movie. For example: I'll Fly Away was done by the Kossoy Sisters in the movie and by Gillian Welch on the CD. I used to go to a music retreat that the Kossoy Sisters also go to, listening to them do gospel and spirituals is pretty incredible.

03/01/2013 at 03:06 PM

I really like The Corries and Steeleye Span. Very good stuff! Thanks for the info on them.

03/01/2013 at 04:25 PM

A lot of the members of Steeleye Span have gone on to amazing solo careers. And I knew you'd like the Corries! A lot of their albums have been re-released on CD and Amazon carries them.

Michael117

03/01/2013 at 03:45 PM

UPDATE: Oh well, I couldn't figure out how to embed the videos from youtube here, I'll have to leave links I guess. I'm going to try to embed some videos here but since the features new I may have to take a couple whacks at it before I get it right. I'll post this and hope it goes well, but if it doesn't I'll keep trying to get the videos in. Folk Friday is a great idea. Like you said there's so many types of folk, it has an influence in practically everything and there's lots of unique variations.

I love music that feels medieval, mysterious, and can be triumphant and dark at the same time. I've never much liked sea shanties or songs that people sing aloud together in bars. Those to me can feel silly and forced, like people only pretending to be vikings or people faking to be something that they aren't just so they can fit in. I don't like fake people and pretentious art. I like it when the music paints a deeper picture and is honest and they're not doing it to try and get in on some kind of popular celtic rock or wannabe viking bandwaggon. I really love Skyrim and there's a lot of amazing music in it that adds to the atmosphere and the tone of the lore. In Skyrim you can walk into taverns and the bard is always singing various songs, and you can pay them and request a song too. It's pretty neat. The Dragonborn Comes always gives me goosebumps when I hear it, both the stripped down version as well as the loud orchestral/choir version at the main menu as well.

Dragonborn Comes

Years ago when I was in middle school I came across this old metal album from 1998 by a band called In Ruins. It's mostly a vampiric gothic metal sound, but there's this one short interlude song that was completely different and was unlike anything else I heard in my life at the time. Most stuff I had heard was straight up metal, punk, and 70s rock without much acoustic guitars, classical sounds, and medieval sounds. I didn't know much at all about folk at the time in general so this tiny 2 minute interlude was so fresh and blew me away. It's just the first 2 minutes, then after that it's 6 minutes of metal. I want to find more music that sounds like that first 2 minutes, but I don't know where to look.

In Ruins - Nocturne

03/01/2013 at 04:43 PM

Shanties are much, much, much later than Vikings. Shanties are work songs, I'll be doing a separate entry for them later. I love them, especially when you have a really good shantyman who knows what he (and more rarely, she) is doing. The problem is that you get a lot of people who haven't got a clue about what the song was for and they sing way too frigging fast. My take on the stuff sung in bars is that people sing it because they like to sing. Nothing fake about that. Some is very good, some, well, let's just say at least the people singing are having fun and leave it at that.

I checked out your links. Based on what I heard, I'd recommend Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, and Clannad. Check out Clannad's soundtrack to the Robin of Sherwood BBC TV series. There's a top 100 list on YouTube for them here. The other thing I recommend is getting a Last FM account and just plug in the artist's name that you like and see what happens. I've found a lot of music that way.

03/01/2013 at 05:20 PM

That's really cool, I didn't know any of that. I guess when it comes to people singing in bars or crowds it's not actually about the songs at all and it's not the music I have a problem with, it's whether or not I like the people and if I want to be there lol. When you're around great people you're comfortable with and people sing out of unity, fun, catharsis, and just sharing a nice moment with each other, that's great. I was thinking more about if I'm in a place where people are all annoying strangers I don't care about and they're loud and obnoxious or ultra nationalist or offensive or non inclusive in some way.

I want to be around nice people and nice music, so it's not the shanties, bar songs, or music I have a problem with. I'm going to try and look up some of the suggestions you made. I bet I'll find some great stuff!

03/01/2013 at 05:29 PM

One of the worst concerts I've ever been to was one that I was really excited to get a ticket for. It wasn't the music, it was the people in the crowd. Some were what we refer to as "plastic Paddies" and others acted like they were in a bar. I'll paste what I wrote about it into an email. You'll get a chuckle or two.

Jamie Alston Staff Writer

03/01/2013 at 04:56 PM

Thanks for putting a name and face behind "Turn, Turn, Turn". I never this version before. I heard another group singing it. Was it the Beetles? Can't remember.

03/01/2013 at 05:03 PM

Jamie, Turn, Turn, Turn was done by The Byrds. I like their version better than the original, but I'm not a fan of Pete Seeger.

PixlBit