Blog

Why has FolkWords taken to focusing on Americana, what about British folk? Strange question given the rich cornucopia and wide variety of music that falls (however obliquely) under the folk banner and appears on FolkWords. Nevertheless, the question was asked so let's consider the answer. Could it be that some of our American cousins are sending more folk for review?

The festivities of the season are a dim memory and all that remains is to take down the decorations (which always look rather tawdry and sad once the party is over). There's also the spectre of paying off the debts and losing the weight. There's the recovery from the alcohol-induced merriment of new year celebrations and the desperate search through destoryed brain cells to remember exactly what you did at the party.

Shuffling along with the rest of the sheep enduring the purgatory of Christmas shopping I found myself ushered into a well known music emporium. While the rest of the family headed severally for DVDs and Games I wandered around the CD aisles. In the sparsely populated 'Folk and Country' section I found a couple of CDs for the princely sum of £3.45 and decided to 'splash the cash'. As I was paying, I remarked to the assistant that the CDs I buy are getting cheaper by the month. "All old albums I suppose," he said with a knowing grin as he looked at the age of the person before him. "Well you'd better make the most of it," he cheerily quipped, "there won't be any CDs in a few months."

Apparently, we are: "mixing different strands of folk" and doing that is: "just one more way to dilute the authenticity of all folk." That's an accusation that flew in from left field this morning. If we are going to review music from fields such as nu-folk, traditional folk and psych-folk including Americana, blues-folk and country then we are doing nothing more than "casting a net so wide that it has everything from cod to crustaceans cobbled together inside it." Apart from the slightly mixed metaphors I'm damn glad I didn't say that as some of those described thus could be justifiably rather pissed off.

According to our good friends at Folk Police Recordings there hasn't been a folk rock single in the UK charts since Steeleye Span managed to ramp up to No.14 with Guadete. (As I recall, most DJs at the time had significant issues pronouncing Gaudete correctly - 'Gawdet' seemed to be the most regular effort.) In their quest to bring another folk rock recording to a lofty Christmas chart position, they've released 'Spencer the Rover' by The Woodbine & Ivy Band - and having heard a promo copy I reckon it's distinctly 'Christmas feel' means they have a damn good chance.

I’ve just read an interesting take on folk music, folk art and folk lore. There was much to intrigue, admire and consider. However, one attempt to define folk music and give it a ‘cultural position’ caught my attention (probably because of my continued dislike of classification). The paragraph concerned follows – as does an attempt to put forward an alternative view:

“Folk music is regarded by many as an ancient art form that articulates the situations, values and desires of some past way of life. It also records the injustices, oppression and problems faced by people that lived that life.