American Folk Blues Festivals 1963-1966: The British Tours

[Rabs]

Man theres a wealth of old amazing blues here.. when they came over to show us all how its done :)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZMoikK3ct8

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o44L_e9bZrk

[Rabs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n79A--utSI

[milod]

Nice material - and stuff I absolutely dearly love. But...

 

It kinda strikes me that "folk" is a term used as loosely as "rock."

 

Ditto "blues."

 

Gonna download the vids when I get home! Thanks!

 

m

[Rabs]

Nice material - and stuff I absolutely dearly love. But...

 

It kinda strikes me that "folk" is a term used as loosely as "rock."

 

Ditto "blues."

 

Gonna download the vids when I get home! Thanks!

 

m

No worries

 

And I see it, its a term used for music that is about the people and by the people.. Which traditionally was called folk music.. Same as Rap music could be considered the modern day folk music (of sorts :)).. At least they have the term Blues in there, and a lot of these guys, you can see it in their faces, the blues, those guys understand pain ;)

[milod]

I dunno... I like a less "loose" definition of "folk music" on grounds that currently popular "rock" could be so considered.

 

Then again, I tended to be bothered a bit by calling songs Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan "folk music."

 

I dunno how electric blues can be "folk music," either.

 

Greensleeves, otoh, is "folk music."

 

m

[Rabs]

I dunno... I like a less "loose" definition of "folk music" on grounds that currently popular "rock" could be so considered.

 

Then again, I tended to be bothered a bit by calling songs Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan "folk music."

 

I dunno how electric blues can be "folk music," either.

 

Greensleeves, otoh, is "folk music."

 

m

Yeah I think when a person thinks about traditional folk music you think old English played on a lute lol :)

 

But the very word folk means people.. So by that definition kind of like pop music, its music that's for the people at any given time rather than genre.. so I guess its about the individual songs lyrics.. So I see it as music that is at "grass roots" level in terms of what the songs are about.

 

Lol, its all neither here nor there really.. categorising any form of art is always a dodgy thing to do and as always is more about and individuals perspective than anything else I think. But we have to refer to it as something and more to the point the press has to in order to write about it which is where most people get their definitions of what music is what.

[milod]

I think it's more than "dodgy."

 

According to the loose definition, Beethoven's Moonlight would be "folk music." Ditto Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring."

 

I don't buy it.

 

There also are composed songs of various sorts over the past 150 years or so that have remained "popular" in that they're relatively often performed. Is it "folk" if it fits the opinion of "Person A," and "not folk" if it doesn't?

 

I'm not just talking about such as Greensleeves. The song "black girl" or "little girl," depending on provenance, recorded by Leadbelly and Bill Monroe is the sort of thing that definitely might qualify as "folk" in that it has lyric borrowings as well as a relatively common melody - and no known provenance in terms of origination.

 

Hundreds of "old time" fiddle tunes in the U.S. were overlooked as "old people's music" or "old time music" by young musicians in the "folk scene" in the U.S. and yet they're far closer to "folk music" than Bob Dylan originals. And that's nothing against Dylan - and heaven knows I played enough of his material through the years.

 

It's just not "folk music."

 

Child ballads or Lomax material comes pretty close, IMHO, and one can hear variations on old recordings. I wish Lomax, especially, might have included more "old time" material in his compilations, but...

 

As for "the press," that's me too. Nearly 50 years. Writers have two weaknesses in such cases: 1, they are ignorant going into their work and, 2, they may report accurately, but the interviewee may him or herself be either ignorant, self-serving or simply following what he or she hears in a musical subculture.

 

Having lived and performed in that latter subculture, I'll state categorically that making word definitions fit one's politics and perspective was an artifact of the "folk revival" that continues in that generation today.

 

m