My particular interest is in folk and folk-rock music from 
England, Scotland and Ireland, so I'm surprised I haven't started 
a folk music item before now.

228 responses total.

I'll start things off by mentioning that I discovered a new folk
radio show today, while driving to meet the Saturday Grex Walkers
for lunch.  It's on WCBN, 88.3 FM in Ann Arbor, and it probably 
starts at 10 or 11 am Saturday morning, running to noon or 1.
They played Steeleye Span, Adrian Legg, and some rather lovely 
French accordion, bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy music which I never did
identify.
 
A week ago Friday, the band Cordelia's Dad played a fine show at
Ten Pound Fiddle in East Lansing.  The band has now settled on 
an all acoustic, all-traditional format.  They've added a 
fourth member, fiddler Laura Risk, who fills out the sound nicely.
 
Cordelia's Dad began around 1990 as a rock trio playing English and 
American folk songs.  I describe their first, self-titled CD as:
"The Ramones Play Folk Music."  Two years later, the band had ditched
the British material, and they were starting to venture into 
acoustic sounds.  HOW CAN I SLEEP, the CD from that period, is 
the best American electro-trad album I know of.

Then the band entered a period of turmoil....    (more to come)

... in which they tried to exist as a band which played acoustic 
sets and electric rock sets.  Tim Eriksen of the band told me that this 
was not working well; it's quite exciting artistically, but the reality
of the music business is that there are acoustic venues and alternative 
rock venues, and most of the audiences at these venues know pretty well
what they want.
 
When I saw the band around '95 at the Ark, the original guitarist had 
left.  Tim Eriksen had switched from bass to guitar and banjo, and 
Cath Oss had joined.  Cath just sang harmonies in the acoustic set,
and she played bass in the rock set.  In '95 the acoustic set was 
tremendously exciting, and the rock set seemed mostly confused.
 
Last fall Cordelia's Dad announced that they were going to be acoustic-only
in the future.  They're repackaging their rock aspirations as a different
band called Io, and both Cordelia's Dad and Io are planning to have releases
out this summer.  After hearing the Ten Pound Fiddle show, I'm eagerly
looking forward to the Cordelia's Dad album; I think it will be as good 
as their best previous album.  I don't know *what* I should be expecting
from the Io album.

I have an old record by a British group from the early to mid 70's calle The
New Seekers. Has anyone ever heard of them, and are they a spin-off of a group
from the 60's called The Seekers.

RE #3 The New Seekers were apparently a spinoff from the 1960's Seekers ("I'll
Never Find Another You"/"Georgy Girl").  The New Seekers' biggest hits were
"Look What They've Done To My Song" (written by folksinger Melanie) and "I'd
Like To Teach The World To Sing" (which was a spinoff of a Coca-Cola
commercial).

sure it wasn't the other way around? i was always told the song came first,
then the commercial.

 i thought the comerical was a spin off of the song....

Jumping a discussion over from the World Music item:  
the quasi-hit single from Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac has 
a woman singing in Gaelic.  This has led a number of people to assume
that Ashley is female.  
 
Ashley's singer is Mary Jane Lamond, also of Cape Breton.  She has her
own solo album out, FROM THE LAND OF THE TREES, which is one of the 
finer Gaelic song albums I've heard recently.  MacIsaac plays on most
of the tracks.

Well, let's just say that I wind up at the Ark, a lot...

My brother and my dad used to record Simon and Garfunkle songs on our
reel-to-reel tape deck.  I think that's probably where it all started, for
me.  It was a long line of heroes, after that.

There was Billy.  A friend gave me a tape of _Talking With the Taxman
About Poetry_.  Who was this guy, singing about socialism and sex?

At college, I got to review The Proclaimers' first album when it came out
in 1988.  My roommate left the lp on top of an amp and I thought I'd never
see it again.  Luckily they hit it big, four years later, and I had no
trouble finding a replacement.

Our production manager at the newspaper got me hooked on Loudon Wainright
III, and I never quite recovered...  He had a radio show, too, named after
a Neil Young song, "For the Turnstyles".

Then there was this industrial hip-hop rap band.  Believe me, I was little
confused when they opened up for a folk rock concert.  I wound up so
impressed, however, that I followed their lead singer into another band,
and caught *their* opening act, the amazing LA-based Ben Harper. 

While waiting in line for an oil change in the dead of winter, I was
introduced to "The Pagans and the Christians" via an interview with Dar
Williams.  I laughed so hard I nearly forgot it took more than an hour to
get a fifteen-minute oil change.  The weather warmed up and so did the
audience when we saw her, later that year. 

As long as we're on the subject, Leo Kottke's "Why Can't You Fix My Car" 
was running through my head as mine was in surgery.  Luckilly, it didn't
prevent me from finally seeing him, for the first time, last year.  I'm
not exactly sure what to call his music, other than mighty fine... 

I'd say more, but I've probably already got you scratching your head...

  

Grin. I got to hear her do that one live, soon after she wrote it, when
she opened for Keelaghan a while back. (Dar Williams, Christians and
Pagans).

I tend to be much more focussed on British/Celtic/traditional music than
any American stuff, though I do like some singer-songwriter types (um,
Mary Chapin Carpenter, Keelaghan, Garnet Rogers...Darden Smith.... um,
sheesh, John Hiatt...) and I'm a sucker for anything that takes trad.
musical forms and gives it a rock sensibility, aka things like the
Levellers, the Oysterband, the Tansads, um, Cordelia's Dad, Tempest,
Boiled in Lead... I think it's the fiddle that does it for me in a lot
of these groups, since I find that it's so cool. (Also appearing on
my top ten list are Horslips and a lot of the newer Scottish/Irish
bands that are NOT trad. at all, but most of their stuff's at work.)

Here's some disappointing news about the "Celtic rock" band Wolfstone,
from the latest issue of Scotland's "Living Tradition" magazine.
 
Wolfstone, after fulfilling all their current tour commitments, is 
going to suspend touring for at least six months to reassess the future
of the band.  The article says that they have the touring expenses of 
a rock group, but they are only pulling the income of a folk group,
and the tone of the item suggests that Wolfstone's future, if it has
any at all, will be as a part time group.

I love Darden Smith...  There's another concert I could kick myself for
missing at the Ark (the Boo Hewerdine/Darden Smith reunion)...  I never
grow tired of Darden's _Little Victories_ album.  That alone should've
been enough to get me out to the show.  But, silly me...had never heard
the Hewerdine collaboration, so I gave it up.

I finally ran across _Evidence_ at the library and then I coulda cried...

I heard Hiatt's "Lipstick Sunset" a while back and that got me interested.
I've kept up with him, since.  I was at a concert when some guy from a lousy
band smashed a guitar.  All I could think of was Hiatt's line in "Perfectly
Good Guitar":  "there oughta be a law with no bail, smash a guitar and you
go to jail, with no chance of early parole, don't get out until you get some
soul".  No kidding...

        I find myself liking American folkies quite a bit, including
Michigan's Joel Mabus, Kitty Donahue, Chennile Sisters and others.
Also like some Canadian fokies I've heard, Stan Rogers being tops.

I love the Chenille Sisters.  They're a lot of fun...

News from the new issue of DIRTY LINEN magazine:  Steeleye Span is 
booking a North American tour for June.  Usually Steeleye's US visits
haven't gone farther into the American interior than Pittsburgh; but 
the one announced stop on this tour is Houston, so maybe we'll 
get lucky.

Yes, yes, yes! (II will sacrifice to the gods of folk music if only it
came true.)

I see we also have another magazine in common, Ken!

I'm planning to be at the Ark for Thursday's concert by Natalie 
MacMaster.  Natalie is a young Cape Breton fiddler.  I assume she'll 
be with her regular piano accompanist Tracey Dares.  
 
Cape Breton is the eastern end of Nova Scotia, and the fiddle music 
there has a big Scottish influence.  Ashley MacIsaac is also from Cape 
Breton.  Natalie is *not* as flashy as Ashley is.

When's the show?  8P?  Hmmm...  I'll let you know if being there winds up a
possibility.

Well, I just picked up the first volume of the new Woody Guthrie compilation
on Smithsonian/Folkways.  Included are some great liner notes, a rare version
of "This Land Is Your Land", and some darn fine music.  I highly recommend
this one as both a good starter album for the uninitiated and a good
reminiscence for the familiar.

My american history class spent a whole day on woody guthrie.. probably
because the teacher is a fan of his music, but still.  he was a significant
figure.

Steve-  Wow!  I wish I had had your history teacher!

<seconds that>

NOOOOOOOOOOO! THE WOLFSTONES CAN'T QUIT! *sobs of dispair*
someone buy them a lottery ticket!

There are all sorts of rumors on Usenet's rec.music.celtic suggesting 
that the real cause of the Wolfstone split is a dispute with their
record company.  ???
 
Speaking of Scottish band splits:  Donnie Munro, the lead singer of 
Runrig, made a run for Parliament in the recent UK election, where 
he was a candidate of the Scottish Nationalist Party.  
Munro did not win the seat, but he is leaving Runrig to pursue 
politics.  His farewell with the band is coming up sometime this 
summer, a big concert in Scotland of course.

This month's _Rhythm Music_ magazine features articles on Celtic music.  There
was an ad for some festival that was going on this weekend in NYC area. 
Although I find this magazine to be nearly the _Vogue_ of world music, it
helps pass the time...

New web page for the Ark, the major folk venue in Ann Arbor:
http://www.a2ark.org

kewlio!!!!! shanks!

Would one real word per response be too much to ask, jiffer? :)

This text is to show Orinoco that, yes, i can use real words. However, I
personally am against mundaness and have my own rules for living.  thank you
and please, enjoy the show.

Viva La Music!

I'm listening to Dar Williams tonight and recalling all of the things that
draw me to folk music:  intimacy, warmth, and honesty.

Is there another Ark, somewhere else?  Why the "a2" in their address?

Dunno. Maybe they just didn't want to give up 
their site on daddyo.com?

It's a nice site though. (The next show I'm 
going to attend will probably be the Mustards 
Retreat in July... but I'm looking forward to 
seeing what else makes the summer schedule.

Twila, I seem to recall you mentioning that you volunteered at the Ark.
I'd like to find out more about that...

Yeah, I do. Um, basically, you can ask at the snack bar at a  show, though
it's wisest to wait until it's not busy :-). Then  you can sign up in
the volunteer book, and work shows. Uusually, you prepare the place,
(make coffee, popcorn, make sure there's tp in the bathrooms, etc.),
then actually work behind the bar and or as a few other things, and 
after the show, you help clean up.That's for typical volunteers,
but htere are also sound-board people (who have to know how to do
it first), and people who do other things, but I'm not sure how that 
works. It's a lot of fun, and you usually (if you want) can talk to
to the artists and gerenally make a bunch of new friends. 

Excessive neatness...

Cool.  Thanks for the tips, Twila!  I didn't realize they opened up the
soundboard to qualified volunteers.

Thanks Ken for introducing me to Karen Casey, Richard and Linda Thompson, 
and Natalie MacMaster.  I plan on taping them!  Much enjoyed! 

You didn't know R.Thompson?! He's soooo good...

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss