|
|
| Author |
Message |
krj
|
|
Folk Music
| 
Mar 2 06:21 UTC 1997 |
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. |
krj
|
|
response 1 of 228:
|
Mar 2 06:40 UTC 1997 |
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)
|
krj
|
|
response 2 of 228:
|
Mar 3 08:14 UTC 1997 |
... 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.
|
jradio
|
|
response 3 of 228:
|
Mar 4 18:19 UTC 1997 |
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.
|
bruin
|
|
response 4 of 228:
|
Mar 4 21:21 UTC 1997 |
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).
|
kewy
|
|
response 5 of 228:
|
Mar 5 20:02 UTC 1997 |
sure it wasn't the other way around? i was always told the song came first,
then the commercial.
|
jiffer
|
|
response 6 of 228:
|
Mar 12 07:21 UTC 1997 |
i thought the comerical was a spin off of the song....
|
krj
|
|
response 7 of 228:
|
Mar 17 03:47 UTC 1997 |
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.
|
mziemba
|
|
response 8 of 228:
|
Mar 19 13:45 UTC 1997 |
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...
|
anderyn
|
|
response 9 of 228:
|
Mar 20 03:08 UTC 1997 |
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.)
|
krj
|
|
response 10 of 228:
|
Mar 20 11:12 UTC 1997 |
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.
|
mziemba
|
|
response 11 of 228:
|
Mar 20 11:38 UTC 1997 |
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...
|
mziemba
|
|
response 12 of 228:
|
Mar 20 11:51 UTC 1997 |
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...
|
tpryan
|
|
response 13 of 228:
|
Mar 29 18:28 UTC 1997 |
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.
|
mziemba
|
|
response 14 of 228:
|
Mar 29 18:38 UTC 1997 |
I love the Chenille Sisters. They're a lot of fun...
|
krj
|
|
response 15 of 228:
|
Mar 30 05:49 UTC 1997 |
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.
|
anderyn
|
|
response 16 of 228:
|
Mar 31 01:21 UTC 1997 |
Yes, yes, yes! (II will sacrifice to the gods of folk music if only it
came true.)
|
mziemba
|
|
response 17 of 228:
|
Mar 31 11:36 UTC 1997 |
I see we also have another magazine in common, Ken!
|
krj
|
|
response 18 of 228:
|
Apr 10 01:13 UTC 1997 |
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.
|
mziemba
|
|
response 19 of 228:
|
Apr 10 05:49 UTC 1997 |
When's the show? 8P? Hmmm... I'll let you know if being there winds up a
possibility.
|
mziemba
|
|
response 20 of 228:
|
May 3 07:31 UTC 1997 |
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.
|
senna
|
|
response 21 of 228:
|
May 7 01:05 UTC 1997 |
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.
|
mziemba
|
|
response 22 of 228:
|
May 8 09:11 UTC 1997 |
Steve- Wow! I wish I had had your history teacher!
|
orinoco
|
|
response 23 of 228:
|
May 10 00:33 UTC 1997 |
<seconds that>
|
jiffer
|
|
response 24 of 228:
|
Jun 15 14:45 UTC 1997 |
NOOOOOOOOOOO! THE WOLFSTONES CAN'T QUIT! *sobs of dispair*
someone buy them a lottery ticket!
|