Also, The BBC Proms Folk Day is this Sunday (20th July).  Bella Hardy, Martin Simpson and Bellowhead are playing!  For more details, click here.

Now the captain he said, to John Henry,
"I'm gonna bring that steam drill 'round,
I'm gonna bring that steam drill out on these tracks,
I'm gonna knock that steel on down, God, God,
Gonna knock that steel on down"

 
John Henry told his captain,
"Lord, man ain't nothin' but a man,
Before I let that steam drill beat me down
I'm gonna die with a hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord,
Die with a hammer in my hand"

John Henry driving on the right side,
That steam drill driving on the left,
Says, "Before I'll let your steam drill beat me down
I'm gonna hammer myself to death, Lord, Lord
I'll hammer my fool self to death"

 
Well, captain said to John Henry,
"What is that storm I hear?"
John Henry said, "That ain't no storm
Captain, that's just my hammer in the air, Lord, Lord
That's just my hammer in the air"

 
John Henry said to his shaker
"Shaker, why don't you sing?
'Cause I'm swigin' thirty pounds from my hips on down
Yeah, listen to my cold steel ring, Lord, Lord
Listen to my cold steel ring"

Now John Henry, he hammered in the mountains
His hammer was striking fire
But he worked so hard, he broke his heart
John Henry laid his hammer and died, Lord, Lord
John Henry laid down his hammer and died

Well, now John Henry, he had him a woman
By the name of Polly Ann
She walked down to those tracks, picked up John Henry's hammer
Polly drove steel like a man, Lord, Lord
Polly drove that steel like a man
Hey!

 
Well every Monday morning
When the bluebird he begin to sing
You can hear John Henry from a mile or more
You can hear John Henry's hammer ring, Lord, Lord
You can hear John Henry's hammer ring
say it again!

John Henry isn't just a man he is more than that you see.
He drives around with some aussies out bound,
looking to be wild and free.

So should you see him at a pass,
with an awkward glance,
just smile and nod and give ur gal a prod
for lord he is finally free Lord, Lord he is finally free.

Female singers in mainstream pop like Mariah Carey and Leona Lewis habitually sustain and mangle vowels to engender fake emotion into banal love songs. The intonation of Josephine Foster is also mannered and eccentric but the effect is much more profound. It sounds like she is singing from the heart and not the head.

Just take a listen to the way she pronounces simple words like 'adore' , 'ground' or 'coca-cola' on her wonderful new album 'This Coming Gladness' (out now on Bo Weavil Recordings). Above all, the feeling that come from being exposed to her extraordinary voice is one of longing. This is encapsulated in one of the standout songs called 'All I wanted was the moon' where there's a delicacy to her vocals but also a plaintive quality that is hypnotising.

Her MySpace page refers to the songs "transcendental art-rock" which sounds Pseudy yet highlights the difficulty in classifying exactly it what it she does. Her sound floats between experimental folk and rock without falling easily into either category.

On many of her earlier solo records, particularly the cdrs, her voice is more exposed with just a simple backing from guitar, mandolin and auto-harp. Here she is backed by some neat psyched guitar moves by Victor Herrero and the ubiquitous and inspirational drumming of Alex Neilson. This fleshes out the ten songs beautifully to produce one of the albums of the year.

I figured that I would start out my musings on filk with a discussion of folk music influenced by Simon Frith's 1981 article in Popular Music, "'The Magic That Can Set You Free': The Ideology of Folk and the Myth of the Rock Community." I'll also be drawing from the chapter, "'Strangers No More, We Sing': Filk Music, Folk Culture, and the Fan Community," from Henry Jenkins's book, Textual Poachers (1992). Jenkins, as many of us know, is one of the few scholars to have devoted considerable time and pen space to filk as a genre--work that has been published in several important books on fan culture.

The purpose of Frith's article is to debunk rock's status as a folk art and at the same time to discuss how rock is, despite this, "used by its listeners as a folk music." In spinning out his argument, Frith gives several definitions of filk from figures such as Jon Landau (the Rolling Stone), Sir Hubert Parry (a late-19th-century English composer), and A.L. Lloyd (an early 20th-century English folk singer and folk song collector). When considered together, these definitions highlight several important aspects of folk music that, when compared to what we (the collective "we" that really means "I") know about filk, fully endorse Jenkins's assertion that filk is a true folk art.

Jenkins spends a good portion of his article on filk discussing its folk status, giving several qualities, endorsed by scholars, common to all folk music: "oral circulation rather than fixed written texts, continuity within musical tradition, variation in performance, and selection by a community that determines which songs are preserved, which discarded." He also explores the practice of communities' refashioning and recreating of folk music to continually serve the current identity of each community. He very clearly and effectively presents filk as an authentic folk music based on these qualifications.

Moving beyond Jenkins's discussion of folk music, though, we find presented in Frith's article several other ideological qualities of this art. As part of his argument, Frith intimates that folk music should rise from the creativity of folk who are related by experiences other than music. Frith frowns on rock's status as a folk genre because the "community" it serves is not tied together by anything other than the music it claims. While we might argue with this claim, it does not preclude filk as a folk music.

According to all the accounts I have read on the emergence of filk from the midnight creativity of fan cons, it is music made by a community that is already tied together by their dedication to their fan interests. Jenkins affirms that filk pulls together this group, "resolving the differences separating them, providing a common basis for interaction." The SF&F community is not built on its music making--its music making reinforces its existing foundation.

More important than folk music's role as a tool for already-built communities is the fact that, within it, there is no elite. The lines between performer and audience are minimal or nonexistent. A.L. Lloyd stated that "the main thing [in folk music] is that the songs are made and sung by men [sic] who are identical with their audience in standing, in occupation, in attitude to life, and in daily experience." While within rock, the audience is encouraged to believe that their stars have risen from their ranks and have remained there in some small fashion, in filk the audience is the performer, and the performer is a member of the audience. They share attitudes, interests, and a dedication to media culture. Filk celebrates the in-references found in SF&F fandom, the sense of ownership that the fans feel over their preferred media, and the right of the fans to comment upon and critique these texts. Elitism is minimized within this community.

By far the most striking requirement for folk music, as related by Frith, is its "authenticity." According to Landau, authentic music "articulates an attitude, style or feeling that is the genuine reflection of the performers' experience…." In a "true" folk music, emotions are not faked and the situations of the community are sincerely (if sometimes farcically) related. In acting as the voice of the fans, filk distinguishes itself as a music that authentically expresses the attitudes and desires of those fans.

Sir Hubert Parry presents a lovely, somewhat idyllic view of folk music: it "grew in the heart of the people...because it pleased them to make it, and what they made pleased them; and that is the only good way music is ever made." This is another, admittedly optimistic, view of music making that makes the requirement of "authenticity" nearly impossible to reach. The motives of the music must be pure--the music must be made simply for the joy of making it.

And, incredibly, filk seems to meet this difficult requirement. Filk is made because fans enjoy it. It was not created--and still is not created--to make a significant income or to gain significant fame, but for its specific community's pleasure.

As I mentioned, Jenkins provides a more exhaustive discussion of filk as folk. In Frith's article, however, we have found several more requirements of folk music that identify filk even more securely as a denizen of folk culture. At its heart, filk's authentic nature, its edification of an already-existing community , and the equality it celebrates between performer and audience have identified it as a folk music in a society and time in which true folk music is rare.

The discussion of the classification of filk as folk could fill a book, and this poor blog would bend under the weight of all that info, but lets discuss this. Criticism and commentary are welcome!

And in the meantime, happy TTOs to all! 
mh

(This entry has been cross-posted at my Wordpress site.)

Mystery Road is doing extremely well.  Even while on break, we received TWO gig offers and we took them both.  The first was on the 8th at Mansion 462 in Chapel Hill which was an absolutely blast.  The band played REALLY well and the energy level was really high.  The venue itself was fantastic and the staff were true professionals.  This means that the band was treated like professionals and that's a killer feeling.  Having a REAL soundcheck, a soundguy that knows his shit, a stage, lights, beautiful room.  Damn, it was a really great experience.  We even managed to pull in some new fans which is always exciting.  Out buddies Gabe and Mimi from The Pneurotics came out and support and hang out with us which was a great treat.

The other show we did was just Elana & I doing a duo set at the Berkeley Cafe in Raleigh.  With our rhythm section out of town for the Allgood Festival, we weren't sure how this would work out but after two rehearsals, Elana and I really worked up a nice set and scaled down the tunes for an intimate duo setting.  The response from the show was VERY positive and we got a lot of great feedback after the set.  The popular song this night was "Ghost Town" which really seems to be turning into a crowd favorite as we ALWAYS hear about that song after each show.  Hey, I'm just so stoked people are listening and taking it all in.

So now here we are, back on break.  We have our work cut out for us.  Three originals to learn, harmony vocals to work on and just tweaking up the already existing songs.  I know we can pull it off but we just have to be disciplined and make it happen.  I'm sure we'll have some frustrating moments here and there but I know this band can pull it off.

Thanks to everyone who came out to Mansion 462 in Chapel Hill.  We had so much fun that night opening for HWYL! and the response we got was very positive.  So much in fact that we've been invited back to perform in September (details coming soon).  The venue was fantastic and the staff just treated us like true professionals.  Every band should have an experience like that.  In addition to that one, Elana and I did a special duo set at The Berkeley Cafe in Raleigh opening for The Kindness of Strangers and Radio Island.  It was a great evening of music and while the audience was small and extremely hot (no A/C), we had an absolute blast.  The set went really well and once again, the feedback was very positive and folks really enjoyed the set.  We had a great time.

So what now?  Well, back to our break.  We've got 3 new originals to work on, I'm even transitioning a few songs to electric guitar to see how they sound and then we hit the gig circuit again with a show at our beloved Cave in Chapel Hill on August 9th with our good friends The Pneurotics!  Should be a great time.  We are hoping to cut our demo sometime soon but we also figured that it's best to not rush it so we will not have a demo available for the August 9th show but we will have something VERY special for everyone anyways so just hang in there!

Thanks again to each and every one for all their support and love!  We love you all!

on the 2 January 1492 the Andaluz city of Granada fell to a besieging army of christian Celts and franks ending 750 years of Arab civilisation in the Iberian Peninsula. What had become a haven of learning, culture and tolerance met the kind of violent end that was to characterise christian expansion; with papal approval Arab, morisco (mixed christian and Arab) and Jewish populations were indiscriminately slaughtered, the libraries and universities torched...

To celebrate the occasion a pageant known as a 'Moresca'  was devised; a Celtic dance describing the fate of the Moors (Arabs) at the hands of the victorious christians. The Moresca spread throughout christian Europe, changing name as it passed through regions and languages; morisques (F), moriskentanz (D), moreška (Ju), morisca i(I), arriving as 'Morris' in fifteenth century England.

Ever since, 'Morris' has been seen in the UK as quintessentially English in that peculiar way the English have of defining English-ness through foreign imports; St George (Turkish), Morris (Spanish), Royal Family (German), Churchill (half American), The Mini (Greek designer) - and why not, we are a mongrel race, despite what the BNP would have us believe...

Apart from a modern addition of the Concertina to the traditional line-up of pipe and drum , the musical form of Morris has changed little...until now. Breaking with 'tradition', radical new forms of Morris appear to be developing including 'Goth Morris' an obscure blend of satanic ritual and Morris dance which despite it's neo pagan pretensions adheres rigidly to standard musical form. Conversely the more recently 'Free Morris' movement eschews all traditional form and is recognisable as true Morris only by retaining Morris-like instrumentation; concertinas, hand drums and flutes and the occasional symbolic items of clothing; blacked faces and orange ribbons; all else is obscured by a raucous field of free improvisation and spontaneous 'dance'.  Free Morris reveals by a process of cultural erosion the history of violence deeply embedded within Morris and thereby all nationalist tradition.

___

Sources:

Goth Morris

Hastings 'jack in the Green' (the home of 'Free Morris')

Mad jack Morris (typical reformist Morris)

I wanted a grainy look so shot 35mm black and white Kodak Tri-X film with a Nikon F2 Photomic body. Was so long ago I don't remember what lens I used or the lighting setup but am guessing I used a Bowens mono light with an umbrella from above and behind. I borrowed all the vintage stringed folk instruments from a music collector.

Jay Brannan is one of my favorite artists. He sounds different and his lyrics are wacky, but he's fucking fantastic.I discovered him after seeing the controversial film 'Shortbus' in which Jay played a cute guy named Ceth. His song Soda Shop is featured in the film, and that got me hooked. His first CD, Goddamned, has just recently been released and you all should definitely check him out.