MUSIC THAT’S “FOLK”

Just when you think you understand, the rules change and you just don’t know! This is especially true when it comes to a definitive understanding of “folk music.”

Worse still, at those moments when you need to be knowledgeable and informed about folk music, your attempt to find a clear definition is doomed to befuddlement. The range and scope of this musical genre boggles any mind in allegro time. Here’s the proof.

A prospective Folk Music Club member asked me if blues is part of the folk tradition. What about bluegrass or country western tunes? The answer to these questions is fairly clear and direct. Yes, of course, these genres fall well within anyone’s definition of “traditional” or “folk” music. And then, to grandstand just a bit, I blared, “It’s everything but rap and hip-hop!” (I think I even added “heavy metal.”)

Enter the 2002 Calgary Folk Music Festival and one of its surprise star performers! Michael Franti & Spearhead stormed onto centre stage with virtuoso rap beats and hip-hop lyrics that pounded out themes of political awareness and social reform. The Calgary Festival Guide describes Franti’s music as “…cultural witnessing on a profound scale, storytelling in the best folk tradition.” And the crowd loved it!

This advent of “folk” rap and hip-hop inspires--beyond personal humility--faith in this music’s ability to thrive and survive. Folk music is simply adapting to a new age and new folks!

Roll over, Woody Guthrie! Pete Seeger and Mr. Dylan, take that well-deserved hike. My “folk” definition is in flagrant transition when dat Franti man takes to da mike.

Nor should I be surprised if, one day soon or maybe already, grunge bands and “metal” music mystically appear on a folk festival stage. If “folk” is the music of the people, consider the witness of thirty to forty thousand folks who attended the Stage 13 rock festival in Camrose this summer. Rock is many people’s music! But is it always “folk” music?

Part of the answer isCorb Lund. He’s formerly a member ofThe Smalls, a thrash punk band with a near-cult following in Northern Alberta. Corb was a headliner at this summer’s “South Country Fair” folk festival in Fort Macleod. His “cryin’, hurtin’, drinkin’,” country western blues were a festival hit. If this artist can make the transition from punk to folk look easy, maybe definitions have blurred to oblivion.

Or maybe folk definitions are like South Alberta weather; they evolve, unexpectedly. Regardless of the forms folk music takes, it will always have ageless, memorable, melodies. And it will always record the best and worst of human life and times.

The last word is Garnet Rogers’. The 70’s folk singer believed that “…folk music is journalism. It has to say something about the human condition and people’s lives and how they relate to one another, to themselves or to their jobs.”

This is its ultimate power and distinction. Folk music touches us, moves us, and persuades us because it is about us. It’s road music and companionship for life’s journey. And maybe, just maybe, there are Saskatchewan highway sections perfectly in tune with hip-hop. See http://www.coe.ufl.edu/courses/edtech/Vault/Folk/DEFINITION.HTM for further discussion of this topic.