PLAIN FOLK
by Les Pearson
Nick Drake’s Spirit Still Sails Today’s Soft Folk Seas!
On the back of Nick Drake’s headstone in Tanworth-in-Arden cemetery, not far from Stratford-on-Avon in England , are these words: “Now we rise, and we are everywhere.” Tyler McLaughlin understands.
In life, Nick Drake was practically unnoticed by all but an underground folk following. But since his death in 1974, his reputation and influence have spread like asian bird flu. There is no pandemic…yet. (But there could be!)
Tyler introduced me to Nick Drake almost casually. I was telling him that I had just experienced Sam Beam and the Iron and Wine recordings. Tyler said that I would like Drake if I liked Beam. In fact, he added, Sam Beam had been influenced by Nick Drake’s quiet folk acoustic stylings.
Speaking of Drake’s Pink Moon final recording, Tyler declared, “It’s as pure as it gets—his music, the lyrics, and his guitar.”
In his first recordings, Drake dallied with orchestrated sound. He used cellos, percussion, and assorted other instrumental backing. This may have been a hangover from his days at Marlborough Public School where he was leader of the school’s jazz band. It was at Marlborough that he learned to play flute and saxophone. The guitar, Bob Dylan, and Donovan came later.
“Later” sounds lengthy. In fact, Nick Drake’s entire recording career spanned only four short, prolific, years and resulted in three albums: Five Leaves Left (Island 1969), Bryter Layter (Island 1970), and the Pink Moon (Island) recording in 1972. To get all the biographical details, check out “The Nick Drake Files: Nick Drake A-Z” at www.algonet.se/~iguana/DRAKE/DRAKE.html.
The fact is that Universal released a compilation CD, Made to Love Music, as recently as 2004. Time is relative! Drake’s influences are, indeed, everywhere.
Tyler is not alone in his appreciation for Nick Drake’s “very powerful, minimalistic” acoustic guitar picking and barely breathed vocals.
It took Patrick O’Brien, a youthful Folk Club board member, only short shrift to reference an article by Derk Richardson in Acoustic Guitar (December 2004) entitled “King of Quiet: Nick Drake’s legacy inspires acoustic indie-pop artists Kings of Convenience, Devendra Banhart, and Iron and Wine” (67-77).
Without turning this into a term paper, Richardson’s article points a critically acute finger at the exact influences Drake is having on contemporary folk artists.
He suggests it is the Drake aesthetic—“his lacy acoustic guitar-based arrangements; soft-focus, murmured vocals; and existential lyrics…”(68). And the young artists he has influenced, Richardson claims, include such bright lights as Mark Kozelek of Red House Painters, Hope Sandoval, Badly Drawn Boy, Sondre Lerche, Duncan Shiek, Ed Harcourt, and Kathryn Williams.
I admit, these names are new to me. Nick Drake has opened up a new and youthful folk movement that had been screened from my aging eyes. The amazing part? I truly like the new stuff. The melodies and acoustic style, that is.
Drake’s lyrics are dark and sentimental. But, then, so was I at 21. And that is re-assuring