Folk Show Forum

Does ukulele qualify as a folk instrument?

2010-07-25T14:20:05Z

In all openness, I have a ukulele website - UkeCanPlay.com - but my intent is to hear from the folk music world about my instrument of choice…

Recently I have seen some amazing cigar-box ukuleles being crafted and played in a more country/folk style than the typical Polynesian style. Even traditional ukes seem to be finding their way to folk groups, such as The Barnkickers.

Would ukulele players be welcomed in folk circles, and if so, is there any interest in learning to play this sweet sounding, four string beauty?

Congrats to Folk Host Emeritus Paul Rutter !

2011-10-27T11:19:39Z

Paul Rutter is now the Director of Evening College at Mount Olive College in Mount Olive NC. We miss Paul’s professional hosting skills and his eclectic range of music he picked out for the Folk Show. And as the person who schedules the crew, I especially miss Paul’s willingness to step up to the mic when a time slot needed a host. We’re happy though that Paul is able to put his Penn State doctorate to good use, and hope to see him sometime (and maybe hear him on the air ) when he comes back to State College for a visit !

DePue Brothers’ International Fiddle Contest 9/30-10/1

2011-09-24T11:24:59Z

The DePue Brothers, who played this past July’s Central PA Festival of the Arts, are holding “The DePue Brothers’ International Fiddle Competition” on Sept 30-Oct 1 in their hometown of Bowling Green, Ohio. For more information, visit their website at http://www.thefiddlerllc.com/the_depue_brothers_international_fiddle_competition

A Freewheelin’ Time Suzy Rotolo bio - anyone else read this?

2011-09-23T23:04:52Z

I’m about 3/4 of the way through the bio of Suzy Rotolo, the young lady pictured on the cover of the freewheelin’ Bob Dylan; she was his girlfriend at the time. Anyone else read this? Such a vibrant time, Greenwich Village in the early 60’s, colorful characters and venues abound; she was around at the time of some of Dylan’s seminal early work, but… this book is a freakin’ snoozefest, in my opinion. I’m sure she was a lovely lady; I’m sorry she passed away at a relatively young age (67) and it’s neat seeing some of the pics of the vintage press clippings and posters, but, man… it did, however, make me dig out some of my oldest Dylan work, so I guess that’s a good thing.

Folk Music Movies

2009-06-08T21:12:21Z

So I’m listening to the soundtrack from A Mighty Wind. I know some “purists” poo-poo this movie because they feel it belittles folk music. I find it pretty darn funny myself (I usually love anything Christopher Guest touches). But my question is:

Any other movies have folk music as a dominant theme in them? Bound for Glory, of course. Songcatcher. I guess I’m thinking movies as in, not documentaries. Years back, Sean Penn was looking at doing an adaptation of Death of a Rebel, about Phil Ochs, but to the best of my knowledge that never transpired.

I can think of a whole bunch of (mostly forgettable, but I watch them anyway) country-based movies, but not too much is coming to mind in the folk and acoustic realm. Anyone?

And if you were a Hollywood (or indie) producer, who do you think would be an interesting subject for a movie?

Tim Hardin
Phil Ochs
The Carter Family

hey friends—

2011-01-30T07:47:44Z

Hello to all . I hope I will have a marvelous time here. And can share best of my knowledge .

Research for a Song?

2011-02-14T02:17:13Z

Yes, I’m doing research for a song. Because not all songs are about the writer’s navel-gazing feelings, or about love, that bottomless pit of inspiration (and too often cliché) for songwriters.
I love writing songs on unusual topics and songs that tell stories. If they tell a Canadian story, even better. So I’m now writing one about the Sharon Temple (http://www.sharontemple.ca/ ), a unique heritage site in the town of Sharon, ON, not far from where I live.
The temple, completed in 1832, was built by a fascinating sect called the Children of Peace. You could say they were the first hippies: they valued peace, social justice and equality; they lived together cooperatively in one village; they held feasts where everyone shared food; they wore colourful clothing when they marched in processions; and music and song were a big part of their worship – they even put together the first civilian band in Ontario.
When I visited the temple last summer I thought maybe there was a song there – after all, I’d already written one about the Thomas Foster Memorial near Uxbridge, another striking building with a poignant tale behind it.
So I began by reading a book about the sect written by the curator of the temple, John McIntyre, who also happens to be a friend. Then I wondered: would I simply recount the basic facts, how Pennsylvanian David Willson came to Upper Canada looking for land, joined a Quaker meeting, and then had visions that led him to break away from the Quakers to found the Children of Peace and build the temple? That was too straightforward.
One photograph I’d seen at Sharon haunted me: the abandoned temple, paint peeled away, windows broken, with cows grazing obliviously around it. http://www.sharontemple.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15&Itemid=18
I kept wondering what it must have felt like to see the temple in that sorry state while recalling its glory days. So I invented a very old woman, the last surviving member of the sect, to be the narrator of my song. I sent my first-draft lyrics to John. He told me that the last member had indeed been a woman, Emily McArthur (1837-1924); she’d been part of the sect for decades and had in fact seen the temple looking as it had in the photograph!
I knew then I’d found my way into the song. Here’s the first verse (note the village of Sharon was originally named Hope by the Children of Peace):
my name is Emily McArthur
I am old but I remember
when our meeting flourished, one in spirit and in mind
and we named our village Hope
and thus we lived in Hope and prospered
but now I am alone, I am the last one of my kind

In another post I’ll explain some of the other writing challenges I’m facing with this song and how John and my piano player are helping me sort them out. Meanwhile, if you’ve ever done research for a song, leave a comment and let me know…

2010 State College Sacred Harp sing recordings available online

2011-03-31T09:39:28Z

Last summer, the State College Sacred Harp group hosted the first singing in memory in the area. They’ve made recordings from this sing available to all for a listen / resource to learn these wonderful songs:

http://www.statecollegesacredharp.com/recordings-from-2010-singing.html

Not sure what Sacred Harp is?

http://fasola.org/

The State College Sacred Harp Singers host a regular singing in State College. For details, check out http://www.statecollegesacredharp.com

Writing Beyond My Means

2011-03-11T06:31:53Z

Some people live beyond their means. I write beyond my means. What I’m saying is that I write songs that are sometimes too complicated for me to easily perform.

I recently went into the studio with a really accomplished pianist, Marilyn Lerner. She was my first ever piano player, just a kid fresh out of music school, but who’d been taking piano lessons since she was teeny. She went on to get into jazz and improvisational and new music and all sorts of far-out stuff.

But me, well, I’m not a schooled musician. Had three years of violin as a kid, but my parents were both tone deaf so my musical education soon fell by the wayside. Then I learned guitar from chord books and ended up in a folky band, but eventually took a summer course at the Royal Conservatory for grade 1 & 2 theory – I figured it would improve my songwriting.

But in the band we mostly did stuff by ear, and all that theory just went out the window. So a few years later I took piano lessons. I wrote some pretty cool songs on the piano, but I couldn’t play the thing worth a damn because I’m about as coordinated as a jellyfish.

Now for me it’s all about the lyrics, and I often write complex songs with irregular structures and throw in extra bars and chords and whatever the words and story dictate. But then when it comes time to perform the suckers, well, I can’t count beats worth a damn, especially while I’m singing.

So recording with someone like Marilyn who can sight read and who’s got a chart (written out by my producer, because if I can’t read music, I sure as heck can’t write it either), while I have only a lyric sheet with little chicken tracks in pen on it, the tracks representing the number of beats between lines or places where the words are actually a pickup, or need to be stressed – well, it can get embarrassing when I screw up. Which I did fairly often the other night, in part because the song is also very new, so it’s not burned into my brain yet.

So that’s what I mean by writing beyond my means. The only thing that saves me is that Marilyn and other fabulous schooled musicians I’ve worked with really like those complicated, quirky songs of mine, and seem to find the patience to deal with my musical ignorance. And for that, like others who live beyond their means, I owe them a huge debt.

Topical song of Charlie Sheen

2011-03-02T14:07:46Z

So musican Jonathan Mann writes a song a day. This one about Charlie Sheen was pretty good i thought. Most of the lyrics are the rather surreal quotes Sheen have popped into the news cycle of late.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSsWr_YMzgU