[mplpost] Influences, young folk and toiletries; was: Definition

[Bob MacKenzie]

It's a wonderful tale Nick tells of the comb-carvers of old Japan, and one
that applies in varying degrees to many of the old time crafts.  Frankly,
I'm not sure how much it applies to the art and craft of making music.  It
is true that, like comb-carving, songwriting and indeed the simple(?)
performance of songs requires a broad repertoire of skills.  On the other
hand, a song is a far more transitional, transitional, and perhaps even
transcending form of art than is a comb.  A comb, once made, a hundred years
later remains the same comb.  A song, once made may remain the same song a
hundred years later or may have become the parent of a hundred related songs
or may simply have evolved into another, more dense and layered song.

I suspect the song equivalent of that plastic comb (I assume we're talking
about something cheap and not the classic Welgroom that as Fifties'
teenagers we used to sharpen into quite effective knives), is the midi-loop,
a "song" that can be as fast or slow or long or short as you want and seems
to have found its home in video and computer games of every sort.  Most
well-written, well-crafted songs don't work that way.

Based on his anecdote about the wunderkind of Mac production trying to sell
him a homemade CD, it seems he is only meeting a certain faction of the new
generation.  These have always been around, even in and before the era of
vinyl.  At the other end of the spectrum, there are talented young people
who work very hard at their craft and do learn from those who have come
before.  Often, because the apprenticeship infrastructure no longer exists,
they begin by studying those who have come immediately before them and, like
archaeologists, gradually dig their way into the distant past.
Statistically, these must be only a small percentage of the young artists --
perhaps 15% or less -- but they do exist, and many of them are wonderfully
talented.

I think Nick is correct in his suggestion that folk forms were popular forms
so popular forms of today may also be today's true folk music.  I have long
held this opinion.  I drive my folkie friends crazy when I suggest that
bands like The Tragically Hip or Hootie and the Blowfish are really folk
groups.  But listen to the actual lyrics and melodies of a lot of today's
really popular groups.  Try playing the songs on one guitar and singing the
lyrics.  All of a sudden they are very much in the folk tradition, stories
told in musical form.

Of course, I'm much older than Nick -- fifty-something -- and saw the
influence various folk genres had on rockabilly, rhythm and blues, and rock
and roll in general.  And then I saw the growth of so-called folk-rock,
which was at heart just a progressive folk music movement.  I still think of
rockabilly as folk music.

Me, I listen to a lot of the new music -- not just Britney, Backstreet Boys
and N-Sync -- and I hear a lot of excellent writing and performance going
on.  I also have the good fortune to meet and sometimes work with some very
talented young people (under 25, say) and see the directions they are going.
I don't think we have any cause at all to worry about the future.  It's in
good hands.  Folk is alive and well and moving away from the academics and
esoterics and back into the broader community where it belongs.

Of course, this is just my opinion.  [And sometimes a plastic comb comes in
handy...}

Peace and Love.

Bob Mackenzie

For reviews of new music releases,  go to Sound Bytes,
the music review site, at http://marketer.tripod.com.

Songwriters:  add power to your song lyrics.  Check out
Bob MacKenzie's "Poetics for Songwriters" now available
in installments at http://truefire.com/reference/item/2811.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Naffin" <takenote@interlog.com>
To: "MaplePost Mailing List" <maplepost@icomm.ca>
Sent: August 19, 2000 3:03 PM
Subject: [mplpost] Influences, young folk and toiletries; was: Definitions


> Arnie Naiman wrote:
>
> > It is becoming obvious to me that traditional folk artists are dwindling
> as performers at festivals and the directors are completely gearing the
> music and performers based on economic and trends. <
>
>     Among Japan's traditionial crafts there is the art of comb-making. A
> young apprentice, often no more than ten years of age, would set out on
this
> path by joining the master's business and family; learning the craft from
> the bottom up (as in the old cliche, usually by sweeping the shop),
studying
> all about wood, forestry, carpentry, cosmetics, hairdressing, etiquette,
and
> so forth. It was not unusual for a master combmaker to learn his trade for
> twenty years before making his first comb to be sold in the shop. A
Japanese
> comb - completely handcarved from a choice piece of sandalwood or other
> fragrant woods of finest, straightest grain, oiled as often as two hundred
> times, and stored for a few years to let it rest and breathe - is said to
be
> a work of art lasting at least a lifetime, having obtained the optimal
> balance of material and craft; to always caress, and never ever stress,
> pull, or tangle the hair.
>
> A craft that is all but gone today; and no wonder, since only a few
> considerably wealthy and highly sophisticated individuals or families
would
> and could even consider to order and purchase a comb like this - and you
 > thought Grit Laskin had a long waiting list.
>
> At the convenience store at our corner, a plastic comb costs less than a
> buck.
>
> > Where will young people get their inspiration from eventually? - it is
> obvious that less and less from traditional forms, and more toward
> contemporary and popular forms as the trend continues. <
>
>     You may be right, ragged or not, but it could be argued that
traditional
> forms were contemporary once, and the popular musics of their day; and as
> those days have passed, so popular music has changed. It could also be
said
> that verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus etc.or AABA structures are still
> prevalent in songcraft today, and are for all intents and purposes
> traditional forms.
>
>     I don't worry that much about young people, though; just more folk
> trying to hustle my gigs...
>
>     Seriously, I share your concern, and like many other thirtysomethings
>
> think the place is going down, true and real music is dying out, nobody
> learns how to really play anymore, and buttonpushers abound. Last Tuesday
> night some dude who snuck in the Silver Dollar without paying the cover
for
> a fine, thought out and genuinely enjoyable performance by Adrian Legg
asked
> me if I'd like to support a *local* artist. He had compiled a CDR
containing
> two generic hiphop, trance, or who-knows-what kind of tracks, playing all
> the samplers and machines by himself, recording it on a Mac, and knocking
> the CDs off in his bedroom. Five bucks.
>
>     When vinyl was still around to be listened to and not scratched,
> logistics, procedure, and cost made a superb Darwin-in-action weeding out
> the worst.  Now every asshole makes plastic combs.
>
> Nick
>
> ___________________________________________
>
>
>
> nick naffin
>
> acoustic guitarist
>
> nick@takenotepromotion.com
>
> http://www.interlog.com/~takenote/naffinwright.htm
>
>
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