NOBODY ASKED ME BUT.......
1) Since it is not Thursday and this Thursday it would not have been possible to publish the mandatory and ever so important piece of memorable, meaningful, and momentous missives it will have to be today; With a bit of a different slant and format. Never without some thing to offend some.
2) Has anyone ever wondered why we celebrate (and spend needed dollars on parades) football winners and still do not commemorate in the same manner returning vets from an unnecessary war? True, some of the players might have gotten injured. Oich, such a pity!
What if one of the players got hurt in the parade car---another parade?
2) Let’s think for a moment about “folk music”. Here us where the format changes into a bit of an essay---
a. How would you define the genre? Perhaps you would think of it as the folks sitting on the good ole porch strummin’ dat good ole banjo---just like that good ole Stephen Foster told us about---he who was a commercial songwriter. If you tune to You Tube you can hear some of Roscoe Holcomb. Truly folk. Today that sound (this is subjective) is truly bad.
b. Then we have what we call “folk” today. Sure, we also call the old timey material that and we also call our Singer/Songwriters that as well. I appreciate them and their great talents. I do not consider it folk music. I do consider it some wonderful work by talented and creative people.
c. What “folk” music is to me is something that is hard to define. After all, what makes Mozart or Beethoven more memorable, musically, than some current composers? I would define “folk” music as music that survives over many years and people recall---be it Bway Musicals (3 Penny Opera comes to mind), Pop songs that are still sung and such. I bet some of you still recall and hum some old tunes from, say, The Andrew Sisters, Buffalo Springfield, and such. Let us also never forget the likes of Harry Chapin and Phil Ochs---I doubt they sat around the ole front porch and sung a song or two. But they are in our collective memory.
3) I suppose this is a good time to bring up, once again, the mention of WFDU and our fund raising efforts for the month of February and the only time we come to you to ask for support. They may not admit it but it is a “folk” station. Think about the eclectic material that is offered there. TRADITIONS is not the only “folk” show there. All the offerings are what “FOLK” want---that is why they are there. Even TRADITIONS---I speak only for myself on this---offers an eclectic mix of material. Material from, say, Bway musicals to Phil Ochs, from current singer/songwriters to icons of “folk”. I am always delighted when I find---not discover since they are already there---a wonderful artist that truly blows me away and I, then, find it did that our listeners as well. Three come to mind of recent vintage----Claudia Nygaard ( a guest of mine a while ago), Mara Levine, and Jenei Huff.
4) The point to the above is that the station is eclectic and, thankfully, so is TRADITIONS and also SUNDAY SIMCHA. Pushing the edges of the envelope---if that is the proper expression—is what I believe is the proper way to go and also, from the responses to both programs, our virtual radio community seems to agree. I am delighted by the response to “new” material on SUNDAY SIMCHA as well as the nice comments last week for the musical selections on TRADITIONS. Hank Williams would have been proud----he can certainly be considered a “folk” icon----as I said—a subjective definition. In the past the audience has also heard from Gilbert & Sullivan and from “New Girl In Town” (if you want to know more about that just e mail me). Wherever you look---there is “folk” and when you tune in to WFDU there is eclecticism. Some support is appreciated.
