I get weary of songs whose content has been said better a thousand times before. Beauty doesn't have to be empty. Sometimes being stirred idealogically and emotionally is a part of Beauty.

There are times when I hunger for a song that has more depth than a commercial jingle. I'm more likely to get music like that with folk singing. And humor...it isn't often you hear real humor in popular music.

I don't want to eat at the same restaurant when I'm in different cities or countries. I like my music the same way: spice and subtlety and culturally rich. Folk music is full of people who sing with a passion; I listen with a passion.

There are certain songs that make me stop working to listen. They could be original music or an artist's interpretation of traditional songs.

It's the passion behind the song that also tickles my ear to pay closer attention. That means, of course, it could be something like Stephen Seiphert's expert dulcimer playing or John Gorka's mellow tones and original themes that click with me (and many, many others).

I perform only those songs that speak to my heart that I can deliver with emotion (like Kate Wolf songs). It also makes up for my lack of "fancy" fingerpicking ability!! LOL

Jack, I just emailed Ann about the rating option yesterday and suggested she start a blog on the subject. It doesn't seem many listeners use it. C'mon people - speak your mind and rate/comment!

It's hard to say what moves me about a song, -- I guess my view is in line with "the sum is greater than the individual parts." That said, however, I do have some inclinations; namely, I'm extremly word oriented --I love the diverse lyrics in folk song, from nursury rhymes to whaling songs, from Elizabethan poetry to spirituals. I particularly love folk songs that provide us with, as a poet has said, "the lidless eye" -- the eye that looks into the heart of things and emerges with some fresh insight into the human condition, with color and texture, wisdom, humor and compassion. Woody Guthrie had it, and Dylan of course, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Jack Hardy, David Roth, David Mallet, and many others.

What perks my ear? Great question! I never gave it much thought though. I can say that there are simple songs that grab my attention and profound lyrics and skill that leave me snoozing. In the end, it’s the energy that dazzles me. That does not mean loud or “showboating”. Jeff Black would be a great example of great energy without all the frills. Julie Murphy Wells, Tish Hinojosa, Joni Mitchell and Ruthie Foster are all stand outs on the energy/dazzle meter. I agree that there is nothing more nauseating than a hot dog guitar player who is an over baked ham. But, I thoroughly enjoy it when a musician catches a creative wave and runs with it. Those moments (if their genuine) cannot be planned or faked.

For me, it is simply the way a song is delivered to get the point of that particular emotion across. I don't generally go for the showy proficiency, nor the "perfect", well trained voice. What I'm looking for is the emotion and what it takes to deliver the meaning hidden in the lyrics.
This also goes for intrumental pieces. Sometimes what I'm looking for is a rough hewn quality; Folk in it's natural state, before "Folk" became a popular genre.
When I hear a group of native peoples from anywhere in the world just sitting around playing for the sheer joy of it; to express great sadness, or communal celebration..it can move me to tears because of the simple beauty of it. The same goes for dance. It is the sense of human expression which I am after...that raw quality borne in all of us, regardless of our proficiency with our instrument. It is the human inner voice, expressed, which draws me to the music.

Oh yes...and I do rate songs, often. I am moved to say something about them as well. There has been only one piece I've rated negatively...and it irritated me so much both times I'd heard it that I just had to say something. But earlier today that group "redeemed" themselves when I finally heard something I liked from them. Not that I would buy their album, but at least I might listen to that nice song again, and not turn down the volume every time I see their name pop up on the playlist.
And sometimes I am moved to thank the artist, just in case they're also checking in to Folk Alley.

Why I listen & why I don't.
I listen for the gems, which are few and far between, e.g. Bill Staines (winter), Terrence Martin (another name for gone), David Mallet (artist in me & my old man), Lee Murdock (voices on the water), Dick Seigel (angels aweigh), Chuck Broadsky (the come heres and the been heres), David Francey (february drive), Greg Brown (telling stories & smell of coffee), Tom Paxton (when I go to see my son), Dave Clarke (deep blue dreams), Guy Clark (good friends), Shawn Colvin (streets of my town) and many others. I'll admit, it's tough sorting thru, I find myself wondering how in the hell some of the stuff aired ever got on a cd in the first place, it sure isn't payola, nobody could have THAT much cash laying around. So I find myself listening and then laying off for awhile, I can appreciate diversity, but not just diversity for diversity's sake alone. If folk alley dialed back on the (trying to be everything to everyone all at once) it might ensure long term success. Just a thought, idea, opinion, my 2 cents worth about raising the bar. Altho not privy to your demographic targets, however scientific, I'd prefer Jim Blum shooting from the hip any day!

The thing about music is, in order for one person to love something about it, someone else just has to "hate" it. The other road to go down is paved with mainstream non-hits, songs picked simply because they won't cause someone to change stations.

I'm listening for the other stuff.

I've heard so much on Folk Alley that I was never aware of, and have bought more than a couple of CDs based on something I heard here (Leo Kottke's 'Louise' always stops me in my tracks, and I've rated that a couple of times).

ON the other hand, I could do without Paul McCartney singing "Goodbye" (the demo, before Mary Hopkin recorded it).

I'm listening for the other stuff, too. That's why I'm here.

I think the only place you might be able to listen to those reworked or pithy not-hits and not be able to change the station would be in an elevator.
Hey..I have an idea. How about instead of the death penalty, we just sentence hardened criminals to lock-up in the up-and-down Musak box!
Sorry, I digress......where's the coffee pot?

For me, a song needs to tell a story, but tell it in a way that puts me inside it. I think one of the best examples of that is "The Jeannie C." by Stan Rogers. As a sailor, I've known my boat the way the fisherman in the song knew his. You can feel it when the boats right and when it's not. She'll tell you what she's feeling. To me , a good song is one I have a lot of trouble performing, because if I don't concentrate when I'm doing it, I'll get caught up in the lyrics and tune and choke up or just lose it. That's what I listen for; the song that just makes listen.

For JL Braswell - the up and down Musak box sounds like an old (very old, when it was still funny) SNL skit. Paul Simon found out that hell is being sentenced to listen to 'his' songs, done by Muzak, repeatedly in an elevator he could not get off.

omg...and now that's become reality!
I bet Paul Simon takes the stairs now...

I'd like to widen the discussion a little: I would be very interested to know how other listeners define 'folk' music. I know this is a rather knotty question, but I also think we all must have some sort of meta-style in mind when we think or talk about folk music. If we can't define the perameters of folk music, then how can we claim to be a 'folk' community in any meaningful sense.

Often, it seems to me, music is labeled 'folk' simply based on the instrumentation used. According to this definition, acoustic guitar is folk, electric is rock; fiddle is folk, violin is classical, etc. This seems too trite a definition to me. For example, Folk Alley just played a song by Jack Williams entitled "Give It To The Rich Man" which, although it featured an acoustic guitar, does not fit with my own idea of what folk music is.

Should we consider the origin of the music? It might be argued that we in the west favor European and North American folk music over that from Africa or the Far East. These latter we might more often label 'world' music. Must folk music necessarily be 'traditional', and what does that term mean anyway? Perhaps the term 'traditional' defines folk music according to the passage of time: but if so, will all 'popular' music one day become folk music?

It might be argued that these are inconsequential questions - that we simply 'know' folk music when we hear it. But I believe these questions to have a great deal of moment, especially with the widening of the scope of music available to us all. If we become exclusive in our definition of folk music, we run the risk of élitism, and the stagnation of the form: yet if we are too inclusive - widening the category to encompass too many musical sub genres - we might as well dispense with the category 'folk' altogether.

I would be very interested to hear what other listeners to Folk Alley think about this matter.

Herman... sorry to hear about "Grandpa". That said, you've inspired me to peek into the Random House Dictionary. Woe's me, my folkie fallacy has been shaken by it's foundations. Folk Alley itself may tremble before the strict definition. Guess I'll have to console myself with a "fo lie a deux" conundrum of personal prejudices and preferences wrapped up in a rats nest of vernacular for the time being. The Folk Alley Community as a whole, may well wind up asking, "Who is WE"? !!!
Seriously, what a well composed, clear minded blog post. In the spirit that we all may learn from each other, as often happens here at Folk Alley, I would like to nominate your thoughts as an excellent topic for a "NEW POST" !!! If anyone else out there agrees, let's kick it around a bit!

Here is Maine folk musician Michael Cooney's statement on what is folk music, "If You Know Who Wrote It, It's Not a Folk Song" (michaelcooney.com)

"The late Kenneth Goldstein of Philadelphia was one of the great American folklorists. (He was also a generous man who shared his knowledge and vast library of recordings, books, etc., and his home, with people like me. I will be ever grateful to him and his gracious wife Rochelle for their hospitality.) Every couple of years I’d ask Dr. Goldstein his current definition of "folk music". It was ever-changing. The first time I asked him, he told me that folk music was "anything sung by a small group of people for the entertainment of those people at that time".

"So," I asked, "if we’re all standing around the piano singing I Left My Heart In San Francisco, that’s a folk song at that time?" He said he thought it was.

What follows is not The Truth; it’s just my opinion (which is about the only way you can really define "truth", seems to me -- whatever I, and everyone who thinks like me, say it is). Also, in this, and any, discussion, the word "good" means "pleasing to me" (Ditto.) But this is not about whether certain songs are "good" or not; it’s about whether they’re "folk" or not. Just because a song is a folk song doesn’t automatically mean it’s good. I don’t sing folk songs because I think they’re holy or noble or anything; each one of the songs I sing,"folk" or not, is, to me, a wonderful song, for one or more reasons. Otherwise, why bother learning it?

If there’s such a thing as a "folk" song, that implies that it’s a kind of song which is different from other kinds of songs. What makes it different? It can’t be what the song is about -- most folk songs are basically about what most other songs are about. And it can’t be because the person singing it is playing a particular kind of instrument. (A guitar, for instance -- lots of non-folk music is played on guitars. In fact, most of the music played on guitars is non-folk music.) What is it then?

According to an old legend, blues singer Big Bill Broonzy was once being interviewed on a radio program in Chicago by Studs Terkle. Big Bill sang a song, after which Studs asked, "Is that a folk song?" Broonzy replied, "I ain’t never heard no horses sing it." By that definition (non horse-music), all music is folk music. Fun, but not very useful.

We’re not tape-recorders, so when we hear a song we like so much that we learn it, often in the process we accidentally, or accidentally-on-purpose, or purposely, change words and bits of the tune. If someone learns the song from us, it's likely that they’ll also change it some. The more people a song goes through, the more it changes. If the story of the song is sufficiently powerful, maybe we end up with many different ways to tell that story; if not, maybe we end up, eventually, with lots of totally different songs, each with the same ancestor. They are folk songs.

Of course, this happens less today because there are so many recorded sources, and people to say, "That’s not the way it is on the record." But it still does happen. If you do a web search on the word "mondegreen", you will find many sites devoted to people’s mis-hearing of popular songs. The word "mondegreen" comes from author Silvia Wright, who, as a child, misunderstood a line from an old Scottish ballad, "The Bonnie Earl of Murray":

They hae slain the Earl o' Murray
And laid him on the green.

Silvia heard,

They hae slain the Earl o' Murray
And Lady Mondegreen

She wrote about this in a 1954 Harper's magazine article and coined the term "mondegreen" to denote such misheard words and phrases.

My favorite, which I have used to illustrate "the folk process" in lecture concerts for the last 30 years, is from old friend Hugh Hanley. When I met him, he was teaching school in Kansas City, MO, in 1968. He told me that he had heard one of his students singing that Bob Dylan song which is supposed to go, "The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind; the answer is blowing in the wind." But Hugh’s 8-year-old student sang, "The ants are my friends, they’re blowing in the wind; the ants are blowing in the wind." Another famous "Mondegreen" is Jimi Hendrix’s "Excuse my while I kiss the sky" often heard as, "Excuse me while I kiss this guy". Or Creedence Clearwater Revival’s "Don’t go out tonight, there’s a bad moon on the rise" being heard as, "Don’t go out tonight, there’s a bathroom on the right". There are godzillions of ‘em.

The above examples are merely mis-hearing of words, but sometimes these are likely to lead to other changes, if nobody refers back to the original. I once heard three kids sing a Beatles’ song, Norwegian Wood. I noticed that they had made three errors in the words, one of which changed, for me, the meaning of the song. Instead of:

"We talked until two, and then she said, it’s time for bed", they sang:

"She talked until two, and then she said, it’s time for bed".

That gave me a whole different picture of what went on that night. It would be easy for someone learning that version to accidentally or purposely change other parts to more closely fit that different image.

But the best way songs change, in my opinion, is accidentally-on-purpose. Someone hears a song, sings it the way they thought they heard it, but subconsciously changes it to fit their personal view of something. My favorite example is from long ago when my friend Tony Saletan heard his little daughter singing in the bathtub. She was singing the James Taylor song, Sweet Baby James, which has a line, "Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose; won’t you let me go down in my dreams". That’s a bit abstract for a 4-year-old, and her subconscious had changed it into something more meaningful to her. She was splashing happily in the tub, but she sang, "Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose; don’t you let me go down the drain".

Every folk song starts out being made up by someone. But going through lots of people, it changes. It’s the cumulative effect of all of those changes, large and small, that makes it a folk song. So, by that definition, if you know who wrote it, it’s not a folk song. Sure, you can know who wrote the original version, years ago and miles away, but not who wrote the version you’re singing, or hearing now, because nobody, or anon., or lots of people did. There are people today singing songs they learned from someone who learned ‘em from someone, who learned ‘em from someone, stretching all the way back to the Middle Ages and beyond -- even to Greek myths -- in an unbroken oral tradition.

In this long process, forgettable parts of a song get forgotten and memorable parts get remembered. So songs can get more concentrated and powerful, as they travel. Someone makes up a song. Someone else hears it and likes it enough to go to all the trouble to learn it. Someone else hears them and also learns it, and so on. It’s a kind of voting -- if they all liked a song that much, to go to the trouble to learn it, it must be "good". You could say that good old song has a whole lot of "votes" for it. Not votes from some committee of self-appointed Authorities, but from the folk.

So it bugs me when I hear people say, "I wrote a folk song."
"You wish", I think to myself.

If you know who wrote it, it’s not a folk song.

(By the way, the reverse is not necessarily true: if you don’t know who wrote it, it could just mean that you need to do some research.)

Most of today’s "singer-songwriters" are writing stuff that’s indistinguishable from pop music. Those who become popular, in the commercial sense, usually do become pop singers. So I think that almost all of what the industry calls "folk music" these days is really just low-budget pop music. If those performers could afford it, they’d have elaborate backups and music videos, etc.

So why are all these new songs called folk songs? I think it’s because there isn’t another nice-sounding phrase to describe them. Calling ‘em "folk" songs gives them an undeserved stamp of pre-approval. Please, please, someone come up with a pretty phrase to replace "folk songs" for these singer-songwriters.

A folk song is a song that has evolved through the oral process. Someone may have written a song to start, but that wasn’t really a folk song; it is the cumulative effect of all the changes on the song as it travels from person to person that make it a "folk" song. (Or a "traditional" song, as some say, in attempt to get away from the confusion; but, alas, I have heard people say they just wrote a traditional song.)

I would like to separate the phrases "folk song" and "folk music" here, because I think of the former as a type of song but the latter as a process. It recently came to me that folk music is what happens when (usually) money is not involved. Even if I sing an entire concert of old "traditional" (oral process) songs, if I’m being paid to do it, or if people have paid to listen, it’s not folk music. It’s show business. So I don’t call myself a folk singer; I’m an entertainer who sings a few folk songs.

When money isn’t involved, the "audience" is more likely to also be participants. That is, it’s more likely to be a song-swap, even if not everyone sings. So I think Ken Goldstein was partly right -- if we’re all gathered around the piano singing I Left My Heart In San Francisco, we may not be singing a folk song, but we probably are doing folk music at that moment.

No one remembers the singer. The song remains.
- Terry Pratchett"

Stunning Penny, that's alot to contempate, but it rings true. Looks as tho much depends upon the agreement of accepted definitions. Semantics may be almost as slippery a slope to navigate as the correct use of the term "folk music". I always thought it humorus that "alo'ha" had umpteen definitions, but it seems we're all in the same boat. I bet there have been many disagreements over "folk music's" correct definition by people who were basicly in agreement, but poor word choice never let it come to light. The irony, the fly in the ointment, or the "catch 22" of it, seems to be that once everybody (or some percentage of a majority) is wrong, they then by some sort of default, they become right. In a sense, the popular folk music of our time was somewhat contrived originally, or should I say exploited, by those attracted by the smell of "filthy lurcre". I think even Bob Dylan may have had to exagerate his motorbike accident in order to escape being overworked to death and escape the strings. The "almighty dollar"! ... makes ya wonder don't it. Guess I'm rambling, but your point of a term signifying "modern folk music" is well taken. Funny, if it had'nt been for the success of three guys who formed the Kingston Trio and the success of the movie Oh Brother, where Art Thou, this blog would probably never have taken this turn. Anyone out there care to explain "Chaos Theory" as elegantly as Penny has "folk music"??? ... ha!
"Tip O' the Hat", to you Penny, for your time and expertise!

Appreciate your comments, Chris, however as I said, it's a copy of an entry on Michael Cooney's website, who is has always been an icon to me, both as a performer (his repertoire is vast) and as a true intellectual. He's got other compelling thoughts on his site -- www.michaelcooney.com

Best,
Penny

Penny, I know that Michael Cooney's description rings true for many of the older folkies who have been around a while, at least I have heard similar variations on the theme from others. My take on the subject does not exclude the possibility of knowing the author of a song. One example that I have used here before in another thread is Jambalaya by Hank Williams. The song has roots in Cajun music from Southern Louisiana in its subject matter and feel, but was a composition of Hank's. It has become totally ingrained in the fabric of American music through generations of reiterations in the truest folk sense. If you go to nearly any gathering in the US where people are sitting around and singing as a group one song that almost invariably pops up is Jambalaya. It has been adopted wholeheartedly by the very subculture that spawned its birth where it is considered a standard of the genre, but it started out as a pop country song.

I have struggled with the term all my life as a musician. I have never called myself a folk singer, but I have always considered myself as a singer/songwriter. That is the only label that seems appropriate to me. However, everytime you pull out the acoustic guitar to perform a song someone associates it to folk music. I do like the notion that if it is performed for money, it is entertainment, not folk music.

Most songwriters I know do not set out to write "folk" songs. However, once in awhile someone will write a song attempting to get a traditional sound. I once read that Bill Monroe was surprised to find out Paradise by John Prine was not a traditional old song, to John's delight.

Frankly, I try not to get too hung up on labeling songs, because it seems to me that labels do two things: they help in marketing music, and they help in creating exclusivity. Note that Herman's post discusses the need to identify exactly what folk music is to keep it from absorbing so many genre's that it becomes all inclusive. I personally don't adhere to this notion. It is not for us to define folk music, it comes out of a process. Yes, there is much music on Folk Alley that is not folk music because it has not gone through the process, but not because of its genre.

Jack, I like your balanced approach. The little dull sparks are linking up in me mind... as Benny Hill used to say, "learning all the time"! I remember Bob Dylan being asked how he defined himself. He would often answer much in the fashion of Big Bill Broonzy, disarming the interveiwer with a witty off the cuff remark such as, "I think of myself more as a song and dance man". I've always appreciated Dylan's sense of humor, but in this instance it would seem to have served a dual purpose. Was he simply using humor to dodge a loaded question? A serious, lengthy answer may have bored his fans and a less than complete answer would have left him open to intellectual ridicule. So, his wit carried him through the horns of the dilemma and he escaped the interveiwers attemped entrapment. It also occurs to me that the well worn old artist's saw, "you have to know the rules before you can break the rules" although useful advise, may hamstring those with music pouring from thier hearts, e.g., the singer in the movie "Never on a Sunday". I guess the trick is, how to be both aware and disciplined, without becoming rigid. Thanks Jack... the flux you've added has brought the dichotomy of it all, a little closer together for me !

Well. With respect to Michael Cooney, if someone asks me what kind of music I write, I guess my answer depends on who they are and why they want to know. Wasn't it about a year ago we had a thread here wondering why acoustic singer/songwriters seemed to be avoiding the "folk" tag as if it were leprosy? All these "original acoustic" and "americana" and "roots" and "alt/country" performers. Has this situation changed?

I guess my answer has to be "Well, um, folk, but not in the good sense."

I recall that thread, Joan - I started it.

I don't refer to what I write as "Folk" for many reasons. I do sing a lot of Folk - from "The Ballad of Matty Groves" to "Pretty Polly", because I think the songs are worth carrying on.

Genre description to me is about marketing, and I agree most current "Folk" is just Pop on a working-class budget.

I like the term Americana, although for many in the AMA this seems to mean Rockabilly now. Certainly Americana radio is rather hostile to "down-tempo" music, they seem to focus to an unhealthy extent on the dying American honky-tonk scene. Stuck in the 50s, when drunk driving was all the rage.

Still, never being one to allow myself to be run off a patch, I stake my claim to "Americana" because what I write are, essentially, songs about America and/or Americans. Not living elsewhere, that is the range of my experience.

Say Jim, I ran across an "amazing" song lyric some time back. The title drew me in because I mistakenly immediately thought of juniper berries which are used to flavor gin. As I recall, the song or poem was titled "Fruit of the Yew". It's stuck me as having been crafted by a true wordsmith. I think the author was a Jim Pipkin. If by chance you are one and the same, I'd just like to say, pretty dang impressive man!!! Not sure if it fit your Americana category tho. Stuck my neck out on this I guess... if I got the wrong Pipkin, then I guess, as Gilda would say... "Nevermind"!!!

You write what you know, and if that eventually becomes known as "Folk" by some groups of folk who flock towards a clever line or lyric...then so be it.

Always thought it was a bit odd that someone might intend to generate a "Folk" song, specifically to fit that "genre".
I kind of thought that by becoming accepted as something which expresses and identifies what the common man might think and feel..expresses in a way which is understandable to and recreatable by the common folk, it quite naturally made that journey. It often times travels like wildfire, and other times seeps slowly into our souls.

Many times, I will hear a song/piece which may actually be quite rock/plugged oriented, but I might "hear" it transposed (in my head) to a more accoustic vein...so to me, it becomes an expression for the folk, by the folk.

"Folk" to me simply means something which draws us together for a given purpose at any given time, is thought provoking, and is an expression with which we can identify, and accessible to the common man.

Hmmm..this is a hornet's nest, isn't it... I keep thinking of circular arguments, one disproving the other, or leading off to a hundred little rabbit trails.

On the "No Direction Home" DVD, somebody described Dylan's songs (back in the day) as stuff that could have been written 200 years ago, or just yesterday. That's a quality I look for in songs.

If I make a CD that makes it into Borders, their clerks will put it into the Folk bin. If I enter a songwriting contest, the box I put my checkmark in will be the one next to the word Folk. If a cut gets played on radio, it will be on an NPR Folk show. Yes it is marketing: words and definitions that have been set by others. I've answered the "what kind of music do you do" question with "original songs, written in the folk tradition." Which means that what they hear is Blah blah FOLK blah blah. That way, it can be marginalized by people who think folk music is the lamest thing going, but at the same time it's not presumptuous with delusions of immortality.

I'm taking the folk traditions more and more seriously these days, working now on a wretched little cowboy-style ballad, almost Americana really: "My name is Harry Whittington/my story I will tell/I am an Austin lawyer/And I know I'm bound for Hell."

Hi Chris, yes that was me. Funny how that song "Fruit of the Yew" keeps cropping up.

I wrote it almost 20 years ago for a traditional archery group, as a way to motivate them to come out and put in the time to get good at it. I first sang it at a small (700-1000 people) SCA "war" at Estrella Mountain park near Phoenix.

I just got back from singing it there again. Now the event has grown to 5000-6000 people, and the song is the title track on a traditional CD I just self-released. AMAZ records loaned me the equipment, but gave me the go-ahead to sell outside of our contract. They're pretty cool. The cover photo, of 700-year-old English yew trees, was donated by English Nature Magazine. They were extremely amused.

Not Americana, though, for sure - but then genre definition is for the consumers more than the artists, don't you think?

I still shoot traditional longbow, by the way.

Hey, Joan, have you seen the new tee shirts? "I'd rather hunt with Dick Cheney than ride with Ted Kennedy".

At least Ted Kennedy's kids have proven they can step in and take guardianship when they have to. When my kids threaten to do that to me, I just make like I'm about to pull the pin out of the grenade. We laugh and laugh, as they back away slowly.

My favorite has to be the tee with a birdshot pattern on the chest, and the slogan "I went hunting with the Vice President, and all I got was this lousy tee shirt".

Ted's kids are going to have to step up. All the money that Joe Sr made running booze and cigarettes has just about run out, so they're going to have to warm up to day jobs.

You know, Jim...I had heard that song ("Fruit of the Yew") all those years ago in the SCA (also an archer way back when)....had no idea it was you who had written it. Well, had no idea at the time who you were either, but it's interesting that all trails tend to lead, eventually, to the same place... and here we are: both "gentle folk" and Folk.
Amazing...

Treebull the Stubborn, at your service. Now my armor stands by the fireplace, but I've kept the memories, and the friends.

I have many music on CD, but Folk Alley is a tasteful mix of my favourite music, one after another, day by day. When I listen my music at home, I listen one CD or one performer and sometime I get bored with that. Folk Alley is an exciting musical discovery for me. The music is a mediator between two worlds! :-)

Kirsten Trulsdottir's garb no longer fits her, and now my longbow sits by the proverbial fireplace, but the Viking Longship building project still keeps my interest...and so does all of the music learned during those days of yore. Those were fun years, I must admit, and a few good friendships, sweet.

I get "caught" by songs that relate to what I'm personally feeling.It could be sad or upbeat songs.One thing for sure is,my boys say the song has to tell a story.

I listen for evidence that the musician is accomplished at their instrument. A chord progression that wasn't anticipated; a melody that flows; lyrics that speak...

I like the story or vibe of song. As a sideman for several song writers, I try to embellish the song musically rather than "noodle al over it". That is one of the perks of folk music, a combo of intelligent lyrics and melody.

Dan, I love songs first and foremost so that is one thing I listen for in the musicianship. How well do the sidemen work the song. If someone wants to blow the audience away with his wizardry, it should not be to the detriment of the song. I am much more impressed with a simple accompaniment that actually improves the song than an overblown bit that seems to be inserted in a "cut and paste" fashion. There are thousands of rip-snorters out there, but far fewer that display real musicianship, especially guitarists.