Folk Rock Boom

[Mix (Mic)]

I've just bought the magazine, "NME Originals...Bob Dylan And The Folk Rock Boom, 1964-1974"
There's a reproduction of an article on Fairport Convention, just as "Unhalfbricking" was (about to be?) released, ans another on Fotheringay, just as they announced they were going their separate ways.
A lovely piece of history, and good source of information for 'catch up merchants' like me!

Mic

[Tony Beacom]

I had a qiuck read through the magazine in Tesco while my wife done the shopping (well as long as I got away with it).  I thought it looked a decent read but my Scottish nature came out and I refused to pay a criminal price (£5.99) for a magazine.  I buy "The Living Tradition" every edition and can't recomend it enough.

[Karlhippy]

Well the present day situation shows it as well
when you get solo artists with guitars playing ballads/love songs in vaguely Dylan-ish way
you are more likely to get interest in where it comes from / corresponds to,
therefore that may explain a bigger interest in folk than there has been for 'many a year' 

[Big Dave]

Well the present day situation shows it as well
when you get solo artists with guitars playing ballads/love songs in vaguely Dylan-ish way
you are more likely to get interest in where it comes from / corresponds to,
therefore that may explain a bigger interest in folk than there has been for 'many a year' 

It could also be that people have seen through the manufactured pop **** and are coming back into the fold of real music, played by real people with real instruments.

[Anna]

Case in point - this James Blunt fella.  Recommended.

Now, he may or may not be exactly "folk" music, but he's a good bridge between the "mainstream" and here, wherever here is...

[abby (tank girl)]

Case in point - this James Blunt fella.  Recommended.

Now, he may or may not be exactly "folk" music, but he's a good bridge between the "mainstream" and here, wherever here is...

i worry that this is becoming the nainstream and it is a misrepresentayion...

[Anna]

Well, as singer-songwriters with guitars go, he's pretty good.  I was given a "copy" of the album quite at random about a week ago having never (I swear!) heard of him before.  I listened to the whole album several times before looking him up on the internet and finding out that he's actually quite popular in the wider music world too...  Probably a bit of a one-off for the "pop" charts and his next album will almost certainly not do as well as the first because the novelty factor will have worn off (personal opinion only, and apologies to Mr Blunt), but there are some cracking songs on the album.  The single "You're Beautiful" is nowhere near the best song...

What's the problem with "folk" becoming "mainstream"?  Not an attack, groove st, a genuine question.  While we all want folk to be more popular, are we just a little afraid of the loss of sense of exclusivity and knowing something that other people dont?  I know it's been happening in the motorcycling world for years...

[Malcolm]

What's the problem with "folk" becoming "mainstream"?  Not an attack, groove st, a genuine question.  While we all want folk to be more popular, are we just a little afraid of the loss of sense of exclusivity and knowing something that other people dont?  I know it's been happening in the motorcycling world for years...

Interesting discussion, Anna.

Steeleye had big singles hits in the 70's with All Around My Hat and Gaudete but never became 'commercial' in the razamatazz sense. Yet in their case FC failed to sell big numbers of albums (which I think they saw as their market), probably for other reasons to which the history books allude.

I think there are two arguments -  (1) if FC can maintain financial stability by managing themselves and keeping true to folk roots by not being overtly commercial, then most of us are happy (2) If folk became 'mainstream', the defining edges would become blurred as the music-money machine would have no conscience about roots, nor would it probably have any idea what we are about, in order to be able to choose material.

I have only heard James Blunt's 'hit' but suggest he will drift into commercial obscurity as have others (e.g. that opera chap from up north, name escapes me) who have non-standard commercial appeal.  In the case of folkies, if they remain true to their roots, they can survive the odd 'hit' yet retain their appeal and support for decades. Compare with the gang of faded  one-or-very-few-hit-wonder USA blokes from the 60's (Bobby Vee etc) who appeared in my nearest town last week!

That's it for philosophy for the day.

M of F
 

[Alex Lyons]

I have only heard James Blunt's 'hit' but suggest he will drift into commercial obscurity as have others...who have non-standard commercial appeal. 

I wouldn't say he's all that non-standard really, he's in the same vein as David Gray and he's still going strong after quite a few years as a "big" act. Not really a fan of either but I did get given a copy of James Blunt's album. Only had one listen so far and it was alright, just very, very bland. Sort of thirtysomething's dinner party music.

[Anna]

M of F.  Argument (2), very good.  I hadn't thought of it that way.

Think I need to change my signature line.  People here know where to find Maart by now...

Alex, dig it out & listen to "No Bravery", the last track.  I can't disagree that it's all a bit samey in some ways but he can write good lyrics.  I was trying to think of who to compare him to the other day and came up with Eagle Eye Cherry.  David Gray's a good comparison too.

[fat Billy(Bill)]

My wife and daughter have both gone potty about James Blunt. Having listened to the album many times (although only put it on once meself) I can say that he's not too bad, vocals are a bit strained but good well crafted songs. Have to agree with Anna that he will probably dissapear into that limbo that exists between pop and real music. Shame because I hear that he is pretty good live and could possibly mature into a very good songwriter.

[Andy]

..alnong with Daniel Powter.

[fat Billy(Bill)]

..alnong with Daniel Powter.

absolutly, him and james Blunt do make listening to commercial stations a little bit easier. All they need to do is get rid of the adverts and broaden the play list...................................long live sir terry

[abby (tank girl)]

i have no problem with folk becoming more universally popular and commercialy successful.
but i personally dont class this as folk. its certainly more listenable than most of the charts but it wouldnt sit next to eliza carthy in MY cd rack.i'd like to see her in the top ten singles chart on a regular basis.
what worries me is the people who have got into the james blunt type stuff being of the mistaken idea that it IS folk.
(cue rotten eggs and tomatoes being thrown from the 'what is folk?' thread)
and to pick up on the david gray ref, i have lloved him from the start, have 3 albums which get played regularly but i dont class HIM as folk either, and, IMO the new boys and girls have a long way to go before they match up to him.

[David W]

Maybe folk-rock has a boom every few years anyway.

Just thinking that the likes of the Levellers, Waterboys, Wonderstuff could possibly be seen as giving the genre a resurgence in the late 80s/90s in the same way that FC, Steeleye, Lindisfarne did in the late 60s/70s.

It all comes round again, as a cleverer person than me once said.

Jackdaw

[abby (tank girl)]

but at least in the case of the levs/ waterboys/ stuffies there were fiddles and other traditionally 'folk'instruments, and they did 'cover'some old/trad songs too....

[Randlepmcmurphy]

It all comes round again, as a cleverer person than me once said.

Jackdaw

Who was that then ?

[Alex Lyons]

but at least in the case of the levs/ waterboys/ stuffies there were fiddles and other traditionally 'folk'instruments, and they did 'cover'some old/trad songs too....

Definitely in the case of the Waterboys from 'Fisherman's Blues' til 'Room To Roam' there was a lot of folk content - so very much in the Fairport/folk-rock tradition.

I'd agree that singer-songwriter does not equal folk - there's a tendency to call anyone singing and playing an acoustic guitar "folk" but that's really the American genre of folk or folk-rock (i.e. Dylan et al) rather than the British one (i.e. music with trad elements).

[Waterloo Wonderer]

I too have been reading this tome. It is very word dense with little if no revelations or new photographs but it is a good read which takes lomnger than your average magazine to read and is interesting to put it all into context.

[Mix (Mic)]

I think the absence of new stuff is down to the fact that it's all reproductions of old articles that appeared during the Folk Boom era to which the title refers. This is why I find it really informative, because I missed out on a lot that was around then. There is often a reference on here to something that happened a 'while' ago, and because I didn't have access to a lot of it, I don't know what's being discussed (and even I don't want to show my ignorance, by asking, all the time )
There are bands in there that I've seen members talking about in here that I've never even heard of, so I guess it's a way, for me, of filling in just a few of those gaps, from days that can't be retrieved
Wish I had a time machine though, it would have been great to have been at a lot of those shows

Mic