>In rural Ireland, even down to the first decades of the twentieth century,
>the favorite activities during a damp afternoon were a) masturbating, b)
>composing a song. At Irish gatherings, a common form of socializing was to
>go round robin, with each person in turn singing a solo. In Wales it was
>choral singing. I'm sure similar traditions existed in the Mississippi
>Delta and the Ozarks. Sometimes music was taken from song sheets, and
>later, from records. But authorship was often anonymous, and lyrics were
>altered from person to person. This isn't a romanticization of the past.
>This is simply how people entertained themselves in pre-media times. This
>is a little different from going to a club, paying a cover charge, and
>listening to a band with all kinds of equipment, in a situation in which
>there is a strict dividing line between performer and audience, and the
>performers are hoping to be noticed and recorded on a commercial label.
>The closest thing we now have to a folk tradition is gangsta rap.
Have you been to the Delta or the Ozarks lately? This is still going on. I frequent musical home gatherings where the music can only be describes as a hybrid of Folk, blue-grass, gospel, rock, old-time country and blues. It is like nothing I am familiar with in recorded music frequently. Think Nick Cave, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bill Monroe, The Oblivions, and Johnny Cash all mixed together. Usually just 12 or 15 people attend but occasionally 45 or 50 people show up to drink and play whatever music they want. Electric guitars, banjos, mandolins, dulcimers, drums, etc. A very strange mix. Some professional musicians but far more amateurs attend these. Almost all of them have day jobs in a non-music field. It is just people getting together to make music. I don't care for the Jesus stuff that frequently pops up but I have learned to accept that if I want to hear this stuff that is part of it. Many people are picking up an instrument they don't usually play so at times it is far from polished. Kids as young as 10 are frequently in attendance too depending on location. The professionals are some rock musicians and some blue-grass musicians generally but when playing at one of these gatherings they are not playing the same stuff they make their living performing.
John Thornton
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