[lbo-talk] Re: vinyl

[Turbulo at aol.com]

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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No, I haven't been to either of these places lately, but even here in NY one can go to any number of bars and clubs where people come to jam in jazz, country & western, celtic, bluegrass, etc. But these sessions tend to be for afficianados of a particular kind of music rather than part of the general culture. Musical genres are more and more taking on the character of niche interests, even in the places that gave birth to them and where interst in them is strongest.

My point isn't just about music. I think it's true to say that in pre-capitalist societies, or those parts capitalist societies still unconquered by the market, 1)culture tended more to be locally produced, 2) that people, who couldn't produce instant entertainment with a flick of the clicker sometimes had little choice but to supply it for themselves. Regardless of the quality of the entertainment, life had a different aspect. This is different from the self-conscious adoption of these products by moderns who are unfomfortasble with the anomy of urban life.