Jim Moray on youth and experience
writes:
Collecting tracks for my new compilation album, I got thinking how much the folk scene has changed in the ten years since I released my first EP. Then, it was extremely unusual to see anybody under the age of 50 in the audience at a folk club, or even in the audience at a festival. There was no Dance House at (standing up at folk gigs was unheard of), were also just starting out, and there was no chance of getting songs on the radio beyond the Mike Harding Show.
Collecting tracks for my new compilation album, I got thinking how much the folk scene has changed in the ten years since I released my first EP. Then, it was extremely unusual to see anybody under the age of 50 in the audience at a folk club, or even in the audience at a festival. There was no Dance House at (standing up at folk gigs was unheard of), were also just starting out, and there was no chance of getting songs on the radio beyond the Mike Harding Show.
Happily, thanks to the combined efforts of lots of artists, journalists, organisers and activists things are very different now. The problem now is that in some venues (especially 'new folk clubs' in big cities) the sea of young faces drowns out the older audience and, you know what? I kind of miss them.
In the current quest for youth and innovation it's important that we don't lose the knowledge and experience of the people that have been there doing it for so long. One of the strongest things about folk music has always been its inter-generational aspect, from a young having his life changed by 80-year-old , to sharing songs on stage with .
Folk clubs and festivals were always the place where me and my parents' generation could share the same music. It's not just about performers either. People like or John Howson or Malcolm Taylor have an overview that is both valuable and fascinating, and in danger of being set aside by a vogue for the 'new and fresh'. This is not helped by the usual press line about young musicians 'enraging traditionalists' (and I have been tarred with that particular brush many times) which is, on the whole, not true.Ìý I love the fact that folk fans of all ages come to my gigs.
Ultimately, it's all very well trying to be 'alternative' but without these people you have nothing to be alternative to.Ìý The object is to bring everybody together and share the music that we have, and to take it forward into the future. No throwing the baby out with the bathwater, let's just carry it onwards together.
Hear a track from Jim's forthcoming album on Mike's show this week.
In the current quest for youth and innovation it's important that we don't lose the knowledge and experience of the people that have been there doing it for so long. One of the strongest things about folk music has always been its inter-generational aspect, from a young having his life changed by 80-year-old , to sharing songs on stage with .
Folk clubs and festivals were always the place where me and my parents' generation could share the same music. It's not just about performers either. People like or John Howson or Malcolm Taylor have an overview that is both valuable and fascinating, and in danger of being set aside by a vogue for the 'new and fresh'. This is not helped by the usual press line about young musicians 'enraging traditionalists' (and I have been tarred with that particular brush many times) which is, on the whole, not true.Ìý I love the fact that folk fans of all ages come to my gigs.
Ultimately, it's all very well trying to be 'alternative' but without these people you have nothing to be alternative to.Ìý The object is to bring everybody together and share the music that we have, and to take it forward into the future. No throwing the baby out with the bathwater, let's just carry it onwards together.
Hear a track from Jim's forthcoming album on Mike's show this week.
Comment number 1.
At 30th Apr 2010, dannylerudd wrote:Nicely said Jim. I own up to being 50+.
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