Discovering Folk Music

222 Pages·2010·6.577 MB·English

by  Stephanie P. Ledgin

Discovering Folk Music
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Discovering Folk Music
S P. L
TEPHANIE EDGIN
FOREWORD BY
GREGG AND EVAN SPIRIDELLIS ,
COFOUNDERS, JIBJAB
Copyright 2010 by Stephanie P. Ledgin
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion
of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher.
All photographs, including front cover, copyright Stephanie P. Ledgin. All
reproduction rights reserved.
Front cover: Pete Seeger performing at the Smithsonian Festival of American
Folklife (now known as Smithsonian Folklife Festival), Washington DC,
June 25, 1982.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ledgin, Stephanie P.
Discovering folk music / Stephanie P. Ledgin ; foreword by Gregg and
Evan Spiridellis.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-275-99387-0 (alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-57356-771-8 (ebook)
1. Folk music—United States—History and criticism. I. Title.
ML3551.L36 2010
781.62'13 — dc22 2009051216
14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
For Mom,
with love
And for Mary Travers, whose voice was silenced as this book went to press. Her
music — that is, the music of Peter, Paul and Mary — was a major influence on
my own immersion in folk music. And for Mike Seeger, who also passed away
after my manuscript entered production. Mike’s enormous talents provided a
wealth of knowledge and enjoyment for me, particularly in recent years.
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Contents
Foreword b y Gregg and Evan Spiridellis ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: Why Folk Music? xvii
Chapter 1 What Is Folk Music? Beyond “Kumbaya” 1
Chapter 2 American Folk Music: A Cultural Mosaic 13
Chapter 3 Folk Revival: 50 Years On 31
Chapter 4 No Boundaries: New Folk to Anti-Folk 53
Chapter 5 The Power of Song 65
Chapter 6 Guitars, Harmonicas, and Banjos . . . Oh, My! 81
Chapter 7 Folk: Family-Friendly 89
Chapter 8 Folk Alive! Front Porches to Festivals 97
Chapter 9 Bridging Folk: Tom Paxton to the Abrams Brothers 105
Chapter 10 A Living Tradition: The Times They Keep A-Changin’ 111
More Folk: Selected Resources 117
Listening Space: A Folk Continuum 155
Index 159
A photo essay appears after page 88 in this book.
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Foreword
My brother and I grew up in the seventies, when folk music was permeating
pop culture. We were taught to sing Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”
everywhere from preschool to summer camp to elementary school. It was — and
still is — a staple of childhood in America.
The song, as we knew it, was about love of country and national unity. (We
later learned that two of Woody’s original verses about the haves and have-nots
were lost in the widely popular version.) In 2004, during that year’s presiden-
tial race, when we decided to make a parody about the country’s disunity, “This
Land” was at the top of the list of songs for consideration. Comedy is always
best when expectations are turned on their head, and there is no piece of
music that we knew of that conveyed unity better than the melody of “This
Land.”
When it came time to craft the lyrics, they just fl owed. The song is fun,
catchy, familiar, and instantly conveys a sense of Americana. After a couple of
rounds polishing the lyrics, we locked down on the folksy photo collage anima-
tion style that, together with the song, would help transform our Internet en-
deavor, JibJab, into an international sensation.
Music is an incredibly powerful art form. Folk art is typically associated with
being accessible — anybody with ambition can pick up the tools he or she has at
his or her disposal and create it. There is little, if any, polish, just raw creativity.
When we created JibJab, we harnessed new forms of media in a way that had
never been possible before for folk artists. In a way, we think of ourselves as dig-
ital folk artists.
Today, with computers, music creation software, and the Internet, pro-
duction a nd distribution technology is accessible to everyone. The balance
of power in media is shifting from the distributor to the creator. With that,
there is no doubt that digital technology will lead to the creation and discovery