From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V9 #146 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Tuesday, August 21 2007 Volume 09 : Number 146 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [RS] Not So Fast Folk ["Tom Neff" ] Re: [RS] Not So Fast Folk [Adam Plunkett ] Re: [RS] Not So Fast Folk [Rongrittz@aol.com] Re: [RS] Not So Fast Folk [Rongrittz@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 08:58:18 -0600 From: "Tom Neff" Subject: Re: [RS] Not So Fast Folk Puristical definitions of folk aside, the retail "folk" category has explicitly adjusted itself over the past twenty years (partly at the behest of retail buyers and product managers who love the music as passionately as we do) to be a place where Dar and Richard and Lucy, and Gorka and Brown and so many other names we love, can actually have their own shelf space and their own divider card and their own promotional displays - things they would never be entitled to on the basis of sales if they were lumped in with Foo Fighters and Xtina and Rascal Flatts. I don't blame today's top "folk" acts for feeling the chafe of that category, the frustration at coming so far and still having to wake up every morning next to the New Christy Minstrels and the Danny Boy Celtic Treasury. Better to play in the big leagues! The problem is that if you ever removed them from folk (which won't happen, it's the retailers' call) and moved them to Rock, they would simply disappear. Americana is a radio format, not a retail category. I think we need to make the Folk format more exciting and encourage its best practitioners to celebrate and embrace it with pride, not succumb to the illusion of escape. Richard is a good man and a great songwriter and I know he will continue to evolve and grow in amazing ways, but when he's done all of that, and it's 2014 and RIACHUELO is everyone's pick for Folk Album of the Year, you could still put it under your arm and walk into an A&R office at Universal and put it on the player, and the nice man or woman will lean back and say, "Folk - very nice. My daughter loves this stuff. Gotta run, stay in touch ok?" But what I would like that nice man or woman to say instead is: "Folk - very nice. My daughter loves this stuff. Tiffany, get Jared on the phone, he'll want to hear this." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:34:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Adam Plunkett Subject: Re: [RS] Not So Fast Folk Tom hit the nail on the head. Actually, most good record stores has filtered out other types of folk music from the "Folk" section and that section is now primarily your singer-songriters/people who play a guitar and sing (at least near me). Music such as Cajun, Zydeco, acoustic blues, Celtic, Salsa, Native American, traditional Country/Bluegrass all can rightly claim to being folk but they all have their (albeit small) spots in the record store aisles. This makes it easy for me since that is usually what I buy. :-) (I used to be a huge fan of singer-songwriters; nowadays only follow a few including Richard.) One funny sidenote: Some folk radio stations play all sorts of folk music and others tend to stick to the singer-songwriter type. I was on vacation and wanted my friend to hear BeauSoleil (famous Cajun band) after we talked about them so I called up the local station to request a song. The DJ told me they weren't folk music(!) and when I said I disagreed, he responded with, "well you wont find them in the folk section of the local record store, now will you?" And I don't care how many people use it - you can't make contemporary singer-songwriters a catagory. That is way too vague. Anybody who writes songs and sings them can be there. And while I understand what it means, who came up with the term "Americana"? I cringe every time I hear it. What makes that more American than any other facet of American-made music? Adam Tom Neff wrote: Puristical definitions of folk aside, the retail "folk" category has explicitly adjusted itself over the past twenty years (partly at the behest of retail buyers and product managers who love the music as passionately as we do) to be a place where Dar and Richard and Lucy, and Gorka and Brown and so many other names we love, can actually have their own shelf space and their own divider card and their own promotional displays - things they would never be entitled to on the basis of sales if they were lumped in with Foo Fighters and Xtina and Rascal Flatts. I don't blame today's top "folk" acts for feeling the chafe of that category, the frustration at coming so far and still having to wake up every morning next to the New Christy Minstrels and the Danny Boy Celtic Treasury. Better to play in the big leagues! The problem is that if you ever removed them from folk (which won't happen, it's the retailers' call) and moved them to Rock, they would simply disappear. Americana is a radio format, not a retail category. - --------------------------------- Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 14:01:50 -0400 From: Rongrittz@aol.com Subject: Re: [RS] Not So Fast Folk >> but when he's done all of that, and it's 2014 and RIACHUELO is everyone's pick for Folk Album of the Year << Let's see, 2014. That would make RIACHUELO the follow-up record to "South of Delia." ;-) RG ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:40:37 -0400 From: Rongrittz@aol.com Subject: Re: [RS] Not So Fast Folk >> And I don't care how many people use it - you can't make contemporary singer-songwriters a catagory. << You're right . . . where would you put someone like Maura O'Connell, who I consider a folksinger, but who doesn't write any of her own songs? RG ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V9 #146 ***********************************