We join Georgie for a well-deserved box around the ears, followed by a new education in that most misjudged of genres, folk.
Whenever I tell anybody I like folk music, they inevitably pull a face. I am convinced that, in their mind’s eye, they see a balding middle-aged man in a check shirt, swinging a banjo and crooning woefully about his broken-down pick-up truck. The phrase, “so Dolly Parton, then?” has been used more than once. Well, here and now, I’d like to set the record straight.
Whilst most people are correct in surmising that country music (like good old Dolly) is indeed folk music, it is narrow-minded to assume that that is all it is. Modern folk music is one of the most expansive musical genres around; it is almost guaranteed that there’ll be a band on your ipod with connections to folk music, and you never even knew. With popular sub-genres including folk rock, electric folk, anti-folk, folk metal and techno-folk (yes, I didn’t believe that one either at first, but it definitely exists), there really is a branch of folk music for everybody.
The folk scene in Britain today owes a lot to the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, when artists like Bob Dylan and Paul Simon graced our shores, bringing with them a host of politically-motivated folk ballads that spoke straight to the nation’s soul. Since then folk music has progressed and diversified to such an extent that in some cases it is not even recognisable, and the charts are now littered with artists who owe their inspiration to folk: Laura Marling, Fleet Foxes and Mumford & Sons anybody?
Yet despite all its numerous derivatives, there is one thing that links all folk music together; the fact that it is always, without exception, sung from the heart. Whether they’re singing about heartbreak, friendship or politics, folk artists pour emotion into their songs from all angles.
So there you have it. Diverse, emotive and exciting, folk music is here and it’s now and it’s for everyone. Drop your preconceptions and embrace it.
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