When you live in a remote spot the internet can be a really useful portal into the world of music, theatre, film etc. I like to think of my online music experiences as similar to sitting in an old record booth, my headphones on, trying out new artists. I'd like to share some of those finds with you.
I also like to look up old favourites and I'm always pleasantly surprised to find out that such and such has a new album or they're going on tour. I thought I would start with Lisa Knapp who I first saw seven
years ago at Priddy Folk Festival. Now she's just won three Folk
Awards. In the ten years since my first Priddy Folk Festival, folk music has
had a meteoric surge of popularity. At sixteen it was positively
antiquated and slightly pretentious of me, which at the time I thought
unfair, especially in the light of the new folk revival.
There's nothing flashy about the folk genre. It is by design democratic and meritocratic. Folk atists are usually multi-instrumental and aware of the cultural and historical background of their canon. The best of folk has a revelatory power, revealing connections between people and places which allows it to go straight to the heart of our shared history and common human experience. That's not to say other genres of music aren't able to do similar but I think most of the bands I can think of that don't fall into straight folk have their roots in the tradition of acoustic story-telling.
There's nothing flashy about the folk genre. It is by design democratic and meritocratic. Folk atists are usually multi-instrumental and aware of the cultural and historical background of their canon. The best of folk has a revelatory power, revealing connections between people and places which allows it to go straight to the heart of our shared history and common human experience. That's not to say other genres of music aren't able to do similar but I think most of the bands I can think of that don't fall into straight folk have their roots in the tradition of acoustic story-telling.
Something I really like about Lisa
Knapp is that I think she's doing something a little different. She has a
traditional song and she rips it apart, like some contemporary poetry.
There's a little bit of Bjork in there and we're starting to walk in surreal/
fragmented lyrics. I like the idea of collage-folk; Shipping
Song could almost be an Oulipou poem. The remix included
below gives the song an even further fragmented feel. I will leave you with the
Pete Flood (Bellowhead) Shipping Song remix:
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