Is there about to be a changing of the guard in folk music?Something exciting is definitely happening: The face of folk seemssuddenly both younger and more, well, folksy than at any time sincethe early 1960s.
Club Passim manager Matt Smith says that 10 years ago, peoplefirst discovering the coffeehouse tended to be in their mid- to late-20s. Now it's late-teens to early 20s. And there are many more youngfolk bands playing the club.
"We are much less songwriter-oriented today than combo- and band-oriented," he says. "People aren't just sitting around alone,writing their songs. They're collaborating, having fun playing musictogether. And when they do that, they get more tradition-based. Yousee a bunch of solo songwriters forming bands, and you know they'reall going trad."
Alison Brown is a Grammy-winning banjoist whose urbane soundtravels so well she's appearing at both the Podunk BluegrassFestival and Rockport Chamber Music Festival (July 2,www.rockportmusic.org). She also runs Compass Records, a hipboutique label that ranges from bluegrass to Celtic to jazz.
"There are definitely more new folk bands than there have everbeen," she says. "And there seem to be more young people gettinginterested in the music. But I'm really not sure if that's becausethere's a big new wave, or just that the technology makes it easierto find the music and to make records."
David Jacobs-Strain, 25, a sizzling blues-rooted guitarist-songwriter, thinks many young folkies, like him, grew up around themusic as the kids of boomer folkies.
During the lean years after the commercial folk revival, folkdeveloped a missionary zeal from which it is now greatly benefiting.Festivals exposed people like Jacobs-Strain to the vast universe offolk styles, what he calls "the bigger world of handmade music." Andyoung people found it tantalizingly easy to learn from stars theyadmired at summer workshops, music camps, and from instructionalvideos.
"By the time I was in middle school," says Jacobs-Strain, whoplays at Johnny D's on July 21, "a lot of other kids were listeningto grunge and alternative rock. But that all seemed kind ofmeaningless to me, something distant that was made in a studio. Folkfelt more real."
Tennessee bluegrass prodigy Sierra Hull, 17, who performs at theLowell Folk Festival, is a sparkling mandolinist and singer. LikeJacobs-Strain, she discovered the music at festivals and started toplay when she was 8. She loved jamming with adults, and local bandsoften invited her on stage, "even when all I could do was chopalong."
"It was such a fun way to meet new people, learn new things, andget encouragement from people you really admire," she says."Bluegrass is like a big family that way, a very sweet environmentto grow up in."
She says the availability of folk music on the Internet is alsodrawing new young fans: "Lots of kids my age just like beingdifferent and don't listen to commercial music. You know, it's like,`Everybody likes that, so I'm not gonna.' "
Smith says that's indicative of what's happening on a broaderlevel.
"Genre doesn't matter so much anymore, because the industryreally doesn't matter anymore. When you're not dealing with radioformats or big record labels that much, the question of who playswhat isn't so important," Smith says. "People don't care who'sbluegrass and who's pop and who's trad. They just want to playtogether, inspire each other, and find new ways of making music. Andwhen you get right down to it, that's folk music more than anything,isn't it?"
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