Eclectic Company: The Most Recent Thing On Our Minds

A couple of weeks ago, the POSSLQ and I celebrated his birthday with a Tom Paxton concert at a small movie theater in Bay Shore, Long Island, made over into the Boulton Center for the Performing Arts. We’d learned about the show only a few days earlier, and felt lucky to get great seats, right down front in the third row. We wondered why we hadn’t heard about this event sooner and why we were able to get tickets at the last minute. Paxton, though probably unknown to many of you, was a folk scene hero in the 1960s, composer of some great songs like “The Last Thing On My Mind,” “Ramblin’ Boy” and “The Marvelous Toy.” His prolific songwriting output was covered by dozens of more famous artists like Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, John Denver, Peter, Paul and Mary, Harry Belafonte, Dolly Parton and the Kingston Trio. In 2009 he won a lifetime achievement award at the GRAMMYs. Surely he should bring out the crowds?

At start time, the audience was under 50 attendees in the 263-seat theater. Where was the crowd? We considered what had kept them away. Lack of publicity? Certainly. It hadn’t reached us until its coverage in the weekend section of Long Island’s newspaper of record, Newsday, and we’re always on the lookout for news of when music we’ll like is playing nearby so we can factor it in to our social planning. Timing? Probably. The concert fell on the eve of the Jewish high holy day, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, coincidentally, this year, on the POSSLQ’s birthday. Say no more. Cost? Possibly. The economy has swallowed many entertainment dollars, and a pair of $35 tickets plus $6 in fees while not outrageous is more than many people can easily afford.

Nevertheless, the concert was a pleasure. Paxton’s most recent album, Comedians and Angels, was released in 2008, but the songs — mostly love songs for his wife Midge, and one for his daughters — made for good listening, along with some of his well-worn hits and some B-sides that struck me anew. Paxton was accompanied by Paul Prestopino, a legendary multi-string instrumentalist, whose guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass mandolin and dobro surrounded his chair. His flourishes and bass runs were a perfect counterpoint to Paxton’s simple chordings and straightforward singing. We heard stories about Greenwich Village in the 1960s when Paxton arrived there from his childhood and youth in Chicago and Oklahoma, and though his stories never jumped their familiar track, he more than entertained us, earning a standing ovation and an encore.

VOICE OF THE POSSLQ

Folk music is dead. If you don’t believe me, just go to your nearest store which sells CDs and ask for their folk section. It isn’t there. If it’s a large seller, it may have a small section titled “folk rock” (Leslie assures me that folk rock is somehow related to folk, but you can’t prove it by me) but even that is unlikely. Or consider satellite radio; SiriusXM has 22 rock stations, nine jazz, eight country, but not one of folk music. Pandora will supply you music based upon your preferences, unless your preference is folk.

However children, Halloween approaches and the Dead shall walk among us. During the last two months I, along with the L lady, have twice attended folk concerts at a Unitarian Church about a mile from my house, twice attended folk concerts at an old farm about a half mile from my house and one at another farm another mile down the road, heard Tom Paxton sing at a converted movie theater ten miles from the house, went to a folk jam about 15 miles away, and thrice heard folk concerts at an Ethical Humanist Center maybe 20 miles away but still on Long Island. We will probably attend a house concert series that we’ve just heard of on the South Shore (we’re on the North), and there’re a couple of folk music Shabbat services run by a Cantor we know which we will probably go to one of these Saturdays, in Nassau County (we’re out east-er in Suffolk County) near the border of Queens (west of here). Certainly we have been to a number of other folk events, but the crucial facts here are that, although I have lived at my present location for over 20 years, all of these events are on Long Island and all are events I had not heard of until the L Lady moved in.

In fact, I have lived on Long Island for over 40 years without being aware of the plethora of folk events going on around me. Indeed, Lady L and I have talked seriously of setting up a website containing nothing but a schedule of upcoming Long Island folk events. We will claim that this is a service to the Folk Community of Long Island, but in actuality it seems the only way that she and I will have advance notice of many events going on around us.

How does folk music manage to be simultaneously moribund and ubiquitous? Aye, that is the question. Various artistic genres seem to attract various percentages of audiences/participants. Very few readers of classic novels attempt one for themselves, but a much larger percentage of science fiction readers are apt to create and publish their own amateur stories and novels. Pull out your violin and join in from your seat in the audience with your local symphony orchestra playing Beethoven and you probably will not get an overly friendly reception, however it is expected you will join in the chorus during a performance of folk music. Indeed, Pete Seeger has built a career around getting the audience to do most of the singing. A good part of the reason that folk music survives without attracting attention would seem to be the extent to which the folk music community is one in which the line between performer and audience is very thin indeed.

I would offer that folk music survives under the radar because it is folk music. That is the music that folk (it should be noted that “folk” here is an inclusive term embracing nearly everybody, although I’m not so sure about the 1%) sing for and with each other.

Back to Articles Index