An super-folkie passes on

Susan Forbers Hansen passed along this article about Victor Heyman, a folk music benefactor of mammoth proportions. Apparently, as is her practice with many folk musicians, Hansen hosted Heyman and his wife at her house when they were passing through the area on their way to shows.

There are no doubts that Victor Heyman will be missed.

Folk music re-emerges at Grammy's

Folk music was the big surprise winner at the Grammy's on Sunday.

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant won Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Contemporary Folk/Americana album for Raising Sand. They also won for best pop collaboration, and best country collaboration.

Pete Seeger won another Grammy. This time for Pete Seeger at 89 on Appleseed.

Art Rosenbaum and Dust-to-Digital won a Grammy for the first volume of The Art of Field Recording.

As mentioned in another post, Michael Doucet and Beausoleil won a Grammy, as did the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, Bela Fleck and Dr. John.

Throwing the dreadful snake and the little girl out with the bathwater, or wasted away in margaritaville

In the long run there's little to worry about. Ask Pete Seeger if you doubt me. Folk song, folk music is strong enough to withstand the depredations of commercialism, the influences of pop culture, the dilutions of broadcast and narrowcast, the seductions of fame and fortune. These songs, and this attitude is built to endure. These are sturdy songs appreciated well by front porch gatherings, and tiny coffeehouse crowds, and even legions of fans at folk festivals.

Speaking of which. Folk song, like John Barleycorn himself, is strong enough to endure the changes wrought in the transformations of some of America's oldest folk festivals.

Last year, while at the Newport Folk Festival, I learned that it would be the last one produced exclusively by Festival Productions, the company founded by impresario George Wein, which founded the folk and jazz festivals at Newport. I was told that the festival, along with several others produced by Festival Productions had been sold to the Festival Network, which hoped to turn the Newport Folk Festival into the next Bonnaroo, the amazingly successful multi-genre (but mostly rock and pop) festival held every year in Tennessee.

And so, it has come to pass. The Newport lineup has been announced (thanks to SF Hansen for the heads up) with headliners for Saturday and Sunday featuring the Black Crowes, and Jimmy Buffet respectively. There are some interesting bookings for the frestival including the Avett Brothers, Cat Power, Levon Helm, Gillian Welch, and the much overrated Jim James and M. Ward. The good news is that Bob Jones, formerly of Festival Productions, is still at the helm, and that the temporary swing toward pop cred is balanced with the thought that after re-establishing the festival, more traditional performers will be sought to fill the stage in future years. And even Jimmy Buffet indicates he'll do a folkie set, instead of a Coral Reefer band "parrothead" set.

Whether Newport can ever approach the mass popularity of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (which starts this week), Bonnaroo, or California's Coachella (next weekend), is debatable. Part of the worry at Newport is that crowds have thinned over the past few years, only reaching a half or two-thirds capacity. To be honest, I've been at the festival when it's been a sell-out, on a hot August afternoon, and it's been, umm, uncomfortable, to say the least.

While Newport struggles to achieve Bonnaroo status, other smaller roots festivals, which don't have the same necessity to meet outsized commercial goals are booking amazing lineups and drawing large enthusiastic crowds, there's everything from the Dewey Balfa Heritage Week taking place this week in Ville Platte, Louisiana, the Augusta camps and festivals in West Virginia, to the Green River Festival in Greenfield Mass, the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival (at a new site this year), the bluegrass and cajun music festivals at Strawberry Park, the Rhythm and Roots Festival in Charlestown RI, the Blackpot Festival in Lafayette Louisiana, and that's just scratching the surface.

Folkies, we are the shit

Anais Mitchell as not seen in Vanity Fair.



If Vanity Fair says you're hip, you're hip.

So for a few moments in history, if you're a nerdy, introverted, barely-washed, hemp-wearing folkie, you are suddenly at pop culture ground-zero.

But leave it to a glossy book like Vanity Fair to get it only nearly correct. They've got Annie Leibovitz portraits of Joni, and Joan and Arlo and Buffy Ste. Marie. But then they skip several generations of "folk" musicians and go from the golden oldies to the freak folks like Devendra Banhart and Feist.

So how could they have missed Rambling Jack Elliot, Pete Seeger, Guy Clark, Bill Morrissey, Patty Larkin, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Hazel Dickens, Patty Griffin, Nanci Griffith, the Mammals, Peter Case, Ani Difranco, David Mallett, Alejandro Escovedo, Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, Anais Mitchell, the Pine Leaf Boys, Jeffrey Foucault, Eilen Jewell, Rani Arbo, Nathan, Uncle Earl, Robbie Fulks...well you get the point.

So enjoy your moment in the spotlight, because it'll be gone by December.

Thanks to Susan Forbes Hansen, the quintessence of folkiness, for the link.

The real boss sings

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez not at a folk festival.

Though it won't be "Kumbaya" in the presidential offices, charismatic Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez will be releasing an album of folk songs. It should destroy his career.

He should know that you can call the U.S. President, "Mr. Danger" and the devil, you can give free heating oil to the poor of the U.S., you can re-distribute land taken by profiteers in your own country, you can rant for three hours every Sunday on your own TV show, but you can't release an album of folk music and expect anyone to listen. Ask Ramblin' Jack Elliott, or Bill Staines. Ask Hazel Dickens or Cindy Lee Berryhill. Ask Pete Seeger, or Bruce Springsteen for that matter.

I have two words for you, El Presidente, "bluegrass" and "cdbaby.com."

I wonder how I get a comp of the new one?

Thank you Roger

I've stewed over this all morning. The lack of coverage of Len Domler's death (see my blog, Len Domler, RIP).

I understand that folk music is small potatoes in a world consumed by The Sopranos, the Red Sox Nation, the gasoline tax, Paris Hilton's jailhouse stint, Lou Deluca's hit, and Lindsay Lohan's DUI, but so is jazz, opera, art, the stage and non-best-selling literature.

Just because the great big world is not paying attention, doesn't diminish its importance.

Len Domler was a cultural cornerstone in the Hartford area. Week after week, without pay, he helped bring interesting, underappreciated, world class music to Hartford. In fact, there are many musicians who passed through that the bigger world would recognize. Musical legends like Pete Seeger, Doc Watson and the Balfa Brothers.

And the local media has ignorned Len's passing. If this was New York City, you know there would have been a sweet elegaic essay in the New Yorker and The Times.

At least, Roger Catlin, who covered music for the Courant for years, has a very nice post on his blog. He went to shows at the Sounding Board. He understands what Len contributed.

Unfortunately when the current Courant music columnist can report the death of Ra Ra Riot and not that of Len Domler, then priorites are screwed up.

Hartford can build civic centers, marketplaces, blue black squares, but it's little cultural organizations, like the Sounding Board, which make Hartford a decent place to live. Long live the Sounding Board, and Len Domler's memory.

From the simple obituary in the Hartford Courant, calling hours are at: the Giulliano-Sagarino Funeral Home at Brooklawn, 511 Brook Street, Rocky Hill on Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. Funeral and burial will be at a later date. Gifts in his memory may be made to either The Sounding Board Coffeehouse, C/O Brent Hall, 460 Wallingford Road, Cheshire, CT, 06410 or to Middlesex Weiss Hospice Unit, Middlesex Hospital, Office of Philanthropy, 28 Crescent Street, Middletown, CT, 06457.

Len Domler RIP

Len Domler, the lovable curmudgeon we all knew as the face and voice of Sounding Board concerts for so many years died today at Middlesex Hospital in Middletown.

I didn't know Len well, though I knew his son late Bill very well. Bill was a folk music catalyst, with a long running show on WWUH that he hosted until he died in 2001. Bill started several music series, including the series that became the Sounding Board. Bill was famous for starting series and then moving on, and since he roped his dad, Len and his mom Fran into helping him with the original Sounding Board, they continued running it for a couple of decades. Len was the frontman, announcing at many of the concerts.

Bill told me his dad was never a huge folk music fan at the start, but that he grew to love the music and the musicians. His biggest love was country music. He died, appopriately enough, listening to Johnny Cash.

Raising the barn

It's unfortunate that the only recollection most of us have of barn raising is the scene from Witness, the Harrison Ford movie.

The honorable tradition of helping a neighbor build a barn is still felt in organizations like Habitat for Humanity.

But as musicians attempt to find new models for creating, performing and distributing their songs, the idea of barn raising has been, well, raised. And who better than folk musicians to revive a folk tradition.

Mark Erelli, a gifted Boston singer-songwriter, is preparing to record his next album, and he's giving us all the opportunity to help him build it from the ground up. I'll let him explain the details himself, but it's a simple concept. And maybe when it comes time for you to build your barn, he'll take up the hammer.

Concerts of the week

Here in the Northeast, the festival season gets underway in earnest this week, and next week there's a virtual explosion of music.

The Strawberry Park Bluegrass Festival
May 31 - June 3
Preston, CT

In its 30th year, this popular festival continues to prove the timeless attraction of this old time music. This year, the schedule is chockablock with exciting young string bands like the Greencards, Cadillac Sky, the Infamous Stringdusters and Chris Thile's Nickel Creek offshoot, How to Grow a Band. In addition there are great acts like the Dry Branch Fire Squad, Rhonda Vincent (that's her in the photo above) and the Gibson Brothers. A good place to fill your ears with grass.

Mike Arnone's Crawfish Fest
June 2-3
Sussex Fairgrounds, Augusta NJ

Truth be known, Mike Arnone shared his jambalaya secrets with me. This man can cook, and he has good taste in music too. This is the first weekend in three (next week it's Blast from the Bayou at Strawberry Park, the week following week it's the Great Connecticut Cajun/Zydeco Music and Arts Festival in Moodus) of great Louisiana music within driving distance. This year Mike brings Dr. John, Geno Delafose, the Pine Leaf Boys, Sonny Landreth, Cowboy Mouth and more to his adopted home in the Northeast.