Folk aesthetic - 2023 11 12

 

There is something important that happens when we share music and music making. 

It isn't about polish, professionalism, or building a brand. It isn't about demonstrating untold hours of practice through flawless memorization and performance. It isn't about extraordinary talent or brilliant technique.

What it is about, for me, is letting down our defences, joining forces, and making a moment where the wholeness of our collective expression is greater than our parts. Where our combined voices and instruments speak to our greatest good. Where the truth is known, "What we can't do alone we can do together."

There is the character of the itinerant musician, instruments that can be carried when we are forced to move. Instruments that can be plucked, blown, strummed. 

Music that is in its most natural state, tuneful, harmonious, quiet, slow, dynamic. You can hear a pin drop, you can be swept away.

Song lyrics put into words the feelings, longings, fears and aspirations of our shared lives. Experiences that we share in common, mysterious and baffling until someone, one of us, puts them into words.

These are my guiding principles for a folk aesthetic, the antidote to auto-tuning, over production, over performing, and passive audience.

This is my folk aesthetic.