Deeper waters
by michael
Lately, I’ve been diving into deeper waters of musical tradition. I’ve been digging into the discography of the prominent figures of influence in much of the music we hear today. Beginning more modernly with Bruce Springsteen but sliding backwards through Dylan to Seeger, Orbison, Guthrie, and onward and outward. While these names are obvious and will be Music 101 to many, I am coming to them on my own terms and, in many ways, with fresh eyes. Fresh for myself (not necessarily speaking for others). While these guys blazed many of their own trails, they are also rooted, in different ways, to various musical traditions. In my own musical compositions, I’m starting to search out some ground to stand on, some arena to inhabit. Of course this isn’t something you rationally decide ahead of time, so much as something you find yourself sliding towards as you create.
Barring Orbison/Guthrie, all of those I just named are still alive! Believe me, to find out that a 90 year old Seeger is still out and about was pretty amazing a realization to have.
While I can get behind the anger and yearning for independence behind rock n roll, I find myself drawn to folk traditions because whether they are successful or not, they really are about trying to learn how to live with people, trying to grow up, trying to mature. It’s like folk music still tries to talk about things that matter, that are important, but also find a way to address it as an adult, and not just as a child. I’ve never heard music as sad as some folk songs, but yet I’ve also hardly heard music so happy as some folk songs. It does not seem to stretch the genre to accommodate these extremes.
But I am speaking in generalizations, so maybe I’ll let the topic rest. For some of this music, I am the last guy to make it to the show. Sometimes when we think we are forging ahead, we find out that we have “discovered” one of the oldest things there is. We stumble backwards into the future.
But where we’re going, we won’t need roads? (Sorry, I had to finish out the inadvertent Back to the Future line).
cool i like the twitter widget and new look.
i think that’s what drew me to orbison “again” a few years ago. we listened for fun back in 1990 in washington days, but now when i came back to him and realized just what traditions he is responsible for in songwriting. he is arguably the first “emo”
The new design is niice. I like the smooth integration of all your goodies into the sidebar. Fixed my own blog up, only to have random database errors suddenly appear for no good reason. Whatev.
Bob Dylan is a genius. I even like his voice, now. Don’t miss out on John Cale, Al Green, Charlie Louvin, Rickie Lee Jones, Lindsey Buckingham & CSNY. Yay for Emusic, right?
It’s probably about time to get into some Tom Waits too!