Slow Food for a Slow Musician
Andrew Lang

Someone asked me the other day what it was about folk music that I liked, and I have to admit that I was put on the spot. It's not often you're asked to justify a belief system. I have always gone to folk clubs and festivals without giving it much thought, even more so as I've gotten older. (Well, when I was younger there were The Rolling Stones and The Beatles).

I was watching the American Music Awards a few months ago with my eighteen-year-old daughter. Not only did I not recognise any of the performers or award winners, but I had a hard time figuring out the different music categories. You know the old joke: "you know you're getting old when...". Long before there was Pop/Rock, Hip-Hop and Rap, long before Techno was invented, and Country, Soul and Rhythm and Blues, even before Adult Contemporary, Punk and Alternative, what was there? Watching the show with my daughter, I was amazed at how out of touch I was with the next generation. Of course, I faked some enthusiasm not to look like a complete idiot, and even felt a warm bond with her when she answered her cell phone with... "Oh, nothing,...just watching the American Music Awards with my dad." But the reality is our musical tastes are miles apart.

I'd no sooner go to a Kid Rock concert, or listen to an Eminem cd, than she to a David Francey concert, or an Iris Dement cd. Which reminds me of another award show that I watched on the internet last year; The Chieftains won best folk group on the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and Paddy Moloney, in his acceptance speech, said that this (folk music) was where it all began. That the first music ever produced by human beings was folk music. Right on Paddy!

So what is it about folk music that people of my generation find so appealing? For me, it's quieter, easy to listen to, and above all, closer to the real thing. The sound of an old song, the ones that are sometimes passed down from grandparent to grandchild for centuries, is comforting and reassuring, and connects me to a shared history. Not that I want to idealise the past (a safer and more reassuring past) given the unpredictability of today's modern world. But I want my music simple, real and unpretentious, in the same way I want my food. I don't want Kentucky Fried; I want a restaurant that's been around for years serving organic local vegetables and a grilled fish caught by local fishermen. Slow food for a slow musician.