Pass the Folk Music, Please

Music has been an intrinsic part of life since time began. People throughout the centuries have used music to entertain, to memorialize, and to celebrate the events of the day. Higher forms of music have evolved, creating sounds that can only be reproduced in a specific manner, but it is the music of the people that many of us hold dear.

For me, folk music is the sound that is the most easily replicated, vocalized, and remembered. It allows me to explore the lives of people with whom I can identify, it captures feelings that may be too tender or too precious to express, and it can stir an audience to sing along, even if they really don't want to. But most importantly, it's portable. We can take folk music with us wherever we go. We can sing it in our minds or out loud, we can play along by drumming on a table or simply strumming chords to accompany ourselves, or we can join together for an impromptu sing-along, complete with harmonies.

As I was growing up, I gravitated to music, not knowing why. I played piano, I played the clarinet, and I sang in school and church choirs. Exposure to music came from places you would expect, and some that might surprise you. I loved the hymns in church, the descants, the joy and solemnity, and the richness of four-part harmonies. I loved marching band, with its stirring percussion, explosive brass, and soaring woodwinds. And I loved classical music, from the Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart used by my piano teacher to teach technique, to the scores Warner Brothers used behind the likes of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd. This was where I learned about opera, the symphony, and how classical music could tell a story without any words.

But it’s folk music, and the sound of the instruments used to make that music, that keeps me coming back for more. To sing songs that are centuries old but are still relevant today. To play tunes that remain part of the fabric of our society. And to know that I am part of what keeps this tradition alive for generations to come.

I know that folk music isn’t for everyone. If it were, folk musicians everywhere would be living high on the hog. But if you love the sounds of guitar, banjo, mandolin, and autoharp, if simple harmonies thrill you like nothing else, and if you've ever thought to yourself, "I could do that!" then you’ve been bitten by the folk music bug, for which there is no cure. In the immortal words of Tevye, the Yiddish dairyman from Fiddler on the Roof, “May folk music smite me, and may I never recover!” Okay, I did change the quote a bit, but you get the message. Next time, I'll sing the words and you can hum along.