Six things I find really cool about folk music
Anonymous
- It is most often produced locally, like the fresh tomatoes purchased at a roadside stand or farmer’s market. It’s the kind of thing that may make you think it possible to grow your own the very next spring.
- You often remember it as tasteful and swell, like that excellent little neighborhood restaurant you discovered before so many people found out about it, before you could no longer stroll in on a lark and get a table without a reservation.
- It is capable of leading you to some profound or sublime realization with respect to the more common things in life. Things like weeds and grass and work and love and change and beliefs and struggle and death.
- It is a way to learn about history in case you haven’t read many books.
- It is an easy way to gain access to a nurturing social community in the event you have already lost interest in popular media, and other personal associations have begun to suck to an unacceptable degree.
- It is an avenue through which to develop ones own creative expression. Those with an aspiration to perform for their friends and a limited number of strangers will find their audiences to be generally forgiving and appreciative. Those whose aspiration calls them to perform for a greater number of strangers will also find their audiences to be generally forgiving and appreciative, but the likelihood of encountering a few jerks here and there will increase proportionally. In some cases these jerks may be trying to tell you something that might be worth taking the time to figure out on your own.
10.3.17