So they objected to our singing in our style.”įrank Hamilton was among those who held that view. They believed the work of popular performers like Joan Baez and others “was not only not folk music, but it was adulterating or watering down and depriving the music of its strength. “Some people felt that if it was not pure ethnic, traditional music sung in the tradition of that style, it was not folk music,” he says. With interest in the older songs declining, they say, folk music may be fighting for its soul.īack in the 1960s, Peter Yarrow says, traditionalists used this argument against his group, Peter, Paul, and Mary. “That allows us to do a wide range of things.”īut this willingness to apply the term broadly has riled some traditionalists. “We have a pretty broad definition of the term ‘folk music,’ as people could see if they looked at our catalog,” says Jim Hirsch, the school’s director for the last 17 years. The school also offers courses in 20 different kinds of dance, from Irish step dancing to hip-hop. The Old Town School’s 110-member faculty teaches a range of music classes–from jazz to yodeling to Tahitian drumming. But record companies use the term to merchandise every middle-of-the-road singer-songwriter from Jewel to Tracy Chapman, just because they play acoustic guitars. Traditionally, folk has meant the music of the British Isles, Appalachia, and the southern United States. And this diversity is mirrored in the world of folk music. While the neighborhood continues to reflect its German and Swedish roots, in succeeding decades the area has become home to Greeks, Serbs, Bosnians, Koreans, Italians, and Latinos. The new Lincoln Square outpost of the 41-year-old school smacked of symbolism. What do we mean now when we talk about folk music? But the genre that gripped generations in the 1950s and ’60s is being reinvented in the ’90s. When the venerable Old Town School of Folk Music opened its new headquarters last fall, few knew the future of folk music was under debate. Best of Chicago 2022: Sports & Recreation. Best of Chicago 2022: Music & Nightlife.
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