Do house concerts threaten or augment the established folk club movement?

[rob ellen]

As we welcome Jon McNamara, our first Folk Club organiser to the ranks, one of the major point of interest for me is how are established folk clubs going to react and indeed be affected by the growth of the house concert movement, so its encouraging to have him with us as our first Folk Club representative.

It can be argued that House Concerts got their start in The US out of necessity, because they don't have an established folk club network, we do and it has an vital and crucial roll in supporting our independent traditional musicians and roots music of all sorts. So will House Concerts augment and add to the need to highlight the music or will they threaten the traditional (in all aspects) place of the folk club in the way of promoting live music.


Rob Ellen

[John of Celtic Ways]

Well here in Ireland, the folk club is quite scarce. If something is put on in a pub it usually has to be a session because of its rowdy atmosphere. There is a lively singer songwriter movement in Ireland but showcasing that work is hard. Some pubs have opened up back room gigs or close off their lounges for listening sessions only. There are some good community arts centres too. However the style of singer song writing here seems to be quite limited to what can be effectively strummed as a busker, but there are also some great piano accompanied songwriters too. Duke Special from Belfast is one very popular example risen from this.

Our own motivation for being hosts is that there are barely any venues remaining for the most traditional of Irish songwriting and performance, and that is by the singer harpers.

So here in Ireland we are trying to kick off an example reviving the house concert, which was once the only place most people could hear songs and music in Ireland from about 1500 to 1800 AD. It is a kind of necessity here for song writers, especially those who accompany themselves with harps.

On my brief visits to England the folk clubs there seemed to be riddled with politics on what should be and what should not be performed in folk clubs. I do not see this happening in house concerts. Each host will have his or her preference but collectively there will be places for any kind of singer and/or musician to play. I cannot see house concerts going the way of folk clubs trying to set a code for what a folk club is supposed to be.

I think house concerts are entirely different to folk clubs so I do not think either the question of augmenting or threatening applies. What folk club, for example, would take on a poet who plays tunes on a saxaphone between poems, but that would be ideal entertainment for a house concert.

[Djay Buddha]

Folk Clubs (with some exceptions) Have over the last decade or so stagnated and stayed well within in their comfort zone Booking the same artists year after year and rarely encouraging new artists on the circuit. My Hope is that House concerts will show them what they are missing.. I have sent hundreds of press kits for various artists and received very few if any replies A disgraceful situation, I do understand that many folk clubs have limited budgets and are run by volunteers but that is no excuse for not replying by email if it is only a standard thanks but no thanks..

[Lorelei Loveridge]

I can't speak for the U.S., but I can speak for Canada: the way in which songwriters 'break' into the market is through the acoustic music stages, which are very popular, and reems of open mic nights have provided avenues leading up to booking shows. Yet...producing your own concerts still seems a notch higher and better than that, if you have the marketing savvy and can afford to do it. 'Events' always outshine venue shows and obtain more publicity, on the whole. This is the pre-amble to the folk festival scene, which has become all but impossible to crack - and my manager in Canada reports that festival directors ARE playing it safe in economically difficult times especially: booking known 'names' and regional acts. However, it seems to me that the known 'names' were always the ones booked, yet it's become harder. And while there is a viable folk club scene happening in Canada, I also received word that two clubs known to my manager have actually cancelled their seasons until the end of 2010. So...England has its advantages, on that front with over 300 festivals and lots of folk clubs. The challenge of booking eons in advance with the clubs and the issue of earning a pittance in many cases is another issue. It's compensated by the fact, I think, (and time will tell) that one can plot a tour here affordably. So, an artist can stack up several dates.

To answer your question: do house concerts threaten the established folk club movement...my first question is this, speaking as a foreigner now having lived here for 20 months: what IS the folk club movement? My perception is: much of it is traditionally oriented and, yes, 'established'. It's who you know. And in a sea of people to know, it's hard to get around. It takes time. That said, every folk club has its character. The UK's folk club network is highly organized. What's to 'fear' from having a well-established house concert network is: nothing. Canada learned years and years ago by instituting 'Can-Con' or Canadian Content on radio that 'if you build it, they will come'. If more artists of a different ilk are given the chance to play and be heard, that is good for the music scene altogether. The new currency in today's crazy economy/market, as someone recently put it to me (I think it was my producer), is 'quality'. House concerts offer simply another alternative to those of us trying to earn a living from music at a time when too many are devaluing our work. I can only say, it was a house concert that gave me my first show in London, England. It was a house concert in Canada a week ago that paid nearly my full month's rent in June. The new entertainment, as some say, is 'IN'. At home. Is it? I don't know, but it does feel good to have a potluck or something and settle in and both enjoy a show, but also commune and connect and relax in a whole other way.

I, as an artist and as a person, think it's grand that people are ingenious enough to invent their own forms of entertainment. Living in Saudi Arabia for 11 years, many of us as expats knew that we had to create our own fun, and we did. On compounds, out in the desert. It's community building at its best, really.

So, on that note, thank you...THANK YOU...for providing a forum for gathering and discussion and action!

Best wishes,

Lorelei Loveridge
President-Artist
Orderly Bazaar Records & Publishing
Manchester, UK

[Martin Giles]

The folk music scene is an enigma to me. Where I have lived most of my life it hasn't been in evidence, and having looked around on the internet a little, it doesn't seem much in evidence where I live now either.

From this outside vantage point, the folk movement seems a little forbidding. Everyone seems to be talking about the politics of preserving tunes from history, and I often get the feeling that the contemporary singer-songwriter form is viewed with distain by the folk movement. I can't help feeling that one thing the folk movement should be doing is enthusiastically embracing the house concert format. However, in the few exchanges I've had with people in that arena, they seem oblivious and completely unenthused by its possibilities. From his comment above, this seems to be the impression Djay Buddha has had also.

To the question of whether house concerts are a threat or a help to the folk movement, it seems to me that they can be a huge boon. At the moment, my feeling is that the folk fraternity is un-willing to take advantage, and will remain this slightly insular and forbidding annex to the music scene in the UK.

I’d be completely delighted to be corrected of course!