Looking Back at Folk Alliance 2010
Allison Williams and her band
On a gray, rainy Sunday in Austin, I sat down for coffee with Louis Meyers, the director of Folk Alliance International. We discussed how, in the last few years, the organization has undertaken efforts to reach out to more roots bands. This year in Memphis, the fruits of that effort were especially evident, with the traditional, bluegrass, Cajun and world music communities well-represented.
“We had a huge number [of roots bands] this year, more than we’ve ever had by leaps and bounds,” Meyers says. “We had whole nights with like nine young bluegrass bands in a single show. [There were] young stringbands everywhere you turned around, aged about 14 to 25. We probably had close to 400 people in that age group. There were [just] dozens in the past…There’s so many good young bands now, there’s a band from Birmingham called Act of Congress, its their second year in, and Joy Kills Sorrow. In terms of this year, the increase was substantial. We were just known as a singer/songwriter event. About four years ago, everybody thought, ‘Ah, it’s just a singer/songwriter conference.’ This is the first year nobody said that.”
This was Tripping Lily’s first Folk Alliance and we must say it was extremely successful for our band. We made so many great contacts that it was worth the trip. The “On the Griddle” as well as Music Licensing workshops were extremely helpful for us. We had great feedback on our CD and also learned how to get our music into TV and Film. As far as showcasing, we had a great time showcasing in your room and were so thrilled to walk away with a live recording of our performance. Something that we feel as a band is so important, to be able to listen back and see exactly where you are in your craft! Thank you for that! – Tripping Lily (via Monica Rizzio, spokeswoman)
Tripping Lily
There’s been a youthful resurgence in folk music, from singer/songwriters like Sam Beam (aka Iron and Wine) to delightfully freaky flower-child collectives like Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. It’s a connection that Meyers has certainly noticed.
“[FAI] is always growing, but we’re marketing to a new generation to make that happen,” he says. And it’s not just us, it’s the whole folk world. There was no alternative folk market five years ago. When I took over this job, the word ‘folk’ was really a bad word, it wasn’t a word young people wanted to hear. They thought of old guys with fiddles and banjos on the back porch, they didn’t relate to it at all. Now, five years later, after Iron and Wine, Swell Season, Fleet Foxes, Okkervil River, on and on and on – I’m discovering more of these bands every single day. And all these bands call themselves ‘folk bands;’ they’re young people playing to young people under the word ‘folk.’ It’s the first time since the ‘60s that that’s happened. Even the folk acts in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s would never use the word. It was taboo, unless you were Pete Seeger, or wanted to be thought of as Pete Seeger [laughs].”
FAI is an especially unique position to bridge the generations, with a refreshingly open-minded approach that lets everyone in, no matter where your initial interest in folk music sprung from. As Meyers describes:
“It’s great because there’s this whole new world of these folks, and they’re finding the old cats, the traditional artists. We’re not even having to shove it down their throat any more, they’re coming to us. They’ve discovered Charlie Poole, The Stanley Brothers, Odetta. And they’re finding it through Iron and Wine, they’re finding it through Orkkevil River. To me, that’s fantastic.”
I have attended almost every Folk Alliance since the beginning. This one felt much less aggressive and more people seemed to want to play and sing together, listen to others perform, and talk/listen about solutions to music “problems.” I think Violet Hensley’s leading example of how a real professional musician does their music true to their own talent, and how they respect other musicians, was a big reason. She was everywhere; playing fiddle, singing, visiting, asking questions, answering questions, joining in with a bluegrass band in the lobby, waltzing with Andy Cohen – always going for the heart, not “perfection.” – Ginny Hawker
Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwartz
When Mike Seeger passed away last August, FAI knew they were going to do something to honor his memory. At the suggestions of his agent, a memorial scholarship was set up.
“We try to honor – especially our more well-known members – we always try to do something special for them,” Meyers says. “We’ve starting launching some scholarships at Folk Alliance for a few years. This is the first scholarship that’s a specifically funded scholarship. It covers not only registration, it covers travel expenses and lodging for one person a year from the traditional music field.”
This year’s recipient was Violet Hensley, a 93-year-old fiddle player, and fiddle maker. Her boundless energy and musical enthusiasm seemed to touch everyone at the conference, as Meyers describes:
“Not only was she wonderful, she played with everybody. Friday night I watched her, she sat down in the lobby of the hotel with a group of people, average age probably 18 or 19 years old, and she played for four straight hours. Every time I walked by, she was either playing fiddle or bones, constantly in motion, and she was wearing these kids out! And she did nothing but play for four and a half days … Looks like we have a 102 year old banjo player next year. So not only does it pass something to the youth, but it passes something to the 99% of our members who are going to be younger than the recipient of this scholarship [laughs]. Everybody was touched by Violet this year. It was very special to have her there.”
The scholarship is a keystone of the FA’s efforts to create a conducive environment for not only traditional musicians, but for others who wish to learn more about their musical roots.
“This is our second year now of refocusing our attention on traditional music,” Meyers says. “We’ve had a track called trad university the last two years, that we’ll revamp going forward, and it was really designed to teach all these songwriters that were coming to the conference where the music came from. And it worked, it not only got the songwriters more intuned with traditional sounds, all of a sudden the trad community came to me and said, ‘Oh! They care!’ They’d just been waiting for a little outreach, a little special attention. We’ve got trad panels and workshops to go with [trad university], numerous trad rooms in the private showcases, two rooms in the main showcases devoted to trad this year. It was substantial and noticeable. It trickled down through the whole conference.”
This was the Sweetback Sisters’ first time at FA. We were happy to be there and totally blown away by the sheer number of people playing guitars in the same building. We were excited to run into great people like the amazing Ginny Hawker, our uber-talented friends Laura Cortese & Jefferson Hamer, and songstress extraordinaire Nora Jane Struthers, all of whom played in the SPPS room. You guys have great taste! We totally loved playing in your room. Sorry we got you a noise complaint (we heard via Twitter)! We were all exceedingly tired come Sunday, but we came away satisfied that it was a weekend well spent. – Emily Miller, Sweetback Sisters
The Sweetback Sisters
“When you cram 2000 people into a small hotel, you get to know them,” Meyers reflects. “You ride the elevator with them enough times, you see them at the restaurant, or the bar or whatever. Or at night, constantly saying, ‘Excuse me,’ to get past them in a hallway. By the fifth time you do that, you know the people, and they’ve got giant badges on so it’s not like you don’t know who they are.”
As Meyers describes it, particularly this year with influx of younger bands, the FA conference atmosphere is similar to that a music festival:
“I had more people come up to me this year and say, ‘I had no idea this was what it was like.’ ‘Cause there’s no way to explain 2000 music people under one roof at one time, it’s like going to a major festival. Somebody called it Kerrville with showers. ‘Cause there’s the part of it that’s like the main stages of the festival, and then at 10:30 at night when everybody goes upstairs, it’s like going into the campground at Kerrville or Winnipeg or Bonnaroo – it’s that same mentality. And it’s worked. We refine it every year to make it work better, but its working. It felt more like the festival campground this year than ever has, but most of that was just because the average age has dropped so much, that youthful energy and that joy of playing music and discovering people that you didn’t know before. At one point, we had basically the same people coming every year and they were getting older and more jaded. This new vitality has been great.”
We find that [conferences] really help get the word out. You have great little performances in front of people that book festivals and concert series. We always walk away with several bookings we wouldn’t have had otherwise. My personal favorite part of things like Folk Alliance is the conversations you have with people who know what it’s like to walk in your shoes, other touring musicians at or above your level of success. It helps rejuvenate the energy you need to keep pushing forward. – Ryan Hinshaw, Henhouse Prowlers
Chris "C-Bob" Elliott with The Henhouse Prowlers
Perhaps the most important aspect of the FA conference is the sense of community. These are rough times in the music industry, and, with the exception of a few people, everyone involved is scraping by. But events like this conference can serve to remind us why we’re doing this – slogging for miles in a van, picking to empty rooms, sleeping on couches, squinting at computer screens for hours, sending email after email in the hope somebody will answer, organizing house concerts, or explaining to the bouncer at the door what exactly your taping rig is for.
“They want to feel like they are a part of something big,” Meyers says of the attendees. “And everybody walks away feeling quite empowered, because [they realize], ‘Oh, we’re not alone.’ You know, we do a lot of career rejuvenation. Every year we probably bring five or six acts from the ‘where-are-they-now’ file back into the public eye, and try to present them in a way where they can try to restart or resume careers that may have stalled for whatever reason over the years. It’s about the young artists, it’s about the old artists, it’s about keeping the business going.”
Meyers hopes for the future revolve around supporting that authentic community, often a challenge in a world where music-related events are pressured to grow and rake in the dough. But there’s a more sustainable route. As he explains:
“It’s about quality not quantity. In our current venue in Memphis, we can’t grow beyond 2000. We looked at 1900 this year. And I could handle about 100 more before the facility becomes unusable, people can’t get in to see what they want to see and the hallways are too crowded and the elevators are too crowded and it’s just a zoo. I’ve seen backlash of too much growth too quick. We don’t want that. We want everybody that’s there to be there for a reason … So far, we’ve been really good about developing new talent, we have a lot of acts from Folk Alliance breaking into the nation and international spotlight. That’s all I can ask for. That and that we keep the business healthy. We stay very mission-oriented, in terms of making sure the music gets passed down, that’s probably the most primary mission. And I’d say again, beyond my wildest expectations, how well were doing in that simple aspect of our role.”
The Steel Wheels
In the end, the music is the genuine currency that sustains us. During their much-talked about SPPS showcase set, Trent Wagler from The Steel Wheels says, ”If you’re anything like me, the rest of your year is nothing like this week. And you have to explain to people what you do for a living or why you do it. But this music has a lot of hope for me.”
With that, we’d like to point you to the tapes from our showcase room. If you haven’t checked them out yet, we have provided links below. The intimacy and casual vibe of the hotel room setting really comes through in these crystal clear recordings. There’s a lot to love, and fall in love with, but to get you interested, here’s a handy sampler to stream. We picked a track from every showcase (hence three tracks from those hardworking HHP boys), but you’ll find a link to the full sets below. Captured live, and now straight to your ear – that’s how we roll at SPPS!
SPPS FA Showcase Sampler
Joy Kills Sorrow – You Make Me Feel Drunk
Allison Williams – Preacher Got Drunk
Laura Cortese & Jefferson Hamer – Pastures of Plenty
Henhouse Prowlers – Won’t Fight Alone Again
Chris “C-Bob” Elliott and Allison Williams – Soldier’s Joy
The Sweetback Sisters – Kansas City Star
Nora Jane Struthers – Cowgirl Yodel #3
Henhouse Prowlers – Ain’t It a Shame
Late Night Bluegrass Jam – Salty Dog
You can download all the full sets in mp3, zip, and streaming formats here.
Late night jamming
