The Simple Folk

A while back, someone asked us what kind of music we listened to and each band member went through a list of artists they enjoy. People seemed quite surprised that I like folk music, but I really do... a lot.

I like folk for several reasons including vocal and instrumental styles, but the main reason is really quite human. I love a good story. To me, listening to a good folk song is like watching a good movie. There is a story and it is conveyed in a way that is easy to feel and relate to.

Some songs I like because I can identify with the specific content. For example, I love to listen to Simon and Garfunkel because they sing about hitch-hiking a great distance and the mix of excitement and drudgery that comes with that experience. Another song is about the excitement of coming home after a long trip. Since I have hitch-hiked and traveled a lot, those songs evoke the exact feelings that I experienced in those contexts. James Taylor describes what it is like to be in love in a way that I have never seen anywhere else. Joni Mitchell alows you to partake in the beauty of cycles of time, changes in life, seasons, love, pain, and nostalgia.

There are other songs that tell stories in such a way that one is able to imagin and almost experience something that is not a part of their own life. Robert Earl Keen tells a story about a girl who falls for an outlaw. While I have never been a girl with feelings for a gunslinger, I feel like I know each person in the song. That is fun if you ask me. The somg is able to make a human connection

Art involves communicating ideas, situations, concepts, and feelings, and to me, folk music hits the nail on the head.