When I was at the IAAS conference last weekend, I attended a paper on The Kingston Trio and possible reasons why they were never popular (on the charts) in Ireland despite success in New Zealand, Australia, and Japan (as well as at home in the US). This got me thinking about having been raised on folk music and how the movement in the US in many ways was taking songs from other cultures to build a music of the people in the US. This is an odd sort of cultural piracy or appropriation: to use a song from another culture to speak to my own. Yet it worked, but I don't think it meant the same thing.
Consider the English "Scarborough Fair," the Cuban "Guantanamera," or Harry Belafonte's reworking of the Jamaican/Trinidadian "Banana Boat Song." Yes, there were originals. Bob Dylan wrote many (although some based on the poetry of Welshman Dylan Thomas, which is an entirely different discussion of authorship/influence) as did Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and many others. There were even songs like Dion's "Abraham, Martin, and John" that build upon US history. But there was also a whole lot of...well, using someone else's because we didn't really have our "own" (again, the discussion of being a country of mostly immigrants is another discussion).
I can understand that The Kingston Trio wouldn't be popular in Ireland when there was a resurgence of interest in Irish traditional songs at about the same time. If you want to feel connected to your country, to your people, to your land, I could imagine music from folks who lived there before you would be a good place to start. Dr. Bracefield mentioned The Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners, and The Chieftains. She didn't mention The Irish Rovers but there were lots of US folk singers she didn't mention either. After all, the focus was on The Kingston Trio.
I guess the whole reason I started this little folk music history entry was that I found myself listening to Peter, Paul & Mary the other evening and then really wanted to listen to "M.T.A." this morning. Maybe it's thinking about going to Church and remembering the folk music masses of my childhood...
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When first Mom and I traveled to Ireland we asked what was the most representative Irish music we could purchase to listen to as we drove about.
We were told there were two schools: the ballads, typified by the Dubliners, and the traditional Irish music, typified by the Chieftains.
Tapes of these two groups served us well. They and the live music of Doolin still nurtures and haunts our souls.
... Dad
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